Profile For Noob_Driver

Do you guys pull these from drive cams? Im considering one as a Christmas gift to myself. Also where do you mount them and if up high on the windshield how do you get power to them. Also is it easy to pull images off them?

Quick question. I know we stay away from negativity on this site (for which I am grateful). However, seeing some other reviews on other sites makes me wonder if PAM was a bad idea. Without being critical of them, are there other companies I should have looked into? And, more importantly since I will be starting with them next week, what can I do to make my experience better and eventually get the miles I want with PAM?

I attribute most negative reviews to people who didnt perform well. Granted some are probably reasonable people giving their opinion on their experience but for the most part ignore bad reviews. The disgruntled ones tend to be easy to spot for me now that Ive been out for just a short time.

I would say the number one thing you can do is keep your head down as far as complaints go. Dont whine to your dispatcher about loads and take what they give you. This seems obvious to most normal people but every week i hear from a driver complaining to his dispatcher about silly things.

Also communicate with your dispatcher regarding delivery times and your expected eta. It makes their job easier knowing where you are and what to expect. For example if you have an open appointment time for a delivery some drivers might not give an eta..... "Its open I can drop whenever i want" i hear that alot. Send a message telling them when you expect to make that delivery you might be pleasantly suprised with a preplan before you deliver.

Anyone on forum still in Maverick Glass division?? Getting ready yo call a recruiter, my company filed chapter 11 couple of weeks ago time to get serious!!

Not sure..... I know theres a maverick flat bedder next to me at the petro right now so this caught my attention.

Want me to peek under his tarps???

Someone mentioned health earlier in a post..... Sorry i didnt quote you. Ill bang on this drum again. Unfortunately Ive gained some weight in my 6 months solo mainly due to bad eating and for drinking soda again like a moron. Ive mentioned in the past possibly adding another category to the forums for health and fitness. People can give tips on how to get and stay healthy. Maybe a truckers diet diary instead of the training ones.

I know you've gotta be a fitness buff Brett you climb friggin mountains despite the fact we've developed as a species and no longer need to do crazy things like that anymore.

Noob asks...?

With a 62mph governed truck with trailer tails i seem to get alot of trucks tailgating. Is there some kind of wind resistance or some other reason for this? It happens numerous times a day and not in busy traffic, im talking wide open two or three lane divided highways with noone preventing them from passing.

I’ll refer back to my point on common sense, it can’t be taught and many lack it.

Otherwise lack of patience and ignorant to the risks.

I kind of figured. Maybe for humanity's sake i was hoping for a reason on why they do It. I dont get upset during busy traffic it can happen or on a hill because we normally have heavy beer loads but flat open roads baffles me.

With a 62mph governed truck with trailer tails i seem to get alot of trucks tailgating. Is there some kind of wind resistance or some other reason for this? It happens numerous times a day and not in busy traffic, im talking wide open two or three lane divided highways with noone preventing them from passing.

I just delivered my load in watertown and was heading south on 81 and got pulled in by NY for inspection. Lvl 2 and everything went well except for one thing..... Reverse lights! Now i know on my 2017/16 kenworth the light test doesnt include these. So my question is how do you check them???? I know im the driver and its my responsibility and its already fixed. The trooper told me if it was done by a certified ny state inapection repair site i could mqil in a form to drop the citation. Luckily our Weedsport terminal is a certified inspection repair shop. But they told me this has happened a several times over the years and that the newer models do include the reverse light on the light test switch.

My question is how do i check this moving forward? I cant think chocking my wheels with sthe brakes on and putting it in reverse is a good idea. Any thoughts?

Couldn't fit..... Too much snow and ice up top i coupdnt get to. Luckily they had space to swing the drivers side door inside so we did that. Another dark blind indoor hole.

Made it to my appt about 45 minutes early but theyre closed and I could care less! 90 was a bit dicy before Syracuse and 81N was great for the most part. Single digits up here so i dont think i got over 50..... Just plodded along smooth and slow.

Reciever is a back off the street which i knew because I looked at the satellite prior. With all this snow and ice and 4° temperature i had 3 people fly by me on the right while i was kinked and backing in sight side! While i was creeping back i had another truck coming towards me who stopped and put on his flashers and got out to stop traffic and scream at the passerbys which made me smile a bit. I thanked him for his well placed words of wisdom for the 4 wheelers.

Another beer distributor with an indoor dock.... Apparently super tight.... Reviews said try not to have trailer tails..... Oops. My tails are filled with snow so i spent 15 minutes trying to scrape the snow and ice off. Should be interesting.

Got a 630 am delivery in Watertown Ny tomorrow. Im about 1.5 hrs away and plan on leaving 3 hrs early so i can take it nice and slow. Shouldnt be much snow overnight but temps are dropping to single digits.

Im curious though do you still run on short days? With those hours im sure you end up with like a 4 or 5 hour day coming back to you. On those days do you do a reset?

I generally like to do a reset once a week basically, it allows me to catch up on sleep and things like that. Everyone does things differently, but thats how I like to do it.

On the topic regarding my miles, I have actually driven 3000 miles in a single week but the last load fell into another pay period so I don't consider it a 3000 mile week. Like this week for example my reset will be over tomorrow night with 2250 or so miles for this week and my next load is a little over 1600 miles but it will deliver after the end of the pay period(Friday at midnight).

Im not knocking resets just curious. I have friends who do the same every week they reset and others who run recaps like i do. My dispatcher is the same i had as a trainee and he doesn't seem to be a fan of resets. I guess because Ive never done one im curious and have questions. I also rarely get preplanned and i think that contributes..... My dispatcher can see my hours and sets me up accordingly although that can suck when the "no freight" message pops up. Or the you're #4 on the list message comes up.

Yeah everyone can handle it their own way, run recaps or reset whatever fits you best. I had that problem when I was with schneider, I always ended up in dead freight zones they called them and I would end up sitting around longer then I wanted to. Sometimes I would have to wait a few extra hours for a load, sometimes I got a load right as I got to the customer, other times I would end up taking a 10 hour break early. Maybe it was me, or maybe I really was in a dead freight zone.

Regardless, that didn't happen all the time but it did happen quite a bit the last few months before I went local with schneider. But I have since left schneider on good terms, and went to Crete and have been loving it so far. Since I got my own truck, I have been preplanned a day before I even made my delivery. Like today, I was preplanned before I even left the customer to go to my parking location for tomorrow night.

You dont miss the heart pounding excitement of waiting for a message from dispatch while acting like your having a hard time closing your doors or sliding tandems after getting unloaded while the shipping guy gives you dirty looks because he wants you off the property ASAP and the closest truck stop is a 30 spot in city pilot filled with day cabs and drop trailers?

Im curious though do you still run on short days? With those hours im sure you end up with like a 4 or 5 hour day coming back to you. On those days do you do a reset?

I generally like to do a reset once a week basically, it allows me to catch up on sleep and things like that. Everyone does things differently, but thats how I like to do it.

On the topic regarding my miles, I have actually driven 3000 miles in a single week but the last load fell into another pay period so I don't consider it a 3000 mile week. Like this week for example my reset will be over tomorrow night with 2250 or so miles for this week and my next load is a little over 1600 miles but it will deliver after the end of the pay period(Friday at midnight).

Im not knocking resets just curious. I have friends who do the same every week they reset and others who run recaps like i do. My dispatcher is the same i had as a trainee and he doesn't seem to be a fan of resets. I guess because Ive never done one im curious and have questions. I also rarely get preplanned and i think that contributes..... My dispatcher can see my hours and sets me up accordingly although that can suck when the "no freight" message pops up. Or the you're #4 on the list message comes up.

Im curious..... Forget miles. Whats your average daily drive time/on duty time in the 8 day period?

My Average daily drive time is a little over 8 hours, some days more, some days less. But that's the average. My on duty average ranges, as some days I'm only on duty less then an hour(on duty not driving), other days I was on duty for over 2 hours. That was mostly me forgetting to change my stutus due to a bad habit I developed when I was on a local account.

I do the same. I go off duty when i get to a shipper or reciever and go check in then on duty yard move to get to the door. Then off duty and always forget to go on duty loading/unloading for a short time. Then when i remember and switch to on duty i forgot to go back off duty. Probably do that twice a week.

Im curious though do you still run on short days? With those hours im sure you end up with like a 4 or 5 hour day coming back to you. On those days do you do a reset?

Im curious..... Forget miles. Whats your average daily drive time/on duty time in the 8 day period?

Can someone explain to me the rookie who is still waiting on orientation and training what the average miles someone should have before a reset or will I learn that in training. I'm sorta confused on everyone is asking Jaime why he had to do a reset already ?? Help my rookie brain understand lol.

Drivers tend to think in miles because thats how we get paid unfortunately. I can see how its confusing for you.

Youll learn Hours of Service in training thoroughly. Basically you get 70 hours on duty in a 8 day period. That includes driving, inspections, fueling, loading and unloading and some other stuff like drop and hooks. However each 24 hour period you can only be on duty for 14 hrs with 11 of those 14 alotted to driving.

What people were asking Jaime about was why is he running out of hours on his 70hr clock but only having 2500 miles. I think...??? I am a noob myself so i dunno.

Ive been solo for about 6 months and have yet to do a 34hr reset.

Turtle this is really good. I appreciate the effort and information.

For those of you unfamiliar with Turtle, this diary is his second one...

The first was his initial journey with Prime. And like this; highly detailed and very well written.

The significant take-away here for everyone is; Turtle committed to his first employer well beyond the first year and became a top-tier performer. He did everything right for 3 years. Without the benefit of those elements it’s possible WMPF would have passed on his employment application.

The concept of truck driving as performance based and highly competitive is clearly on-display here.

Please take notice and consider this fact when reading Turtle’s diary.

Dont forget about his Trainer Diary with Prime! Also a great one if your considering being a trainer or if you want a peek into the mind of a trainer and get their perspective.

Also im wondering how your liking that giant box behind you now Turtle? I know Old School had a thread awhile back about pulling a dry van for his yearly van experience.

Kearsey emphasized...

Look at the satellite view for parking and understanding layouts at customers and truck stops. ANY info you have before hand will calm your nerves.

...so very important, could not agree more. PREPARATION. Know what to expect and have a basic set-up plan before you arrive.

But alao be prepared for anything. A few weeks ago this came up and 90% satellite view ia great but things do change. For example i got to a reciever today and expected this...

A somewhat tight dock because of the parking. You cant really swing in to then swing out if the cats are there. Not super difficult i was more worried about the tight narrow drive off a right turn to get in.

What was there thia morning....

They decided to park a boom lift in that corner which stole probably 6 to 8ft from me trying setup. Also to my chagrin they added big parking blocks where those cars are parked so i couldnt cheat there to make up for it.

Every boxer has a fightplan until he gets punched in the face. You gotta be able to react to changes though because they come up alot. I walked around the lot for a few minutes and took a bit extra time and it all worked out.

Looking back at my time in cdl school i actually laugh at how serious i was regarding pretrip study. I would scour the internet for checklists and study guides and pour over them. All the time oblivious to the best study guide out there..... Class. I dont know how your school ia but mine had a pretty good amount of downtime on the range especially when backing practice started. Instead of sitting in the truck while someone else takes a turn take some time to wander over to a truck and just pretrip. Do it in different order everytime. Do a trailer.... Then do the engine.... Then coupling..... Then the side..... Then in cab... Then brakes. Switch it up constantly..... Break down areas into smaller areas..... Just do suspension.... Then brakes....etc. Noone in my class failed pretrip i got 1 point off for not saying "gear" driven air compressor it becomes second nature if your always doing it. Also it sounds wierd but get in there and touch the stuff dont just rattle off names.

Okay now if you are at a truck stop or rest area, doing a 10 hour break or 34 hour reset and it's after 7pm then by all means go ahead and dress down, throw on your pj's or shorts wear your flip flops. Another exception to the rule is you roll up to a terminal and you are completely out of clothes but your sleep gear or shorts etc.

How about if its laundry day??? I was looking pretty shabby at a terminal this afternoon doing laundry. Do i get a pass?

That depends....which terminal?

It was Richfield.... I desperately need to wash clothes to head accross the street to Sawmill for dinner.

Okay now if you are at a truck stop or rest area, doing a 10 hour break or 34 hour reset and it's after 7pm then by all means go ahead and dress down, throw on your pj's or shorts wear your flip flops. Another exception to the rule is you roll up to a terminal and you are completely out of clothes but your sleep gear or shorts etc.

How about if its laundry day??? I was looking pretty shabby at a terminal this afternoon doing laundry. Do i get a pass?