Prime Flatbed; Springfield, Missouri; Spring 2020

Are you not logging pre/post trips? Your drive time and on duty time should never realisticly be the same unless your not logging pre/post trips or fuel stops as on duty time.

Other then that one question you seem to be getting along great. Thank you for the interesting read so far and keep up the great work!

Are you not logging pre/post trips? Your drive time and on duty time should never realisticly be the same unless your not logging pre/post trips or fuel stops as on duty time.

Other then that one question you seem to be getting along great. Thank you for the interesting read so far and keep up the great work!

Good point.

With team running we are generally doing pre- trips and post- trips at the beginning and end of the day. But to be honest we aren't really doing diligent pretrips and post- trips. I do more inspection of the truck when we stop and I'm logged off- duty per my trainer's instructions. I don't think I seen my trainer open the hood once. And we are not focusing on making sure they are part of our on- duty time.

Are you not logging pre/post trips? Your drive time and on duty time should never realisticly be the same unless your not logging pre/post trips or fuel stops as on duty time.

Other then that one question you seem to be getting along great. Thank you for the interesting read so far and keep up the great work!

Good point.

With team running we are generally doing pre- trips and post- trips at the beginning and end of the day. But to be honest we aren't really doing diligent pretrips and post- trips. I do more inspection of the truck when we stop and I'm logged off- duty per my trainer's instructions. I don't think I seen my trainer open the hood once. And we are not focusing on making sure they are part of our on- duty time.

While I'm not your trainer, I'd advise against not logging things properly. Yes it eats some of your 70 to do it correctly but otherwise you're risking tickets/violation for "log falsification" when the DOT eventually finds out, and they will find out sooner or later.

Love the updates, Rob. They bring back a lot of great memories. Some not so great as well.

It sounds like you're handling the mental challenge, arguably the most difficult part of training, very well. Your eye is on the prize at the end, and that's what it takes to make it through. Good show.

I have to agree with Viking, The instant I saw your picture above, I noticed the painfully obvious red flag. That's an open invitation for a LEO to give you a hard time. Don't make it any easier for them. Be sure to show a token amount of on-duty time for things other than driving.

Standard practice for me is to get up early and do a proper pretrip before actually going on-duty. This allows me to discover and remedy any problems before starting my 14. Once I'm satisfied the truck is in good running order, I then log the obligatory 10-15 mins on-duty time. CYA

Love the updates, Rob. They bring back a lot of great memories. Some not so great as well.

It sounds like you're handling the mental challenge, arguably the most difficult part of training, very well. Your eye is on the prize at the end, and that's what it takes to make it through. Good show.

I have to agree with Viking, The instant I saw your picture above, I noticed the painfully obvious red flag. That's an open invitation for a LEO to give you a hard time. Don't make it any easier for them. Be sure to show a token amount of on-duty time for things other than driving.

Standard practice for me is to get up early and do a proper pretrip before actually going on-duty. This allows me to discover and remedy any problems before starting my 14. Once I'm satisfied the truck is in good running order, I then log the obligatory 10-15 mins on-duty time. CYA

Will do. Thanks

Remember the saying of, "It's not what you know, but what you can prove?" I do several looks each day, but am only required to log one.

Make an electronic trail of your pre trip once each calendar day, as others pointed out.

Been a while because we been running real hard.

5/17/2020: 34 reset

Completed the reset in St. Joseph, Missouri. Doing my laundry I had an interesting conversation with another driver who shares my cynical sentiment about the importance of many things our culture values. We talked about Ancient Egypt among other things. Although many of his beliefs were much further out there than mine, we had a engaging conversation. So much so that one of the Love’s staff came in and said “are we good.” My new friend and I looked at each other perplexed. The Love’s attendant said “my manager saw you on the camera and thought you were fighting.”

Nope, just engaged discussion.

5/18/2020: Deliver to Seneca, KS; Springfield Trane Repower

Delivery to Seneca, KS was uneventful. We then got a repower of Trane air conditioning units, picking up in Springfield.

We got there and had to put chains on. My first time. One of the units had “lift points” that were too small for the chain hooks to go through. So my trainer thought there should be some other point to anchor them. We briefly had a debate as to whether lift points were also anchors points. I said they were. He said they weren’t.

I continued in my “stubborn determination” as he referred to it later, to find a way to make it work.

My trainer called Prime’s securement guru and found out that we should take the pins out of the hooks to get the chains through and then reconnect them, which we did.

After we got done securing we had “the talk.” This basically consisted of he is the trainer, I am the student and I should defer to his expertise. That he didn’t like me challenging his decisions or knowledge.

The driver who had dropped this trailer left his winch bar. So we contacted our FM about getting it back to him. His response: “he quit, you can keep it.”

We headed out. I drove the through the night

5/19/2020: Deliver to 02 in Pittsburg, PA

Early in the morning, I was getting tired again and I asked my trainer if he wanted to take over or I could take another power nap.

He took over and delivered to our first delivery of three. He let me sleep while he delivered.

We got to Chantilly, VA that night, but couldn’t deliver because they were closed. We ad to wait until the morning.

The other driver quit because he couldn't figure out the securement either!

Great updates Rob. Sounds like things are moving right along.

5/20/2020; Deliver to 03 in Chantilly, VA and 90 Macguire Air Force Base; pick up Charlotte Pipe.

My trainer drove us to the second of three deliveries. There were some heavy haulers that were unloading. They used two pretty good size cranes to unload.

I drove to Macguire Air Force Base. As we approached the gate, I saw a sign with an arrow to the right that said “commercial vehicles.” The road to the main gate had a sign that said “no commercial vehicles.” But the GPS said to go straight. Now since “the talk” I had reflected on what my trainer had said and decided to defer to his decisions. So I said “sign back there said commercial vehicles to the right, this sign says ‘no commercial vehicles’, the GPS says go straight. What do you want to me to do.” His response was “it says go straight.” I follow his direction and drive straight ahead. As we approach the gate, a short asian Airman comes stomping out. She thrusts her arm out pointing to a four wheeler in front of us directing him to go through the gate. She thrusts her arm toward us and directs us to go to the “escape lane.” I pull up, roll down the window, and she comes up asking me if we know where checkpoint 9 is. I have no clue but she tells me where it is and we go there.

We get to checkpoint 9, the commercial gate we would have gotten to if we had followed the signs correctly. We park and go into to the guard shack to fill out our paperwork. You have to fill out a background/COVID 19 information sheet and give them your driver’s license. After they check it, you shred the paper. We also needed the registration and proof of insurance. My trainer brought in his permit book but it didn’t have the 2020 documents. In fact, it didn’t even have the 2019 cab card. So we had to go back to the truck, where my trainer found the 2020 document packet. After getting all our paperwork done, we drive through the gate to the inspection station. You have to open the hood and all compartments on the truck for them to inspect. After that we proceeded to the next gate for the Airman there to direct us to where we needed to go. We gave him the address and he gave us a long list of turns, which we would have never been able to follow. During this conversation, my trainer was on the phone with the receiver contact who agreed to meet us at the gate and lead us there.

We get there and I park next to the loading dock temporarily. While talking to the Airman who led us there we discover they don’t have a crane and they are not sure that the forklift they have will be able to lift the air conditioning unit. After about 30 minutes, the forklift shows up. There’s a group of about 4 civilian contractors that are discussing strategy. They finally decide that they’re going to have us back up more along the loading dock, remove the loading dock rails, and lift the air conditioner a foot, while we drive out from under it. So I back up next to the loading dock, which the floor is about at my knee level sitting in the truck. While removing the loading dock rails they apparently came up with another strategy. They have a crane in an aircraft hangar that can lift the air conditioning unit. Now we had already removed the chains so I drive real slow to the aircraft hanger which was about a half mile away. Below is a picture of the truck in the aircraft hangar. I tried to get a picture of the planes outside the hanger but they light contrast was too bright.

After we unload, we pulled out where they have the airplanes park, do a u-turn and we’re on our way.

Headed to Muncy, PA to pick up more Charlotte Pipe. After we pickup I have 59 minutes on my 14 hour clock and my trainer picks a truck stop 50 miles away. I head out and drive smartly but not fast. I get to the off ramp for the truck stop with 2 minutes left on my clock and switch to off duty.

After I get in the sleeper, I notice a message from safety that says they received a stability control critical event. I responded with a generic response because I didn’t know exactly where that would have occurred. My trainer was awake and hadn’t mentioned anything about a hard turn. I got a response back. “Okay, stay safe.”

485 miles in 10 hours 8 minutes.