Profile For Alex K.

Thanks for sharing that, Kearsey! WYODOT seems like a consistently reliable source.

And thanks for the insight, BK. I'm glad your two weeks of training with Schneider was maximized thanks to your excellent trainer! But, I can certainly understand how you'd feel a four-to-six-week training schedule would be a little more reasonable.

Indeed!!!

Better trained drivers.

More legal truck parking locations within 100 miles of metropolitan areas.

Thanks for the input, Bill! Gathering more legal truck-parking locations within 100 miles of city centers might be something we can help out with. However, better-trained drivers is definitely out of our purview, hehe. :-D

BUT, I'm actually personally interested in everyone's thoughts on the driver-training front!

This might be worthy of a new topic in-&-of itself, but I'm curious - is the general consensus that drivers tend to be under-trained these days?

Generally speaking, I'm noticing a recurring theme of a "golden age" of commercial driving where truck drivers were held in (rightfully) high regard, but then that somewhat dissipated over the years thanks to a few-but-impactful bad actors that misrepresent the industry as a whole.

This might be a jump, but would I be off base in inferring that certain CDL schools have experienced a decline in training services over the years in lockstep with overall perceptions of the industry? Not unlike any other type of school, I'd imagine that not all CDL schools are created equally, and not all mentors / trainers are equally adept at imparting their knowledge.

Complicated tapestry of factors, no doubt, but interesting nonetheless!

Alex,

Besides the page of apps that you saw in Ann's pictures, I also get text messages from WYODOT. You have to sign up on an actual computer/laptop and you can pick any roads in the state of Wyoming to get reports on. I get reports for I-80, US 30 and US 287 from Laramie down to the border with Colorado. They are the same as the overhead signs and they do get updated fairly quickly.

It's pretty quiet through summer. Winter time with storm warnings, I can get upwards of 100 a day.

Hi, Laura (a.k.a. IDMtnGal)!

Thanks so much for sharing both of these posts / screenshots. :-) Lots of interesting insight here. You touch on a lot of points with regards to user sign-up experience, how targeted notifications can / should be, general complexity, and - at least in your experience - the possibility that accurate and up-to-date information can be disseminated.

I really appreciate how you took the bull by its proverbial horns and curated your own set of tools!

It sounds like the I-80, US 30, and US 287 from Laramie to CO's border notifications are pretty targeted for you. Just curious - when you say you can get 100+ notifications for that neck of the woods during winter weather, do you generally find that abundance of info to be helpful, or would you say it can get to a point of "information overload"? No doubt, winter weather makes for LOTS of "activity" in that area, hehe.

Aggregated information in one source would be helpful. PackRat mentioned being able to access the information needed from one source or another, but I think we could be more efficient in those moments if we had a source to turn to that compiled the information and had multiple means of dissemination. Thinking about like a weather band broadcast that has more inclusive information. Live streaming sources with updates. Information put out over CB. Hopefully I making this idea clear, but it's basically gathering all of the available information on a particular weather, traffic, emergency event, etc and then going through the information to find the most accurate reports. Once aggregated, it is then disseminated to drivers and dispatchers through the means that I mentioned. This would obviously require a team of highly trained people with significant resources.

Thanks for this, Ryan! Super well-thought-out.

Once again, this is great food for thought. And, a s you mention, implementing an ideal this intricate would take a lot! That said, it's good to establish "the ideal 'moonshot'" situation and go from there. :-)

Indeed!! Well said, all y'all.

Super glad Ryan joined us, with his wit & wisdom. Always great to have some 'good hands' (new to US!) up in here!

Thanks, for sure ~

~ Anne ~

ps: I sure hollered to Brett about the photo conundrums, assumedly fixed; but I still can't share the 511, sorry!

Look (again) in my gallery, and once more, in that of IDMtnGal. If you care to!!

Thanks, Anne! I was able to check out more pages of your photos, and I DID find the screenshot of all the 511 apps! (Thanks for fixing that image-page-navigation issue, Brett.) It's a really good illustration of why all-in-one solutions might be very welcome... yet are pretty darn difficult to execute, hehe. I'm glad downloading multiple apps is a viable option, though! I'm 100% a proponent of ANYthing that helps keep everyone safe out there.

Additionally, I fully hear / respect anyone that's a bit skeptical of an app trying to solve a problem like this! Plenty of 'em (apps) will come and go without really solving anything... especially if financial gain is the sole (and soulless!) motivation (...just to briefly address your last point there, Ryan).

And, as we're all aware, not all problems can be solved by merely throwing tech at the issue. Of course, knowing what specific challenges exist and what current solutions are in place (no matter how cleverly & uniquely improvised) is crucial to any progress! But, your point about personal responsibility and preparedness is really, really well made, NaeNaeInNC. :-) THAT is something for which no amount of technology can directly account!

I have a year of OTR under my belt, and in that year I have experienced just about everything a driver may expect to experience, both good and bad. I work for a company located in north central Ohio and live in southeastern Michigan.

I look forward to learning from drivers who have been doing this job much longer than I, while also being a resource to those thinking of trucking and those who have just started.

--Ryan

Hey, Ryan! I feel like you have a cool perspective in that you're experienced enough to be a source of knowledge, yet everything about making the leap into OTR is still fresh in your mind since it's all happened within the past year.

Out of my sheer, "non-driver" curiosity, would you mind sharing a thing or two you wish you'd known right out of the gate? :-) Maybe something that would've enhanced the "good" or avoided the "bad" that you speak of...?

In any case, all the best to ya as you continue along your OTR journey!

Aggregated information in one source would be helpful. PackRat mentioned being able to access the information needed from one source or another, but I think we could be more efficient in those moments if we had a source to turn to that compiled the information and had multiple means of dissemination. Thinking about like a weather band broadcast that has more inclusive information. Live streaming sources with updates. Information put out over CB. Hopefully I making this idea clear, but it's basically gathering all of the available information on a particular weather, traffic, emergency event, etc and then going through the information to find the most accurate reports. Once aggregated, it is then disseminated to drivers and dispatchers through the means that I mentioned. This would obviously require a team of highly trained people with significant resources.

Thanks for this, Ryan! Super well-thought-out.

Once again, this is great food for thought. And, as you mention, implementing an ideal this intricate would take a lot! That said, it's good to establish "the ideal 'moonshot'" situation and go from there. :-)

Whew! Sounds like lots of drivers have had some similarly close calls. Yikes!

Since I'm not a commercial driver myself, I can only attempt to empathize with the litany of things that could go wrong out there and the crazy-long checklists necessary to stay safe.

At any rate, just wanted to say I think the level of "radical ownership / accountability" displayed in this thread is really, really admirable. Readily admitting one's mistakes is not only the respectable thing, but in this case, it seems to serve as a great reminder / learning opportunity for everyone!

Thanks for adding that, Alex; and you are most welcome. Safer things to haul, out that way, ask Daniel B. Seriously, I have no clue where Rhino disappeared to, but he got into USF/Reddaway pulling doubles and triples, pretty quick.

Most LTL guys don't worry about chaining too much; point being!!!

Stick around; Anytime you wanna yap 'OHIO' .. let me know! We are a 'VALLEY' state, but not the 'ValleyGirl' chatter, haha!

~ Anne & Tom ~

Interstate Road Conditions

ps: AGAIN, in my gallery, is a copy of Laura's (IDMtnGal's) 511 apps.. I SURE can't post it here, and neither could she!! Wonder what's up with that.... Brett??? New 'photo' app going on ?!?!?

pps: You get the gist; MOVE TO OHIO,

Hehehe, you make a compelling argument for Ohio, Anne! And thanks for including the Interstate Road conditions link.

I actually did try to check out your images, and only the first page of your gallery will load for me...? So, unfortunately, I couldn't find the image of the 511 apps, but I appreciate you pointing me towards it nonetheless!

(FYI / A Friendly bug report for the main man, Brett! When I click "Next Group" in Anne A's image page, the page just reloads to the same first group. I've tested this on both Chrome and Safari in case that helps. Also happy to provide ya with any more info that might be helpful! Thanks, Brett. :-) )

Also, just wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone that's responded to this thread so far! Everyone's been really welcoming, friendly, and genuinely helpful. A great community, indeed.

If you're investigating the feasibility of developing an app or some sort of service it might be helpful to have push notifications for when chain requirements have changed, either on a particular route or within a certain radius of current location, etc.

Hey Harvey,

Thanks so much for the input! Sincerely.

We do have a weather-while-traveling app that's been out for a while, and our goal is to help people and their assets arrive safely.

Of course, anything we can do to help people arrive LESS STRESSED is a definite goal of ours, too! :-) I really do think something having to do with chain-control notifications would be in keeping with our goal of safety, but also reducing stress.

It's really good to hear this sort of feedback that supports our direction of thought!

Here is my recent experience on donner.. in May mother's day weekend. We were at the bottom of the mountain about to climb, passing the last truck stop before the point of no return. DOT and the weather channel... And the state dot app stated that chains would go into affect in about 5 hours. The officer told us 'you have plenty of time to make it over before it gets worse.". It was snowing but nothing sticking.

2 Miles away they were forcing everyone to chain. Now it was too late to park it.

After I got the chains laid out and was securing them, DOT came by and said "lifted, get moving". Wasted a ton of time packing the chains back up.

On Cabbage both 2022 and 2020 weather reports and DOT said chains not required. 2022 Easter weekend weather app said 45 degrees at top of cabbage. All sunny. At the bottom it was bright and sunny with no jacket needed. We got to the top of cabbage and the snow was so bad that I made my student park and had to create a path at the rest area.

In 2020 at Cabbage the light up sign came on as I was passing it "chains required within 2 miles". There was no place to stop at that point. The next parking area was 17 miles away. I would rather have signs and indicators before I can park and make that decision to go. I personally think the weather changes too quickly in some of these places which explains the miscommunication with the DOT officer on Donner or the weather apps on Cabbage.

Hi, Kearsey!

Thanks so much for sharing this!

Ugh, I'm genuinely sorry to hear about your hassles on this front. Lots of time wasted, and - no doubt - no small amount of stress experienced.

You've reiterated a great point about weather being... well, weather, hehe. It can change at pretty dizzying rates, and it sounds like some miscommunication between DOT / signage / any weather apps is inherent. This is all really interesting and super good to know!

Also, your point about having signs and indicators well before that "point of no return" is well taken. I'm sure it's not always possible (again, thanks to weather doing its ever-and-quickly changing thing), but it would be great to have all the information that's currently available well before it's too late to stop.