Comments By Wine Taster

Awesome! You will do great!

This has been a good week miles wise. I had a long chat with my FM about low miles and at least short term they have had me rolling since. I really think I hate tarps though. It is not hard work that bothers me. It is the amount of time the tarps eat out of your days and drive time. The pay to tarp is just to low for the work and time required. It is low industry wide. So, I am thinking a cross between flatbed and van. I have inquired about a curtain side trailer. Still waiting to here back. Anyway, I keep telling myself to stick out the flatbed thing. Just not sure what to do.

It is crazy to think it was just a few short months ago that I started looking on trucking truth about a career change. It seems so long ago. Training flew by. Now, the scared feeling behind the wheel is gone. It is still there in my head from time to time. If you do not have a healthy respect and fear for this job, bad things will happen. Every day just before I start to drive, I take a deep breathe, stretch my arms, and say, "Do not get complacent. That is when accidents happen." It may sound dumb but sometimes it is really easy to just kind of going on auto pilot and not paying full attention to what you are doing. This helps me focus before driving so that I remember we are in command of a huge machine.

Old School has become the trucking truth "Where's Waldo?"

Yes it is very possible. We have a driver here at Roehl that has 4.5 million miles and not one ticket or preventable accident. He was also name the Professional Trucker Association trucker of the year. That was huge because they gave him a brand new Ford pick up with the honor. I, also know of another driver that has 2.5 million safe miles. It is possible but hard to achieve. We all have moments where we become distracted or make a bad decision. Sometimes nothing bad happens. Be safe and strive to be one of these guys or gals that have achieved greatness.

My question is.... how was it stolen? Anytime I am at a truckstop away from my truck for more than an hour or two, the airlock cuffs go on. The doors are locked even when I do my pre trip. What is the rest of the story Anchorman?

Sorry man,

I tend to miss the PM's on here because it does not give you an alert when you come to the site. I will see if I can find it. I'll send ya a PM so you can get in touch with me better.

Maybe you need a desert after a good steak but do you really want one that was hauled on that truck?

I can't stand a dirty truck. As for no shower, baby wipes are your friend. I stay clean. As for the floor. I sweep it 2 - 3 times a week. One thing I have got into the habit doing, anytime I use a baby wipe on my body I drop it on the floor when done and use it to wipe the floor up. It keeps me and the floor clean and is less wasteful. Same thing when I use a clorox wipe for cleaning dishes and stuff, it goes to the floor for double duty. It is a battle as a flatbed driver to keep the floor clean but it can be done. The only thing that goes on the dash is my truckstop guide and my atlas. The dash gets armouralled once a week too. If I am ever sitting waiting to load, I clean all the windows inside and out. Everytime I ge to one of our terminals that has a truckwash, my truck gets a bath even if I have to drop a loaded flatbed trailer to do it.

Trying very very hard to stay positive. I hit the road Thursday and rolled from NC to OH. Funny thing was, I was not able to get to the food store before I got going. I got back to man truck way toooo late and just didn't have time. So, the first day I was told to bobtail over to a Lowe's to pick up an empty trailer. Picked that up and headed to get it load. This was my first experience backing a van into a loading dock. Surprisingly, I did it with ease. I waited for two hours while they loaded me. Then I headed out. Well, it turned out I had done a giant circle in NC and ended up back where I park my truck. It worked out great. I pulled in and shut my truck down for the night. I got in my little pickup and went grocery shopping. I should have enough supplies to last for a couple of weeks. $150 bucks and eat for 2 - 3 weeks is much cheaper than eating in a truck stop every day. So, I get back to my truck and start loading all the supplies and I here this whining. I look around and found this tiny little kitten. It was smaller than the palm of my hand. She was not even really old enough to eat dry food. Poor thing was skin and bones. I tried to give here water. I had not milk. She did try to eat a couple of bites of small shredded chicken. It was really late, I looked up the local animal shelter on my phone and called. The number was not even in service. I had no idea what do with this little kitten. Maybe I should go stand in front of the stores and see if anybody would take her? The company has a no pet policy but I could not leave this defenseless little thing. She curled right next to me on the bunk and went fast asleep. She followed me around the next morning like I was her mother while I did my truck check. I hit the road still trying to figure out what I was going to do. Then I see a Pet Sense pet store. It was only 0645 but I figured maybe I could leave her in a box at the door? Then I decided that was a bad idea. I noticed there was a car in the parking lot so I knocked on the door. I lady comes from the back and looks at me surprised as I hold this little thing up to the window. She immediately opens the door and and says, "AWWWWWWWW! Where did you get that?" The lady said the poor thing was too young to eat anything but formula. I asked where the local animal shelter was and she said that she would take the kitten and make sure that she gets to the shelter. She said they help the local shelter all the time by using the store to get the animals adopted. It worked out great. Here I am a 6'4" 240 pound burly man with a goatee protecting this tiny little kitty.

Anyway, I am on the road after that and drive. I was not due to deliver until Saturday morning. I called the place and asked if it was possible to get in early. The guys says that it was a holiday weekend and probably not. Then he says, "Wait, you are a drop and hook. Anytime after 4PM and your trailer will be ready." Sweet! I told him I would get there around 1730. He gave a number to call to get the few people that would be there after hours. They let me in and I was on my way with my empty trailer. The next load I was assigned was a relay. Drop the trailer I have and pick up a loaded one at our yard in Ohio. Luckily, I have just enough time to make it to the yard. I got unhooked and hooked to the new load with 30 minutes remaining on my clock. I sent the loaded at relay and crashed for the night. The next morning I was on my way to Gary, IN. Finally, I can get rid of the sissy van and get a manly flatbed back.

Here is where I am trying to stay positive. About two hours from Gary, I stop for my 30 minute break. I send in a message saying I would be in Gary in two hours. I asked if they had a preplan for me. The preplan I get says pick up a relay in Gary and take it 112 miles. It is Friday, the load was not due to deliver until Tuesday morning. Wait! What? 112 miles for 2 and half days. I made a phone call to the dispatch. I was told freight was slow because of the holiday weekend. They would try to find something better. The next preplan I get was another relay to go 243 miles. It was supposed to deliver on Tuesday as well. Really not better. I called and they said that was all they had. I got a little irritated. I could have stayed home with my family for the holiday if I knew I would be sitting. Then I got to thinking. I still had 5 hours on my clock. I picked up the load and boogied to MI. Best case scenario, I can unloaded early. That did not work out. However, there is a little thing called layover pay. It is not great but it is something. I got to a truck stop within 50 miles of the delivery. When you sit waiting to deliver within 50 miles of the consignee, you become eligible for layover pay. Per the guidelines, I sent in a message saying that if I sat I would be getting layover pay. It got approved. So, even though I am sitting, I am at least making $60 for every 12 hours I sit. I will end up with $150 for sitting. I would make more rolling but it is something I guess.

Bradley G,

Just remember that when you are new, the art of managing the time on the clock is difficult. You are slower than everybody else because you are new. Things that take experienced guys to do, take you much longer. After a couple of months on the road with Roehl, I am finally starting to feel like the light bulb has come on on some things. Other things are still difficult. It is kind of trail and error once you are on your own. Trust me you will learn more from errors then anything.

If you can manage your clock, you can avoid a reset. There are other things that you can not control. Things like sitting a shipper for 7 hours waiting to get loaded. Things like a piece of scrap metal flew off that old pickup truck in front of you and blew your tire. It is a challenge almost every single day out here. If you decide to do flatbed, that adds an entirely different set of challenges up top of everything else.

Also, if you do strictly 11 on and 3 off you are self limiting your earning potential. If you stay out longer, they have less limitations on where you can be sent. Good luck and I hope to see you around Roehl sometime.