Profile For Stoug Danhope

I would be interested in hearing how to combat the sitting aspect. I've had a few loads that are listed as drop and hook and I show up on the appt time only to be told it's going to be a while before they have a trailer loaded. Others are just multiple unloads on a trip. To be fair I haven't complained about them or the miles because I'm guessing that would get you on the **** list but I dunno.

Additionally, I wouldn't say it isn't working out, it just seems like it isn't exactly worth it to work your life away. Maybe it's because I used to do local driving but the pay was terrible. The job itself is a cakewalk. There isn't any challenge like tailgating rock or doing 3-4 loads on a grapple truck in a day. It's the lifestyle of otr for the pay that is hard to handle for me personally.

Yep rocket mortgage was a no go once they heard I was on cpm. Said I needed to be at prime for 2 years for any loan options they had available. Technically I needed two w2s so really 2 1/2 years . Also said due to Covid usda was taking 6 month minimum to process applications and that many would fall through after the wait.

I don't think my dispatcher would play ball with me staying regional in the PNW to look for anything either and have frequent enough home time to search around.

And yes prime does an .08cpm per diem so my take home looks pretty low, not that I'm trying to finance a mansion. I'd rather buy the land outright and have enough to cover power and water installs and then build a cabin as income permits but financing land is even more difficult than something that already has a home. The areas I'm looking have a large majority of mobile homes as well and getting financing on them is difficult as well. I'll be getting a w2 for 5 months at prime here before long and know what my yearly would look like but it would probably be around 30-40k gross taxable income. Hence the usda route.

Coming from the southeast, money goes nowhere for land and housing out west. It's incredible how little you get. I'd imagine that plays into the dynamic of why so many drivers out west are foreigners and why so many domestic american drivers seem to come from the south and midwest. It's just a trend I noticed but I don't see how you could be a trucker and have a home base in cali or oregon or places like that. 750 a week take home in the southeast is pretty decent money and 200k gets you a nice 2 story house on some land. Out west it gets you a trailer about to fall in on itself with no power and 2 acres of land 45 minutes from the nearest town lol. But I love being out west and would pay to play, climate is great, it's sparsely populated, the scenary is gorgeous, no mosquitos, you actually get snow, you can off road and do outdoors stuff, etc. I'd be plenty happy never crossing the mississippi ever again if I had the choice. It comes at a price though but I also think the housing market is in a bit of a bubble right now as well. I've been watching real estate sites and bidding wars and listings pending sales in less than a week are common in extremely rural areas. Price history and trends from my research show places doubling in cost in as little as 3-5 years. Seems like a bubble to me.

Update for the new year.

So got some time off at Thanksgiving but not on it. Applied for the Christmas bonus where you run from I think 12/5 to 1/5 iirc for around 800 dollars. My truck had some electrical issues and also the apu was dead so I had to get it fixed and sat at the terminal for a couple days. Apparently this meant I was unavailable for dispatch and no longer qualified for the Christmas bonus. Oh well I suppose, beats being in single digits or negative with no heat or in Florida with no air and not being able to sleep. Seems to be holding up now and I can sleep sometimes.

I've ran an average on my miles so far and I'm getting about 2300 a week since going solo. I don't care much about mileage as much as what goes to my bank account. I'm taking home on average so far about 730 a week with no insurance and 100 a week on my comdata card for food or expenses. It seems like good money until I realize I'm working 60-70 hours a week all week to make that and even then, it just sits in a bank account or mutual funds. Lots and lots of sitting around. I just had right at 3 days sitting to get the load I'm on now. I know it's slow for the holidays but I'm going a bit stir crazy. By my estimations you're also shorted about 9-10% on miles driven vs miles paid. The sitting also makes my appts difficult to meet sometimes because I won't have the load in the box but with barely enough time to make it.

Still losing weight but it has slowed down. I'm down nearly 40lbs since I started but it seems to be stabilizing more. The biggest issue with health is the sleep for me. Chasing the clock back 4 hours everyday is brutal. Constantly feel jet lagged when you can run and then when you're sitting you sleep until you can't anymore. Many times I'll sleep 3-4 hours of my ten, sit there trying to sleep, then by the time I'm ready to roll and have been driving for a few hours I'm ready to sleep again. It's pretty annoying. I'll be so tired sometimes I'll consider taking up smoking lol but I've abstained so far.

Overall it's a pretty mixed bag from what I'm seeing to be honest. I'm making double what I made before but I'm working nearly twice as much and have no life outside of working. The lifestyle is pretty rough and there's not much enjoyment from running the same few stretches of interstate everyday. It's a weird feeling, the continental us feels like my backyard now. I can be in new york and think, "oh yeah, arizona is just a little ways over there." It might be because I'm still young and wide eyed but man is it a boring monotonous life to lead. It's also interesting how quickly you fade from the life of others when you aren't around daily. I don't even hear from my folks but once every few days and I was living with them when I left out just 6 months ago. It all slowly tapers off, they're the only people I have contact with anymore. I'm a loner by default and I'm not really bothered by it but it's surprising how fast it happened. It's also funny how when I started out, my bank account was building like I've never seen before, then once the money starts accumulating, it seems like it takes forever to see the next little milestone.

As to the relocation aspect I hinted at, not having much luck at all on that front. I've spoken with a few mortgage brokers and loan officers and once you mention cpm pay you hear a dial tone more or less. Apparently you can have a really good credit score, work 80 hours a week, and a 20%+ down payment ready to go but since it's a commission based wage, it may as well be the same as drug money to these people. I've read a USDA loan or a credit union are my only remaining options but nobody is financing usda because of the massive delays they have and a credit union usually won't take members out of state. But I've noticed in general truckers get treated like swine by a lot of people, and from some of the truck stops I've been, they live up to the reputation. Still searching for options but seems a bit like a dead end. I'm damn sure not about to get an apartment when I'll have maybe 3 days a month at it and it's a minimum of 1000/month where I'd like to live. From my experience as well with my dispatcher, asking for hometime gets you crappy loads for a week after you request it and a week before you get off and a week afterwards. I'd rather not sit for 20-30 hours in the truck only to get a load with 5 live unloads on it and 500 miles spread over 3-4 days. Ugh, I learned my lesson on that one.

In general, I think I'm going to serve my contract time and then take my savings and find something back in heavy equipment or construction. At least I can go home and sit by the fire or ride a motorcycle or do something fun on the weekends. I'm not saying it's as bad as jail in solitary confinement but damn if it don't feel like it a lot of times. Doesn't seem to make much sense working your life away. I don't see myself getting rich driving, I'm going to have to work for a long while yet and spending a month on the road for a barely middle class income and 3-4 days off if you can get it is pretty foolish in my opinion. At least in my case, I don't really care for the lifestyle that much so it isn't enjoyable. No point in voluntarily being bored out of your mind and exhausted constantly for weeks on end for who knows how many years. Just my mileage and take on it. It might bring on some haters but that's just like, my opinion, man.

Thanks for the info on that kearsey. Got one more load then I'm home bound. Dot hemmed me up for over a hour and made me late to an appt but I passed. Had an 8/2 split that the officer wasn't happy about saying I went over on my 14 but it was legal so I dunno.

Going to look into changing states come January sometime. Might see if I can't call in a favor with dispatch and get 5-6 days off come late January to look around the place I'd like to relocate to. Might go ahead and rent me some cheap room to get an address and info changed over but that's 2 months away still.

Going to try and get my apu fixed when I head back out after hometime. It can get hot in the truck and the overnight drain on my batteries has made the truck do weird stuff when I first start it.

Your Hometime rule is going to depend on your fleet manager. I've only had two home times since I've gone solo and one of those I was under a load so it didn't even count as home time.

Based on my conversation with Turtle who had the same fleet manager that I have as long as you run hard and don't abuse your home time technical rules don't really matter.

Guess it all depends mine is 100% by the books from what I've noticed but I've only been running with him a few weeks or however much. It all runs together. Only talked to him twice on phone and once on QC. I'm pretty skeptical they'd run you a month and get you 50-60 hours off, especially since the guy telling me this was a cheerleader for leasing.

I filled out a short paper asking about my PSD trainer but once I hit springfield with my tnt I got my stuff off the truck and that was the last I heard anything about him.

I'm not sure how many miles I've averaged but I know I've put almost 10k on the truck since getting it. Paid for probably 9k of those. Probably averaged 3000 a week so far but I've been out west nearly the whole time. I've had a ton of time on my loads usually but always try and deliver early, sometimes a day or even two. Usually get a drop and hook that runs a long ways with 3-4 live unloads. Lots of beer and meat loads so far.

Also a couple questions for those in the know.

I can't remember if I mentioned this but my tnt trainer said that if you get even 1 minute off on a day for home time that they count that as home time for a day even if they run a load that doesn't drop until like 22:00 and you don't get home until 23:59 for example. That's a hometime day burned right there. Also the same on the last day of hometime being that the dispatcher will usually send you out at 5-8 am on your last day of scheduled hometime. Basically meaning you can plan for 4 days and get 2 full days and maybe a few hours on the bookends. Also how does it work if dispatch sends you on a load that misses your scheduled hometime. Say you have 4 days and they don't get you there until the 2nd day. Do they add that time to the back end?

Second if I were to change residency to a state different by "renting" a room from someone and using their mailing address for tax and cdl purposes and all that, how would prime work hometime and would they have an issue with that? I'm looking to eventually move out west and would like to already have an address and residency established for when I move on to something that isn't otr. Plus if being located out west meant less time spent screwing around in the east, that'd be fantastic.

Welp been running my ass off since the last post, finally got a couple hours to post something and remembered to as well.

First off, I think keasrsey caught my drift. It was his truck, his rules and I laid low and didn't raise a fuss because I'm sure his situation isn't all that amazing and ruining his spot for him wouldn't do really anyone any good. My decision and I don't regret it.

As to being upgraded I've been "formally" on the road for nearly 4 months now but a few days ago I had about 2 days to spare on a load going about 50 miles from what I suppose I could call home. Played the don't ask don't tell and went home to actually stock up and get everything kitted out on the truck plus clothes, winter gear, and whatnot. Got a ton of miles staying in the Midwest and west coast. I'm on my first solo run to northeast and I'd be fine never being east of the mississippi again in my lifetime lol.

So far it's been alright I suppose. My apu gave up the ghost on day two in the mojave desert and I've not had it running since. Going to try and get that fixed after my first home time coming up in a week or so. My bunk heater acts a bit wonky too. Sometimes it'll boil you alive and others it seems to do nothing. The bendix lane departure is absolutely ****ed. If you get within 3-4 feet of the white line on the passenger side it starts buzzing and mutes the radio. If you drive on the passenger rumble strips it will buzz for 20 seconds straight and shut off until it recalibrates 30-60 minutes later. It drives me absolutely insane to be honest. The truck also panic brakes rather often for no reason and in a certain winter storm in az made me feel rather uneasy when it locked down and engaged the abs. Not a fan at all of all this new aged computer control over the truck. At least internationals don't have a million buzzers and beepers like the freightliner I was in. The auto in this international is leeps and bounds better than the FL but I'd still rather have a 10 speed at the very least. Call me old school but I don't need some goofy computer complaining about how I drive or throwing me into the windshield whenever a car goes down an off ramp.

That's the annoying stuff out of the way. The good is prime seems to work their per diem to where you clean out on taxes and take home a lot more than what you should. I've read that per diem doesn't count towards gross income under Trump's tax changes so that's pretty nice. I'm clearing an average of 1000 to the bank a week with 150 loaded on comdata card for expenses and 75 for all the stuff you have to buy from prime. My total came out around 800-900 and they charge chains seperate so you're paying PSD advance if you took it, chains, company store stuff at 25 each a week. It's decent money depending on how you look at it. I'm averaging about 80hrs a week at a minimum worked or doing something related to the truck and take home 1k a week. So far time management hasn't been the goliath I was led to believe it would be. I do alright and have only had to run illegally 2 times so far, both because dispatch sent me on loads I couldn't make at all but I stay busy nonstop essentially. If I'm not driving, I'm sleeping. I usually end up chasing the clock back 4-5 hours everyday and keep no sleep schedule. Don't know if that is expected but it's rough for me personally. I run nonstop, burn up what I can of my clock, park, shower, then sleep until 5 minutes before 10 hrs is up. I was used to sleeping for 12-15 hours every night and more on the weekend working a 9-5 due to some health problems and so 8-9 hours a night or less has been brutal for me personally. I also stay pretty sick living on the road too. I don't have an iron gut and eating just about anything results in, ahem, rapid elimination. I've fallen into the habit of just refusing to eat if I know I'm going near a big city with no bathrooms or shoulders to jump out and do my business on. I've lost about 40lbs since starting last I weighed and I wasn't too overweight starting. 205 lbs to about 170 or maybe less. I've muscled through it so far but otr is definitely rough on my body and usually the hunger is a lot less of a hassle than having to panic stop in LA and moon everyone on the road 3 times in a day lmao.

I'm thinking I'm going to serve my sentence and go local or back into heavy equipment in a nicer part of the country than my crummy home town. I don't mind the job that much but my body struggles with it way more than my mind and I like having the freedom to wash my hands of work at the end of everyday. Plus my personality doesn't lend itself well to doing anything but working when I'm at work. I've met other truckers that will unhook and bobtail to local points of interest and stuff like that and enjoy themselves but I can't mentally think about anything other than delivering asap and getting another load asap and thus more money.

I can't really complain though, I was scraping by living with family going nowhere and never having much to show for working and no hope of getting out on my own to now having money build up in the bank and a golden ticket to easily transition into whatever town I could reasonably afford. Trucking has gotten me out of a meth filled slum in exchange for a year contract to work all day everyday. Could be a lot worse but now that I'm in the day to day of it, I'm ready for the finish line and to get back to having a life, free time, and decent health.

Hmm well the personality dichotomy is a new one for me. And after looking at it and what it means I don't see where you could pull out that I'm type b from what I've posted so far but who knows, I'm not a psychologist like yourself.

And I've also stirred up enough **** in life in the past to know that laying low and watching from afar is usually the best course of action. Not going to volunteer to be the martyr. I'm fine if that means some internet guy calls me a sheep lol.

Anyways, I got a truck assigned. Unfortunately there were no lightweights coming up anytime soon so they gave me a full size. Not incredibly happy about the pay cut but the extra room is nice and they said I can turn it in and go lightweight in the future. Got it all kitted out and about to become available for dispatch after doing some laundry. It's barely over 100k and whoever drove it last took good care of it. It's grown on me pretty quickly the handful of hours I've had it. Mostly spent the day running around trying to get all the stuff I need. They give a list but I went to the hazard freight up the road to get a bunch more stuff then Walmart and lowe's. Think I'm pretty well stocked and going to try and stay out until after Thanksgiving and get home. I don't have any winter clothes though so I hope I can get by until then with just a jacket and hoody lol. Dispatcher seemed nice, hopefully I won't be stuck on the i-95 corridor for my time here at prime like my tnt trainer was saying I would.

Been a long day though, hopefully when I send over I'm ready to roll I'll get some sleep before I'm sent out. Probably walked 3-4 miles today and did everything in a rush.

You've definitely got a point there and I considered complaining but I'm not looking to make waves and draw attention to myself and he's had half his students; according to him, either abandon prime altogether at first home time or switch trainers after complaining about him. What goes around comes around, I did my time and got out and I'll let someone more vocal take up the issue, I like to keep a very low profile in general which is why I keep personal information off of my profile, I stay as anonymous as possible so as to not influence my input here and to keep my experience as transparent as possible. I work at prime so it isn't in my best interest to be 100% honest about everything but for others viewing this thread it is in their best interest.

Besides, my experience in my life so far, if there was an issue with someone you never went to the position of authority to settle the issue whoever that might have been because it made you the squeaky wheel to whoever you were complaining to and created further issues with whoever you were dealing with. Doing such a thing resulted in a loss loss situation for you and still having to solve the problem with the other person, only now the issue us further compounded by you "going behind their back." That's just my life experience. And at the end of the day, it was his truck, his livelihood, and his rules and if I had to go and say I wanted a new trainer and be routed in, it would be asked why I was asking for that and I'd be honest. And I'm sure it would get back to him seeing as how he was doing half the driving and was the trainer. Along with that and my personality, well if he got a little more than confrontational, well, I'm not going to shy away. And I'm not interested in something like that taking place so I didn't initiate anything that could cause that to happen.

When I brought up upgrading he mentioned he would have to deal with not sleeping for a month and that I needed to stay out over the winter with him. I told him it was his choice to train and take on students and that I could never train. And then had to deal with his bad attitude about it for 3-4 days. I mean like I said, I don't want to get into everything but the guy had some issues, and now that I won't ever see him or talk to him again, it isn't my problem.

It's not quite as cut and dry as you make it sound no offense. I laid low and kept to myself because I knew I could pilot the truck without causing any damage or getting tickets and the rest of the stuff I could find out on my own one way or another. I kept everything as professional as I could and if prime goes to look into from complaints and calls me and asks I'll list out everything and tell them bluntly and truthfully everything. I didn't get a survey or anything like that. I got one for my PSD trainer and I answered it honestly, he far exceeded expectations. Perhaps I shouldn't have vented here in my earlier posts but I was frustrated and there's not exactly an opportunity to ***** for lack of a better term.

Like I said, just glad it's over now and I can move on. No point in dwelling on it anymore. I previously said I got a bad egg when I talked with other tnt students in the upgrade class. Bad roll of the dice on it and I admit I didn't try to change it. Take it for what it's worth.