I get too comfortable behind the wheel very easily so I'm used to fighting off sleep. I've done a lot of interstate driving too. Not as much as JDH but still a fair amount.

Energy drinks can help if you don't have a really high caffeine tolerance. The trick is to have them and not use them until you really need it. If you start out drinking them you are fucked once you stop (the crash). Just pounding a monster or red bull probably won't help. You need to drink it slowly over the course of an hour. Caffeine isn't the only thing in them which leads me to 5 hour energy shots.

Eat something. 5 hour energy does not have that much caffeine. It also has no sugar, which is why it tastes like 5 cans of concentrated ass. The berry is the best one. Orange is the worst. It's really simple. The thing is a massive overload of B vitamins. Your body uses B vitamins to metabolize sugars of all kinds. The people that say 5 hour energy doesn't do anything for me either have a high B vitamin intake already in their diets OR they are taking this shit on an empty stomach. B vitamin overload will only help you if you have something being digested. Anything your body doesn't use will be pissed out harmlessly (hence the neon yellow pee).

What I would do:

Wait until you start feeling comfortable/sleepy. Start drinking your energy drink. half an hour and half a can in to the energy drink start eating. I find I don't get sleepy when I'm chewing something anyway. You will want several different types of sugar. Something that breaks down quick like a sugary candy, something slightly slower like a piece of fruit, and then something really slow like bread/beef jerky. You are loading yourself up with different layers of sugar to be released successively. This will keep you from crashing. After you finish snacking and finish the energy drink use half of the 5 hour energy. 2-3 hours later take the other half.


Rinse and repeat every 5-6 hours. Don't be afraid to pull over and take a nap if sleep sneaks up on you. If you find the B vitamins and energy drinks aren't working pull over and do 100 jumping jacks. If you get your blood flowing you will metabolize everything faster. Keep your mind occupied on something other than the driving and the how long the trip is.


I work swing shift and stay up 36 hours or more at least twice a month so I've gotten pretty good at this. I get up around 2pm for my last work night, get off at 6am the next morning and stay up until midnight or so that night in to keep from losing an entire day off and to get my sleep schedule back on track for day shift 2 days later.

fuck that, i wouldnt work a job that had that kind of schedule.

i get up at 1am. if i have 1 load im home around 10am. if 2 loads im home around 4pm. dont go to bed until 8-9pm. wake up 1am next morning do it over again.

also fmx is probably onto something with the layering of stuff. ive never tried it that way but it sounds good in theory (im guessing hes probably done it that way though)

Everyone is willing to do different things for money. I have no formal education after high school and with 2 days of overtime I can gross $4,000 biweekly in an area where the average person with a high school education is making $30k a year if they are doing good for themselves. My base salary is about double that.


I also get 7 consecutive days off at the end of every 28 day cycle. I work 14 out of 21 days, and I'm off 7. Of those 14, 7 are day shift and 7 are night shift. I work 4 nights, off 3, 3 days, off 1, 3 nights, off 3 (fri-sat-sun), 4 days, off 7 (Fri-Thurs). I can take 48 hours of vacation and have 14 days off. So yeah, there are trade offs. It's the most stable thing available to me right now. When my other half finishes her MPA things might be different. I'm not gonna lie swing shift sucks, but it pays the bills.




Yeah that's how I do it. I've always been a bit of a night owl and I work better on night shift. I sleep better getting off in the morning. There are less distractions. When I get around to the end of my set and I work 4 12's mon-thurs is when I struggle. At 2pm I could fall asleep standing up most days. Layering things helps a lot. If I happen to be the board operator on days it's do or die. I sit in the control room behind a DCS display and run the process. For 12 hours. If I fall asleep and something fucks up or someone walks in I'm fired.

This post was edited by FMX_89 on Dec 6 2012 01:13pm

yeah when i get where im going, which is usually no more than 2 hours away, i get the trailer unloading and take me a light nap between each pocket. i know pretty much exactly how long each one takes to unload and where the needle on my weight gauge is at when a certain pocket is empty. so even if i am tired i can always take me a nap at work lol. trucking is great .

Yeah I envy truck drivers sometimes. The area I work in also takes care of all of our final product loading and raw material unloading. You guys get paid to sleep a lot in some cases. Our average final product load takes about an hour all said and done unless the tank has been washed, in which case it can take 5-6 hours pretty easily.

i haul dry bulk from the lime mine so they load from conveyors to a chute that dumps into each lid of the trailer. takes like 10-15 minutes depending on the loader. average unload time for me is 1 hour 15 minutes. that depends on where im at though some places dont vent their silo very well and the pressure buildup causes it to unload slower. i usually dont see much detention time unless im stuck behind another one of our drivers waiting on him to unload.

i guess im glad for my 9-6 job mon-friday.
not stressful, dont have to work overtime and i bring home a decent paycheck.

i just sit down behind 2 monitors all day and make/maintain websites.

my best week in the truck i grossed 1.7k dollars in 6 days

doing 1 load a day and getting home at 10 in the morning i clear around 550-575 after taxes. thats one of the reasons i drive a truck. where i live a 10 dollar an hour job is considered to be making good money. fuck that shit.

i make about 30 bucks an hour. so a little over 60k a year before taxes.
i also do some free lance stuff here and there, maybe a project every month or 2 that gets me 500-1000 bucks.

This post was edited by Huayra on Dec 6 2012 01:58pm