Life on the road is what you make it. It can be rough as hell, or as smooth as silk.
Take showering, for example. Showering on the road is fairly easy. Most truck stops of any decent size will have showers available. Most of the time they will be available to you for free.
Free? How so?
Well, the first thing you do when you get your CDL is stop at all the rest stops. Not every single one, of course, but at least one of each name. Somewhere in each one will be a kiosk or a display with rewards cards. Your company will pay for the fuel your truck uses, and you'll be stopping at these various truck stops all over the country. Sometimes your company will pull diesel prices from all around and will tell you, through your little communication module, which truck stop, at which exit to stop at, and how many gallons of diesel to buy.
Wherever you stop to get fuel (it's not "gas"... cars use gas. Semi's use "fuel"), swipe your rewards card at the pump. With each diesel fill-up, you rewards card will rack up one complimentary shower after another. Sometimes what I would do would be to fill-up once with 75 gallons of diesel, then pull through a second time and fill up again another 75 gallons. This would rack up two showers on my rewards card. Your showers will remain good on your card for a month or two, or until you redeem them. Check the fine print on the cards to find out when they expire. (Most larger chain truck stops have some sort of kiosk where you can swipe your card, just like at an ATM. Doing so will tell you how many shower credits you have remaining, and probably will tell you when they expire.)
When I first got my CDL, I didn't know how to work the system. There were a couple times when I didn't have the $11 at the time, or a credit card to use to pay for a shower. So, I would stand around outside the showers and wait til someone walked out of one. As soon as the previous user turned the corner, I'd grab the door, slip inside and have me a quick shower on the house. Of course I'd walk in with my own soap and towel.
Hey, you do what you gotta do, right? But, I didn't have to do that too many times- just a few times while I was an OTR driver.
In most other cases, life is as you make it. To keep your drinks cool, you'll obviously need to refill on ice every couple days (unless you happen to have an inverter and have a small DC-powered cooler). Pretty much every place on the planet will sell ice. Or, do what I did on occasion... I'd walk in to a nearby McD or Wendys with a small cooler and as the manager if he'd fill it with ice. Of course I wouldn't do this during the middle of lunch rush. I'd wait until 10 or 11 at night when the place was empty. Or I'd simply walk over to the do-it-yourself drink towers and grab me some ice.
Internet service is almost a necessity nowadays. Your smart phone is most likely internet-capable, but if you'd prefer to bring your laptop, as I normally did, simply find McDonald's restaurants that offered truck parking. I kept a road atlas handy, and I would circle the highway exits that had a McD present. Soon I had an atlas with a hundred little circles drawn all through it.
Why did I look for McD's? Because McD's offers free wifi, for whatever it's worth. Soon I upgraded to broadband for my laptop. When I pulled in to truck stops and pried open my old laptop, my wifi would be super fast for about two minutes, then would begin to crawl. This was because I hadn't secured my wifi connection and all the truckers around me had locked on to my signal and were downloading mass amounts of porn.
How did I know? It was a truck stop of all places. What else would they be downloading? Cooking recipes?
So, the moral of the story is, get your broadband secured and encrypted. If there was a way, I'd have tried to allow the truckers near me to lock on to my wifi, for a fee. Hey, no reason not to try to make a few extra bucks, right? I'd have just upgraded my broadband to an unlimited, super fast connection.
Laundry? Pretty much every truck stop will have laundry facilities. I never used them. I simply brought lots of undies and socks and stuff. Although I never used the washers and dryers, it was always fun to check for unclaimed quarters and such in the slots.
Trucks stops will be your home away from your home (your sleeper cab) away from home (your real home). Learn to use the facilities at the truck stops to your advantage.
Your company will also expect you to fax in your paperwork to their central office regularly. Make sure you fax in your paperwork ASAP. Try to stop in at least once a day to use the truck stop fax machines. Or even do one better... before you leave the facility where you got loaded up and got your paperwork, ask the lady handing you the paperwork to use the fax machine. Usually they'll say, "It's right over there," or "I can do it for you." Then fax it to your office headquarters. Be sure to get a confirmation that it was received at the other end, and be sure to get the original paperwork.
Obviously, you can fax it from most truck stops for free using their "TransFlo" machines, but if you can fax it from the office from the get go, you avoid two potential problems down the road: a) you stop at the one truck stop where the TransFlo is out of service, or b) you find one that does work, but you get stuck behind the one 77 year old trucker who has no clue how to use the thing. Probably the same guy who gets in front of you at the ATM line an has no clue how to use it.
Take showering, for example. Showering on the road is fairly easy. Most truck stops of any decent size will have showers available. Most of the time they will be available to you for free.
Free? How so?
Well, the first thing you do when you get your CDL is stop at all the rest stops. Not every single one, of course, but at least one of each name. Somewhere in each one will be a kiosk or a display with rewards cards. Your company will pay for the fuel your truck uses, and you'll be stopping at these various truck stops all over the country. Sometimes your company will pull diesel prices from all around and will tell you, through your little communication module, which truck stop, at which exit to stop at, and how many gallons of diesel to buy.
Wherever you stop to get fuel (it's not "gas"... cars use gas. Semi's use "fuel"), swipe your rewards card at the pump. With each diesel fill-up, you rewards card will rack up one complimentary shower after another. Sometimes what I would do would be to fill-up once with 75 gallons of diesel, then pull through a second time and fill up again another 75 gallons. This would rack up two showers on my rewards card. Your showers will remain good on your card for a month or two, or until you redeem them. Check the fine print on the cards to find out when they expire. (Most larger chain truck stops have some sort of kiosk where you can swipe your card, just like at an ATM. Doing so will tell you how many shower credits you have remaining, and probably will tell you when they expire.)
When I first got my CDL, I didn't know how to work the system. There were a couple times when I didn't have the $11 at the time, or a credit card to use to pay for a shower. So, I would stand around outside the showers and wait til someone walked out of one. As soon as the previous user turned the corner, I'd grab the door, slip inside and have me a quick shower on the house. Of course I'd walk in with my own soap and towel.
Hey, you do what you gotta do, right? But, I didn't have to do that too many times- just a few times while I was an OTR driver.
In most other cases, life is as you make it. To keep your drinks cool, you'll obviously need to refill on ice every couple days (unless you happen to have an inverter and have a small DC-powered cooler). Pretty much every place on the planet will sell ice. Or, do what I did on occasion... I'd walk in to a nearby McD or Wendys with a small cooler and as the manager if he'd fill it with ice. Of course I wouldn't do this during the middle of lunch rush. I'd wait until 10 or 11 at night when the place was empty. Or I'd simply walk over to the do-it-yourself drink towers and grab me some ice.
Internet service is almost a necessity nowadays. Your smart phone is most likely internet-capable, but if you'd prefer to bring your laptop, as I normally did, simply find McDonald's restaurants that offered truck parking. I kept a road atlas handy, and I would circle the highway exits that had a McD present. Soon I had an atlas with a hundred little circles drawn all through it.
Why did I look for McD's? Because McD's offers free wifi, for whatever it's worth. Soon I upgraded to broadband for my laptop. When I pulled in to truck stops and pried open my old laptop, my wifi would be super fast for about two minutes, then would begin to crawl. This was because I hadn't secured my wifi connection and all the truckers around me had locked on to my signal and were downloading mass amounts of porn.
How did I know? It was a truck stop of all places. What else would they be downloading? Cooking recipes?
So, the moral of the story is, get your broadband secured and encrypted. If there was a way, I'd have tried to allow the truckers near me to lock on to my wifi, for a fee. Hey, no reason not to try to make a few extra bucks, right? I'd have just upgraded my broadband to an unlimited, super fast connection.
Laundry? Pretty much every truck stop will have laundry facilities. I never used them. I simply brought lots of undies and socks and stuff. Although I never used the washers and dryers, it was always fun to check for unclaimed quarters and such in the slots.
Trucks stops will be your home away from your home (your sleeper cab) away from home (your real home). Learn to use the facilities at the truck stops to your advantage.
Your company will also expect you to fax in your paperwork to their central office regularly. Make sure you fax in your paperwork ASAP. Try to stop in at least once a day to use the truck stop fax machines. Or even do one better... before you leave the facility where you got loaded up and got your paperwork, ask the lady handing you the paperwork to use the fax machine. Usually they'll say, "It's right over there," or "I can do it for you." Then fax it to your office headquarters. Be sure to get a confirmation that it was received at the other end, and be sure to get the original paperwork.
Obviously, you can fax it from most truck stops for free using their "TransFlo" machines, but if you can fax it from the office from the get go, you avoid two potential problems down the road: a) you stop at the one truck stop where the TransFlo is out of service, or b) you find one that does work, but you get stuck behind the one 77 year old trucker who has no clue how to use the thing. Probably the same guy who gets in front of you at the ATM line an has no clue how to use it.
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