Profile For aperture

My company just stuck me in a new automatic Peterbilt 579 and I'm averaging about 5.9 mpg. When I was driving a manual 579 I was getting about 6.8 mpg. What gives? I thought autos were supposed to be better on fuel consumption.

I drove an '06 Freightliner in school and did fine, however now I'm on a '15 Pete 579 and I am having issues. In the double shifting process I keep feeling a small jerk when I let my foot off the clutch when I go into gear. What am I doing wrong? Going too deep on the clutch? Giving too much/not enough fuel? The timing of when I come off the clutch/when I give it fuel? Any input would be extremely helpful.

I just got off the phone with a recruiter today... she claimed that their hair folicle test goes back an entire year. Is that even possible? I thought the cut off was 90 days.

Very interesting! Personally whenever I'm getting sleepy but don't have time for a long sleep, I have always taken a 30 minute nap and THEN some coffee (or an energy drink), followed by a little bit of exercise to get the blood flowing, but I haven't tried drinking coffee BEFORE the nap. I should try this and see how it works. Thanks for the info Aperture! :)

P.S.- is your name a reference to the Portal games? I love them. lol

Yep, and I dabble in video/photography too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaI5LWj6ams

Generally speaking if you live more than 50 miles from a terminal your company will let you take your truck and trailer home with you. Most people either park at a truck stop and get a ride home from there, drop their trailer at the truck stop and take their tractor home, or find a place near their home to park like an unused gravel lot or a big grocery store parking lot. You'll want permission from anyplace you consider parking the truck.

But you don't have to live near a terminal. As long as a company hires from your home area you're good to go. In 15 years of driving I never drove for a company that had a terminal or drop yard in my home state. Didn't make any difference.

Cool, thanks for the info!

Are you locked to your terminal when you take home-time? Can you ever transfer your truck to another terminal temporarily; how about semi-permanently or permanently? Do you have to take home-time when your x-amount of days are up and does home-time ever roll over?

Id be more concerns about weather if I was gonna bike lol. But it would be a great way to get some exercise before school!

I commuted in South Bend during month of March. Sub-freezing temperatures baby!

Thanks for your input guys. I may just look to biting the bullet and buying a car.

I'm going to attend DriveCo in Gary, IN and I was thinking about temporarily renting out a room in Gary and biking to school each day (4 miles). Based on your experiences in Gary would this be a good idea? Another option I thought of was buying a car and renting a room out in on of the surrounding areas. I have a fair amount of street smarts and avoiding dangerous situations in the city/suburbia, but I'm not completely familiar with the area. What do you guys think?

Anyone going? I'm pretty sure I'll be there starting Sept 28. If not Oct 12! (We'll see how nice I want to be to my boss when I give him my two weeks). I'm super pumped!