If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself when you first started in trucking?
Here is my list:
1# Don’t take advil PM or any other sleep medications. —–When I first started in trucking, I was a team driver. Sleeping when my teammate was driving was like trying to sleep on a roller coaster. I took advil PM to help me sleep on every 10 hour break for years. I knew about the warnings on the labels of Advil PM that say that advil PM can cause stomach problems. But I didn’t think anything of it at first. Eventually, I got gastritis. Now I cannot drink caffeine. If I drink caffeine, I will get extremely sick and start vomiting. I cannot handle team driving without caffeine. So I cannot do team driving any more. This was a huge mistake. Sleep medications only do a little bit to help me sleep. Caffeine does A LOT to help me stay alert at night. I should have avoided sleep medications so I would not get gastritis. I would be making twice as much money if I could do team driving.
I can do team driving without sleep medications, but not without caffeine.
2# Put a microwave in my truck. ——I didn’t get a microwave in my truck until after I had been trucking for seven years. The microwave helps me enormously at being economical and to make more money. I take the majority of my ten hour breaks at rest areas. Before I got a microwave, I would frequently stop at truckstops to buy food and eat food before I would pick up and deliver loads. This made me late to countless pick up and delivery appointments. I am morbidly obese. Morbidly obese people like me don’t let anything interfere with eating. We will be late to shippers and receivers in order to make sure we get to eat. Now I store microwaveable food in my truck, and I will just microwave food and eat the food at the rest area before my ten hour break expires. And now I make a lot more pick up and delivery appointments on time. Also, I used to buy food off door dash about once per week before I got a microwave. Now I only buy a meal off door dash about once or twice per year. Door dash is expensive. My microwave paid out in just one week.
3# Buy a storage container for bottled waters. Then buy big cases of bottled waters. —–I didn’t buy a storage container for bottled waters until I had been trucking for seven years. I bought my storage container for bottled waters at about the same time that i bought my microwave for the semi-truck. Before I bought the storage container for bottled waters, I would buy bottled waters individually for about $2.00 per water at truckstops. Now I buy a big pack of 35 bottled waters for about $7 at truckstops or about $5 for about 35 bottled waters at Walmart. So now I only pay about 20 cents per water instead of $2.00 per water.
4# don’t buy a freezer to put on the semi-truck. ——I am a company driver. My company won’t let me idle my truck. So the frozen food in a freezer always thaws on my ten hour breaks. So I don’t carry a freezer on the semi-truck.
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