Posted: 5 years, 10 months ago
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Do sleepers have microwave ovens in them?
Todd...scratching my head again. How much personal time do you think you are going to have?
Somewhere during the 10 hour break you need to sleep. Rest is perhaps the most important aspect of safe operation. So given the other elements during that period, for arguments sake you require about 7 hours of sleep. That leaves 3 hours for eating, exercise, showering, etc.
I can only speak for myself but I do my exercising during the 30 minute break, comprising only of a 20-25 minute “brisk” walk. For me that’s plenty of time to stay fit out here.
Beyond that? The 10 hour break goes very quick. My day is different than many on here; but there are similarities in that our time revolves around moving the freight. Everything else becomes secondary, requiring frequent adjustments and compromise.
Todd, one more question: what could drivers actually be doing while NOT driving but WHILE still on duty to stay physically fit? Is there something a driver can be doing to remain physically active while waiting to loaded and unloaded? I think I would want to help with the loading/unloading process as much as I could sto stay busy.
I read, sure, they can do the job with 14-hour work days, but once the 70 hours is limited out (maybe after only five days of the week) for the week they are required to be completely off duty with no work of any kind for a couple days. Personally, I would like to keep my work spread out evenly over the entire seven days. That averages out to ten hours a day on duty times 7 days per week. Of course, I would spend a lot of time in the gym working out on those days that I were actually off.
I know thus far it's the 70-work-hour-per-week conspiracy. I think drivers are not allowed to drive more than 11 hours over any 24-hour period.
Posted: 5 years, 10 months ago
View Topic:
Do sleepers have microwave ovens in them?
Todd...scratching my head again. How much personal time do you think you are going to have?
Somewhere during the 10 hour break you need to sleep. Rest is perhaps the most important aspect of safe operation. So given the other elements during that period, for arguments sake you require about 7 hours of sleep. That leaves 3 hours for eating, exercise, showering, etc.
I can only speak for myself but I do my exercising during the 30 minute break, comprising only of a 20-25 minute “brisk” walk. For me that’s plenty of time to stay fit out here.
Beyond that? The 10 hour break goes very quick. My day is different than many on here; but there are similarities in that our time revolves around moving the freight. Everything else becomes secondary, requiring frequent adjustments and compromise.
10 hour break? You mean drivers have to WORK 14 hours a day?
I thought by federal law they could only drive 70 hours in one work week max?
Posted: 5 years, 10 months ago
View Topic:
Do sleepers have microwave ovens in them?
I have a microwave, George Forman grill, and Walmart mini fridge as well as a 12 volt cooler. Right now the fridge and George Forman are at home to make room for students. You won't find the kind of food you want at a truck stop. Many Flying Js have Denny's, most TAs have a Country Pride, and many Petros have Iron Skillets. These are sit down restaurants with high carb offerings. If you order an omlet make sure you order a cracked egg omlet or you will have pancake batter in your eggs to make them fluffy and pretty. You could have all sorts of cookery on your truck. Some people do some, almost, gourmet cooking. I have made steak, pork chops, bacon and fried eggs with cheese.
Big Scott, as driver on the road I don't want to be cooking during my personal time on the road. I want to reserve that time for physical exercise. My idea is to find the healthiest things that can be tossed in the microwave, stowed in a cab cooler or slapped on bread to make cold sandwiches and the best hot prepared meal choices where a truck can actually park for a meal. Wal-Mart has most everything I need for grocery supplies: yes. I'm not trying to avoid the complex carbs like fibers and starches but rather added sugars and added fats like butter, grease, lard and oil. Iron Skillet marks the following dinners on their web-based menu with a "heart" logo for stay-fit choices: these have lower fat calories than other things:
1. grilled chicken dinner 2. pot roast dinner 3. petite sirloin steak dinner
These websites also have nutrition information for various menu items: a 5-oz. portion of fried breakfast ham, for example, has 90 fat calories.
Even at TS restaurants, some menu selections make much better health sense than others.
Things to avoid at restaurants for me are: hamburgers, cheese, fried chicken, fries, bacon, sausages, spaghetti with meatballs, biscuits and gravy, donuts, milkshakes, butter, sour cream, gravy, candy, sweet rolls, desserts except for maybe a smoothie made with fruit (I'd tell the waitress to hold the sugar).
Posted: 5 years, 10 months ago
View Topic:
Do sleepers have microwave ovens in them?
Just a heads-up Todd...the majority of chain TS(Loves, Pilot, Petro, TA, etc) do not have full service/table service type restaurants. Many are fast food like Subway, McDonalds, and Popeyes Chicken.
Walmart’s are an OTR driver’s best friend; easy to stock up on weekly food supplies and not break the bank on your spend.
G-Town:
Looking at the TA website alone, it claims to have 240 FULL-SERVICE restaurants coast to coast with names like Iron Skillet, Black Bear Diner and Country Pride. I'm sure there is always a Denny's along most truck routes as well as countless mom-and-pop roadside cafes and diners with adequate big-rig parking provisions. Denny's these days has health-and-fitness menu items even.
Still, a Subway sandwich is a much healthier choice than a greasy hamburger at a fast-food joint. I would have my cab cooler packed with healthy sandwich-making materials at all times. Deli roast beef and ham is one of the leanest animal protein things as well as deli turkey. Reduced-fat swiss cheese is for fat-conscious people. Where I fudge on my diet is that I still have to use real mayonnaise on my sandwiches and creamy horseradish and mustard on roast beef. That low-cal stuff called "lite mayo" is GROSS! If I were having a baked potato at a restaurant, I would pack in my own non-fat plain yogurt to use instead of sour cream and butter. I'm sure restaurants don't mind if you carry in your own condiments. I sub non-fat plain yogurt for sour cream at home all the time.
Posted: 5 years, 10 months ago
View Topic:
Do sleepers have microwave ovens in them?
Most companies do not provide a refrigerator and microwave. There may be a few who do, I'm just not aware of them. Almost all of them will allow you to put in your own equipment to satisfy your needs on the road. My refrigerator just recently quit on me. I miss it terribly, but since I was going home for a month for surgery I didn't bother replacing it. I'm getting back on the road in a few days, so I've got a new one being shipped to the house.
I am going to do some experimenting with truck stops on my own. I am going to look up the places with the best reviews on the web and drive out there in my car to check them out. I'm also going to be looking at the menus for healthy low/no-fat low/no sugar meal choices especially for breakfast and dinner. As a driver I would probably have stuff in the cab to make healthy sandwiches for lunch. I just read reviews on these Lean Cuisine breakfast sandwiches and people largely said they tasted gross. I'm not talking about fast food joints at stops, but restaurants with tables and waitresses that serve you at tables or booths, no counters for me.
I have a hunch that a Denver omelet might be OK, lower-fat-wise if I were to tell the waitress to hold the cheese, toast and the hash browns. I don't think they use much fat to fry omelettes unlike eggs over easy. Ham is a leaner pork option over bacon and sausage.
Posted: 5 years, 10 months ago
View Topic:
Do sleepers have microwave ovens in them?
The microwave oven, I think, can be a boon to a new-age health-conscious trucker who wants a low-fat hot meal that's both convenient and fast. No fuss. Driving all day long is hard enough. Trying to cook from scratch in a tiny little cab sounds like no fun to me. I like to cook but in the comfort and roominess of my home kitchen and the barbecue on my back patio. I want to spend my precious little downtime showering, shaving, going to the barber, combing my hair, brushing my teeth, doing my laundry, working out, taking care of personal finances on the laptop and most importantly, getting plenty of sleep.
Back to microwave meals: There are a whole bunch of Lean Cuisine and Weight Watchers frozen products on the market. Have a Lean Cuisine breakfast sandwich, or two, instead of eggs, bacon and hash browns drowned in grease. Truck stops often push horrible food choices on drivers. The sodas, doughnuts, candy bars and greasy hamburgers and fries are not my bag any more. I rarely touch coffee and prefer decaff iced tea. I cannot tolerate caffeine. If I make a hamburger at home, it is 7% lean ground beef over the propane grille.
I suppose most truck stops will also let you use there microwaves and tables to sit down to your own microwave meals inside.
Another item than can be a health boon in the cab is a refrigerator or electric cooler. Healthy stuff like lean roast beef and low fat swiss cheese can be packed in that for sandwiches as well as non-fat yogurt, low fat cottage cheese, lowfat buttermilk, fresh fruit and skim milk.
Another important health thing for me would be a gym in a truck stop with a bench press, an exercise cycle and a sit-up board to do crunches. A healthy trucker needs to stay in shape and eat right like mother would approve. 70% of American truck drivers are shamefully obese. Some develop serious medical conditions that put them out of work.
Personally, I think there should be a federal law that mandates that all truck stop restaurants must provide a certain level of healthful prepared meal options on their menus that are low/no fat and low/no sugar and low/no sodium.
Posted: 5 years, 10 months ago
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I can never see any reason under the sun why trucks should ever be overweight.
Our trucks have Right Weigh gauges on the tractor and trailers so you can identify problems before you leave the shipper. Only problem is every time both my gauges were in the red and I notified the shipper they said go get a scale ticket and come back. Sometimes the nearest scale is an hour or more away. Every time dispatch has told me to just go get the scale ticket and bring it back so they will rework it.
At one shipper that had a scale on site it took forever to get them to rework because I was scaling at exactly 80,000 lbs. Only problem was that no matter where I put my fifth wheel or trailer tandems it wouldn't axle out. And I only had 1/4 tank of fuel at the time.
They kept telling me to go side my tandems and try again. I've already tried every hole! Driver you'll be fine once you burn some fuel off... Ummmm I've got no damn fuel to burn! Once I actually put fuel in the truck, I'll be over gross! They finally took off 2 pallets.
The thing to remember is they are trying to get as much freight moved for as cheap as possible so they'll pack as much in as they can. Once the freight leaves their yard it's no longer their problem. The driver is now responsible.
I picked up one meat load that the bills said I only had 39k in the trailer. I scaled at a bit over 80k. It takes over 46k in the trailer to max me out. I told the shipper this and they just shrugged their shoulders. They took off a tiny bit to get me just barely legal.
On another occasion I was "rescuing" a load from an overturned truck. Both the wrecked truck and our truck were old body style 2018 Cascadias and both were team trucks. Bills claimed only 41k lbs so we didn't expect any weight issues. After the freight got transloaded onto our trailer I noticed the right weigh gauges were both waaaay in the red. Dispatch asked me to verify at a cat scale nearby. The truck scaled at 89k gross! Dispatch couldn't believe that could be accurate so they sent me to another cat scale 30 miles away. Still 89k gross!
I don't know how that truck made it from Georgia to Idaho at that weight, but we did find a receipt for a trailer tire blowout repair 1 day prior to their wreck. And they were on a county highway that paralleled the interstate and just happened to avoid a scale house.... Makes ya wonder.
PlanB, you are preparing me upstairs in my noggin to deal with stubborn knucklehead shippers and possibly dispatchers who see things their way. I would think one always has to always account for the weight of a fully-fuelled truck. Who the devil customarily drives around on 1/4 tank anyway? Whenever I gas my car up, it gets topped off, period. Fewer fills makes for more saved time and dollar bills.
My fear is all this doubling back from the chicken coops to deal with a couple hundred pounds in question will eat into my time and income-earning potential.
The driver should at least be compensated by the shipper for his time and money for any overloads that have to be reworked. I like to take preventive measures as much as possible. I like to get things right the first time. An ounce of prevention saves tons of money, miles, time and fuel. There, however, seems to be no proven iron-clad preventive measure for this common and troubling overweight issue even in this hi-tech 21st century. It makes trucking still seem so embarrassingly medieval. Having to run a truck back from the weigh station to the shipper to fix an overload also burns fuel and adds to air pollution and traffic congestion. It all seems so inefficient and wasteful to me. It is probably part of the reason my grocery bill seems so expensive. The price of milk and meat and all.
General Patton once said, "I don't like to pay for the same real estate twice." Advancing on the enemy one step forward only to take several steps backward because of a logistics snafu such as a gasoline shortage.
I would think even in trucking TIME is MONEY.
Posted: 5 years, 10 months ago
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Is being a company driver competitive by nature?
I mean this as respectfully as I can be; spend more time in the High Road Training Program and less time posting questions in this forum. I say that because I think it'll be more helpful to you.
All companies are not the same and all people are not the same. Some dispatchers understand the concept of teamwork and some don't care. The ones that don't care usually won't last, but you don't know which one you're going to get. Ergo, all you can do is YOUR best. Likewise, not all drivers understand teamwork between them and the dispatcher. Those drivers either learn that or move out the door.
We've probably all experienced a time where someone else got what we thought we deserved. Whether it was in trucking or not. That's just life. Not always fair, but you keep on keepin' on. Strive to be the best and you WILL get special treatment. Do mediocre work and you'll ALSO get special treatment.
Unless a great deal has changed in the last four years, you can do the HRTP, put out the cash for your permit and have it done in a matter of a few days. I did it and you can too! Got my permit on my 53rd birthday.
Until you get your permit and head off to training, much of the information you are seeking won't make any difference at all. Even then, some of it is subject to change.
Get your permit, interview the companies that best suit your needs AND hire in your area. Then, get out there and get started.
I hope this helps.
Steve, I am in fact reading Brett's Raw Truth book right now. The things I come across in his book are what are NOW prompting me to post questions here mainly for clarifications. I don't plan to even read the training material until I finish the Raw Truth material. Sometimes I have to take a break from reading and type something to keep my hands busy. If I read too much with idle hands, I get bored to death. Yes, perhaps I should go out and take a stroll in my neighborhood or a bicycle ride more often between reading sessions. I'm the type of person who likes to keep his hands busy. I'm sure truck drivers are constantly keeping their hands and feet busy during their shifts especially if they have an old-fashioned rig with a clutch: do any drivers here of slush-bucket automatics get bored? I haven't smoked since 2006 so I don't like to keep my hands busy with unhealthy habits anymore.
Posted: 5 years, 10 months ago
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I can never see any reason under the sun why trucks should ever be overweight.
Todd: I don't see any reason why many people are overweight, but they are. Same with trucks. That's why scaling is big business.
The digital age has made people lazy and thus obese. Thank geek technology for that.
Posted: 5 years, 10 months ago
View Topic:
Do sleepers have microwave ovens in them?
Bobcat Bob, I'm now beginning to understand that trucking is a serious time management issue. More than I had ever realized before. Most of my lifetime employment has been the typical 8-hour-a-day/5-day-a week thing. In the army even, during peacetime, it's that way most of the year but tough, long sleepless hours during field maneuvers and occasional charge-of-quarters/battalion-runner duty.
The whole time management issue is probably the number one deal-breaker for most perspective truck driver recruits. How do drivers even "find time" (or MAKE time) to use the lavatory or brush their teeth? I myself have to "find time" to shave every day since I hate beards. I like to keep my hair very short, buzz cuts routinely, so there has to be time to see a barber once in a while. Should drivers facing long, hard hours even keep a "Portable Loo" bucket on board for emergency "nature calls" on the highway?
I'm still reading Brett's Raw Truth book. I think he may have a chapter on Time Management later on. It seems as truckers have to be clever enough to "find time" for all the basic everyday HUMAN living functions somehow, perhaps by waving a magic wand. Drivers are still HUMAN after all, are they not?
What I really want to do now is study the typical work month of an American OTR driver, week by week, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.
What time did you eat breakfast on Monday?
How many hours did you sleep on Tuesday?
What time did you take a shower on Wednesday?
How long did you work out in the truck stop gym on Thursday?
How long did you have to eat your lunch on Friday?
How many hours did you drive on Saturday?
How long did you have to wait at the shipper's or receiver's dock on Sunday?
How many home days did you have last November?
I'm sure many drivers even keep a personal diary.
I'm now understanding that for those days that the driver's personal time is limited, maybe those nasty 14-hours-on-duty days, he may indeed may have to make the most of what the TS restaurant has to offer on its menus or what his cab cooler has on board for sandwiches.
And the only way I can help "change the industry" is by joining a trade union, voting on elections and/or sending messages to my elected officials in Washington, DC. I can post here what "I don't like" but that is just blowing off steam, that's all.
Brett said early in Raw Truth that companies need ME much more than I NEED them. How badly does your company NEED you?