Nervous newbie
- Thread starter Josh
- Start date
Hey Josh,
Was that you heading West on 94 around Battle Creek Mi about 2pm today?
FedEx Freightliner?
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Negative. We're regarding to Rockford area. Never hit i94. I've seen about 4 other FedEx expeditors on this trip. Was driving next to one for a few. Normally I don't ever see any but maybe one heading the opposite direction. And what looks like the same xpologistocs? Guy. Lol.
We accepted another load from IA to OK after we drop this one. That got canceled too. Damnit. Looking like we're 4hrs ahead of schedule to deliver at 7am. Gonna hit walmart to get some shopping done.
Hope all went well.
My load was from the north Chicago suburbs to Detroit, left at rush hour, 3 hours in that traffic, only to deal with it again that same evening in detroit, fun stuff.
Shopping with your girl, I used to enjoy that when I had a girlfriend..
Walking in the store holding hands, giving her a back hug in the checkout line..
You are are lucky man.
Enjoy every moment.
My load was from the north Chicago suburbs to Detroit, left at rush hour, 3 hours in that traffic, only to deal with it again that same evening in detroit, fun stuff.
Shopping with your girl, I used to enjoy that when I had a girlfriend..
Walking in the store holding hands, giving her a back hug in the checkout line..
You are are lucky man.
Enjoy every moment.
If by holding hands and back rubs you mean, harassing sexually, liking her face, grabbing the back of her head when she bends down to grab something and thrusting my man package into it, then yes very lucky and enjoyful. Lol, I suppose I could try to lay down the romance in the future. She knew what she signed up for. Lmao
Grabbed a load locally. That got cancelled. Sat for a few hours and just got a load to Texas. I have gotten zero sleep and my shift is about to start. Bring on the caffienezzzz
Hey all. Been busy studying, working etc... I guess my girl is just going to go to the schooling here around central Pa where were from. So she feels comfortable I try to teach her by book and test etc... she feels like it’s a lot and would feel better if she could actually interact with a truck so she knew what she was looking at. So I understand and it’s worth it. I just hope in the end everything works out because she makes good money now but I want her to quit and do this so we can be on the road in mid January like planned. I’m going to go for my CDL A instead of B just to have them. Any of you guys go all the way for Class A or did you just get a class B? Hope all are being safe out there.
Going to school is prolly the best option for her. The stress at first can leave a sour taste in your mouth. The stress died down for me a lot after our first time out. Still nervous for winter but we'll get through it.
We got just got our class b's. I thought the same way you did and wanted to go for class A, but it was easier and made the wife feel a lot better for me to do the class b. Guess it's not that bad when you both are doing the exact same steps. You don't ever feel like your alone, or the only "new one". If that makes sense.
Yeah as excited as she is about this opportunity I wouldn’t like her to have a sour taste in her mouth because once we’re out there then that’s it we are out there. Did you have to provide your own like straps or load bars etc... prior to your first load or did the owners supply all that? Anyways called around some schools. Class B definitely cheaper around 3300.00 instead of the 5500.00 for class A so that’s a positive. If you fail they work with you longer no extra charge until you pass if she would like so that’s nice and classes are small with 4-5 people separated in each class and 2 in a truck at a time so they can focus on each individual better instead of a huge class room so that’s good eliminates the intimidation of everyone watching you when your up for something. So everything sounds good flexible daytime hours and evening hours. Hopefully the trainers aren’t a bunch of pricks but I will talk to her and see what she says. Maybe I’ll just go the class B route to. I don’t know still undecided. Hmmm. Josh Everything’s smoothing out the both of you now though? Better than what you expected? Feel like you two made the right decision? Drive safe especially around the holidays.
IMHO even though it costs more for a class a, it’s basically a stroke of a pen to drop to a class b if so desired. Going the other way b to an a would cost more time and money. Do it once and keep your class a for life. Don’t have to drive a big truck if you don’t want to but it’s there Incase you want to jump up to driving a big truck.
All of our equipment (straps, bars, extra oil, coolant, funnel, etc.) has been provided by expeditors. They direct us to a t/a anytime we need something. In the future I want to grab a few more straps and a pallet jack. FedEx said if I pick up a pallet jack to call them and they will pay for it. Expeditors has also been pretty good with issues that may come up. If anything breaks in the sleeper, (cabinet doors or whatever else) we can bring it in, APU, or truck itself, just bring it in. They don't question it.
I'm comfortable at the moment. Got caught in some sleet last night that was a little nerve racking but I enjoy it. I feel it was the right choice for us. It was either this or another 9-5 for her and some
job for me (I cannot EVER find a job that is a straight 40hr work week). I'm cool with some overtime now and again but not 60-80hrs a week permanently.
This is defiantly a life style though. Your hobbies will more than likely take a back seat. All depends on how you want to spend your time off I guess. I don't mind the driving, I don't mind the sitting around when it happens, it will sometimes get boring but meh. I do not care for this c link always going off with a load opportunity. I know it's a good thing but say it's 9pm and we've been at a truck stop all day. It's easy to fall into normal routines, lay down around 9:30 and mentally, your work is done for the day. Nope, you hear the c link go off "a new message has arrived" and you can either decline it (doesn't make much sense to unless it's going to a bad area) or accept it. Now your brain has mentally checked out for the night and you have to wake its lazy ass up because you have 11hrs of driving to do.
Getting into a split shift with your significant other is hard, you want to spend time with them when your having a no load day, but that can change at any moment and you have to be ready. We've been doing ok with about 5hrs of sleep a night.
At our delivery now, waiting for a door to open up.
I'm comfortable at the moment. Got caught in some sleet last night that was a little nerve racking but I enjoy it. I feel it was the right choice for us. It was either this or another 9-5 for her and some
job for me (I cannot EVER find a job that is a straight 40hr work week). I'm cool with some overtime now and again but not 60-80hrs a week permanently. This is defiantly a life style though. Your hobbies will more than likely take a back seat. All depends on how you want to spend your time off I guess. I don't mind the driving, I don't mind the sitting around when it happens, it will sometimes get boring but meh. I do not care for this c link always going off with a load opportunity. I know it's a good thing but say it's 9pm and we've been at a truck stop all day. It's easy to fall into normal routines, lay down around 9:30 and mentally, your work is done for the day. Nope, you hear the c link go off "a new message has arrived" and you can either decline it (doesn't make much sense to unless it's going to a bad area) or accept it. Now your brain has mentally checked out for the night and you have to wake its lazy ass up because you have 11hrs of driving to do.
Getting into a split shift with your significant other is hard, you want to spend time with them when your having a no load day, but that can change at any moment and you have to be ready. We've been doing ok with about 5hrs of sleep a night.
At our delivery now, waiting for a door to open up.
That's what I did, went for the Class A and the tanker and doubles endorsement.
I started off driving Class A so even though I'm not using it at this point in time ,it's there if I need it.
Look around for a community college, that's where I took a CDL class and it was cheap.
Only one day a week for a few months. They had a truck to test in too.
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I started off driving Class A so even though I'm not using it at this point in time ,it's there if I need it.
Look around for a community college, that's where I took a CDL class and it was cheap.
Only one day a week for a few months. They had a truck to test in too.
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That’s good they provide everything I just didn’t want to jump in and not have nothing to secure the load. We haven’t figured who we wanted to go with yet but it seems it’s between panther and fed ex. Hopefully who ever it is they are good people and good owners. But it’s good they at least take care of you. I’m sure there’s others out there that just try to get one over on you. We figured it would be a lifestyle and my biker life would go down the toilet but she wanted to work together and were hoping for a business but working in the trucking industry it’s always had my attention so I’m hopeful as for her like I said she’s excited and I’m surprised because I couldn’t picture it but it’s worth the try and enjoy life together while making money and traveling why not. Maybe not forever but a good while. So we’re willing to adapt. Do you guys do anything for your 36 off or you just use that when your sitting around? Also time zones I assume load pick up and delivery is in the time zone where you are going for pick up or deliver right. Sounds like a silly question but I’m not use to time zone change or driving to time zones where you are at this time on east and 3 hours behind by the time we’re done driving lol. As for my license I was just thinking class B because I don’t ever see her going into a Class A so I didn’t see the need but I mean yeah you never know and for the same price I might as well. I looked in to our community college in Harrisburg they do cdl but it’s the same 5100.00 that includes permit, dot physical, hand outs, etc. as for the other place is 5500.00 for class a bit you have to have your exam and permit prior to class and charge 3300.00 due on the day no financing but they will finance a class a with 3500.00 down. The community college is no cheaper than anybody else they seem but provide more for the money though. They haven’t told me if it’s a different charge for class b so I’m actually going to call them back after this. Endorsement wise probably won’t go for tanker or doubles but I guess hazmat is a plus so I’ll go for that, I guess some pay more for hazmat endorsement I hear on the forums and YouTube world. Any of you guys deal with many hazmat loads? Yeah I think sleep schedule and just trying to adjust to shifts will be the hardest part of all. Especially In the beginning trusting each other in a new environment new job something we’ve never done trying to fall asleep. I know it’ll be hard for me while she’s driving the first time. How do you and your wife split the driving. I was actually thinking of giving her mostly daylight driving she hates night but realize some of the best learning might be night less traffic. Hope you guys are driving safe for the holidays.
If you're getting hazmat endorsement also get the tanker endorsement. I think most carriers want that.
Best of luck to you guys.
Best of luck to you guys.
Looks like one of them good old expediters are down for the holidays at my work don’t see many come thru ever.
Alright. I’ll definetly do that. I guess that makes sense they go hand in hand.
36 off? Sorry, no idea what that is. As for time zones. Everything is on eastern time. If we deliver at 8am, it's 8am eastern time, doesn't matter if local time is 9, or whatever.
Do you mean your 36 hour reset for the 70hr week? We haven't maxed out 70hrs yet, and we shouldn't. Each person takes 10hr shifts. If we ran 24/7 we would hit 70 hrs at the end of the 7th day, but after that you get the 10hrs back from the 1day since it will fall off come the 8th day. If any of that makes sense.
As for how We split up our shift, it's not consistent right now. We don't really get back to back runs, so we usually get our 10hr sleeper birth over night and come morning time it's whoever feels like driving first.
Do you mean your 36 hour reset for the 70hr week? We haven't maxed out 70hrs yet, and we shouldn't. Each person takes 10hr shifts. If we ran 24/7 we would hit 70 hrs at the end of the 7th day, but after that you get the 10hrs back from the 1day since it will fall off come the 8th day. If any of that makes sense.
As for how We split up our shift, it's not consistent right now. We don't really get back to back runs, so we usually get our 10hr sleeper birth over night and come morning time it's whoever feels like driving first.
I guess I’ll have to look into the hours a bit more i Guess I haven’t got the grasp of it yet. What you said was partially confusing lol but I’ll see if it’s in the fmcsa. Yeah it’s the 36 hour reset. I was thinking it’s 14 hours on duty 11 hours driving mandatory 1/2 if driving consecutive 8 hours out of yeah a 70 hour 8 day work week then a mandatory 36 hour off/reset I guess I didn’t understand if that was if you work the full 70 hours. I think I’m confusing myself I’ll just read. That’s all I been doing it seems like haha oh well I’ll get all this down one day. Thanks for all the info today though and HAPPY BIRTHDAY if it’s actually your birthday. Drive safe.
