Profile For Ally H

I shut my motor down a truck stops 90% of the time but I have an espar bunk heater that works good in the winter. I don’t run the motor because it’s loud and out of courtesy for my fellow drivers to reduce the noise and air pollution. If it’s above 78 f outside I’ll idle so I don’t wake up in sweat

Why do some trucks just idle for hours at a truck stop? What purpose does it serve?

I'm at a truck stop right now inbetween two idlers. They aren't reefers, they are just stopped without shutting off their engines.

Truck stops are disproportionately noisy, in general, I'm learning. Last night, I stopped at a highway rest stop. Everyone was quiet. It was the best night of sleep I've had since I've been on the road.

It’s that dark curved non salted bridge that is at the bottom of a decline/mountain guardrail that keeps me up at night

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stressing out so much that I’m losing sleep in my bunk thinking about quitting.

Come on now. All you have gone through to get where you are today???? Did you not think you would drive slick when prepping and doing all that training?

You've made it this far. Piece of cake. This is exactly why I chose winter for academy training here in the northwest.

Hi Brett, about chains I never go past the Mississippi River and werner does not have any chain banks on the east coast do you suggest I purchase my own set?? Do you have a personal set? They are $$$$ from what I’ve seen

We have an awesome entry in our trucker's wiki called Winter Driving Tips & Items To Bring which I just updated with more ideas. That page is loaded with tons of great tips and also links to other resources here on TruckingTruth.

You can also find other conversations we've had here in the forum under our tag for winter driving tips: Conversations Tagged 'Winter Driving Tips'

Here's an entry from our truck driver's career guide called Dealing With The Weather

Ps I have read your excellent article 15 ESSENTIAL WINTER TRUCKING SAFETY TIPS as well

Hi all, This will be my first winter driving experience in a tractor trailer. I am stressing out so much that I’m losing sleep in my bunk thinking about quitting. Black ice, ice bridges flurries and losing traction and crashing scares me to death. If there weren’t enough variables to juggle when conditIons are perfect. Please convince me it’s not so bad and not to quit. I have stocked up on kitty litter, shovel, Degel and my truck is prepared but mentally I am not. Thank you for providing this medium of communication.

Hi all, This will be my first winter driving experience in a tractor trailer. I am stressing out so much that I’m losing sleep in my bunk thinking about quitting. Black ice, ice bridges flurries and losing traction and crashing scares me to death. If there weren’t enough variables to juggle when conditIons are perfect. Please convince me it’s not so bad and not to quit. I have stocked up on kitty litter, shovel, Degel and my truck is prepared but mentally I am not. Thank you for providing this medium of communication.

I appreciate the time you all put into responding. Its clear to me now that this is not uncommon. I'm so surprised about how much bull **** you truckers put up with. As I said I'm new and an outsider to the industry and I all I have to say is not at all surprised why people run fast from this vocation. Yes, Werner is running me hard and I'm making more money than I ever had in my life (late 20s) but it's beginning to be not worth the health hazards, stress, and litigation. I have no qualms with declining loads or "shooting myself in the foot".

I work for Werner Enterprises as an OTR driver. I'm fairly new to the industry and want your take on common practices of dispatchers.

I have 2 hours on my 70 and dispatch wants me to head to another shipper for a new load. They say I can shut down at the shipper in the loading dock for my 34 hour restart.

Not only is it a common occurance that dispatch will indicate on the qualcomm that overnight parking is permitted at the shipper but when asking the shipper they say no. With 2 hours I would not take that risk and declined the load on grounds that no facilities food or water would be available for 34 hours.

I was in disbelief over this so is this a common practice in the trucking industry to treat drivers like pieces of equipment.

Do they really think its humane to make someone sit in a loading dock for 34 hours while at the same time having a policy against using urine bottles in the truck.

Thanks for all of your input