Truckerfag thread - /tfg/

>deliver load to Calvert City, KY on Friday, just north of Murray, PTL HQ
>pick up next load in Paducah, just west of Calvert City
>Monday delivery to Pittsburgh, decide to swing by Murray and get nasty coolant leak fixed and get a few new tires
>garage says they'll do a pm while I'm here
>didtherightthing.exe
>dispatch messages me yesterday asking why I stopped
>coolant leak yo
>removes load
>mfw

Anywho I'm still here. Its now Sunday afternoon and they haven't got to me yet. Maybe dispatch knew the shop was busy.

How do I see companies advertising $1.05/mi for owner operators? Doesn't it cost that much just to operate a truck? What's the catch?

The catch is that the o/o pays all the expenses, so while he may gross $1/mile, he only gets like $200 at the end of the week. If a broker offered me a load for that price i would hang up.

I guess I should have just called and ask a recruiter if I wanted an actual answer

Was it a lease? There has to be more to it.

Kek. You can always get the CDL in your free time and have it just in case you are sick of sitting at a computer all day. But you should also stop doing drugs.

Plus fuel surcharge but it still not much money.

It just says "owner operators make $1.05 per mile, fuel surcharge paid based on DOE" doesn't mention leasing

He gave you an actual answer, you fucking retard. It isn't his responsibility to ensure that it's slanted to the bias you desire or that it's mushed up enough for your busriding, babyesque brain to digest it.

You're right he did technically give me an answer, just a stupid and wrong one. I should've specified.

>my parents have preconceived notions of the kind of person I'm supposed to be, so I owe it to them to live up to them and be miserable for the rest of my life

I hope you wake up one day

The shop is always busy.

$52,000 a year.
This good?

No one knows what you're talking about so maybe or maybe not

As a sallery for truck driving?
52,000 a year

This tbqhfam. If a job using that degree in economics doesn't make you happy, or make you a lot of money that allows you to pursue happiness through out of work activities you enjoy, you are going to loathe every minute of it eventually, and you'll resent your parents who you already associate with the "ball and chain" manacled to your leg.

As cliche as it sounds, you should try to pursue your happiness. I could have a job supervising at one of the big oilfield service companies tomorrow, which would give me a full time company pickup to drive instead of the hot oiler I drive every day now, but I like driving a big vehicle enough that I am staying with my current outfit because it makes me happy.

Actually the 56 in 55 is pretty impressive. Kudos

>How the fuck does someone get out of a close trailer?
If you REALLY want out and have some sort of tool you can literally dig your way out through the side or a door. The things are mostly insulation with a thin metal exterior that's made of riveted panels. Motivated enough you could probably do it without tools. The trick would be recognizing you're in danger before it's too late. IMO that was just before they agreed to get in the damn thing.

>if they had the reefer on, would they have been frozen to death instead of dying from dehydration?

Naw you can set the things for a comfortable room temp if you want. Of course Border Patrol might wonder at a comfy 68 degree setting since only wines would move something like that. Most common settings are around 35-45 for produce, 25 for fresh meats, and -10 for frozens. Oh and bananas at 50. Continuous. Mustn't forget bananas must be on Continuous.

I haul a lot of chocolate, beer, and liquid hazmat that runs temps between 55-75. "Reefer" doesn't always mean refrigerated, sometimes it's just temperature controlled, so no dot worth his salt would bat an eye at a 68° trailer
You'd be super duper fucked of they xrayed the trailer though.

...

>44 Tonnes of Coors
That's alot of piss bottles.

Its how much he earnt sucking dicks at the truckstop

...

The better one has "your mom" covering all of alaska.

I didn't check closely enough, but one version has a smaller sized alaska within alaska, as well as all of planet earth.

If they offer you a salary to drive a truck, jump on it and never get off

I don't think Bepisfag would agree with you.

>head out a day early to get to my drop in New York
>too groggy to fuck with surface street traffic on rt 2
>take 80/90 because the tollway should be a comfy cruise
>broken down camper appears
Been stuck here for a half hour watching GMILFs wander around.

What if they offer celery?

Then you take it and dip it in peanut butter or Cheez-Whiz.

Depends on what you're doing, how much experience you have and how much home time you're getting.

The only thing celery should ever be dipped in is buttermilk ranch, you heathen

Am I the only person who hates the term "dippable veggies"?

>not chunky homemade bleu cheese dressing

Kill yourself

>Not making a melange of sauces by mixing good hot-wing sauce with chunky homemade bleu cheese dressing

Kill yourself yourself

>month 2 at martin
>low coolant alarm sensor dies, now chimes constantly for hours on end
"Well, we looked but couldnt find a problem. See its even zip tied up in there"
>the lack of sleep from being forced to wear a sleep mask 4 hours a night might be getting to me.
One of the assholes from knight management has come over and is encouraging dispatchers to push us past the 14 hour mark.
>two, million milers rolled after falling alseep at the wheel after implementation.
Well atleast the equipment is in good nick.. oh wait..

I never thought I'd say this but after a week of unsolicited drug offers in the Caribbean, I missed my truck.

3 months experience
Home every night
Going for the job today, no reason not to get it besides reversing, still not great at it.

How much celery?

How long is it to go in between oil changes? And are pretrip logs mandatory by law or something?

Completed my first year as a CDL driver for a building supply company and still feel a little new. I don't really understand when my truck needs service, the other drivers are all in their 40's and been driving all their life so they have it all down and seems like I keep getting forgotten about. Retiring driver I replaced told me to have it serviced after 15k miles. So I did. I've driven another 15k since then, the company stopped using a local shop for servicing and don't know why. So I let them know I think my truck needs service and continued on. The other drivers have driven my truck once too, one mentioned to the company that the clutch feels like it needs to be looked at and another complained that the AC didn't work. So every driver has mentioned the truck needs looking at but it just needs an oil change mainly.

Also they've ran out of pretrip logs for months now. I don't drive very far, not really a safety concern for me but was wondering if it's required by law or insurance?

Anywhere from 10k miles, to 20k miles with a filter change and lube at 10k. OTR drivers with bypass filters and full synthetic in new engines are going fucking bananas with 500k miles between drains. If you're greasing it yourself, every week, or every other week is the norm, and throw in a brake adjustment with it. Don't forget to grease the U-joint, 5th wheel, and kingpins.

Pre-trip logs are more of a training tool. As long as you flag a PTI on your log you're good.

Just as another data point for you, my company uses 2015 T680's and does what we call an "A" service which basically consists of a chassis lube and fluid levels check every 10K/40days. Every 40K we get a "B" service that does an oil and filters change, brake adjustment, and all the other little items that aren't done on the "A".

Friendly reminder that this thread belongs on /n/ because trucks are a method of transporting goods, not automobiles.

Are you me? Parents spent upwards of $30k on my useless economics degree but I did whatever the fuck I want after college because my relationship with them is not a transaction. They don't owe me shit and I don't owe them shit.

Automobile (or car) – wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to six people, typically have four wheels and be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods.
>Cab
>Trailer
Now fuck off back to school kid.

>responding to trolls

That's a good yearly pay for your first year if they're not lying to you. I'd take it.

Sounds like he's talking about JB Hunt so I doubt he'll net anywhere near that

Bros, does a 70 foot big rig w/ a sleeper have any business delivering to a mom and pop operation in downtown Chicago like this? Why can't they get a shuttle? There is no where to do anything safely or efficiently. I hate Prime.

They want me to turn right on Goethe heading N on Wells and unload in front of another store and a parking garage. I'm gonna get yelled at and asked to move.

I tried to call the city and demand my rights but i didn't know what they were and they pretty much hung up on me.

First day being unemployed today. Feels like I should be working but I have so much shit to do around the farm I'm glad I'm not working. Enjoy your Monday /tfg/

>and be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods.

Name one cab that's constructed principally to transport people rather than haul a trailer filled with goods.

American problems.

>build roads wide as fuck
>retard wheelbase semis still can't get around

What is this 56 ins 55 meme. I drive 62 at all times. Including school zones and neighborhoods. Gotta make up for lost time.

Damn who else here has degrees? I got a bachelor's of science in psychology that I didn't know what to do with so I spent five years after graduation fucking around the city doing odd jobs. Trucking was always my backup plan if I didn't go to school and get a real job until one day I realized I was getting close to 30 and hadn't done jack shit since I got a degree. So here I am.

So cars should be on /n/ too. They transport people.
t. your logic

Got two degrees bruv

How much did they cost

I'm so crippled I drive a truck

nice meme

>still slower than a Prime truck

Neck yourselves Europistan. 3rd world continent by 2020

1.05 for o/o is a fucking joke, hell even most of us ((((lease)))) ops turn down that kind of rate unless it's out of Florida or most of the Northeast and goes somewhere worth a shit. If I'm not in either of those states I typically will turn down anything that pays less than 1.25 unless it's hook and book both ways or has a ton of miles on it.

The key to making it independently is not by rate-per-mile but rate-per-day, if a load pays 2 dollars a mile for 500 miles but I have to babysit it for 4 days that's only 250 dollars a day, you have to compare what it pays per day vs. your expenses per day, which will be fuel and food + static expenses like truck payment, APU payment, taxes, accounting, lot lizards and other big boy shit.

A dollar a mile isn't necessarily bad if it's got a ton of miles and you don't have to babysit it much, even in a Prime truck that's still like 500 dollars a day. But most of us will turn that rate down because we know there's better-paying freight in the area. If my FM sent me a load for $1 a mile out of Socal or Wisconsin I would laugh.

>dumbistanians think heavy haulage has anything to do with top speed

What hotels are have the most consistent truck parking? My company has a deal with holiday inn but I've struck out at several already looking for parking.

You must be new.

I've never heard of hotels offering full semi parking.

Seen plenty of bobtails parked in their lots though.

My APU has been down and I've been in and out of like 13 hotels. The hotels in the boonies usually have them. But its just up to local management. Not the hotel chain per se.

go die in a fire you worthless obese vegan

...

PISS BOTTLE!

>he actually runs under $2/mi
>with a truck payment
>as a doorswinger
>he counts taxes as a static expense but food as a variable expense
Sweet lawd they've got you L/O's fucked all kinds of sideways.

Protip: Most of the Prime FL's can idle. Set brakes, turn on cruise control, push accel, it will run all night

>tfw working APU master race

Not all of us can haul for eleventy-billion dollars a mile.

Didnt work I tried everything on my FL. If I set only trailer break it will work for 20 min instead of 5 min. Closest I got

Well that's that bullshit, take it to Pittston for repair or the Bus Stop n Shop in Springfield

>tfw long idle master race

I went in 11 times this summer. They finally gave me a new one after I asked. Wish I had asked sooner

go away tubby

no u

>tfw I just wanted Fleet to tighten my mirrors and they told me they didn't have time to do it
So I went to my car and got some tools and did that shit myself. Also this truck I've been driving, the turn signals don't work sometimes. The solution- leave the relay hanging down below the dash and just kick the thing when they stop working.

Also those older trucks, do they have a PCV valve deal? I think the breather hose just hangs down below the engine and blows whatever engine oil steam bullshit under the cab.

I'm surprised /tfg/ didn't have more discussion on this topic.

The reporting in this case is shoddy. The facts are difficult to piece together because the writers are tripping over themselves in their haste to frame this as an immigration policy failure.

mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Immigrant-traveling-in-deadly-trailer-said-Zetas-11339719.php

So if I'm reading between the lines correctly, the driver Bradley was delivering the Pyle truck to Brownsville so a buyer from Mexico could pick it up. Instead, he drives to Laredo, picks up a trailer full of illegals at 9 p.m. and meets at least 6 SUVs at a San Antonio Walmart at 12:30 a.m. Those able to leave scatter to the SUVs and the general vicinity while 39 were left to be discovered by police.

July 24th article on MySanAntonio.com:
>The truck was registered to Pyle Transportation Inc. of Schaller, Iowa. President Brian Pyle said that he had sold the truck to someone in Mexico and that Bradley was supposed to deliver it to a pick-up point in Brownsville.
Later article that same day:
>The black, red and white truck had a logo of Pyle Transportation on it.
>Mike Pyle and Tom Kolpin of the company said Bradley is an owner-operator who owns his own semi but is authorized to haul under the Pyle name.
>"It's our trailer, but it's his truck," Pyle said.

These statements seem contradictory. If he was O/O and the truck was his, why was he selling it on behalf of Pyle? He statements to police claim he took it to Laredo for pre-sale detailing and then hauled this trailer, so I assume he was supposed to be delivering the truck which makes the second Pyle quote confusing. Bradley also told police he had no delivery address or appointment for the truck sale. (Nice looking truck, though.)

Why would Bradley agree to haul a high-risk cargo from Laredo to San Antonio? With only 6 SUVs waiting, it seems likely to me that this was just the first stop but Bradley discovered corpses and panicked while everyone mobile bailed out and went freestyle. Does this sound reasonable? What do you think the original route would have been? What are the risks of discovery if you cross state lines?

Bradley appears to be on the hook for the whole shebang. If he actually knows anyone in the Mexican gang involved in the smuggling operation, he risks retaliation in prison if he talks. Unless he knows something worth a federal plea deal with a term served in a white-collar prison, his situation appears hopeless in exchange for what must have been one of the cheaper costs of the smuggling operation.
>60 years old
>faces this instead of retirement because the A/C wasn't working

Something else odd: the survivors say they were loaded into the trailer earlier that morning and were only moved at 9 p.m. The heat stroke and panic should have occurred long before Bradley even took off--driving down the interstate at night would have been a pleasure compared to what the afternoon spent waiting in the trailer would have been like.

Should just be a blow-by tube up until 2010 where they brought in crank case filters that clog constantly.

Ain't care. Ask

>Ain't care. Ask Why would /pol/ know the particulars of operating a shady sideline to the trucking business better than /tfg/?

C'mon Oilfag, stop browsing Reddit for dadjoke memes and weigh in on this.

I think the truck was his but the trailer is what was being sold. What interests me the most is the ownership question. Was the trailer bring purchased by a mexican smuggling operation? Or did Bradley use the opportunity of delivering a truck to earn some extra cash before delivering it to the new owner who is NOT involved with smuggling whatsoever? Is this something Bradley does regularly? Or was it a one off opportunity to make some $$ he was offered.

How lenient are weigh stations on axel weight? I'm picking up a load of heavy ass paper in podunk Arkansas tomorrow and my route has me going 100 miles or so down a back highway through the woods and fuckneckville then it dumps me out onto the interstate right before a weigh station that always seems to be open. There aren't any truckstops or scales before I pass the weigh station. If I'm over can I explain to the cops where I'm coming from and how I couldn't possibly scale out before I came through? Or should I just let my FM know and see if I can get rerouted to stay out of trouble?

>What interests me the most is the ownership question.
This is odd. Bradley told police that he knew the trailer's refrigeration didn't work. If he just hooked the trailer and took off for San Antone as soon as it was dark, how did he know this? I suspect he knew because the folks inside were already raring to escape and only the threat of the smugglers was keeping them in that hotbox.

My guess is the trailer is something the smugglers provided--after all, they had to have it parked somewhere all day where no law-abider would notice 70+ illegals boarding. When Bradley showed up, the smugglers told him to ask no questions and he probably sweated that trip, although not as literally as his cargo.

>I think the truck was his but the trailer is what was being sold.
Bradley had the truck detailed, though. He told police that he went to Laredo to have it detailed (with the implication that this was related to the sale). Pic related: compare the tires on the rig versus the trailer.

500kg axle allowance
250kg gross allowance
Totally not relevant to your situation tho.
Have a nice day.

If the nigger was delivering the trailer he'll have contact info for the buyer given him by Pyle, the trailer owner. Otherwise he'd not know where to go.

Since Pyle own the trailer, that means the nigger knew the smugglers and didn't give a shit the reefer wouldn't cool. He's got a criminal record of offenses indicating he's a piece of shit.

Violent felons should never be employed in transportation. That boy should be trussed up like a hog and handed back to the Mexicans in Mexico for cartel-style skinning.

heavy.com/news/2017/07/james-bradley-bradly-san-antonio-walmart-truck-trailer-driver/

Y-you too...

You guys get the succ from cheap whores at gas stations?

t. interested user

Can a 13'6" high oversize go under a 13'6" bridge?

Cuz I watched that happen today and it didn't go well for this lad.