Comments By Iron9s

I hit the road 3-4 in the morning this way I always have my pick of spots and a no wait on the showers.

I just finished TNT for Tanker and am at Springfield for my upgrade now. I will say, if you have trouble sleeping in a moving truck, a moving truck with the surge is going to be a little harder for you. You will feel the surge during the first few gears up shifting as well when it needs to downshift going up hills. It will sound and feel like you were rear ended. It will jolt you awake. You will also know what loads you will be pulling that it will be even harder to sleep due to the consistency. Chocolate, cocoa butter, and palm oil are the worst with coconut and soybean oil having the least amount of surge. Also picking up loads at AAK with a /2 on the B/L will let you know that the tank is 1/2 full which is not only harder to drive but more surge.

With my trainer I I would drive 2am to 2pm and he would drive 2pm to 2am. Since a lot of the routes are shorter in tanker there will be times where you will have a little more time to rest in a stopped truck by getting to the shipper/receiver early. There were times we had hours of waiting before being loaded or unloaded. Take every minute of this to sleep. There were times where my trainer and myself would go a couple days without good sleep and would tell the FM to slow us up to where we would be stopped for both of us to sleep.

One tip is buy some melatonin. 5mg is all you need as you don’t any more in your system. It will help you fall asleep and help you keep falling back to sleep after each time the surge wakes you up. It takes about 5 hours to run through your system so you wont be groggy getting up.

Also, when driving, remember you have a 14 hour clock, 11 drive. There were plenty of times driving that I knew I had those 3 hours in my pocket and had plenty of time to get to the shipper/receiver and would pull up and nap for that time. Those nights/days that I used that time to nap would help me punch though the rest of my clock.

Unless your trainer is Northeast regional you will pickup/drop is the triangle from north east/mid-Atlantic/south/and as far west as WI.

Just a couple of notes that may help you: - When I did flatbed for a month and had to go down any steep hill, you hit the Jake and it starts slowing you right down, this is not the case with a tank. When you hit the Jake to slow down, the liquid will surge forward and push you. You will feel some rocking initially but then the Jake will do what it needs. So hit the Jake a little earlier on the crest of the hill.

- There is not only front and back surge, there is side to side. The side to side is not nearly as bad but you have to watch your speed on turns. Not only exit/entrance ramps but going though some windy roads. I always did at least 5mph below the suggested speed on each turn and didn’t have any issues.

- You will pull allot of Palm oil out of AAK in Port Newark going across 80 in PA. If you are stuck doing nights, let your trainer know you want to run that route during the day a couple of times. Also, as everyone knows. If you have to get off any interstate in PA pay close attention. You can come around any random turn and next thing you know you will be going down a 12% grade. It will pucker you enough in any truck, but knowing that the Jake will surge you forward it goes from pucker to oh s**t pretty quick.

Good luck. If you have any questions about Tanker TNT you can send me a message.

Rand is cycling out their current stock of what you have seen on the shelves with new models. Here is a place with some discount pricing. https://rand.factoryoutletstore.com/cat/25719/Rand-McNally-GPS-Navigation.html?cid=92970&chid=1&campaignid=63245644&adgroupid=6634438324&creative=175727814440&targetid=kwd-98169320&matchtype=p&device=m&network=g&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-o2YgqX_5gIVg8DACh09VQ9OEAAYASAAEgI3I_D_BwE

Update -

Routed back last night stayed in the hotel. New trainer assigned and picking me up Sunday or Monday. Fleet manager apologized to me for my experience, which speaks volume since as a trainee it benefits all involved that everything goes as smooth as possible.

Just got home as I live 2 hours away. I actually got to talk to the new trainer for a bit to see if we mesh, which was a welcome relief. We hit it off and will sit for lunch on pickup day to meet and get to know each other.

I will touch base with Richard, no reason for anyone else to deal with this trainer at least not until he squares away his truck.

Iron9s, if you're still at Pittston, find and speak with Richard Brock. He runs the training program there, and he would be very interested in seeing those pictures.

FM routing me now, should be there in a couple hours....apparently I am not the first trainee that had to get off this guys truck.

We are heading on 78 west stuck at an accident now, Could I just have him drop me off at the Pittston Terminal. I will even just get an Uber to get out of here. Those pictures don’t even do it justice.

Here are some screen grabs to emphasize how disgusting it is in here.

Hey all, I am about a month into TNT at Prime. So far things have been great. I came in as a C seat since I had my CDL and went right out in the flatbed with a trainer. Things were going great but my bionic arm that was rebuilt while I was in the Army just wasn’t as good as the 6 million dollar man and caused too many issues. The trainer was phenomenal and I learned so much in the month we were together.

I decided to switch to tanker as I found it a lot more interesting than reefer, so a quick call and the following week I was setup with a new trainer. Once this trainer showed up to pick me up I had a guy feeling that something was off. First off I don’t smoke but he does, second his truck is a disaster, food empty bottles, dirty laundry eveywhere. The truck is rancid. To add to this, his pants are always falling off his ass, not just crack, but while ass and then he sits on the seats. While I was driving and he somehow came through from the sleeper to the passenger seat it was all ass in my face, bare ass. I’m grossed out, everything is covered is something sticky.

For you Prime people, is this ground that I can call my fleet manager to get a new trainer?