Comments By Cantankerous Amicus

Over two hours since this was posted and no other replies? Everybody must be very busy driving today!

I'm curious about the mechanics behind the tandem pin retractors in this video - specifically the air-powered type. At the time stamp, the pins are retracted and he goes into the cab to show a shortcut on extending the pins to lock the slides.

In the cab he pushes and pulls the tractor protection valve a few times. He seems to indicate that supplying air to the trailer will push the pins out. Isn't that the opposite of how it should be? Wouldn't needing air to push the pins out be a more dangerous design if the trailer were to lose air pressure? The pins could retract with the loss of air pressure, the tandem spring breaks would engage and that could rip the tandems off the end of the trailer.

Or does it work the opposite way where the pins operate on a similar safety principle as the spring breaks? I.e. without air pressure the default position of the pins would be for them to be pushed out?

Didn't you just get onboard with Veriha a few months ago? Did that not work out?

Use your App Store.

That was the first thing I tried. It wasn't showing up.

Errol, thanks for the link. I clicked on it and got the message that it's not available in my country. It appears that I have to change my Google play country, and Google only allows a person to do that once per year. Unfortunately I'm gonna have to wait for now.

Thanks for the help.

I'm visiting the US and wanted to download the Trucker Path app. I don't see it in when searching Google app store. Does anyone have a link to it? I remember that someone posted a link to it here and I tried searching here but did not immediately come up with anything.

Thanks

Focusing on changing the behavior of a specific demographic is by definition discriminatory.

The board would be given the task to remove “the barriers that get in the way of women pursuing and retaining careers in trucking is key,” one of the co-sponsors said in a news release.

What, pray tell, might such barriers be? Which trucking company is looking at applications and saying, "Oh... You're a woman. Sorry! Can't hire you! We really, REALLY, REALLY don't want women driving for us!" Any of the megacarriers? No? Could we find a small trucking company engaging in discriminatory behaviors against women? Maybe? Aren't there already laws on the books prohibiting that?

What percentage of the truck driving workforce being female is going to be enough? How is that quota going to be made to happen? What percentage of women choose to pursue a career in trucking vs women who are not accepted into the driver's seat? How does that compare to the numbers for men? Are women going to be forced to go into trucking to improve the numbers and give certain people more of the feelgoods? No? What is the alternative? Put an upper limit or a hiring freeze on the number of the over-represented demographic from entering the trucking industry? Who would that affect? How would that improve the driver shortage?

Women are the minority in trucking, but, at 165.92 million women to 159.41 million men in the US in 2017, not the minority of the overall population. If we are talking about a boosting a minority in a particular industry then is it not also fair to take a look at the demographics of something like the NBA and who the minority of players are there? Should there be a bill passed to remove the barriers to more Asian NBA players? Hispanic NBA players? White NBA players?

How does the "Promoting White Men in Professional Basketball Act" sound? How do the white men here respond to the thought of such legislation in their favor being passed into federal law? Is it discriminatory?

I appreciate all the feedback so far. It's definitely good food for thought. I hope to post a few more thoughts on the topic later in the week when I have more time myself.

G-town spends all his time on the east coast with much more traffic than other places in the country. Say Kearsey, Turtle or any of the other masters of the clock did a ton of driving out west with the mountains all week. Would you be willing to say that I, just running back and forth across relatively flat iowa and the surrounding states performed better than them because I maintained higher MPH due to no traffic and not many hills slowing me? I wouldn't be able to participate because I have to unload my truck but I usually turn 1500 to 2000 miles a week depending on how many days I work.

No, those differences wouldn't be comparable. There would have to be a filter or category for the type of driving and region, say, Western Eleven, Great Plains and Midwest, East Coast, etc. In your case aren't you an hourly driver? I haven't made it all the way through your diary yet. I don't know if you have changed jobs.

The idea would be that there would be some filters to narrow things down so that a driver could compare his driving stats to those of a driver doing similar work. Rob T if you are a CPM driver, then also a category for drivers that unload their own trucks. Perhaps it would be helpful to classify the weekly data upload according to type, location of driving, etc. most closely fitting one of the filters. It sounds like G-Town and Turtle would be two drivers that could compare results since I believe they will be doing similar dry van runs with multiple stops in the same general area of the country. Surely there are other drivers who run similar freight in the same area.

Grumpy Old Man, I was mainly thinking CPM drivers. What can hourly drivers do to maximize their income other than maxing our their hours on the job every week?

That does sound like a wonderful idea. There just may be too many variables involved when comparing drivers in different regions. Perhaps new drivers could use something like this to measure their own progress as they gain experience..? Then their progress can be compared with other drivers' progress. IDK

That's what I'm wondering about the number of variables. Hopefully there aren't too many. I also think any driver that is interested in optimizing his performance would be comparing his earlier productivity with what he is currently doing anyway. The real fun begins when we can see how we stack up with some of the top tier seasoned vets doing similar work to us, in similar terrain, in similar traffic, drop and hook vs live unload, etc.

It is more than just using your 70 though. It is knowing when to start your clock and making sure you arent wasting it. I rarely drive in traffic.

Here's an example from my experience, showing how good time planning works: Cincinnati, I-75 N to S. At 3AM, 20 minutes. At 3PM, try 1 1/2 hours. Would you rather take a two hour snooze or sit two hours in traffic? You decide!

Precisely, so the person who took the two hour break and utilizes the 8/2 split to wait out rush hour is going to have a higher average MPH on the 70 clock and thus be more productive due to more miles turned. On second glance, I didn't make that clear in my first post. That's something that would help a driver move higher on the leaderboard compared to others. I am thinking about what metrics should be recorded that would be good indicators for high productivity. Is it really as simple as weekly average miles per hour for a particular type of trucking?

The point of the idea for a leaderboard is so that drivers here can see where they rank compared to other members here. Are they closely ranked or is there a lot of room for improvement? With that information they can look at what they may be doing wrong and improve their productivity, something that is good for both them and their respective companies. From reading some of Old School's blog, I see that companies list such productivity internally, but I am thinking of something with a competitive element that would work here and be instructive and inspiring to newer drivers.

No. $1,675 plus metered electric FOR THE SEASON! Like May 1st - October 15th or so. Guessing something like $200 / mo. or less!

How does it work for the rest of the year? Do you have to find somewhere else to go?

Old School said in Jamie's Crete thread:

A key element to making money in trucking is maximizing utilization of our asset (the truck) by using a high percentage of our 70 hours each week for productivity.

This thought has been rattling around in my head for the past few days.

In an effort to help CPM drivers here streamline their work and increase their time on line 3 (and hopefully maximize their miles driven as a result), would there be an interest or benefit in some kind of app or website functionality where drivers here could voluntarily submit info from their driving logs to show among other things what percentage of their 70s are spent actually driving? Members of Trucking Truth could then view this information in a leaderboard format and compare their results with others and see how they are doing.

I understand that different types of trucking will result in some drivers turning different average miles than others. In that case I think other information would also be pertinent, e.g. freight division, reefer, flatbed, tanker, OTR, regional, etc. so that drivers could compare their productivity to others doing similar work to them.

This is just a rough idea right now, but I thought I would throw it out there and see what experienced drivers think about it. Of course, the very first question depends on how easy it would be to put such a thing together in the first place. Perhaps Brett could answer that one.

Interesting article about CR England - Gene England still trucking at 100 years old

Thanks for the insight, Old School. Lots of good food for thought. In the past I have done grueling work in the form of heavy labor and long hours, so I think I am up to the challenge, but it's true that I won't have any idea how it is in trucking until I actually start doing it. Hopefully my wife and I being able to successfully establish ourselves overseas each as sole proprietors for over a decade is a good indicator as well.

Are you still in Prague? Do you have the requisite visa and pre-trucking licensing experience to get a hire?

My wife and I are both American and currently still in Prague with an eye to moving back to the US. The most concerning hurdle for us will be reestablishing our US driver's licenses and the potential wait to start with a company after that. We have driving history from before we moved abroad, but I am not sure if that will count since our American licenses finally expired about 5 years ago. I also doubt that anyone would care to see a translation of my EU driving record, clean as it may be. My wife currently doesn't have any license because we largely use public transportation.

Thanks both for the replies. I understand the pros and cons of running teams with a spouse vs someone else. My wife and I are interested in running teams and saving up a bit. I don’t think I could handle driving teams with someone else. The higher cpm just wouldn’t be worth long-term living with a new person in a cramped space.

I’m guessing that most people who initially consider team driving probably look at the higher cpm and make their arguments based on that.

The main point of my post was to find out if there are any planning or other methods unique to team driving that teams can utilize to further boost their income potential - methods that wouldn’t be available to even the greatest solo drivers just because of the fact that it’s a one-man show and he has to do it all, thereby limiting his driving time with other on-duty activities.

I’ve read elsewhere here that teams always tend to have hours. To me that sounds like time and money wasted at the end of the week. Doesn’t a top driver want to be as close as possible to out of hours by day seven or eight – ready to take a reset or start running recaps? What can teams do to make that happen?

Old School, I’m interested in your recommendation on new drivers not teaming. Is it because there is just too much else for them to juggle at the beginning? What about married drivers?

I'm curious as to how mileage works out for teams as compared to solo. Assuming we compare a top tier solo driver vs a top tier team and all else being equal in those cases, are there synergies to take advantage of while working as a team? Is the possibility there for teams to make more than double the average of a top tier solo driver if they plan well? Or potential for the opposite, e.g. when the truck breaks down? Are there any pointers some team drivers could share?

Looking forward with interest to you upcoming diary. Congratulations on the new position!

Every time I come on here for advice you guys act like my parents. I know I messed up you don't have to come down on me and be condescending. I was just asking what you think I should do.

I was just going to respond to this but Brett beat me to it. I will repeat it anyway.

You posed a question and several experienced drivers here gave you straight answers. It may not have been what you wanted to hear, but it was what you needed to hear. You quite literally asked for it. None of it was condescending and no one was really coming down on you, yet you claimed that it was. This is a very important point.

Yes, you fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident. Yes, you hit another trailer while trying to park. Not reporting that was a bad call. Understandable given the stress of your job and career being at stake, but still a bad call. It's on your record now and it's working against you. But according to some of the experienced drivers above, it looks like you may be able to overcome it.

However, if you apply to a company and they ask you about your accidents and they say anything similar to what the other drivers here have said... And then you respond like you did in your last post? How do you think your chances will fare in that case? I would hazard a guess that how you respond to criticism of your driving history is now more critical to your career than the record of accidents and the bad call.

I think you did the right thing by asking here first. The best thing you could do for yourself is keep your cool while you receive any professional constructive criticism being offered. It would be good practice in case you get grilled on your mistakes during an interview.

Sorry this giveaway is only for our team of OTR driver lol I wanted to get some ideas to show them some appreciation

The way you had your first post worded made me think you were phishing.

I'm not a trucker but if I were, I'd be interested in a mobile data package or possibly something like an Audible subscription, but I'm guessing most drivers would have a mobile package already.

As a potential new driver I'd be interested in some 12v RV kitchen appliances like a crock pot, fridge, etc. Regarding ESPN I'm probably in the minority as someone who doesn't watch TV, so couldn't advise you there.

I'd be interested in hearing what some of the drivers here come up with.

Hey guys I want to do a raffle to a group of OTR truck drivers but I want to give them something they can use or enjoy on the road any ideas? I was thinking free 1 year subscription to dish+the espn package?

Sign me up! What info do you need from me?

I have doubts about the feasibility for the companies involved. They would likely have to exhaust all possibilities of a hiring an EU driver first. You would be on a work visa where you would be expelled from the Schengen zone if you lost your job for any reason. Best I could recommend is to contact a few companies and see what they say.

As to transferring your CDL, regular 4-wheeler US driver's licenses are not considered valid in the EU after the initial international translation expires (assuming you get one). It has to do with the formatting of the info on the licenses. I am not sure which US states format their licenses according to the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, but I've heard that there are a few. Those may be possible to transfer over to an EU license, but not the others. The US as a country is not a signatory to the 1968 convention.

You would most likely have to complete driving school for vehicles classified B, C, & E. Class B is your regular 4-wheeler, C is the tractor over 3500 kg and E being trailers over 750 kg. You can just get the license, but if you want to work for a company then you would have to do a longer professional program similar to the 160 hour programs in the US. A quick search yielded a schooling price of around $2,200 where I am located in the Czech Republic. It looks like it's salaried work here and the first few results I found pay in the range of $18,000 - $25,000 per year. A quick check of UK lorry salaries resulted in cca $40,000 per year.

This is just info that I quickly looked up in the Czech language. I don't have much more knowledge than that and I could be way off base. Hopefully Mathieu C. can elaborate more, as he appears to be an EU truck driver.