What Would You Do? Part 3

I drove reefer to start and ill tell ya this , whenever ya haul a meat load hit the first washout ya find not just the ones ya know of, and why did ya have a washout only 4 days ago? did it take 4 days to run that meat load? hos i dont care bout i can make hrs come available thru dispatch or my loose leaf log book. or they will swap load. so ya can go 63 miles and get washed or ask ur dm for a spot to get a diferent trailer thats close by that ya cant get this one washed and explain why. when ya get new trailer ask for the dm to fax a log sheet of the trailer to shipper ur butt is now covered. for this trailers log will be sent and prove it had no meat product for some time.

i have had to do all these at one point n time in my career its not fun n its time consuming but if ya want the good pay ya do as ya need.

Good stuff folks. Anyone else want to give it a shot?

Answer will be given tonight.

Hours of Service:

4 out of 8 hours on your 8 hour clock. (8 hour break)

5 hours of 11 hours on your 11 hour clock. (11 hour driving time)

7 hours of 14 hours on your 14 hour clock.

11 hours and 14 minutes out of 70 hours on your 70 hour clock.

Recap tonight: 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Recap tomorrow: 10 hours and 23 minutes.

Ummm . . . are those times you've used up so far? What do the "recap" times mean? and I thought all logging times were figured in 15 minutes increments . . . no?

Anyway, here's what I see: If it says you need a trailer washout, then you need to get it washed out. If nothing else was hauled in there since the washout 4 days ago, it's clean and ready to turn in. If that meat was hauled after the washout 4 days ago, then I'd be driving up the road to the next facility to get it clean. It's gonna use up time, but it's gotta be done, right?

Alright, its answer time!

The Hours of Service aren't important here, I mainly just put that there to get you used to reading your hours. Managing your hours is the key to making money in this industry.

Having said that, the worst thing you can do is waste time off your 70 hour clock. Time that you wouldn't even get paid for, in other words, driving to that facility would be a complete waste of time and money.

Consider this, it would be approximately two hours spent driving just to get that washout. What you should always do is find a washout first thing, not wait until the last minute. Since we waited until the last minute we got put into a bad situation.

Financially, lets do the math on why getting that trailer washout would hurt your bottom line. Every hour on your clock is potential money you can make, every hour burnt is money you missed out on. Lets say we were getting paid .32cpm as example 1 and example 2 we will be getting paid .40cpm and we are governed at 62mph.

Multiply your maximum mph by your cpm and you'll get your hourly pay.

.32 x 62 = $19.84 .40 x 62 = $24.80

So driving at 62 mph for an hour nonstop gets us 19.84 and driving 62 mph with the greater pay gets us 24.80. For every hour wasted, that's how much you lose depending on your pay rate. In this case we would have been spending two hours on this trip.

So if you opted to get that trailer washout, that's honorable, but you're here to make money not do volunteer work. You would have missed out on just under 40$ at .32cpm and 50$ at .40cpm.

Obviously we need to be logging pretrips, posttrips, fueling, time at customers - all of this takes even more time away from your 70 hour clock! So why waste time you don't need to?

Now that we got that figured out. What would I have done?

I know that this is going to sound bad. A professional personality will get you far in trucking, but being a good liar will do wonders as well. What they don't know doesn't hurt them. There's boundaries, sure, but you need to worry about yourself and maximizing your income.

I would have put on my charm and give a great first impression to the security guard at the guard shack. I would present to him my receipt from 4 days ago. When he comments on the date, tell him you just came off of hometime and you had the trailer washed out before you headed home. Obviously, come in there with a completely clean and dry trailer. You must sweep the trailer. Which is fine, unless there's blood. If there's blood, then no matter what you get that trailer washed out! But in this case it was boxed meat and properly packaged.

They cannot question your operations. If you came off of hometime then that's what you did. They're a 9$ per hour "security" guard, don't allow yourself to think they take their job anymore serious than a sales associate at Home Depot. So what if the deadhead miles were a lot, I've had to deadhead 1500 miles before.

Deadhead: The distance you drive with an empty trailer to pickup your next load.

So there you have it. Sweeping out the trailer and making sure its completely dry. Befriend the security guard and tell him you just came off of hometime.

Great job everyone! I'm thrilled to see so many participants. Even if you didn't get it right, applaud yourself for coming out of the shadows and giving it a try.

I hope you folks enjoyed it. Feedback and comments are much appreciated from both experienced and inexperienced drivers.

U befriend a guard yes this may work but some are real dot failures and they will bring out a flashlight thats almost as good as a blacklight and check that trailer then what lol just sayin. dont be lazy get it done asap after every load that has meat.

U befriend a guard yes this may work but some are real dot failures and they will bring out a flashlight thats almost as good as a blacklight and check that trailer then what lol just sayin. dont be lazy get it done asap after every load that has meat.

He can bring that flashlight out all he wants to. The trailer is completely clean and dry.

OK so I'm probably the newest guy you've got here yet. I don't have my CDL yet and not in a class either but am going to take a stab at this. I was going with the first reply except for the math which would be 55 miles back to the drop off (63 minus 8 not plus) but since that didn't seem to be it my second choice is to ask the attendant where the leak is? Go get my WD-40 and Duct Tape and go fix the leak. Get a free wash for helping them out and my receipt and head to Mars.

Am I any closer?

U befriend a guard yes this may work but some are real dot failures and they will bring out a flashlight thats almost as good as a blacklight and check that trailer then what lol just sayin. dont be lazy get it done asap after every load that has meat.

He can bring that flashlight out all he wants to. The trailer is completely clean and dry.

k so its clean to the naked eye but not all blood plasma can be seen by the naked eye , and with black light it will show up.

U befriend a guard yes this may work but some are real dot failures and they will bring out a flashlight thats almost as good as a blacklight and check that trailer then what lol just sayin. dont be lazy get it done asap after every load that has meat.

He can bring that flashlight out all he wants to. The trailer is completely clean and dry.

k so its clean to the naked eye but not all blood plasma can be seen by the naked eye , and with black light it will show up.

True, but as I stated in the original post. The meat load was a boxed meat load that was properly packaged so we didn't get any leaks or "blood plasma". If the load had any sign of blood we would have gotten it washed out.

Here's my actual quote: Which is fine, unless there's blood. If there's blood, then no matter what you get that trailer washed out! But in this case it was boxed meat and properly packaged.