Murphy’s Law

I know a driver at my company (Knight) who uses PC much the same way as Bruce did here. We talk a lot, and he continues to use it to advance his loads when near the destination without sufficient hours. He stays in trouble over this, but he can't bring himself to stop the practice.

Unfortunately PC has become a panacea for whatever shortcomings may be keeping him from being a top performer. As long as he doesn't have to see those red lines on his logs indicating violations, he has peace inside his mind. His logs look clean to the non critical gaze, and he himself is guilty of looking at them through rose colored lenses.

PC is a crutch to most drivers who use it frequently. It was never meant to be used often. It is a special allowance for trying circumstances that sometimes plague this career. It's not a band-aid to cover ugly spots in our logs.

If you're going to violate the rules, then do it proudly. Don't hide it under the false pretense of personal conveyance. Let your logs be in red and provide some documentation explaining yourself. It's called being honest with yourself.

You know your abusing it and using it incorrectly… why would you even post this?

Anytime. I have a 600 mile trip I look at all my factors acutely and error on the side of caution. This could have been avoided by trip planning and communication. I would have call my DM and said "I have concerns over this load, please notify the team that we need to move tge delivery back as it won't fit in with my HOS."

The sooner you communicate the better, as it gives everyone a chance to make adjustments and prevents a service failure.

I just had this situation come up where in looking at my trip planning and recon, I had an 0830 delivery with no where to park the night before. I got the load late in the day fro. A driver who couldn't complete it. I immediately saw that if I got close, my 10 hour would put me past delivery. I called my DM, explained it, and we moved the delivery back. I also called the reciever and let them know.

This is basic trip planning and communication skills. I do it so that I don't even have to bring the thought of PC to the table.

You know your abusing it and using it incorrectly… why would you even post this?

Klutch, Bruce is exposing his faults in order to generate some discussion. We love that.

This is a really good discussion. Don't let it fall off the tracks and get derailed into an accusatory stampede where we all pile on to the poor schmuck who was willing to admit his issues, and asked for advice.

As a new member and an outsider (not a trucker) this was one of the first threads that i read through and i think there might be something wrong with me because i found it really interesting. i mean most of the time i only see a truck getting loaded or shuffling paperwork. everything you guys have to go through otj ..... i had no idea. sry to stick my broken nose in but i wanted to at least say all you guys are appreciated more now. be safe and sorry if the road's been hard on you this week!! and sry if i broke any rules by commmenting.

You know your abusing it and using it incorrectly… why would you even post this?

Did you really read my post? I explained why I posted.

Others like yourself may not be willing or able to put your ego aside and be candid about your mistakes or inadequacies. Not only have I received great information and instruction as a result of my posting, but I’m sure other new or relatively new drivers have benefited from what has been taught by the experienced drivers. I thought that was one of the purposes and great benefits of this forum. And FYI, you don’t have to read my posts if they bug you and you have nothing constructive to add to the conversation.

Except for Klutch, I really have appreciated the objective advice given. The response from Chief Brody was the one that really stood out to me and I now have a better understanding about situations like this. So thanks to everyone especially the Chief.

Just wanted to say that I received no call from our safety department today. Maybe that’s because they are behind schedule talking to all the knuckleheads who do knuckleheaded things. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not at all.

On a side note, I really don’t like assignments out to areas like northern New Jersey and similar places in the northeast. I’m sure others feel the same way but we do them because someone has to. I have to do my share so all these undesirable assignments don’t fall disproportionately on a minority of drivers in my company.

The upside of this is the back haul leaving from places like this. This morning when I got my load and got on I80 westbound I literally felt all of the stress and tension melt out of my mind and body. It was a beautiful feeling, a beautiful day, and made me appreciate being a driver doing productive work.

You know your abusing it and using it incorrectly… why would you even post this?

Did you really read my post? I explained why I posted.

Others like yourself may not be willing or able to put your ego aside and be candid about your mistakes or inadequacies. Not only have I received great information and instruction as a result of my posting, but I’m sure other new or relatively new drivers have benefited from what has been taught by the experienced drivers. I thought that was one of the purposes and great benefits of this forum. And FYI, you don’t have to read my posts if they bug you and you have nothing constructive to add to the conversation.

Except for Klutch, I really have appreciated the objective advice given. The response from Chief Brody was the one that really stood out to me and I now have a better understanding about situations like this. So thanks to everyone especially the Chief.

You're welcome BK. If your logs department is anything like Prime's was when my trainer drove 500 miles on pc, you probably won't hear anything.

Let us know how the speeding ticket works out. Good luck.

I have no problem owning up to or discussing the mistakes I have made. When I look at your OP I don’t see this as a “mistake” you made, not some accident or error unless you mean an error in judgement.

Using PC to extend your drive time to get to a delivery, to go get a trailer wash out… I mean come on.

I guess it can be a good talking point… great discussion on what not to do. Smarten up. This stuff has a way of catching up to people.

You know your abusing it and using it incorrectly… why would you even post this?

Did you really read my post? I explained why I posted.

Others like yourself may not be willing or able to put your ego aside and be candid about your mistakes or inadequacies. Not only have I received great information and instruction as a result of my posting, but I’m sure other new or relatively new drivers have benefited from what has been taught by the experienced drivers. I thought that was one of the purposes and great benefits of this forum. And FYI, you don’t have to read my posts if they bug you and you have nothing constructive to add to the conversation.

Except for Klutch, I really have appreciated the objective advice given. The response from Chief Brody was the one that really stood out to me and I now have a better understanding about situations like this. So thanks to everyone especially the Chief.

How long have you been driving now Bruce? And you still need people to tell you to do a proper trip plan. If it were me I would have identified those issues before accepting the assignment and immediately calling my dispatch. I would not have put myself in that situation to begin with.

And if something out of my control happened and I ended up in a similar situation I would not have used PC to get to and complete my delivery, nor would I have used it again afterwards to go get my trailer washed out.

You just got a decent ticket, you would think you would be being more careful when it comes to protecting your CDL. If you found my original response inappropriate I apologize but it seems you like to play the dumb act when you already know better which was my point. You already knew you were wrong and you already knew what you should have done to begin with but here we are.

You know your abusing it and using it incorrectly… why would you even post this?

Did you really read my post? I explained why I posted.

Others like yourself may not be willing or able to put your ego aside and be candid about your mistakes or inadequacies. Not only have I received great information and instruction as a result of my posting, but I’m sure other new or relatively new drivers have benefited from what has been taught by the experienced drivers. I thought that was one of the purposes and great benefits of this forum. And FYI, you don’t have to read my posts if they bug you and you have nothing constructive to add to the conversation.

Except for Klutch, I really have appreciated the objective advice given. The response from Chief Brody was the one that really stood out to me and I now have a better understanding about situations like this. So thanks to everyone especially the Chief.