The More I Drive, The More I Love Night Driving.
Topic 32294 | Page 2
Prime has the Right Weigh system both on tractor and trailer, and when correctly calibrated, it's usually pretty dang close to what the CAT scale will show. Under a certain weight, if I can get it balanced on there, I won't bother weighing it.
With those tools, I can usually tell that the load is on the trailer hinkey too, before I leave the shipper , so I can usually sweet talk them into reworking it without having to leave to CAT Scale it first.
Shipper:
The customer who is shipping the freight. This is where the driver will pick up a load and then deliver it to the receiver or consignee.
CAT Scale:
A network of over 1,500 certified truck scales across the U.S. and Canada found primarily at truck stops. CAT scales are by far the most trustworthy scales out there.
In fact, CAT Scale offers an unconditional Guarantee:
“If you get an overweight fine from the state after our scale showed your legal, we will immediately check our scale. If our scale is wrong, we will reimburse you for the fine. If our scale is correct, a representative of CAT Scale Company will appear in court with the driver as a witness”
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
Driving for Prime I agree with Nae Nae in how I used the Right Weigh system. Except sweet talking shippers without a CAT scale ticket didn’t work for me when it indicated a potential overweight situation on my trailer axles.
However, if I was with a company not using Right Weigh, then I agree with BK that weighing every load over a certain weight is necessary because you are blind about your weights without doing it.
Shipper:
The customer who is shipping the freight. This is where the driver will pick up a load and then deliver it to the receiver or consignee.
CAT Scale:
A network of over 1,500 certified truck scales across the U.S. and Canada found primarily at truck stops. CAT scales are by far the most trustworthy scales out there.
In fact, CAT Scale offers an unconditional Guarantee:
“If you get an overweight fine from the state after our scale showed your legal, we will immediately check our scale. If our scale is wrong, we will reimburse you for the fine. If our scale is correct, a representative of CAT Scale Company will appear in court with the driver as a witness”
PS. I liked night driving when going through major cities, but prefer daytime to see the countryside
I often started driving about 03:00 and parked mid afternoon, so had both
I drive nights a lot. My usual though is about 12:30 pm to 3 or 4 am. Never any parking but I just park at hole in the wall old school truck stops and grab a shower in the morning at a loves or J when they're empty.
I absolutely hate morning before 10 am and my DM knows it, so he will usually give me late night appointments if he can. But one goes when and where the freight is.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.
Refresh my memory, R.D. ~ Did Rainy train you @ Prime for starters? Sounds like the 'dungeon' factor, to me!!
LOL! Unfortunately she did not. When I left USX for Prime I did opt to go out with a trainer for an abbreviated training period. Just so I could learn the Prime way of doing things. Kearsey was kind enough to offer to let me team with her for...🤔... I think it was going to be for like 10,000 miles. Just as I was finishing orientation, Kearsey's truck decided to go kaput. She ended up stuck in Springfield. I got a different trainer, and Kearsey ended up getting a new truck. She definitely came out the winner in that situation.
I wish I could have learned from the best. I'd have gained many invaluable things after training with her: Knowledge, confidence, experience...and maybe a slight case of PTSD after a few weeks in the infamous dungeon🤣🤣🤣.
Don't tell her this, but my main reason for wanting to train with Kearsey was to meet Goofball the cat.
APU:
Auxiliary Power Unit
On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.
Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.
Absolutely! If I didn't have RW, I'd scale every time. 🤣 Cheap out on helpful tools, the company will spend the $13.50 every load.
Obviously if I'm only carrying 20k lbs of eggo waffles, and I know how this shipper ALWAYS loads the eggos, I already know that I'm going to be pretty well balanced, unless there is something wrong with the trailer. I won't bother weighing that one. It only took me three trips with that exact load to figure it out. I'm a slow learner 🤣
Driving for Prime I agree with Nae Nae in how I used the Right Weigh system. Except sweet talking shippers without a CAT scale ticket didn’t work for me when it indicated a potential overweight situation on my trailer axles.
However, if I was with a company not using Right Weigh, then I agree with BK that weighing every load over a certain weight is necessary because you are blind about your weights without doing it.
Shipper:
The customer who is shipping the freight. This is where the driver will pick up a load and then deliver it to the receiver or consignee.
CAT Scale:
A network of over 1,500 certified truck scales across the U.S. and Canada found primarily at truck stops. CAT scales are by far the most trustworthy scales out there.
In fact, CAT Scale offers an unconditional Guarantee:
“If you get an overweight fine from the state after our scale showed your legal, we will immediately check our scale. If our scale is wrong, we will reimburse you for the fine. If our scale is correct, a representative of CAT Scale Company will appear in court with the driver as a witness”
Another reason I scale every load is it's 52 free points at Love's on my rewards card. Free money for me that I can buy something with some day.
I use the Weigh My Truck app. I already have too many pieces of paper to keep track of 🤣
Another reason I scale every load is it's 52 free points at Love's on my rewards card. Free money for me that I can buy something with some day.
I use the Weigh My Truck app. I already have too many pieces of paper to keep track of 🤣
Another reason I scale every load is it's 52 free points at Love's on my rewards card. Free money for me that I can buy something with some day.
As far as I know PackRat doesn't use the app....he doesn't use any trucking apps. But don't let him kid you, the points are nice but he does it for the cards that are stuck on page two 😁😂🤣
Laura
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This is not good advice, new drivers. Weigh every load, no matter what. No matter what time of day. We just got a message from the company that told us to weigh every load. The reasons? 1) The company pays the fee. 2) If we don’t weigh and get an overweight citation, we as the driver pays the fine. 3) If we follow company policy and weigh, the company will pay the fine. But if we weigh, it’s highly unlikely there will ever be a fine. Except if we weigh and then don’t adjust the tandems properly. And that omission would be a “shame on you” for the driver.
Schneider had a policy that we didn’t have to weigh a load under 30,000 lbs. This current company wants us to weigh every load, which I think is great preventative medicine.
Tandems:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
Tandem:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".