How do you stay awake on the road? Student project..

^^^^same here!!
I was good for 2 hours before I needed a 30 with a burger and 4 sodas...LOL

Thank christ for the body/mind adjust...I dont know what day it is, or what time it is...I do know my 34 is up at 3pm on sunday, and I plan for the wheels to start turning exaclty one minute after..lol
 
I normally don't have an issue getting drowsy, as I keep a fairly consistent sleep pattern. I have noticed, however, when I'm driving in the higher elevations (above 5,000 feet) I tend to get drowsy after a few hours. I remedy that by taking a quick 20 minute nap.
 
I'm home daily so I have a good routine. I also have no life outside of work so home is basically 1-2 hours unwind, 8-10 hours sleep, 1-2 hours rise & shine. That's assuming I worked 12 hours. Sometimes I only work 10 or even 8. But other times I'm out all 14 so then I get a little less unwind/sleep/r&s. If I'm out 14 hours it's generally because something happened and I needed road service. The most recent was a blown brake chamber. That was several months ago. *Knock on wood* because I'm doing that same route again tonight.
 
Um, sleep?


But also, I drive in and out of mountains the whole time and am scared of dying all night, helps me stay wide awake and alert...

Running a big beautifull wide open straight road forever much harder to stay 100% alert after a good 4 or 5 hours...

A past supervisor, a very short fat flaming gay TM named Brantley used to tell me all the time
"one day i drove ma little ranger from talahasse to tucson straight thru, whenever i got tired i just stopped and did jumpin jacks!!"
Good reply brother. Jumping Jax do work, so do pushups and a quick run around the rig. It'll buy you a few minutes possibly longer.

Sometimes it's just "that" time of day or night and you just gotta get through it. And now that you've mentioned it, it's never the mountains.. its always that long straight un-ending road that you've travelled so many times before.

Don't matter if it is day or night, you just don't like that stretch and for those of us that have been out here over 30 years, my guiess is that this particular stretch grew old over 25 years ago...

I do like knowing where I'm going. That relieves stress. New destinations and highways NEVER make me tired.
 
Yah I hate the steering wheel holder stage of driving, and that's why I support the idea of self driving vehicles. Wouldn't want it to take my job but it'd be great to turn it on and let it handle that long stretch of turnpike. I run I-76 from what's basically the middle of PA all the way into NJ several times a week. Did it twice last night and will do it twice again tonight.

The upside is they finally repaved/are repaving the 300-320-ish span so those nasty ruts are finally going away.
 
Yah I hate the steering wheel holder stage of driving, and that's why I support the idea of self driving vehicles. Wouldn't want it to take my job but it'd be great to turn it on and let it handle that long stretch of turnpike. I run I-76 from what's basically the middle of PA all the way into NJ several times a week. Did it twice last night and will do it twice again tonight.

The upside is they finally repaved/are repaving the 300-320-ish span so those nasty ruts are finally going away.


That sucks ya must've been BORN there cause I sure wouldn't put up with Out East...

Well I lived in Florida for afew years after my divorce but that got OLD really quick and I moved back up here and found me a Fixer Upper at a good price while the market was still way down.....

What sucks is I ain't even done Much to the place other than the yard...new carpet...Kitchen Counters n Cabinets and fresh Paint and the value has increased 20k since I bought it only 3 years ago and living in Illinois that means my PROPERTY TAXES went Way Up
 
That sucks ya must've been BORN there cause I sure wouldn't put up with Out East...

Well I lived in Florida for afew years after my divorce but that got OLD really quick and I moved back up here and found me a Fixer Upper at a good price while the market was still way down.....

What sucks is I ain't even done Much to the place other than the yard...new carpet...Kitchen Counters n Cabinets and fresh Paint and the value has increased 20k since I bought it only 3 years ago and living in Illinois that means my PROPERTY TAXES went Way Up
It's where the money is. And I'm a newbie of 14 months who started out doing this, so I'm used to it. We get more than just mileage pay to make up for lack of progress. 33¢ a mile, $70 per load, $18/hr detention after 1 hr, $35 plus mileage to pull an empty not related to our load, $35 minimum to pick up a driver and/or his truck if he ran out of hours, $15/hr to hostle broken trailers from the customer's warehouse to the repair lot half a mile away, etc.

Lots of ways to pick up cash beyond just running miles.

Even if we don't do the extras, average income is about $220/day. Some days short, some days long. Today I won't make squat ($150 at the most) but it'll be a 6 hour day, give or take.
 
It's where the money is. And I'm a newbie of 14 months who started out doing this, so I'm used to it. We get more than just mileage pay to make up for lack of progress. 33¢ a mile, $70 per load, $18/hr detention after 1 hr, $35 plus mileage to pull an empty not related to our load, $35 minimum to pick up a driver and/or his truck if he ran out of hours, $15/hr to hostle broken trailers from the customer's warehouse to the repair lot half a mile away, etc.

Lots of ways to pick up cash beyond just running miles.

Well it probably Co$ts alot more to live out there...

Ya might pull 10/15k more per year ya claim 55k ..... "I" average 39/43k on a given year but even in ILLINOIS of all places is much CHEAPER than East Coast...."cost of living wise" anyways
 
Sometimes I like the short days because it gives me a chance to do stuff at home. My S-10 needs new brake lines. Tonight I'll have a chance to cut the old off to see what length I need to buy. Then on my next short day I can patch in the new section.
 
Sometimes I like the short days because it gives me a chance to do stuff at home. My S-10 needs new brake lines. Tonight I'll have a chance to cut the old off to see what length I need to buy. Then on my next short day I can patch in the new section.

Actually I find more FREE TIME over the road ...

Sure ya GONE but most LOCAL JOBS I ever found were "Salt Mines" basically 12/16 hour days and they want your Saturdays too cause they ain't got enough people...

On "Hourly" I made "better" money but Long Haul I got more "Flexibility" as in how I wanna run it

Local ya pack a LUNCH cause ya don't wanna STOP and waste another hour and forget a NAP...

OTR you more CONTROL your own show and just make a rythym of it but Mileage pay and fighting for "deserved" layover n mention which Half the Time they got some way to Screw Ya out of
 
Well it probably Co$ts alot more to live out there...

Ya might pull 10/15k more per year ya claim 55k ..... "I" average 39/43k on a given year but even in ILLINOIS of all places is much CHEAPER than East Coast...."cost of living wise" anyways
My particular area isn't too bad. It's still pretty rural. The 5BR 3BA house with sunroom & library on .4 acres is only 176k. It's in a little nothing town.
 
Actually I find more FREE TIME over the road ...

Sure ya GONE but most LOCAL JOBS I ever found were "Salt Mines" basically 12/16 hour days and they want your Saturdays too cause they ain't got enough people...

On "Hourly" I made "better" money but Long Haul I got more "Flexibility" as in how I wanna run it

Local ya pack a LUNCH cause ya don't wanna STOP and waste another hour and forget a NAP...

OTR you more CONTROL your own show and just make a rythym of it but Mileage pay and fighting for "deserved" layover n mention which Half the Time they got some way to Screw Ya out of
Very true. I bought a little heating thing recently to slow cook my lunches. Usually eat when I'm waiting to be unloaded or when drop & hook just pause under the new empty off duty for a bit.

I'm so used to nonstop that I can't even force myself to chill. So this works for me. Making money at the same pace I'd be working regardless.
 
Sometimes I like the short days because it gives me a chance to do stuff at home. My S-10 needs new brake lines. Tonight I'll have a chance to cut the old off to see what length I need to buy. Then on my next short day I can patch in the new section.
Don't get galvanized. Get stainless or that copper alloy stuff.

Especially if you run the Pennsylvania Saltpike in the winter.
 
Don't get galvanized. Get stainless or that copper alloy stuff.

Especially if you run the Pennsylvania Saltpike in the winter.
Yeah no doubt. I got called for an "emergency" load last night so I didn't have a short day after all. I'll have to put it off again. Weekend is only 5 days away. Haha

Hopefully I can at least cut the old out to see what I need one of these days then use my weekend to replace it. If not, I'll do what I can when I can. This is why I don't own just one vehicle.

Tonight's a longer night and the preplan looks like tomorrow will be too. Money is good to have when you're trying to buy a house so I'm not going to complain. Even if I don't have a down payment, I still need to have closing costs.
 
We are Boise State University Business students and for our Entrepreneurship class, we have to create a product that solves a problem. The problem we first thought of was nodding off while driving or while in class. The people we thought would be most impacted are you all! You’re on the road for days on end, driving through some of the most boring sections of road. Without giving away too much information, we’ve created a list of questions to help us determine if there is even a market for the product we have in mind.

1.What type of issues do you experience while on the road?

2.Do you get drowsy while driving?

3.What methods do you use to keep yourself awake?

4.Energy drinks, stopping and walking around, loud music, cold air, etc.

5.Are these methods effective?

6.If there was a product that would wake you up while driving, would you rather it does it manually (push button), automatically (senses when you are sleepy), or randomly (random intervals to keep you on your feet)?

7.Would a product like that interest you or are you set with the way you currently do things?

8.Do you have any suggestions or ideas you’ve thought of that you think would help keep you awake?

9.Would you be willing to pay $50-$100 for a product like this? Would you rather pay more or less?

Thanks you for any responses!

The first thing, is make sure you get enough sleep to be alert to be able to go for up to a maximum of 14 hours on duty. That time is a personal thing so you need to learn what you, as the individual need.

2. I do get tired sometimes while driving, but not to the point of nodding off or having micro naps/sleeps.

3/4. To defend against fatigue, I will drink coffee, but more one large truckers mug per day gives me headaches, If I still feel fatigued after than, I will have one Monster energy drink (I like the orange one because it tastes more "normal"), but only one. In between those, I will chew gum because the blood moving to the jaw muscles from the chewing wakes my brain up too. I also try to listen to engaging/interesting radio, podcasts and audio books. If I am still tired, I will pull over and stop for up to two hours for a nap.

5. Usually, these methods are very effective, but the best one for me, is get at least 8 hours rest.

6/7. Neither and no, because there are far more simple and effective ways to deal with the issue.

8. The ones I mentioned.

9. No.
 
When I was on the highway, If I may paraphrase the immortal Forrest Gump, I just kept runnang and when I got tired I slept and then after 8 o 9 days, I would say I think I am goang to go home now.:D
 

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