Profile For DJames

Davy, that is a good point. I looked at what I liked about this route, which is that it is predictable and weighed that against the downsides.

I have decided that I am not going to take it. For me it is not worth it. 2400 miles running like this is not lucrative enough for me to accept the numerous downsides. It is a very tight schedule and one in which you have to hope everything goes right, if not you are flirting with HOS violations. In addition to inverting my sleep schedule and running an extremely tight schedule they don't give time off. No holidays...nada. You get your reset at home and that is it. Requests for things such as doctor appointments have to be made months in advance. I spoke with another driver that was running the same account but with more flexible delivery dates and he said that he would not take what I am being offered either.

I got mine late last year and started with schneider early this year. I have not run into a situation where I have had to wait for a load. They are running my wheels off.

Davy, what resources do you use and how do you go about finding parking when you find yourself needing to park from say 8 PM to 3 AM

Davy, thanks for your reply. You mention delivering on Wed night but I can't deliver early, the shipper/receiver explicitly forbids that. That highlights the main issue with this route...the backhaul. I have to deliver Thursday night 9:30 PM -12:30 AM and pick up the load going back during the same time. Other drivers have told me that the outgoing load is generally not available until many times Friday 1 AM. It is on the backhaul where the issues arise, I would have from Friday early morning to get back to SA and do a 34 reset prior to Monday 6:30 PM delivery. If I could deliver and pick up on Wed night it would be much easier but that is not the case unfortunately.

You also brought up the other issue I have with this, you need to run nights. I generally like to drive from about 4 AM - 3 PM. That can be done on the way out but to get the load back on time given the delivery restrictions I would have to invert that completely and hope that everything goes smoothly with regards to traffic etc.

Another issue you brought up, this is indeed per mile and there is only a 2 cpm boost on this particular route and it would of course be less than 2400 miles. I can generally get around 3k just running general freight and keeping a schedule that works better for me.

I ran into the same situation in NC once but luckily the workers there went out and started knocking on windows until they found someone did not have a reservation. Even though it worked for me I don't trust the reservations as I have heard of too many instances like you just described. I generally try to be rolling by 4:30 am at least and usually don't have any issues around shut down time. I know that is not always possible though.

I was offered a dedicated route with my company. It is basically a trip out and back from San Antonio to Indianapolis. The trip out is not bad at all, pick up at SA Mon night and deliver to Indy on Thursday night, at which point I will be given a return load. The return load can be available from 9:30 PM to 1 AM and I am told by other drivers to expect later. The load must then be delivered back to SA at 6:30 PM the following Monday and I would have to take a 34 before that delivery so that I would be set to do the entire route again.

I am new to this still but to me it appears that the return leg is going to put me out finding parking at some very bad times in places where parking is already tight and flirting with HOS violations. It seems that the return leg just barely works on paper if everything goes right. I just wanted to get some experienced truckers views on this in case I am overlooking something that makes this more feasible. Would you all take it or turn it down?

I chose my CDL school based on the fact that they taught manual. It definitely added another layer of difficulty during training...stalling in a busy intersection during rush hour can truly be a nerve wracking and humbling experience. I am glad I persevered though as I have no restrictions and driving an auto is an absolute breeze after dealing with shifting.

I would say go with the manual if you are OK with having a definite added layer of difficulty during your learning phase. Looking back I think it was worth it to have that flexibility.

Thanks to everyone for the replies and advice. Kersey, I will definitely check out your video.

I have been driving for two weeks now and went through some snow coming back from New Jersey today. I have lived in the south all my life (FL). I have driven in tropical storms, around tornadoes, and all sorts of torrential rains and floods but I have never driven in snow until today. It seems like everyone pretty much just treats it like heavy rain and slows down a good bit.

Is it generally safe to push ahead in snow? I know you don't want to mess with icy roads. What guidelines can one look for outside of closed roads to know when it is just too dangerous to continue on or when you shouldn't even start out? They never covered this in training or CDL school.

We still have rioting season, plandemic 2.0 season and man made "natural" disaster season to go as well. On top of that, hopefully Bubbas homegrown militia can refrain from being provoked, if they do exercise stupidity, the regime will be able to clamp down society to plandemic levels with general support of public, as we demonstrated by J6.

Yes, In addition to all that let's not forget the judicial and other political activism that seems to be taking place in at least two states so far. I have a lot of the same reservations about the upcoming election and whether any other candidate will be "allowed" to unseat the current regime.