Life On The Road. Some Bad And Some Good.

So for the truth as I see it...and I know I am not alone in the possible, unpopular thoughts I am about to share.

Big Scott you were the biggest contributor the the "Some Bad" aspect of your post. This is sincerely meant as constructive, unreserved and not arbitrarily critical.

Communication is very important...yes! It's on Brett's list and you appropriately referenced it. Is that all that matters here?

Without a focus on other important elements and traits like Efficiency, Creativity, Safety and Flexibility, communication is nothing more than talk. Lots of talk with limited performance value. Almost like buying time while searching for the answer.

Big Scott you stated that Brett, Old School and Turtle missed your point. With all due respect, I think not. You completely missed their's. They all basically suggested the same thing without saying this: "when the bell rang after sitting for 14 hours waiting for the trailer repair, you weren't prepared to run". You took a nap. You should have been fresh, ready to roll when the light turned green. It's that simple. Almost seemed like you brushed it off as irrelevant and focused only on "communication", basically ignoring their collective coaching. You are better than that, I know it.

You are a really nice guy, contribute a lot of good stuff here and have a positive and powerful influence over many new drivers. An unofficial Ambassador of CFI. That's great, really important. It's easy to follow likable people. Lead by example and show them none of us are above learning from others on this forum. I'll be the first to stand up and state I learn from folks on here all the time and humbled when reminded that I don't know it all, far from it.

Brett and Old School...both zen masters of effective clock management and preparation. Seasoned, experienced, and battle tested. If there was one person I'd pick to team with, OS would be my first and last call. I know I can learn a ton from him, because I am NOT an experienced "long distance OTR" driver. Regional Dedicated is very different from what he does.

And our "super sophomore" friend Turtle, proving he has what it takes to be a top performer in every way. He called it out...sleep when you can. I'll add to it; sleep and rest when you must.

Point being, when they all offered the same observations and instruction where corrective action should and could be taken, it's wise to consider and apply their sage advice in the future and "Coach" others with same as they pass through the halls of this forum.

Yes. I agree with you. However, even if I slept and drove out of there when the truck was ready, I still did not have the hours to make it on time. This is what I immediately communicated to dispatch. With their help and guidance we made a plan. Further down the road, I erroneously thought I could make it. As soon as I found that to be impossible, I called dispatch and we made the plan. As drivers we are part of a team. Every company works a little different and I love the way CFI works. They know I can get the job done. A big part of that job is communicating with dispatch. We have great people working in dispatch. I have learned several ways to handle TA differently in the future. Thank you everyone. I have learned so much from this site and always recommend it. And yes, I am CFI's biggest fan. BTW tired is my normal state.

Bad Scott! bad! you didnt sleep...inyo my dungeon you must go

Be afraid.....be very afraid

Big Scott there is an old saying in trucking that still rings true to this day. "Sleep when you can, drive when you must."

Today with a little over 5 hrs left on my drive clock I got my dispatches for this weekend. Roughly 1700 miles between 1300 today and 0700 Monday. Sometimes you just have to be creative and efficient in your clock management.

I have worked it so I keep a fairly regular schedule. I run as hard as I want without wearing myself out. My FM is very happy with me and we have a great relationship. I have been thrilled with my paychecks. I sleep every chance I get. This thread was to show the importance of communication the sleep had nothing to do with the fact that after the repairs, I could not get the load there on time. Only a team could have done it at that point from where I was. The laws of time and HOS were against me. It was being in communication that got a time sensitive load delivered. I manage my clock very well. I run on recaps all the time. I run hard unless they give me an easy load. The load I'm on now would have been easy except I spent 5 hours in a TA needing a quick emergency repair. So, to make it on time today, I drove about 640 miles yesterday and stopped with just a few minutes on my clock. I always know where I will shut down on a given day and reserve spots when needed.

I run as hard as I want without wearing myself out.

Out of curiosity, how many miles you averaging per week?

There's something I'm just not getting in this. Maybe it's just my early morning foggy brain. But for the sake of myself and more importantly any new drivers reading this, some clarification is needed.

You made no mention of the 5-hour shortage in your first few posts. But now that you have, I have to question that also.

You say you would have been 5-hours short after they finished your truck. That tells me that even if you had pulled into that TA with no trailer issues and taken a 10-hour break, you still would have came up one hour short of your delivery, because you only lost 4 hours in the shop. So you were going to be 1 hour short from the get-go. Unless there's something I'm missing? The only possible way I can see for you to have made it would be to do a series of 8/2 and 2/8 splits, encompassing your 30 min breaks into the two-hour portions of the split. Even then that's still way too close, and the load shouldn't have been accepted in the first place.

Your point on communication is 100% correct, and equally important in all levels of this business. No one is disputing that. Regardless of who's fault it is, communication is key to making things run smoothly. The same principle applies to this thread. We only have the information you communicated to us. And when we see a duck, we call it a duck.

From what I see, and like Brett said above, this caused problems for a lot of people down the line. Your dispatcher has to scramble to figure this out. The other drivers had to change their plans and possibly ruin their day to take care of this load. Your load planner had to scramble not only to get this load taken care of, but also to change your next load since you just took an unplanned day off to restart your internal clock. It seems to me all of this could have been avoided.

If I'm wrong here, I'll own it. This is just what I see in front of me.

Guys, he made a rookie mistake of not understanding 8/2 splits and trying to do them. This is something everyone should try when they have plenty of time on the load so they see it in action and understand it.

He called dispatch and told them he was doing the 8/2 but even doing so would not have helped. Dispatch should have known that.

Yes, he delayed the repower by sleeping after the 14 hour shop time. yes he delayed again by taking a useless 8 sleeper because unbeknowst to him, he wasnt getting additional time back after the 8. the 8 plus "a few hours of sleep" would have completed a split or full 10 if utilized correctly. Plus he was running on recaps and did not get a full 11...so again, he erroneously believe he would get time back from the 8/2 but it wasnt there anyway.

CFI is not huge like Prime or Swift. what do they have like 500 trucks? No one was close enough to him anyway until a certain time. could a solo have helped him out had he done the 8/2 correctly...maybe. instead a team did. and the load got delivered. this could have been much worse had he not realized his error until much later. or if he had been an idiot and dedcided to run it without fixing the trailer issues..come on we have all seen drivers do that.

this is a prime example of why drivers need that whole first year to learn the time management and tricks to be successful.

i also think this is a great example to newbies reading this that even when you mess up, you admit it as he did to dispatch when he realized the error and get it taken care of ASAP.

Turlte..the 5 hours was on this load he has now. so different issues.

CFI has 2500 tractors, 7000 trailers.

Turlte..the 5 hours was on this load he has now. so different isues.

Big Scott wrote:

Also, by the time I got out of the shop, I no longer had the hours in my clock to get it there on time. I was coming up 5 hours short no matter how I figured it.

I was just trying to clear a confusion for any newbies reading this, not berate the guy. Lord knows I've made my own mistakes.