Profile For Paul J.

I know a lot of truckers use bottles, jugs, etc for urine. But how do yall handle when u gotta pinch a log and can't get to a gas station in time?

After doing some googling I learned that there's such a thing as small portable toilets that truckers can purchase on Amazon. Some are literally 5 gallon buckets with a removable seat attached, and others are a toilet seat with a container underneath it. Pretty neat with all the different variations.

But I will be doing basically 5 months of OTR training with Wilson. Most of it is driving with a trainer and the final weeks will be team driving with a fellow trainee and after that I'm finally driving by myself.

So when I get to the point where I'm driving by myself, and I decide to purchase a small portable toilet, amazon shopping is going to be a little complicated because I'm going to have to determine a delivery address and I'm gonna be on the road. I could make my family's address a delivery location and just make a road trip out of picking up the seat. I could probably even have it delivered to the Wilson Logistics' location in MO where I'll be staying during the first part of my training.

But is there such a thing as a physical place I can purchase trucker supplies like a small portable toilet on the road? Only thing I can think of is truck stops but I've never seen portable toilets for sale at a flying J lol.

Just a little update. Finished my second sleep study and learned something interesting worth sharing here for any other noobs like me who find out they got to get a CPAP machine.

If you don't have health insurance, I found a way to save money on a CPAP machine. Aparrently there are health supply stores that sell used CPAP machines for the fraction of the cost if they are brand new. You just purchase the machine, bring it to the sleep lab and they'll re-program it to your needs.

I got lucky and a family member of mine just got his CPAP machine replaced with a new one. Nothing wrong with his old one though and it was in good condition. I showed pics and make/model info to the guy running the sleep study on me at the lab and turns out he has the exact same model. Just waiting for a phone call thursday next week to hear my test results and in that phone call, the sleep lab worker will tell me when to bring that used CPAP to him to re-program the chip and then I can begin my "using a CPAP for 30 days" task that I have to complete in order to meet the requirements to have a second DOT physical that will upgrade my 6 month DOT certificate to a 2yr version.

Meanwhile, I had a talk with my recruiter at Wilson Logistics and he told me as soon as I got that CPAP reprogrammed and used it for 1 night, he'll hook me up with a rental car and I'll be heading off to Missouri for training. He told me they'll work with me in regards towards sending me to a clinic when it's time for the 2nd DOT physical.

Today I've started packing up my stuff that I was going to put in storage because I plan on living out of the company truck for a couple years and my family offered to let me stash my stuff in their shed to avoid a storage bill, which is awesome.

I just put in my 2 week notice at my Amazon van delivery job yesterday! But if I get my CPAP going before then I'll just quit early so I can get to Missouri quicker. Not like I'm ever going to go back to driving delivery vans again, lol.

Cool, thanks for the replies!

Got a question I didn’t consider until this morning:

I have a 9mm pistol that I’ve had for years that I typically conceal carry for personal protection. I don’t carry it when I deliver for Amazon for the purpose of complying with their no weapon policy on their property but I always conceal carry when not at work.

I have to put all my stuff in storage before leaving for truck school and the way Wilson works it looks like I might have a total of 5 months worth of OTR training. Last part of that training is team driving with a fellow student before I drive on my own.

But when I’m on my own, is there any reason I can’t continue to conceal carry? I know a lot of truckers are armed but I’m seriously considering selling my pistol before leaving for trucking school because I know not all states honor the 2nd amendment anymore an I never know if I’ll be delivering in a state that doesn’t allow me to exercise my 2nd amendment right. Am I making the right call selling my gun?

Not trying to start a political debate here, just want to comply with the laws so I can focus on driving.

If I gotta sell my gun, y’all know any self defense tools y’all recommend I can keep?

I have some basic training in Muay Thai and BJJ so ain’t too worried lol. Was thinking of just keeping a pocket knife handy and maybe a tazer and a can of bear spray.

Got a question regarding natural disasters and trucking.

With the USA being such a large nation, it's goes without saying there's always some natural disaster going on somewhere haha.

But I understand how that can effect someone's route as a trucker.

So is there a thing that truckers do to check to see if there's natural disasters going on like floods before driving through a disaster area?

For example:

Let's say I'm hauling a load that I pickup in somewhere in Arizona and I'm delivering it to somewhere in West Virginia. I got to drive through several states obviously to get there, but one of the states has an avalanche blocking part of the route, and another state has massive floods blocking another part of the route.

Obviously I would just rearrange the route to avoid those areas...but I can't do that if I don't know that these two natural disasters are going on.

And let's say in this scenario, these disasters don't even happen until after I'm just about to enter said states.

How do I "pay attention" and/or know "what to look out for" and "where to look" for this kind of info so I'm not stranded on a highway somewhere for a couple days, looking at a mountain of snow in front of me covering the highway, or a road that collapsed due to a landslide, flood etc?

Just curious how experienced truckers approach this issue.

Awesome, thanks all!

Looking forward to getting the ball rolling on all of this.

I'm about a week away from doing my 2nd sleep apnea sleep study (october 9th) and will be getting my CPAP machine shortly after. Also just got my Class-A permit card in the mail and no longer need my temporary printout I got at the DMV

My Wilson Logistics recruiter is all set paperwork-wise to get me rolling with training, etc once I'm using my CPAP.

I know I talked about both the "lease purchase operator" and "company driver" options I have with Wilson but I will most likely go with being a company driver now.

That being said, since my plan is to only be in the trucking trade 2 years, 3 years tops, (and if I use my brain, stay with the same company the whole time haha) and then get out and immigrate to another country, I obviously will be using the trucking trade to build up as much savings as possible, while at the same time minimizing personal expenses as much as possible.

I'm not married, don't have kids, don't have a lot of bills and recently paid off all my debts. So I'm going to be doing OTR and I hope to be home as little as possible. However, I don't exactly have a "home" to go to on my off days as the 2020 pandemic turned my life upside down as well as several other members of my family. Due to the pandemic, we went from being scattered across a few states to all living under one roof where I rent a room.

I'm still in the beginning stages of learning how OTR trucking even works, lol so I was wondering:

As an OTR company driver who will be driving a truck that has a camper in it that I already know has a bed, a microwave and even a small fridge, what would happen if I just put all my stuff in storage (like "Self Storage Plus" that's a few blocks from where I live) and just attempt to live in the company truck?

Like, let's say I'm out for a couple weeks and instead of using whatever days I have off to drive back to rent a room with my family, I just sleep in my truck and just shower at whatever truckstop I can find that has showers, instead of wasting money on hotel rooms.

I don't plan on really obtaining "my own home" to go to until after I immigrate and then buy a house in the country I want to move to. So why waste money on an apartment, house or hotel/motel rooms until then?

Can an OTR company driver do that? Can I really just sleep in my company truck on my days off, or am I completely misunderstanding how an OTR company driver career works?

Hello this is my official training Diary. I'm also started a vlog my journey in trying to become a trucker.

Everything that I would say in my first training diary entry is in this vlog episode of mine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbcCPWIpuk0

only thing to add to that is something really funny I had to do today.

There are two things my Wilson Transportation recruiter is requiring of me before he scoops me up since I have a 6 month DOT certification and a class-A permit.

1. Get a CPAP and start using it (Can't get my CPAP until after October 9th's second sleep study) 2. I need to provide proof of employment from September 2021-September 2024. (36 months)

The second one would seem simple but I've been doing mostly DoorDash since 2020 thanks to the pandemic. Apparently a beuracratic nightmare exists between DoorDash and 3rd party companies that makes it impossible for me to get my 1099 forms but I did recently discover how to find/download monthly income statements.

My recruiter told me that he would accept them as proof of employment but I have to send them to him. So I literally downloaded all 36 PDFs and emailed it to him today, haha.

I'm looking forward to not having to deliver for Amazon and DoorDash anymore and start driving those biga$$ semi trucks. WOOT

No.. automatics are indeed unsafe. When you turn the jakes on, a warning on the dash gives you 10 seconds until implosion. Eject or die.

ROFL

LMAO!!!! wow I can't unsee it now. I literally got that question right on the test for all the wrong reasons. That's funny AF.

Maybe you're right and I do need to take a break. I am probably overdosing on all information that I've been soaking up.

Well, I guess the whole automatic vs manual transmission thing must be the equivalent to the whole "lincoln VS miller" debate I heard throughout the 13 years I was a welder. I equally used both and they're both equally good. Both have their quirks but you can weld anything with either brand with enough practice. The proof is in the fact that whenever you see any product fabricated by Caterpillar, those bulldozers and excavators are fabricated using lincoln machines and whenever you see pictures of the sections of the SpaceX starships in the news in their shipyard in Texas, the welders there are using millers (long story on how i know that)

Most welders I worked with who reach that '20yrs in experience mark' are the ones I usually worked under the table when I was a welder, because they become so confident in their abilities that they stop learning...and the quality of their work starts to decline as a result. I guess it's the same in any trade you get into.