re: I drive a semi truck. Ask me anything.

How do you keep yourself healthy? Just looking at those hot dogs at Love's, I don't see how.

What’s the most popular energy drink for most truck drivers? Is it coffee or other energy drinks?

You drive a stick or automatic?

FYI if you ever are traveling down 59/69 from Victoria Texas to 77 toward Brownsville and see white popcorn looking stuff all over the sides of the road, it's "cotton" that flies out of the trailers and its always all over the sides of those hwys. The native Mexican drivers will come into the country and get loads of cotton and head back to Mexico and the cotton flies out like fricking snow. Quite interesting.

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You drive a stick or automatic?

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at cdl school if your lucky you'll get both. My cdl school had only manuals. In the industry most all company's have automatic trucks. I drive an automatic. The gears are on a blinker stick to the right of the wheel. The difference between driving a stick and an automatic is night and day. Driving an automatic is just about the same as a pickup truck. I tell people who get into truck that it's almost the same except in trucking we have to make wide careful turns and the backing is different and takes practice. Your a guardian of the hwy, treat it as such. Safety is key.

When I was in cdl school I had a hard time dbl shifting. I learned how to float the gears pretty easily and just took a minus 5 on my test .

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Met a OTR trucker who was a friend to my FIL as a teen. From Pennsylvania but now lives in Mississippi. Wife is a nurse. He is a gym rat and fanatically disciplined about what he eats. For instance, he eats oranges but doesn't drink orange juice (sugar). He was jacked. And he visited gyms all the time. He finds a place to workout most every driving day.

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yep. When my route is over for the day, ive learned where all the planet fitness' are from the drop locations/truckstops im at are. If I stay at a terminal, they all have a workout room or just walk the terminal twice, they are so big your gonna get your exercise. Takes a little planning but once your used to the routine, you'd be amazed at how much your gonna remember where things are in different cities/states. At Love's TS you can get most all fruits(oranges, apples, banannas)whole or chopped fresh(many more kinds) in the fridge area of the fresh food stuff isle.

Why do you drive 50.1 mph to pass another rig going 50?

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Why do you drive 50.1 mph to pass another rig going 50?

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as mentioned a couple times earlier, it's not the trucker that wants to be like this at all. This is exactly why. Most trucking companies have a rating with the insurance that carries said trucking company. The insurance company dictates what is a safe speed for that said company based on accidents etc. So the trucking companys are stuck at the mercy of the insurance people and they tell the trucking company what speeds they can max out at. Some are at 63,64,65,66,67,68 etc. If trucking company doesn't agree then insurance won't carry them or pay a higher premium to go faster(your talking multiple millions to insure a carrier esp a large one). It's crazy. This is why you have a trucker going 65 passing another one going 64. Some truckers are courteous and wait, some don't gaf and make cars pile up 30 deep behind them. I think it should be a law that all tractors are set for 68 on foot and 70 on cruise. Eliminate that problem pretty much. My company has 65mph when using the pedal. We also have 68 mph when using cruise control. We are usually a higher speed than other companies because we are huge and probably pay the higher premium. Attracts more drivers. No truck driver wants to drive 63 on a 75mph interstate.

Most truckers know exactly what other trucking companies max speeds are because the encounter them all day everyday. Based on my speeds , another trucker here would know who i drive for.

The one's who drive over 70(no govenors) are usually always owner operators. They all drive way over the speed limit. I have no clue how a single owner negotiates single trucker insurance but they must pay alot because they are the much faster drivers. If any company driver is driving 70 or 72 max, it's always because they have received awards over years that they are safe drivers and have been awarded those working speeds.

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What is the most treacherous stretch of highway for a trucker?

I-70 through the mountains in Colorado seems like a nightmare.

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I'd have to say mountain hwys added with seasonal weather most likely. I rarely never travel north of i20 but I drive from Mexican border to West Columbia SC. . The absolute scariest(crazy drivers)is straight through Austin on i35. The absolute most dangerous is 285 loop in Atlanta. A distant 2nd is i10 from Vinton LA. To Winnie TX. All those construction zones I've seen a ton of accidents even happen right in front of my eyes all of kinds. Houston beltway can be congested but they have half a brain out there and actually try to slow down and such. Dallas also. I20 or i10 thru Louisiana/miss/Bama/Fla isn't bad except yep you guessed it, i10 splits in BR. The bridge also because it is right before a split makes traffic suck. New Orleans is horrible in traffic on i10, I always take 12 to Mississippi. I10/i20 isn't bad anywhere else except i20 once you hit Atlanta. Birmingham isn't to bad on 20. I10 right thru Houston can get pretty bad esp on the west side heading west in the evenings but just take beltway and go around or even 99 if you can. I10 about 25 miles before San Antonio sucks because of the construction zones. Lake Charles bridge on 10 can pile up , I always take the by pass. I lose about 7 minutes but it's a much nicer drove than being on that stretch of 10 going thru Lake charles. I'm positive there is worse areas in the northeast esp New York and the west coast in California so I've been told.