Swamp Quarantine Movie Night - Over The Top (1987), Thursday, 4/10 9 PM ET

[brian]

That may have sounded harsher than I intended but the truth is I don’t care what goes on in other trucks as long as it’s legal and consensual. That said I DO enjoy watching new drivers try to park. That’s 100 times more interesting and entertaining to me.

[sancarlos]

I remember an old joke - What do you get when a JB Hunt driver vacates his parking spot?
Three new parking spots!

[rass]

Assuming that even accounting for the difference in um class(?) that years in Vegas honed that sense?

[brian]

Assuming that even accounting for the difference in um class(?) that years in Vegas honed that sense?

Maybe. The God’s honest truth is this job is so hard that when I’m done doing it I’m focused on trying to relax not caring what other people are doing.

[brian]

When I managed a software team I used to joke with them that no matter what the customer thinks that nothing we can do - our software or support - we can’t hurt anyone. “This isn’t fuckin’ NASA” I would say, usually to a laugh

But now I can kill people, including myself, if I’m not careful.

[brian]

Well, waiting for my stupid truck to be fixed so I have some time to answer these.

Brian:

A bunch of questions have come to mind about the logistics and practicalities of your new job …

1. Do you have to pay for your own fuel, or does Knight cover that? Do you or Knight have special deals with certain companies?

The company provides a fuel card so they pay it. They pre-purchase millions of gallons at the beginning of the year so they steer us towards certain truck stops to fuel there - typically Love’s or Pilot Flying J. Since those two have the best rewards programs and free showers for fueling it works out well.

I’ve noticed that Love’s is consistently 40 cents a gallon higher than Maverik for diesel – how do they make that work? Do they give discounted prices for certain trucking companies or drivers?

2. What kind of gas mileage does your truck get?

It varies based on the weight of the load and topography, but generally about 7-7.5mpg. We get a .01 bonus per mile each month if we hit 7.2.

3. On these 80mph freeways out here, how fast do you tend to go? Does the company impose limits on driver speed, through governor or monitoring? Do you consider gas mileage in deciding how fast to drive?

Knight’s trucks are limited to 63 on the pedal and 65 on cruise. I don’t worry about fuel and try to go as fast as I safely can.

4. How does the gearing work on your truck?

It’s a 12-speed automatic but I trained with a manual so my CDL allows me to drive either.

5. Do you have a backup camera? Do other semis?

Some do I think but we don’t. I think it’s pretty expensive because they’d have to be attached to the trailers which we’re swapping all the time.

6. Would you ever make deliveries to an individual retail store? I’m asking because last week when we were leaving Zion, we passed two Knight trucks heading the other way. As far as I know, trucks going that way have to turn around in Springdale. But it seems that there’s only small stores there.

So far I’ve delivered to a Lowe’s, Home Depot, four Costcos and two flooring stores. So it’s possible they were doing a store delivery. We also have dedicated routes for Dollar General I think.

7. Do you have a reliable source that you can consult to see where rest stops are? What is it?

I pay $99 a year for an app called Trucker Path. Its main feature is a truck route friendly GPS but shows truck stops and will estimate parking space availability based on what drivers report and historical trends. It’s pretty invaluable.

8. Is there any place with fewer rest stops than Utah?

So far the worse place by far is central California between Bakersfield and Sacramento. There’s almost no parking in that stretch. Utah (at least the I-15 corridor I usually drive) isn’t that bad.

If you’re around town and want to take a break for a meal, it’s on me. Let me know.