What Do You Do To Keep Yourselves On The Straight And Narrow?

What dashcam do you use? I've been thinking about getting one for quite a while but just haven't taken the time to pick one out and buy it. Great idea

I use the garmin mini model sold at most truck stops. I forget the exact model number. It is the one that can be voice activated to record. That way you don't have to deal with reaching out and holding a button for 3 seconds to capture events.

What dashcam do you use? I've been thinking about getting one for quite a while but just haven't taken the time to pick one out and buy it. Great idea

I use the garmin mini model sold at most truck stops. I forget the exact model number. It is the one that can be voice activated to record. That way you don't have to deal with reaching out and holding a button for 3 seconds to capture events.

Oh ok sweet I’ll probably just get that one then and save up points at Pilot so I don’t have to pay for it. I think I almost got that one once if it’s the same one you’re talking about but didn’t buy because I didn’t know if it was any good

Thanks Jamie, I like the part about you thinking about the potential consequences. So important to think about that beforehand than face them for real afterward.

I really appreciate all the comments and advice on this. I was thinking about all these things actively while I was driving today and I felt so much more relaxed. I also made a point to get to the truck a little earlier today just to make sure I wasn’t rushed.

One of the weird things about hauling cement powder that I’m still not used to is that dispatch doesn’t want us arriving too early to our appointments so we don’t take our other drivers appointment slots or have to wait for there to be room in the silo to deliver our load. Our window we’re supposed to arrive in is 15 minutes before to 15 minutes after the appointment time. We do our best but with the lines to get loaded being unpredictable it’s pretty hard to gauge it correctly a lot of times. Overall I do well with successfully getting delivered within the delivery window most of the time (and when I don’t dispatch never complains because they understand the situation) but I’ve started realizing my perfectionism in this is really starting to cause me extra stress and rushing on the road sometimes and I need to stop worrying about it so much. Once I’m on the road it gets there when it gets there.

I just recently did a cement powder load, it was bagged, out of a quarry in Sahuraita AZ. They had only one dock, right in line with the silo. It makes sense that it would be a bit of a struggle. I got there early and had to wait, there wasnt much room to wait that wasnt in the way. They usually dont get dry vans in there, let alone OTR setups, it was about 15 miles up in the mountains off a dirt road in rough shape. I ended up loosing a few more areo vallances and some plastic off the truck, just from the rough road.

Still a fun load, even though dispatch was off and I ended up visiting a trailer park, having to back up across a few of the residences yards to get out, it added about 40 miles to the trip. Now they know not to send us there. Right info, wrong spot on the map, and the load planner insisted to follow google maps to the location on there. The locals were really nice and said that the companies kept doing that to the drivers because the drivers would turn down the load when they firgured out how bad the road was to where they actually need to go. Seemed like a logical explanation. I just figured that our load planners were idiots, but it could be the other case too.

Which brings me to thinking about something on this topic, which is having patience and tolerance. Im also a perfectionist and like my routes to go as I plan them. I spend considerable time planning and making sure nothing is left to chance. I also like to show up early, most of our loads have way too much time on them. I also from years of being in the trades, have very little to no faith and trust in anyone doing what they are supposed to do, when theyre supposed to do it. I push my DM and planners to get me loads, I push the customers to let me deliver early and pick up early. But with freight the way it is, Im having to exercise tons of patience and not be so much of a perfectionist. I cant expect the planners and managers to know everything. Some things I have to learn to accept, slow down and just relax.

Sorry Davy I meant to reply sooner and haven't had the time. Thanks for taking the time to post those pics and everything...I LOVE doing loads like that a little off the beaten path, literally haha. Nice job figuring out where to go and getting up there safely. Most of the quarries we go to aren't anything like that one in terms of being difficult to get to and they're usually cleaner than the one you posted pics of. There is this one place we pick up from called CR Minerals in Pueblo that gets super dusty like that and has literal mounds of powder all over the place. There are times we have to drive through a "powderfall" as we're pulling under the silo and it just gets powder all over everything. Probably one of the more annoying aspects of the job is my truck is always getting absolutely filthy so I've resorted to just washing the truck myself at a self service car wash up the street from the yard once a week.

Anyways, to your point, patience and being able to take the variables and unexpected things in stride is definitely a huge part of being a successful trucker. Like you I like to always have a plan but I've also gotten really good at winging it when I need to. I think it just comes naturally as you gain more experience.

My wife and daughter are my motivation. God is my inspiration. Keep everything focused right there and let everything else take care of itself.