Profile For Lyght

How much experience are they looking for do you know?

Hello,

I've had my CDL for almost two years now, for the most part I enjoy the job (clearly there's been a few shippers or receivers that had challenging docking areas which I didn't care for) but I want to be home more. My wife and I are thinking about having a baby and starting a family together and I really want to be a part of the child's life so I was thinking about giving up over the load and going for something local that would have me home everyday. I live in a pretty small town and I don't think there's much call for day runners in the area so we'll likely have to move. I guess I'm wondering if anyone knows any good companies that might be looking for day runners, do they pay less, what kind of hours do they normally work. Trucking wise I've never done anything but over the road and I'm not sure how different a day cabber will be. I've also been told to look for oil field work driving their tankers or going up and driving coal trucks, anyone know much about that? Sorry this isn't the most organized post, I'm not sure how to phrase it, I guess I'm just putting feelings out and trying to get information.

I have a personal size domestic freezer in my truck. It doesn't take a lot of room and I carry about 2 weeks of frozen meat and veggies in it. If I want a cold drink, 20 minutes and it's ice cold and a little longer and it's slushy lol.

I paid about $330 for mine. Yes, pricey but you get what you pay for.

After going through several mini fridges and electric coolers I took the advice of some friends who cook in their truck and bought the Domestic. I'll never consider any other brand. It's made to withstand the vibrations in the truck and won't fail you at an inopportune time. Not that I'm a fan of ice cream.. I'm not, but I could keep ice cream in it if I wanted to. I use an aroma 3 in 1 cooker (steamer/slow cooker, pressure cooker) and a portable (tackle box size) propane grill for all my cooking.

Does that fit in the mini fridge spot, or do you have it somewhere else in the truck? My wife and our cat are on the truck with me so space is already some what limited.

Alright, I'm driving a t680 Kenworth and I'm trying to get a mini refrigerator for it. I've gone to walmart and none of them will fit in the space for it. I've been told the coolers aren't that good and I would like to be able to keep milk in it. My finisher had one on his but I didn't think to ask him where he got it after he told me it cost him $700. Any ideas where I can pick one up at, hopefully a lot cheaper than that?

I'm new as well to driving only having about much time behind the wheel as you do, I'm not on a dedicated route so I'm not sure how different that makes things. Radio, soda, slaps don't seem to help much. I even started pinching myself and dumping cold water on my head or down my back, all of which did very little to help and didn't last long.

I'm not sure why, but chewing gum seems to help me stay awake.

Sleep of course is the best but being new its hard to sleep on the truck between the uncomfortable bed or someone idling their truck near yours or a loud reefer or any other new noises that you're not used to yet. If your truck is anything like mine even keeping the temperature comfortable enough for a full nights sleep is sometimes a challenge.

Thanks G-Town I try to manage the space in front of me the best I can and I slow down in construction normally five under the posted speed to try to keep better distance from the people in front of me and to give me more time to plan some of the sharper or even short twists and turns that the trailer might give me problems with.

Jodi I think you're right and that things will get better when I'm in my own truck. My first or second day out with my trainer he tripped and hurt his back so he hasn't been sleeping well at night which on top of keeping the blinds open also makes it harder for me to sleep. Sometimes to push a load he'll start driving at 4 or 5 in the morning and well I can't sleep through that so that cuts into my sleep too. When I get my own truck unless my wife ends up driving too when I'm sleeping the truck wouldn't be moving and it'll be dark both would be a huge plus.

Driving wise I'm getting better and stressing less over it. I'm not perfect sometimes I still bump corbs or having a hard time knowing where the point of no return is on yellow lights. Really tight construction sucks and likely always will, down hill still scares me I need to learn the manual setting in the truck still. My backing is a mess but h rest is coming along nicely. <.

Ear plugs? I'll have to try that its just to loud at truck stops. To bright too and my trainer never closes the blinds so staying in the top bunk I used one of my sheets to make like a tent so I can have it at least some what dark but it gets to hot in there after a while.

This morning I drove though the mountains between north and south Carolina I think my finisher said they were the smokey mountains but I could be wrong. I didn't like it at all and had a long line of likely angry trucker behind me because I was doing the speed limit or sometimes five under. To me going down hill is still the scariest part then add on curves and it being dark... No thanks...

Around the 85 & 385 there's some major construction going on, I'm hauling about 40,000 pounds so my trailer is really weighed down, when I was trying to merge on I almost hit my back trailer tires on one of the cement barricades between it being such a tight fit and so busy. Thankfully I just missed it and didn't hit any one.

I'm tired and this job is a lot more stressful and has a lot less down time than I was thinking it would. At this rate I still plan to honor my one year commitment but I think that will be the end of my trucking career at that point.

Day two of being out with my finisher. He seems like a really nice guy which is a huge plus I don't think I could have done it if I had a jerk for a trainer. He doesn't get much sleep but is always ready to go, me not so much. I'm having a really hard time sleeping in the truck so I always feel tired. Thankfully my trainer understands that and isn't pushing me to hard at least not yet. I'm in an automatic which is awesome because downshifting confused me and seemed to take to much work. I'm still trying to get out of the driving a car mindset espically when it comes to point of no return in enter sections. I stopped hard once already trying to stop for a changing light only to end up in the middle of the enter section and had to give it some gas to get out of there. My back starts hurting an hour or so into driving as well. I can't say I like driving yet but for the most part I don't dislike it either. My biggest worry is still causing an accident and killing someone.

I passed my CDL test today! Ohh thank you so much truckingtruth never could have done it with out this site! :) CFI here I come! :)

WWWwwwwwwwoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I passed my CDL test! Now the real challenge starts, doing this everyday!