Profile For Matthew P.

Learning experience. We get put in a lot of ****ty situations early on. I feel for you. Some of these dinosaurs may not. They've forgotten what it is like in my opinion. So, I take some of the comments with that thought in mind. I will ponder the helpful stuff seriously. The other stuff though. I shine it on.

Really is a hard world though. You have to get everything "right" 100 percent of the time. I've taken my own beating from a POS trainer and a company that wants to put drivers on the road and let the strongest survive. They claim excellent training. It has been anything but. They failed in a very important part because of lack of monitoring. Not my problem though. I am driving and now need to figure out how to provide excellent work.

A few lessons came my way. Hard ones too. Unfair as F but it is what it is. This is the world we work in. I am committed to learning and not repeating the errors. If you're going to be in this business I'd suggest a similar attitude. We had a saying in another business I used to be in. Embrace the suck!

Best I can recommend is asking a ****load of questions. My "peer" group and support is pretty awesome. They help keep me out of trouble. Had a really great trainer adopt me and he has been a real help. Having a lot of friends to reach out to other than those meathead night dispatch folks is a great help too. If I didn't hate facebook so much I'd join that group too talking about what to do for certain situations. Just can't stand the stuff though so that isn't something I use but it is there.

Best to you as you process what happened, decide how you are going to approach similar situations in the future and be successful.

Use Google Maps satellite view and search around the area near the consignee. We flatbedders have to get creative about parking. This is one of my techniques. I will use street view to "walk" the area and look for no parking signs etc

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I've posted. I'm on month three driving solo and doing well. However, I picked up a load yesterday that presents me with my biggest challenge to-date.

It's a live unload in Northern Vermont along the Canadian border next week. I can't span the distance on an 11 hour drive clock. The pickings appear slim once I get past Syracuse. In fact, there is a message in my que to top off in Syracuse before proceeding any further. I'm traversing route 11 across from rt 81. I've checked several websites and can't find anything except a small truck stop on route 87 just south of 11, but I won't make that on 11 hours unless it's a perfect drive with no lost time.

If I can't find anything between Waterloo and Champlain, I'm considering leaving a day early and breaking up the trip into two short driving days and arrive early for the live unload. For added excitement, I have a live load two hours away from the consignee and have to drive out again. So, I'm trying to get as close as I can the day b4 the live unload.

Grateful for any help.

Great Dane?

And there is possibly a pet in the mix.

Everyone thanks for the comments.

I have to clarify something. What I was talking about was the extremes of heat. Right now my coworkers and I are doing hard labor in 90 to 100° heat with a high relative humidity. It is pretty tough to do this kind of work in this environment.

Someone mentioned watching your sodium intake. Generally that is a good recommendation. With the extreme sweating you really have to address losses of electrolytes.

We've already had several drivers drop from the heat.

I'm using a world health organization recipe. In some of the poor countries they use this kind of therapy to treat electrolyte and fluid losses from diarrheal illnesses. They call the stuff Pedialyte in the United states.

Just hoping to stay healthy during this extreme weather and keep working effectively. It sure has been a lot more challenging in the last week.

Thinking about telling my dispatcher that I want to be in the northwest until september. Haha!

Everyone stay safe and healthy during this heatwave.

Well, that time of the year. I've been close already. 600 mile run today. No load or unloads. I am a happy man for that. Still wiped a bit though.

My strategy. Slow down. Take breaks in the AC in the truck. I mixed my own oral rehydration solution. Table salt, Gatorade, sodium citrate and potassium. Tastes like **** but it helps.

Would like to hear any more tips folks have. Also be careful if you are working out in the heat. Even the younger guys are getting beaten up right now.

Anne, I heard they had warning and were sheltered when the Tornado hit. Tore the warehouse up, tossed trailers around. Bad juju. And that was only an F2. Could you imagine something more powerful?

Where do you and Tom live? I grew up in Tipp. Haven't lived there for many years. Now a Texan and 4 years away from being a retired Texan. Just saying.....:-)

I got you beat by a year. I just started in trucking. I left a miserable existence and started flat-bedding. I was making a considerable amount of money doing what I was doing before however I dreaded going to work everyday.

I took about a 50% pay cut however I don't give a s***. My blood pressure is down my weight is less my mood is much better. In the scheme of things I upgraded in my opinion

Good luck to you and I look forward to reading what you have to say as she goes through the initial process.

Anne, I remember all those things that Tom is mentioning to you. That blizzard in 78 was something else. I was home after school watching cartoons when w h i o came on with a tornado warning for Xenia in 1974. Boy, reading your threat brought back a lot of memories.

Still have a lot of local contacts in the area. No one was hurt at the Meijer distribution center. Tore the hell out of the building.

That event caught my eye of course. I grew up about a mile from that particular dc. Crazy stuff happens with weather in that area.

Just relieved that everyone was okay in d that building.

I was on 25 in NM going towards Cruces. There is one hill that isn't marked well. Short and Very steep. Governed at 65. Crested the hill and speed went rapidly to 79 before I could start getting things backed down. Max Jake's, some careful braking and I was back to a sane speed. Scared the crap out of me. It can happen real fast. 89 seems excessive. Reckless even. However, I can't judge as I had my own experience with a lapse in attention.

Thanks. I left out the obvious stuff. Hogtie x chains straps etc. Going to have to talk to the safety guy in our company again and see what the deal is. Someone else had told me a chains we're not really required for securement. I see them being used in our load securement manual. That particular securement is an awful lot of work.

The "A" chain is a method sometimes used for skidded coils, or those "eye to the sky". The method wasn't recommended by my company, so I never used it, instead preferring "X" chains or straps, or a combination of both. The only "A" chains I used were to create a bulkhead with my dunnage.

Shotgun coils are secured with a combination of "X" and "C" chains, with additional straps side to side over the coils when needed.

When hauling coils, you absolutely need to be quite familiar and comfortable with throwing chains.