Tuesday, August 19, 2014
The Little Sacrifices That Help You Succeed At This Stuff
One of the keys to success in this field is being able to make sure things happen in your favor - it becomes a part of my regular trip planning, and then again sometimes it just happens on the fly depending on the situation I might find myself in. Anytime you can get yourself off loaded a day ahead of schedule and or first thing in the morning it will generally work out in your favor so that you are the one the planners have the first choice of giving their "good stuff" to for that day. I was a little surprised that none of the other flat-bed drivers thought of this, but I slept right there outside the gate of the construction site and woke up to an early morning sand storm over there in that California Desert area. Can you see the sand flying around in the air in this picture?
My plan worked out well because the crane truck was a little delayed in getting there. As the other trucks scheduled for a Monday delivery started showing up, they had nowhere to park but behind yours truly in an ever lengthening line. Take a look at all the trucks lined up behind me at the gate - you can't really tell from the photo, but when I left I counted the trucks lined up on the road. There were nineteen trucks waiting in line as I left out of there with my next load assignment. I've got a one thousand mile load and I'm certain I was loaded and on the interstate before the final truck in this line got unloaded. Three or four trucks back in line is another driver from my company who had stopped for a restroom break on Saturday at the truck stop where I was taking my 34. We had visited at the stop and he told me he was needing to take a 34 hour break but he was going to go ahead and get to the location so he could get unloaded first. I asked him what day his delivery was scheduled for and he replied Monday, so I just said well mine isn't scheduled until Tuesday. That's how I left it, but he was all astonishment when he came up there and realized I was ahead of him, still got my 34 in, plus got the best load available when I left there.
I love doing this stuff, and I really enjoy sharing my experiences with you all. Hopefully if some future truck driver rookies stumble across this little blog they will catch on to some of the ideas and strategies of how you not only survive in this career, but excel in it. Now let me explain one thing further about this scenario. I know it is more comfortable to stay at the truck stop, and that is what many of these drivers did - I know because as I passed the truck stop about twenty minutes from this location I saw a lot of these flat-bed trucks with the same poles that I had, just sitting there in the parking lot. The other advantage that I now had over them was that they have started their fourteen hour clock - not me - I'm sitting there watching the sand storm, sipping at my hot tea and just patiently waiting for that crane truck to show up without a care in this world.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The drivers cannot go 'off-duty' or put themselves on the sleeper berth while waiting in line?
ReplyDeletePete, the drivers can go "off duty," and I am sure most of them do, but that does not stop your fourteen hour clock. The only way to reset that fourteen hour clock is ten hours off duty time and that should include eight in the sleeper. A driver can also pause his fourteen hour clock, or extend it, by taking eight hours in the sleeper berth. What that does is set it back to the same time it had on it when you started the eight hour break.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, I should have thought that through before asking. I've been studying, more than anything else, the logbook section of the High Road Training Program, as I believe if I can manage that well, as you have done, it will best help me become a trusted, reliable, and profitable driver.
DeleteSo, Dale, you didn't have to start your 14 hour clock because you were already there at the gate, right? As opposed to those drivers back at the truck stop who would have had to go on duty just to get to the site and then stay on their 14 hour while waiting in line.
ReplyDelete