Ask a professional truck driver questions.

[amroad17]

I believe California does still.  Arkansas either still does or used to (70/65).  Tennessee has them in the Knoxville/Great Smoky Mountains area (65/55).

The general opinion on split speed limits was to slow down the heavier vehicles to prevent "really bad accidents."  Of course, it would not matter if you were involved in a wreck with an 18-wheeler going 55 or 70, you were going to get hurt very badly or die.  The reasoning behind the Knoxville split speeds is that trucks would use less emissions while driving through the area and would not harm the ecosystem as much.

Another opinion was that these split speeds were in place for law enforcement to catch those truckers who would go over the 55 mph speed limit and increase the local government's income.

What happened with some of the states that rescinded the split speeds is that they found traffic flowed better with a uniform speed limit.  Before, you would have trucks jockeying for position, cars stuck behind the slower trucks while a train of traffic going 65-70 was in the left lane trying to avoid getting behind said trucks, and there was just no "flow" with the traffic.  Like I said above, I disliked the split speeds.  I felt I was in many people's way.

[Brandon]

How many states have split speed limits still? I know Michigan does, but are there others?

Is there a good reason for them?

Indiana does - 5 mph slower than auto traffic (70/65, 65/60)
Illinois does in IDOT District 1 (Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, & Will Counties) - 55 mph

[formulanone]

1. Can an Owner-Operator actually make any decent money anymore, or is it just a lot less? Fifteen years ago, it seemed the truck firms were paying something like 40-45 cents a mile to the O/O, and about half as much to those driving the company's vehicles.  Fast-forward to today, and it seems the typical O/O rate at many firms hasn't changed, unless I'm mistaken.

Having seen the tremendous maintenance and repair bills at heavy truck repair shops let alone the exotic sports car prices for new or used rigs, it even floors me to think how expensive that could get for a privateer.

2. Do you get paid to perform exhaust regeneration as necessary? Seems to kill a good 45-60 minutes out of your month (sorry if this is a sore spot with you).

[Simple logic...I've never understood the slower truck limits for anything other than a winding road or somewhere very steep.]

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

1. Can an Owner-Operator actually make any decent money anymore, or is it just a lot less? Fifteen years ago, it seemed the truck firms were paying something like 40-45 cents a mile to the O/O, and about half as much to those driving the company's vehicles.  Fast-forward to today, and it seems the typical O/O rate at many firms hasn't changed, unless I'm mistaken.

Mistaken.  Freight rates are all over the place, but the average for being an O/O or L/O for a big company is around 1.10/mi at the moment.  Most companies pay on a sliding scale depending on the mileage of the run, now, but it's rarely less than $1.00/mi.  Deadhead (empty) miles average around .75/mi.

Having seen the tremendous maintenance and repair bills at heavy truck repair shops let alone the exotic sports car prices for new or used rigs, it even floors me to think how expensive that could get for a privateer.

Just gotta remember that not all the money the truck makes is yours, and act as such.

2. Do you get paid to perform exhaust regeneration as necessary? Seems to kill a good 45-60 minutes out of your month (sorry if this is a sore spot with you).

I never have to manual regen unless I'm doing a 34-hour reset in the summer, as my truck is opti-idle and has no summertime idle reduction equipment, and it won't auto-regen when idling, only when going down the road.  I usually have to regen once per reset in that case.

[Simple logic...I've never understood the slower truck limits for anything other than a winding road or somewhere very steep.]

Well, I completely under$tand the logic behind the $plit $peed limit$.  If they really wanted to keep everyone safe by splitting the car/truck speeds, they'd need to have the truck speed be 35mph or less.  That's never going to happen on a freeway, so...

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

Swift: Sure Wish I Finished Training!

Swift: See What I F#%#-up Today.  Stop Whining, I'm F@%$ing Training.  See What Insurance Fixes Today.

Werner: We Employ Retards, No Experience Required.

C.R. England: Caution Recruits, Every New Graduate Leaves After Ninety Days.

Crete: C.R. England Training Equipment.

J.B. Hunt: Just Been Hired, Unfortunately Not Trained.

U.S. Xpress - Useless Xpress

[Duke87]

Here's another question. Seeing all the trucks that willfully sit in traffic on the Cross Bronx makes me wonder...

How much freedom do you have as a driver to determine your own route? Are you allowed to take a route that is longer distancewise to avoid traffic and get there faster? If not, why not?

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

Depends on the company.  Mine has been very flexible in this regard, but some companies do have forced routing.  I will not go through NYC unless there is no way to avoid it; a recent example being a multi-stop load I hauled a couple months back.  Stop 1 was in Edison, NJ, and stop 2 was in North Grosvenor Dale, CT.  Bypassing NYC in that situation would have likely taken as much time as sitting in the traffic did, so I just went through.  Otherwise, I take 81 to 84 to 90 when going to New England.

[SteveG1988]

Where I work, routing isn't exactly forced, you are told it is zip code to zip code and are told how many mi the company says it will take, you get paid for that, keeping it under 10% out of reccomemded route miles, like a 100 mi trip, go 108mi, you're fine, 112 they question. Do it under, they look at that for performance based pay, up to 6 cents per mile more for performance based pay, they look at a lot for that, safety, out of route, mpg, etc.
RM-824_nam_att_101

[The Nature Boy]

Is C.R. England that bad?

I had a friend who did the training and got fired soon after. It did a number on his self-esteem.

[triplemultiplex]

We've heard about the crappy truck companies, so which ones are the 'good' companies?  From the driver's perspective.

[SteveG1988]

We've heard about the crappy truck companies, so which ones are the 'good' companies?  From the driver's perspective.

Maverick is one of the best, only three divisions, or business units as they call them. Glass, flat bed, temperature control. Pay is towards the upper end, 35 cents per mile with an average between 2100 and 2400 depending on division. Glass starts at 40 cents.

I've heard prime can be decent. Tmc as well, but tmc is 100% flatbed. Rohel might be good, but the instructors at my driving school had no info on em, good or bad.

[empirestate]

What's the general feeling about the show-biz trucking companies–Upstaging, Clark Transfer, Janco, Stage Call etc.? Good reputation as companies to work for, or not so much? Is it a relatively elite niche, or more towards the bottom?

[SteveG1988]

What's the general feeling about the show-biz trucking companies–Upstaging, Clark Transfer, Janco, Stage Call etc.? Good reputation as companies to work for, or not so much? Is it a relatively elite niche, or more towards the bottom?

Odds are they are Teamster jobs, 99.9% sure of that. So their pay must be somewhat decent, I would put them down as salaried drivers, who do not do a lot of miles.

[mtantillo]

How do you feel about engine brake prohibitions? I have mixed feelings as an engineer. I would prefer that trucks be able to maximize their braking at all times for safety reasons, and a properly adjusted jake brake doesn't spit out much noise, but those trucks with improperly modified jake brakes are incredibly obnoxiously loud. Another example of a few ruining it for the masses.

[kkt]

Maverick is one of the best, only three divisions, or business units as they call them. Glass, flat bed, temperature control. Pay is towards the upper end, 35 cents per mile with an average between 2100 and 2400 depending on division. Glass starts at 40 cents.

What does "glass" mean in trucking?

[bugo]

How much experience do you have?

[agentsteel53]

Swift: See What I F#%#-up Today.  Stop Whining, I'm F@%$ing Training.  See What Insurance Fixes Today.

Werner: We Employ Retards, No Experience Required.

C.R. England: Caution Recruits, Every New Graduate Leaves After Ninety Days.

Crete: C.R. England Training Equipment.

J.B. Hunt: Just Been Hired, Unfortunately Not Trained.

U.S. Xpress - Useless Xpress

what about Gordon?

I've had two Gordons nearly kill me in the last few years. 

one was a "move over or slow down" automaton who jerked the wheel left when I was passing him.  I ended up in the median, and had to slam the brakes nearly down to 0mph (on the freeway!) to not end up in a bridge abutment when the median narrowed.

the other one was passing three-wide up a hill on US-12 in eastern Washington.  two lanes uphill, one lane down.  I was coming down the hill, and there he was in my lane.  I have no idea how we managed to get four wide on a three-lane road, but somehow we did.

[SteveG1988]

Maverick is one of the best, only three divisions, or business units as they call them. Glass, flat bed, temperature control. Pay is towards the upper end, 35 cents per mile with an average between 2100 and 2400 depending on division. Glass starts at 40 cents.

What does "glass" mean in trucking?

You haul glass. Like a lot of it, at once, on a flat bed.

[formulanone]

Wow, I was way off on the O/O bit - definitely remembered that amount incorrectly.

Do you ever use the truck stop showers? Or would you rather check into a hotel to de-funk?

Average miles driven per year?

[6a]

Depends on the company.  Mine has been very flexible in this regard, but some companies do have forced routing.  I will not go through NYC unless there is no way to avoid it; a recent example being a multi-stop load I hauled a couple months back.  Stop 1 was in Edison, NJ, and stop 2 was in North Grosvenor Dale, CT.  Bypassing NYC in that situation would have likely taken as much time as sitting in the traffic did, so I just went through.  Otherwise, I take 81 to 84 to 90 when going to New England.

I've heard stories about trucks going through NYC that sound like something that should be on Snopes.  Stuff like being stuck in traffic and having people break into the back of the truck. Any truth to that? My first reaction would be the driver's in on it but you never know these days.

[SteveG1988]

Wow, I was way off on the O/O bit - definitely remembered that amount incorrectly.

Do you ever use the truck stop showers? Or would you rather check into a hotel to de-funk?

Average miles driven per year?

Truck stop showers are decent as long as it's a major chain. Used one at a petro that was on par with a hotel shower only unit, kept really clean too, with a private toilet. You earn free showers with a 50gal purchase of fuel. Average per year for miles varies, 20-2400 a week is average

[Duke87]

I've heard stories about trucks going through NYC that sound like something that should be on Snopes.  Stuff like being stuck in traffic and having people break into the back of the truck. Any truth to that? My first reaction would be the driver's in on it but you never know these days.

More likely to happen on local streets than on the highway. And more likely to have happened in the 70s and 80s than in the 21st century.

I don't know about that particular scheme but the idea of someone, say, getting robbed at gunpoint at a red light would have been not unheard of in those days. There used to be neighborhoods in the city where smart drivers understood that a red light meant "slow down, make sure no one's coming the other way, then keep going", since stopping could get you into trouble.

[ET21]

Couple of weather questions 

What is the craziest weather phenomenon you've seen?

Has your truck ever been blown over or ever been close to being blown over by strong crosswinds?

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

Couple of weather questions 

What is the craziest weather phenomenon you've seen?

Has your truck ever been blown over or ever been close to being blown over by strong crosswinds?

Deadheading from Ottawa to Chicago (Illinois) one day, I found myself under a pop-up thunderstorm.  Got hit with a severe wind gust, glanced in the mirror to find the trailer tandems up off the ground on the left side.  I quickly pulled over and had to sit there and regain my composure for a few minutes.

[hbelkins]

Deadheading from Ottawa to Chicago (Illinois) one day, I found myself under a pop-up thunderstorm.  Got hit with a severe wind gust, glanced in the mirror to find the trailer tandems up off the ground on the left side.  I quickly pulled over and had to sit there and regain my composure for a few minutes change my underwear.

FIFY.