What A Crazy Weekend!
Topic 25041 | Page 1
Finding sleep is always a struggle. Most nights I'm looking at 4 hours before I'm up and going again. Somethings going to lose out whether its sleep or family. Luckily I'm only driving a couple hours before I'm out of the truck moving around which helps a lot. You definitely feel it come Friday though and then it all starts again after the 34 weekend reset since most times I do 6 days instead of 5.
Be safe and give yourself a break in between. It's alright to take it easy a day.
I struggle with sleep cause I'm constantly having to flip my clock to accommodate my load assignment. I had to buy night driving glasses cause I just hate night driving. But I does give me the most miles with much less traffic. Unless something happens of course.
Rob, I gotta tip my hat to you. The way you get ish done is really impressive. I wish I were able to send you a PM about a certain company that reached out to you about working for them.
As I'm researching local & regional jobs in the southeast, I spoke to a driver that works for that company. Would like to compare notes with you.
Regional:
Regional Route
Usually refers to a driver hauling freight within one particular region of the country. You might be in the "Southeast Regional Division" or "Midwest Regional". Regional route drivers often get home on the weekends which is one of the main appeals for this type of route.
Splitter I emailed you
Splitter I emailed you
Has it dawned on you guys that no one else will be able to learn from your conversations if you have them privately? Think for a moment about how much you've learned from this forum, and how little you would've learned if we all decided to keep everything private. That's kind of the point of having a forum, don't ya think?
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With my schedule I work Friday- monday. My company primarily delivers to one of the largest grocery chains in the midwest, however we also do LTL as we cover 8 states and its additional income while also covering the fuel cost of driving back empty unless we are hauling back product for our own warehouse.
Friday I got sent to Minneapolis area, deliver 2 stores then pickup some LTL freight to bring back Left Ankeny iowa at 11pm and got back to the yard at 245 PM. I had to use my 16 hour rule and still only had 15 minutes to spare. I had to fight traffic through downtown Minneapolis to get to a cold storage facility where I then sat for 4 hours to get loaded. This is one of those times it's nice being hourly. Total miles was around 530.
Saturday and Sunday were similar. 1 store in Marshalltown, and 2 in Cedar Rapids each day. Saturday I'd put in only 10 hours, Sunday would have been the same however I did some shuttle runs to get additional hours in. We have a subsidiary company that provides "specialty " products mainly like protein powders and such that are sold in the stores. We do drop and hooks there and then ship it on our trucks. Despite their warehouse being 5 miles away it still takes about an hour to do 1 run. I volunteered to do a couple runs to get some hours in since I worked extra on Wednesday and didnt want that day of work to not amount to extra money on my check due to lower hours in regular days.
Monday I had another run to Minneapolis area, this time it was only 1 store but had 3 contract freight. I delivered the first store no problem. The first LTL stop i had made me sit for nearly 2 hours as they didnt open until 7am. Then I had to head over to US Foods in Plymouth MN. typically about 30 minute drive took a little over an hour due to rush hour. When I checked in I was told I was looking at likely a 4 hour wait for lumpers or I could unload myself. I opted to lump the load myself, only had to down stack about 70 cases as I only had 4 pallets, 2 were thankfully already separated the way they want. Once the receivers seen me doing it they came over and did the other pallet while I worked on mine as they even said they were happy to see a driver actually come in to help. Nothing against drivers who pay lumper fees. You guys tend to have a full load and ain't no way I'd unload a full truck and then down stack it. My company encourages us to pay a lumper but knowing itd be close to getting home I opted to just do it myself. I dont mind occasionally staying out overnight, but I'd rather be home (obviously). I left just under an hour after arriving and headed for my last stop. A greenhouse nearby to pick up what the invoice claimed was 40 000 pounds of flowers. More on that later.... this place didnt have any power equipment so they had 2 employees using hand Jack's to bring them onto the dock, then I grabbed a hand jack and loaded them Into my trailer. My paperwork and theirs said 24 pallets. Turned out to be 26 so I turned the last 2 on the left sideways then down stacked the 20 cases on the last pallet and put on top of the other pallets, then put about 10 cases on the floor on the tail. I could tell immediately with how light the pallets were, 30 dozen roses were box with 20 cased each pallet, the weight was going to be no where near what my paperwork said. I still scaled my load because there's 1 scale house just over the border in iowa that tends to be open every afternoon. This Is what the result was with 1/2 tank of fuel.
LTL:
Less Than Truckload
Refers to carriers that make a lot of smaller pickups and deliveries for multiple customers as opposed to hauling one big load of freight for one customer. This type of hauling is normally done by companies with terminals scattered throughout the country where freight is sorted before being moved on to its destination.
LTL carriers include:
Drop And Hook:
Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.
In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.
DAC:
Drive-A-Check Report
A truck drivers DAC report will contain detailed information about their job history of the last 10 years as a CDL driver (as required by the DOT).
It may also contain your criminal history, drug test results, DOT infractions and accident history. The program is strictly voluntary from a company standpoint, but most of the medium-to-large carriers will participate.
Most trucking companies use DAC reports as part of their hiring and background check process. It is extremely important that drivers verify that the information contained in it is correct, and have it fixed if it's not.
TWIC:
Transportation Worker Identification Credential
Truck drivers who regularly pick up from or deliver to the shipping ports will often be required to carry a TWIC card.
Your TWIC is a tamper-resistant biometric card which acts as both your identification in secure areas, as well as an indicator of you having passed the necessary security clearance. TWIC cards are valid for five years. The issuance of TWIC cards is overseen by the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
OOS:
When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.