Profile For Amie A.

When he's on the west coast he's hauling perishable goods like fresh produce in a reefer (refrigerated trailer) to those poor hungry souls out east whose weather won't allow them to grow such delicious food items. He's got to get there in a hurry or that load will be rejected by the receiver if it is starting to spoil. He's got to have the "hammer down" (full speed ahead) or else he may not get paid for that load of spoiled strawberries when he gets there.

Thank you so much Old School, your handle I assume? Love it! Now, I need. a snappy handle for my "guy!" Thank you for the lingo mixed in with great information. If you've got a few minutes at a time would love more lingo and any tidbits. Does the DOT state once you log in for your eleven hour allotment of drive time daily that starts the clock ticking? For instance if you have to wait two hours at an unloading you've "used" two hours of drive time and have nine left? No rush with the info whenever you get to it.

Warmly, Amie

You basically have 2 clocks that run at the same time. You can drive a maximum of 11 hours per day and you have to complete those 11 hours within a 14 hour period. That leaves 3 hours for loading, fueling, breakdowns etc... Oh and they take another 30 minutes out of your day for a mandatory break that you have to take off duty so that leaves you only 2.5 hours for all the other stuff you do besides driving. You can work longer than the 14 hours but you can not drive after 14 hours. The clock starts ticking the minute you start working i.e. pretrip inspection and if you mess around you just lose valuable time.

As for what products? It all depends on the type of trailer he is pulling. Old School gave you the gist of what refers haul but dry vans will haul anything that fits in the box and does not need refrigeration. This means anything from your computer to the tile on your kitchen floor to medicines. You can pretty much make up anything. I have seen trees and other plants and flowers hauled in a van.

So many thanks for this. There's so much information to keep track of! Great job understanding it all--- as you had me a bit lost at two clocks! :)

Any little tidbits are great...keep um' coming if you have time. My protagonist is "hammering" (did I use that slang correctly?) ;) a long haul east to west. Any thoughts on travel time and goods carried?

Warmly, Amie...btw, safe trucking and Godspeed!

Log out look at high road training program view table of content . sorry about last post new at this.

No need to apologize. Thank you so much for the information. I'll definitely look into this.

Warmly, Amie

When he's on the west coast he's hauling perishable goods like fresh produce in a reefer (refrigerated trailer) to those poor hungry souls out east whose weather won't allow them to grow such delicious food items. He's got to get there in a hurry or that load will be rejected by the receiver if it is starting to spoil. He's got to have the "hammer down" (full speed ahead) or else he may not get paid for that load of spoiled strawberries when he gets there.

Thank you so much Old School, your handle I assume? Love it! Now, I need. a snappy handle for my "guy!" Thank you for the lingo mixed in with great information. If you've got a few minutes at a time would love more lingo and any tidbits. Does the DOT state once you log in for your eleven hour allotment of drive time daily that starts the clock ticking? For instance if you have to wait two hours at an unloading you've "used" two hours of drive time and have nine left? No rush with the info whenever you get to it.

Warmly, Amie

I did that already!

I made a long thread not too long ago about my days. I documented each day, the fortunes and misfortunes, the times I thought I wouldn't make it, and everything else you can imagine. If you take the time and read it you will get a good idea on what life on the road is like. It might be the only trucker documentary on the internet, so you've come to the right place! Here's the link below:

Adventures of Daniel B.

Also, be sure and check out Brett's Book. Just as good!

Thank you so much. Love your blog and I'm off to read Brett's book. Watched the movie "Big Rig" last night...very informative and insightful. You people are not paid enough for what you do! Thank you!

I find that the best way to get info out of a trucker is to ask a specific question. General questions tend to be ignored or take too long to answer when you are done driving for the day.

Let's say you have an over sized question. Here in Montana you can run up to 12 feet wide with no escort but you can only run up to 10 feed wide at night. Each state has a different requirement for oversized loads.

Now because you say it is a novel I am assuming that it will be a work of fiction but also based on fact. I have found that each state I have needed info on for regulations has had a drivers handbook available online. That is a good place to go for regulations for each state. Might need an interpreter though.

Good luck on your book and maybe one the the folks from here will transport them to book stores all across the country. Probably even bring the paper for the book to be printed on or hauled the trees that were used to make the paper. See how it all works.

Thats an excellent point and I very much appreciate you taking the time to respond!

The male trucker in my book is a long haul, over the road driver. East to West coast. What types of items might he carry that distance? What are the DOT's driving hour limitation? Do they vary state to state?

The reasons I'm writing this book is two-fold: I've wanted to write a novel about truckers for a while now and hope drivers get get much more recognition and respect from the general public after reading my book.

Thank you again for taking the time to write and thank you for what you do!

Warmly, Amie

I'm not a trucker. I'd never be brave enough to perfom such an arduous task. God love you brave folks! I'm writing a novel about the lives of truckers. I can only glean so much from Google searches and the like and that's how I arrived here. A fantastic website by the way! Would any folks be willing to provide me with real basic information about the rules of the road, basic lingo, restrictions on drive times, pre-inspections requirement. logs etc.? I'd be eternally grateful. Thanks for reading!