Profile For Steve S. C.

Thanks for the info. Customer ended up apologizing to me, lol. Parked in front of only open door for the night. Got woken up an hour before my appointment and had to move one door over. Seems someone took the keys for the truck that was parked infront of the only door I could unload at home with them. Had the rear doors open and paperwork waiting too. They told me I would have been unloaded an hour early if not for their truck being parked in the wrong place. Trucking moments lol.

Been flat bed and specialized for over 2 years, but have recently been getting a few dry van loads. For flatbed, if your parked at a customer overnight you tend to just park out of the way somewhere overnight. With these dry van loads thete tends to be less space. I was wondering about dry van deliveries if it is acceptable practice to pre-stage the night before and back up to an open dock for the night? I understand this is more a customer preference, but at the same time I want to make sure I am not violating some well known dock etiquette before I get yelled at in the morning.

Any other input would be welcome here too.

Read through sthe replys and have some things to add.

The added weight of the batteries will be offset by the loss of the normal powertrain weight. Plus if it ends up that the batteries still add a significant amount more they may add in an excetion for the added weight like they did with apu's and similar anti-idle devices.

Charging issues will not be a problem for too long as truck stops will most likely start having charging station parking spots. States will most likely start implementing charging stations and rest stops too.

The hill climbing will be nice, but will use a lot of power. It would be nice to know the stopping power of the regenerative brakes and how much power they can produce on a long decent. If they could recharge 25% to 50% on the downside while controlling speed it would be awesome.

I see these taking over short haul routes really quickly with the big companies. The long haul guys will stay away, but the big companies may switch to more relay style routes until charging stations become more common.

I know I want one.

Tarping is by far the hardest physical part about flatbed. Talk to your company about getting a roll tarp or a covered wagon. I have heard rumors of Maverick letting physically disabled drivers use covered wagons and roll tarps. I am in one of Maverick's dedicated glass divisions now and almost never have anything other than a roll tarp trailer. I am in good shape for early 30s and I hated doing tarps in flat bed especially the huge lumber tarps. I would do refrigerated if I had leg issues personally. There is a big demand for it and Maverick almost pays the Temp control the same amount as flat bed. Plus you can sometimes get more miles doing temp control if you get drop and hook loads. I lost a lot of driving time tarping and waiting to load in flatbed.

Good luck finding what works for you.

If they can deliver on the specs they are bragging about, then this truck will be amazing. 0-60mph in 5 sec empty 0-60mph in 20 sec loaded Very low cab floor for easy in and out. Not going to be driving out in a field to haul grain with this thing lol. Driver sits center with panoramic front window No more worrying about blind side backing or tight right turns Independent front suspension Regenerative breaking system that almost never needs to use the service breaks Each drive wheel has its own motor with torque vectoring software to keep truck more stable. He said this would make jack knifing impossible. He has never driven in winter conditions it seems. No amount of stability control is going to stop you from sliding on ice if you are going to fast. Can recharge up to 400 miles worth of battery in only 30min. For those that follow HoS rules for 30min break that gives you a 900 mile each day.

All that is awesome, but the thing I am most interested in is the autonomous features and platooning. Lets say you have several trucks going the same way down I90 for 2000 miles through flyover country. Instead of running teams with 2 drivers per truck to keep them going, you can switch off which truck is the "train conductor" for the convoy. The other drivers can get their off duty time and then switch lead trucks when needed. HoS rules would need to be altered to take full effect of this probably. I would imagine there would be a big push for the battery system to last longer for this purpose. Possible trailers with battery banks integrated into the trailers belly. You could see drop and hook operation where the trailers are plugged in so that when you hook up to the trailer it is fully charged so you don't have to waste your time on charging the truck.

Oh well, my favorite part is the 0-60mph times.

Mobile version is being tricky. Cant edit post or add photos.

[IMG]http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag91/sscollier/Mobile%20Uploads/20160624_180602_zps3zlflin3.jpg[/IMG]

Here is a load from a while back. It is mostly coils with a few stacks of sheet steel in front. [URL=http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/sscollier/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20160624_180602_zps3zlflin3.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag91/sscollier/Mobile%20Uploads/20160624_180602_zps3zlflin3.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Hello Brian

I just left the Navy last year and went to my first company the day after Christmas. It is probably the least stressful job I have ever had. The hours suck, but most of them for me are driving doing regional flatbed. Military experience made the transition pretty easy for me. Check out a guy named Dale Clay (retired Air Force) on Youtube. He does a good job explaining stuff. If you like being around family a lot the first year will be hard. There are more normal working hour driving jobs out there, but most require at least a year experience first unless you have connections.

It is a very enjoyably job being out there on your own, kind of like being the captain of your own ship. I even know of a Submarine captain that retired and started his own owner operator business and have talked to medical doctors that got tired of legal garbage and started trucking. So far I am enjoying working for Maverick Transportation LLC. This is still my first year so I don't have much to compare them too yet. I have heard some scary stories from guys that left some of the big companies though. If you want some physical activity from your job, flat bed is kind of fun. I am going to save box truck driving for when I get tired of physical labor.

Just do your research in picking out a good school and first company. Good luck.

Was given a set of chains for my truck that are sized for normal sized drive tires, but I have super singles. Will they fit? I was told they would, but drive tires are 445 and chains say max of 255. I dont see how that is going to work.