Profile For Dan E.

Pulling doubles scares me more than pulling a tank to be honest. there have been a couple times where i have missed a turn or drove past a shipper/receiver. i had to back up(nobody around) but dont know how i would do that with 2 trailers. once you over commit, you can jack knife the trailer and only way to correct it would be to pull up again i think. do you guys back up to a dock or just drop it off on the side of a lot? im also curious about why i see so many double trailers right next to toll booths. there is usually a huge lot as soon as you go through one of the toll booths. is that just a storage area?

what are some places that you would like to visit from just driving by but couldn't because of time restraints?

for me its charleston west virginia. i remember driving through there at night about 3 months ago and thought it was so beautiful, just the way the city and road was structured and the hills near by. i love taking road trips on my time off, one of these days im gonna head down there and check it out.

In my experience the truck stop wifi in the parking lot is bad unless you are parked right next to the building and most of the time those are the first places to be occupied. however the wifi inside the building is pretty damn good and fast. if i recall correctly its 20 dollars for a month of premium wifi at the big truck stops(flying j/petro/ta)

Got served some humble pie. i've been with prime now for almost a year and a half and these last 6 months or so have been going pretty well. no accidents of any kind, been on time for most of my loads and my driving skills have gone to a new level. i now feel like i can navigate even the toughest terrain with the proper trip planning. i drive mainly northeast and ontario, and while traffic sucks and you have to be alert 100% of the time, i feel comfortable behind the wheel. im relaxed and at a good place.

i really enjoy prime, they treat me well and they let me do my thing without asking questions which is really nice. however the one thing they dont offer is more hometime which is why i put in an application to a local company offering hometime every other day and a full weekend. pay is 20 hour so about the same as im getting now, maybe a little less but it will be more consistent. they hire new graduates and my friend who graduated with me from cdl school started with them. i've talked with their recruiters and feel like this is the place for me. just yesterday i got a reply from my application saying i was denied because of a minor accident over a year ago(backing, hit another trailer) and one 10 months ago where my truck rolled into another trailer. both incidents caused minor damage no police, no witness, except me telling my company what happened. i put it on the application because i didnt want them to find out while i was at orientation and send me home. i asked why it was denied and the lady said because of those 2 incidents. that really brought my confidence down quite a bit. they will hire a newbie but not an experienced driver. i was getting really excited about them because everything i have read said they are an excellent company.

not sure what im going to do next. i could look harder for other local jobs, but so far have not found anything quite like them. or i could stay with prime, like everything about them except for the hometime. the longer im out on the road the more i miss the normal things in life.

anyways on to other things, more specifically trucking things :) i had a really proud moment about 4 months ago. was driving along in the midwest and came along a sign saying accident, expect major delays. im thinking crap im gonna be late, so i stopped on a off ramp and checked google maps. sure enough there was a loooong red line covering maybe 5 miles from where i was to the accident scene. figured this might take an hour or 2 so i winged it and drove through some back roads and made it on the other side of the accident in 20 minutes. cant know for sure, but im guessing i just saved my self quite some time and passed some more experienced truckers.

on the flip side, a couple months ago i was driving down i75 in kentucky and there was an accident ahead of me maybe 20 minutes earlier. wasnt able to find a way around, but i did get a nice 2 hour nap right on the interstate lol.

been reading this forum quite a bit and have noticed how different the experience is with reefer/dry or flatbed vs tanker. both good and bad. for instance the good for a tanker is that we dont have tandems to worry about, our load is always balanced heh. also our trailers are shorter 46' vs 53' not to mention we hardly ever have to scale at a truck stop. 95% percent of our shippers or receivers have a scale for us to use, or go by what they had in their tank before and after they put it in our tank. we also dont back in a dock whith 5-10 other trucks in a very tight situation. most of the time it's only me or maybe 1 other guy near me. 50% of the time no shipping office to deal with, just a guy who comes knocking on your door asking for the paperwork.

but the bad side(or good if you like to be active) is that we have to supervise our unload, whether we pump or the customer pumps. averages to about 2 hours from start to stop. so less time in the sleeper to sleep which i like to do lol. not to mention in the freezing cold we still have to be out there. granted you dont have to be staring at the connections the whole time, but you do need to keep tabs on it and constantly checking up on it. also on occasion the pump can give you headaches and you might have to use a torch to heat up the pipe in extreme cold temps or replace a seal because its leaking. i had to use my torch once this winter. we also have to go to tank washes after every load. sometimes its a drop and hook, but other times its a long wait,2-5 hours usually.

Im going to quebec tomorrow, about 1 hour north of montreal. bonjour?

i hope the receiver speaks a little english. might have to bring out google translate lol.

Im just wondering how often you stop during a day ,for how long,and what kinda miles do you normally get with that routine?

i was taught in private school to take a break every 3 hours or 150 miles. i feel like it works for me since i get tired pretty easily and my body gets stiff. is nice to go for a short walk and feel the fresh air if just for 10 minutes, plus i have tb lol

I actually just pulled up my last 20 loads because i was curious myself. 18 of the 20 were delivered during the day. only 2 were not between 6am-4pm. both were at 5am

most of the delivery appointments are during the day.6am-4pm. there are ocassional times where ive had to deliver at night but not many.

Im currently with prime now in the tank division. the reason i started out with that is because i felt it would help me get a foot in the door should i decide to do hazmat fuel in the future. 11 months in , i dont think im gonna go hazmat, just too dangerous. those youtube videos frighten me.

here are some things ive learned than may help you with your decision. prime tanker mainly runs east of mississippi. a lot of loads out of the chicago area, port newark new jersey area, and savannah georgia. i used to be over the road which consisted me driving as far north as quebec canada, as far west as waco texas, as far south as savannah georgia and as far east as lewiston maine. i ran decent miles for a tanker as otr driver. anywhere from 1500-3000 miles but probably averaged closer to 2200 miles.

im now a regional driver in the northeast, mainly pa, ny, nj, ontario, and sometimes new england. i avg about 2000 miles. i do get paid good though, i think i make 49cpm. as a regional driver i take 34 hour reset every weekend. most places we deliver to are closed on the weekends. as a otr driver you dont sit quite as much on weekend because you might get a load that pushes through sat and sun.

prime has a terminal in pittston pa which comes in handy for me since its only a couple hour drive from port newark, where most loads get going.

Another update!!!

im now on month 14 with prime and 11 solo. since my last update everything has been going well. Ive only been late once, was at the shipper and had 2-1/2 hours to go 29 miles! easy right? nope, i was going to brooklyn!!! man you need to leave yourself 3 hours to get through there and the traffic. stop and go for a good 2 hours, and i thought the george washington bridge was bad.

when i first started driving a truck i was so scared of it and all the gears you have to shift. hills were like my kryptonite. but now its second nature, very rarely do i grind a gear now, even up hill. for everyone nervous about driving a stick, dont be, in time it will be like riding a bike.

id like to apologize to 6 strings rhythm for not answering your question, i live in upstate ny. im currently now a regional driver mostly new jersey, pennsylvannia, new york, ontario canada, and the new england states sometims.

i really like my fm, she tries to keep me in a rhythm and give me loads i have done before. i usually pick up a load in port newark nj on sunday and head to ontario for a monday delivery. i get back on tuesday and do short runs till friday and have saturday and sunday mornings off most of the time. sometimes ill get another ontario load on thursday for a friday delivery and on the way back go by my house for a 34 hour reset.

on the flip side there are times i get depressed, ive had depression symptoms since a child and there are days where i feel down, but not really anything to do with prime, just life issues ya know?

im almost at 100k miles which im very proud of. think ill get it next week, so 11 months and 1 week, not bad.