Exciting News!

Oh yeah, Freight shakers have a lot of room on the inside, is it a single bunk or double? 10 speed? Welcome to flatbed man, if you enjoy hard work you will definitely enjoy this line of work. Just remember, it's better to over secure than not enough securement. Be safe out there and its a hellouvatime to start out flatbedding haha. frozen tarps are the best.

Its a single bunk and a 10 speed. Yea i picked the wrong time for sure. Tired of it already lol.

Well today was my first load. Had to bobtail from Grand Rapids Michigan to Potterville Michigan to pick up an already loaded trailer. Roads were all snow covered so it was pretty much a slow day. Got to Potterville and hooked up to the trailer and was on my way. Got to Jackson at about 2:45. My appt time was 2. They almost didnt take me but I gave my its my first load speech and roads are **** and he took me in lol. Nothing to eventful happened. Just popped on the pandora radio and took my time. Have a pick up in Jackson tomorrow morning at 8am. Its a 2 stop pick up. One goes to Alro in Niles Michigan and the other goes to University Park Illionis. Drive safe everyone. Bed time for me. Long stressful day hastired me out lol

TroyD

Congrats on the new rig, shes a beauty! Hope flatbedding works out for ya!

Congratulations Troy! Good Luck! Stay safe out there.

Got to Jackson at about 2:45. My appt time was 2. They almost didnt take me but I gave my its my first load speech and roads are **** and he took me in

See, when you hear us say that to be successful out there on the road you need to be the type of person that knows how to make things happen, that's what we're talking about! You have to know how to talk to people. You have to learn how trucking works and find ways of getting things done more efficiently than everyone else. You have to move appointment times up if you can. You have to squeeze every available hour you can out of that logbook by learning the logbook rules. You learn to trade favors with dispatch and develop a great reputation so you'll consistently get good miles and fair treatment.

The beginning of a person's truck driving career is always dominated by memorizing rules and regulations, learning to shift, back, steer, and inspect a big rig. But that's not the hard part about being successful in trucking. The hard part is learning the subtleties of how the trucking industry works. It's learning that you're competing with the other drivers in your company to be safer, harder-working, and more efficient than they are so you'll get your fair share of the freight. It's learning that when it comes to getting good miles and fair treatment, good communication with the people you encounter every day is just as important as how well you drive that rig.

There are a lot of subtleties and gray areas in trucking. It takes time to learn them and the best drivers are the ones who have the most complete tool set. Not only are they great at handling that rig, but they know how to talk to the DOT and get out of tickets. They know how to convince dock workers to unload them early. They know how to sweet-talk dispatch into hunting down a better load once in a while. They take the good runs and the bad runs without complaint to show dispatch they're willing to trade favors.

So many people get into trucking and find it to be a miserable experience even though they can handle a rig just fine. If you don't have the work ethic, the people skills, and a good understanding of how things are done in trucking you're going to lose the battle out there. You're not going to get the miles and special treatment that the top-tier drivers get.

Trucking is one of those rare jobs that goes far beyond just punching in, doing what you're told, punching out and going home. You're out there on your own - captain of that ship - and you have to learn how to navigate the country and the trucking industry the way the best of em do it. You have to understand that you're competing for freight with the other drivers in your company. The companies will take care of their best drivers first and the lower-level drivers get the leftovers if there are any. There's no law or company policy that says you have to get a minimum amount of freight or it's not fair. Baloney. The freight goes to the drivers that have the best chance of successfully moving it from point A to point B safely and on time.

Troy, you did an awesome job of making sure that freight got unloaded.You can't believe how many drivers would blow their stack at the first hint from the dock workers that they might not unload the truck. They immediately start cussin' and threatening and throwing a fit. And I don't have to tell you how that usually ends for them but I will anyway - quite badly!

Working well with people is just as important as handling that rig if you want to turn good miles out there. Talk respectfully to people. Be the type of person that they want to help out. You can't get things done in trucking by brute force. Truckers don't have that kind of authority over anyone. You have to get things done by sweet-talking your way into and out of things.

Lol Thanks Brett. Im sure it wont work every time but glad it did this time. Life is to short to blow a lid like that. Like today, I didnt make a dime....why, because my damn heat quit working again. Now its been in the shop all day and they cant figure out whats wrong with it. Hopefully they have it done by tomorrow morning.

Cold weather gremlins.....they didn't used to be such a problem,,,but with the onset of electronic sensors on everything...I think that the cold weather problems stem from them. Even our 1993 Dodge diesel pickup has a cold weather gremlin !! when it gets below 35-40, the abs brakes don't work...glad we have hydraulic backups !!! So pray for warm weather...cuz the mechanics can drive themselves crazy chasin' gremlins...

Cold weather gremlins.....they didn't used to be such a problem,,,but with the onset of electronic sensors on everything...I think that the cold weather problems stem from them. Even our 1993 Dodge diesel pickup has a cold weather gremlin !! when it gets below 35-40, the abs brakes don't work...glad we have hydraulic backups !!! So pray for warm weather...cuz the mechanics can drive themselves crazy chasin' gremlins...

Yeah its still not done. Making no money this way. What a first week this has been. Here I was thinking I was gonna get a POS truck with tons of miles and problems and I get this nice 2012 with less then 200K miles on it and its been nothing but a prob since. Oh well what do ya do lol.

Troy, just smile and know that it will get better. Hang in there, brother! Before long, you will be burning up the roads and melting all of the snow and grimlins.

Well everything was going good.....until.....my starter broke so here I sit again lol. Ahhhh I love this stuff!! Wont be fixed till sometime in the morning tomorrow. Anyone have an old truck that was put together better then these newer ones? lol.