Profile For guyjax(Guy Hodges)

I think its more of an issue of the insurance companies are saying that drivers have at least 1 year Class D licence so that the driver would have some experience with the rules of the road and familiar with the laws. I could be wrong though.

I had this little guy on the truck with me from 2009 till 2013 when I changed companies. 20 lbs Jack Russel/Boston Terrier.

Here is something to consider... The GPS calculates your time by the actual speed limit posted in the areas. So if you are going by the time on your GPS and you seem to be loosing time consider that you can't run the speed limit and your time will be a little different.

Retirement or sort of retirement. Retiring from OTR. I have spent the better part of 2 decades driving across America. 18 1/2 years to be exact. I can truly say "Been there and done that". Where to start....This maybe long but I wanted people to know my thought process and perhaps somehow help someone down the line.

We all know that it takes a special kind of person and special kind of mentality to drive a truck and be successful at it. There comes a time,some happens sooner than other, where you must know your limit when you reach it. I have put up with many things through out the years ,as many have, and shrugged most of it off.

You know its not anything really big or that stands out that I can put my finger on and say "Yep that is the straw that broke the camels back". Attitudes are changing within the trucking industry. Drivers mostly and not for the good. Seems to be a lot of "Me me me me" and less of " Us. Common curtsy surprises me now when it happens instead of being a normal thing. Drivers seem to be in their own world now a days or at least on their cell phones while they are driving watching movies and videos. You can't call them out on it cause it seems no one has their radios on now a days.

Not even going to talk about 4 wheeler drivers. Worse than they have ever been and its not improving.

I guess the defining moment for me to know it was time for me to come off the road was a little while back while coming through Indiana I was passing another truck. Well I guess a BMW driver thought I was holding him up on purpose cause when I got back in the right lane he decides he was going to show me and he got in front of me and hit his brakes. We went from 65 mph down to a complete stop in the middle of the interstate.

I locked up my brakes and swerved to the shoulder at the last second and what does he do? Gets in front of me and continues speeding up and brake checking me. Here is the part that made me decide it was time to make a change....You would think I would have an "Oh S$#T" moment and hit my brakes. I didn't. For one splint nano second I thought to myself "What if I did not hit my brakes?" And I almost didn't. I run 2 drive cams in my truck. One in the companies and one is my own private drive cam.

I would have been protected as far as my company and the law is concerned. No one would question me once they saw the drive cam footage. Its not that this incident took place that made me reevaluate my career. It's the fact that I THOUGHT about not hitting my brakes.

To me that is not an acceptable frame of mind to be in. I have well over 1.5 million miles of safe driving in 18 years. I am not out to hurt anyone BUT there was ,if only for a split second, the thought that I wondered "what if".

Maybe it is just getting to a point of being burned out. Maybe. It happens. I just refuse to go past what I consider to be a limit for me.

So onto happier news. While I am retiring ,sort of, from OTR I will still be driving a truck. I am staying with Tyson but changing to a new driving position. I will start doing local driving at one of the Feed Mills near my house servicing Tyson chicken farms delivering chicken food to the farms. Home everyday and only working 5 days a week. Sunday through Thursday with Friday and Saturday off.

Will be a pay cut but will have a better home/work life balance. Besides everything we have is paid for including 2 cars and a motorcycle coming next spring. Going for $1500 a week down to $840 a week but being home everyday and having a regular social life again will be worth it in the end.

Is there a way to use the trip planning with various points? I have two stops and wanted to do them at once.... Yes I could do them is separately.....

But on difficult hahha

When I need to do a multi trip preplan I simply put the entire trip into my GPS and let it run the route and look at the times and I add in the times I know I am going to need and go from there.

Now if I need to know specific about a route that my Rand McNally can't tell me I use Trucker Path to find out and add that info to my route in my head

Man, I wish both of you guys the very best. Bless your hearts for having to be out there driving when you'd certainly rather be home. Very much hope things turn out great.

Hard part is I am home but will have to leave while this is all going on. Have to leave tomorrow morning

It wasn't a DOT related test.

But its still a reportable failed drug test except you failed it for the federal government and guess who governs trucking? The feds. You may still find a smaller outfit that might look at you with it being 3 years old but you will have to look hard.

Shouldn't make a bit of difference. Use Bullwinkle's numbers and you will be just fine. CB radios only have a 2-4 mile range anyways. An extra 100 feet won't matter!

Yes a properly tuned antena does make a difference. I have a Conex3300 high power and I get out 10 easily. 12 to 15 on flat land. All 3 of my radios,1 in truck and 2 at home, are all above a standard truckstop radio and I don't intend to burn out the finals due to an unturned antenna

Hey cool to see ya back man! Glad to hear things are going well for ya. Still pumpin out the miles I see. No surprise there for sure.

How you like driving for a private fleet like Tyson versus an independent company like Werner? Must have quite a few advantages, eh?

I will first say that there is no perfect company out there. There are a few things that can be improved always but I have found that Tyson has fewer things wrong than most.

No matter which company I have driven for I have made good money. Be it large or small carrier but with Tyson they seem to bend over backwards for the drivers....to a point. We are treated pretty well. Perhaps that is an advantage working for a private fleet.

Its hard to say what the difference is cause over the years I have learned to deal with trucking and take it for what it is. Its a lifestyle. Maybe its a positive attitude I get from dealing with any level of management. Everyone in the company is accessible to the drivers. No one is hidden behind closed doors or bullet proof glass. I think a lot has to do with how respect is given to the drivers.

Maybe it is over the years I have learned not to sweat the small stuff and therefore just don't pay attention to the stuff I have learned to accept in trucking that maybe newer drivers have not learned yet. Whatever the case it does feel different at Tyson and I like it.

There is more of a relaxed attitude here and it shows when dealing with dispatch. The Driver Trainers are a big help. They are not dispatch. They are there to handle everyday ,simple issues, that come up that drivers need fast answers to and are current drivers themselves so they are pretty easy to get along with. They also handle the logs. Best thing that dispatch and the planners actually understand log books and how they work.

Payroll,DM's and FM's all seat in the same room and are not behind closed doors. One thing that is common with all companies can be miscommunication between departments but I have found that to be a far and between sort of thing though it can happen.

One thing I think that helps is management is not trying to run the entire company. You have transportation management and then you have the production side ran by their own management team. It keeps things simple. Both are separate entities unto themselves with a management team that covers both of those teams if that makes sense. So kind of what a "Pyramid company graph" would look like.

One thing that is pushed here is....We are not a trucking company. We are a service company that provides service mainly to our own plants and outside DC's like Walmart and HEB and the other large DC companies. We haul our own product out from our plants and more often as not back hauling ingredients to our plants to make more product. Mostly plant to plant loads that are always drop and hook.

The chain of command goes:

Driver Trainers(driver support) takes the pressure off dispatch and helps keep DM's from being overwhelmed by driver phone calls.

Dispatch(DM) We have our DM's direct phone number so we can talk to them directly.

Fleet Manager

Transportation Manager

Safety

HR

Then a whole other management system over our immediate change of command.

Curious as to the name of the Youtuber....

Two things that catch my attention right away with your post.

The BP meds might come into question as Prime has some very strict ideas that their insurance company says are go or no go. If you are denied do to this its not a big deal. You can have your doctor change BP meds to something that works for you and that Prime approves of. It might be an issue or might not. Just wanting to make you aware of it before had.

Now the recruiter may or may not be concerned with the 1.5 year gap in employment but it also might become an issue. Just in case it is I would get a signed and notarized affidavit from friends and family stating what you were doing during that time period.

These are the only two things that might be an issue that I can see. Just remember things that a recruiter thinks and believes that aren't issues often become issues once you arrive at orientation and HR has a chance to review you full application once you are on their property.

Recruiters only do a surface check to see if you are cleared for hire according to that companies set of preliminary hire guidelines and HR does a deeper and more in depth check once you arrive at the company.

Not trying to scare you but I want you to know up front what as happened in the passed to other people.