Am I a neat freak?
 

Can anyone answer me this? How in the heck can anybody drive down the road with all that stuff piled up in their windshield? Now I don't mean just a map or your bills, but from one door pillar to the other with stuff. How does the defroster even do anything. I don't keep my truck spotless
on the inside but I passed one guy last week going to a shippers gate and
I counted 4 fast food bags 2 log books a big bottle of pop(or soda whichever you perfer) a truckers atlas and it looked like enough loose paper to start a forest fire. How do other drivers find anything?

What do you think the rest of the cab looks like ..... :lol:

I wonder who gets redlighted for an inspection first ??? :lol: :lol:

I love seeing trucks parked at the truckstop that the driver clearly moved all his crap from the sleeper to the passenger seat just so he could sleep.

:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
Actually...seeing it disgusts me..but to each his own !!! 8) 8) 8)



Why can't they just throw the crap away? After all...the fast food joints give them bags for free!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

I'm not so much a neat freak but I'm a very organized person. If I get this job with the garbage company then if I run a log book it'll be up in the cubby hole, my bills will be on a clip board in the windshield or passenger seat and my little milage book I'm gonna use to write down milage will be in the hole in the dash that are on the Mack Vision/Granites if mine will have one. My truck will stay clean INSIDE and OUTSIDE!!! I feel a clean truck is a happy truck but seriously I rather roll to the landfill or jobsite in a clean truck which will mean at the end of the day I'll end up washing the truck before heading home! This is if I get the job and everything works out which I think it will! :D 8)

Never understood it myself.

Back in CDL school our classroom teacher was a semi-retired DOT certified cop. He told us that the keeping the cab of your truck organized and reasonably clean as well as keeping your log book entries neat will do more for keeping the number of close inspections down than anything else you can do.

LEO's figure if you take the time to keep the truck clean and your log entries neat that you are more likely to see to the major items.

I have seen this scenario played out many times as most experienced driver probably have.

Your not a neat freak....Sometimes I think I am though. Inside of my truck is always clean. Cant stand tracking anything in. Outside gets washed as often as my dispatch gives me truck wash PO. (I generally request one every 2weeks).
Only thing on my dash board is my eyeglass case and pack of smokes. I dont even let dust settle on my dash :D

I go over the interior in the morning for dust ,and before bed ...everything must be folded neat and in it's place carpets straight and fre og lint or dirt ...I casrry a windex bottle full of water and sray the floor and wipe with a rag to remove any foot mark ...And I spay orange scented air freshner 2x daily ...Evem my weights uner the bunk have to be neat and in order,and I can't even see them from ...I clean as I go never let anything sit dirty if it gets messed I clean first then go I think I spend 1 hr every 24 hr day cleaning .

Glad to see that there are still drivers who like a spotless truck and keep them clean.

I clean everything when I park the truck on Friday - dust the dash, clean all the glass inside & out etc. I don't get too nuts with the floor - our trailer lot is mostly dirt, so it just gets dirty again anyway. I've got a bootbrush on my step though, which helps alot. But the only things I've ever got on my dash are my bills for that load, my coffee cup and my iPod.

Jumbo, no you're not a neat freak, just a responsible individual who takes pride in his job and equipment.

I also keep my dash clean. There is nothing on my dash at anytime. I keep my glasses, cellphone, cigs, etc... in the small cubbyhole above the drivers seat.

Before retiring for the night, I use my electric razor and am clean shaven for the following day. I put a clean shirt on every morning.

Several years ago(1999) I was pulled over at a weigh station in CT. They were doing random logbook checks. An older CT trooper stepped up on the steps of my truck. As he was doing this I pulled out my log book and BOL and held them in my hand. He looks in my truck, including the dash, and then takes a good look at me. He asks, "How's everything going? Any problems?" I replied, "No, everything is going great!!! It's a beautiful day to be driving!!!" He then states, "Anybody with such a great looking truck and with such a professional appearance and attitude, must be in compliance. Have a great day!!!" I thanked him and wished him "A Great Day" and he waived me thru.

MESSAGE: If you present yourself in a professional manner, conduct yourself in a professional manner, and keep your equipment in professional appearance, in turn, you'll be treated like a professional.

That is the key to being treated as a Professional and with Respect. I keep myself clean and truck clean inside and out for myself....getting throught the scale house unscathed is one of the perks. :D

I try to keep the clutter to a minimum, but i don't live in my truck either.
My old trainer would make me take off my shoes in the truck. That was a little too much for me.
I'm not a diligent duster, but I like to keep things in order and be able to find what i need to find.
but i'm also a bit of a pack rat, and i tend to let a bit of mess build up before i clean it up. otherwise it feels like i'm doing a lot of work for a little bit.
now, if i'm on the road for a while, and i have some downtime, i'll do some cleaning. but if i'm home on a regular basis, i don't want to spend more time in the truck than i have to :/

I saw that also. It looks like they made a sunshade out of garbage.

I keep inside and outside clean when on the road but start letting it slide about three days from getting home. Have to or GFriend Gkids would be real pi$$ed I didn't hire them to clean it out and wipe it all down :D :D

You guys haven't lived until you've slip-seated in an LTL outfit.

I keep a clean interior of the truck. I am stunned how a line-haul driver can trash the inside of a cab in one night's time (Granted--not every linehaul driver is a slob...and to be fair to the linehaul drivers, our barn has a few city p/u drivers who are utter slobs).

I used to get yelled at by my boss because I took an extra few minutes to clean out the garbage, coffee/soda spills through out the cab. Then one morning I showed him the cab interior. I no longer get yelled at for cleaning up the mess left by the previous driver. :lol:

And yeah, the boss has talked to the line-haul drivers to clean up the garbage at the end of their trip...in one ear and out the other! :x

If you ever need to get a slob out of a truck real quick you can just throw a bar of soap in there and they come right out. :shock: :lol:

Do you by chance work for Saia?

No, you're not a neat freak at all - Be proud!
I've been a proud neat-freak for many years and am thankful there is no one to create a mess in my truck other than myself :)

-- I should add that I hate it when I clutter my truck :) It is usually clean. I clean it every morning before I start my day like clockwork. I wipe the floor, the dash, the steering wheel, mirrors, windows, windshield, etc... the bed MUST be made... well, I should also add I'm obsessive-compulsive about it; If I start driving in the middle of the night and don't make my bed, when the sun comes up and I can see that it isn't made, I'll PULL OVER just to make it up.

I picked up at BASF (Freeport, TX) this week and one of their inspection crew told me that my truck was one of the best he'd ever inspected; he turned another guy around and said he couldn't/wouldn't inspect it because there was knee-high trash all over the floor (gross)... I just know I wouldn't be able to work in that kind of environment...

Fancy_Maneuvers wrote:
You got that right...along with my last post here, like you, the bed is made before the drive starts.

Nope -- Central Transport.

Guess we now know at least two carriers who have some trashy cabs huh?! :wink:

I used to deal with the Saia (formerly Madison Freight) terminal, and i remember seeing a note from the head guy about cleaning out cabs.

I try to clean up the truck before I go to bed at night- regardless of what time. I keep nothing on my dash. I laugh at the stacks of paper, dream catches that block your vision and bags of chips. Daycabs, I'd let slide, but a sleeper cab is unexcusable.

The doghair from my pug is out hand though....

A roll of the clear packing tape will get up all the dog hair or a rolling lint brush that has the sticky tape. You think your pug sheds hair, you should see the back of my car. There is a layer of yellow lab hair. You can't see the carpet anymore. :lol:

I know, but I'd never get any miles done if I was getting the hair up lol. The good thing is I get all the free packing tape I can ever want :)

Send some tape my way then. :lol: :wink:

Why would management worry about cleaning out the cabs. The maintainence was so poor on the old Madison Freight trucks how they ever got anything delivered was beyond me.

Well...suppose one of their trucks was broke down on the side of the road and DOT rolls up, hops up on the running board, and looks into the cab. Perhaps they might be inclined to do a full-blown inspection! :lol:

I don't have anything on my dash because I don't like the reflections it makes when I'm driving. I have my map and log book on the passenger seat and one of those seat back organizers with all my stuff in it.


I watched this guy in a nasty FFE truck yesterday at the fuel island get out of his truck and you couldn't even see the floor... NASTY! To top it off, he jumped out with a XXL pitcher full of piss and then dumped in on the ground while half of it splashed all over his truck... some people are disgusting. :shock: :?

Guy who trained us was an ex Marine. Needless to say,if you turned in your logs looking like something a cat threw up, he'd hand them right back and make you do them over. He said the same thing, that if your logs are neat and presentable, it goes a long way when a DOT person is doing an inspection on you. :wink:

Absolutely. And my glass is cleaned daily if not twice. I wear my flip-flops if I go past the driver's seat. Bumpy parking lots that result in my shelves being re-arranged aggravate me, but there's nothing to be done.

When I was in dump-trucks there was a jerk who drove my truck at nights on a big paving job. He would lift anything I left in the truck (including my trash can - who would steal a plastic trash can?) and leave his trash. I cleaned the truck and scraped the cold asphalt off every morning.

Then at the end of one work day he called on the company net and asked where the newspaper he'd left on the dash was. I told him it went into the dumpster with the rest of his trash. He didn't come back to that, so when I got back to the yard I asked the dispatcher if the jerk went dumpster-diving, and he said yes, he had some important paperwork folded into the newspaper. :lol:

:lol: :lol: ...That'll learn 'em... :lol: :lol:

oh, you wish People like that don't EVER learn.

I'm not a neatness freak - though that could change. Not spent any time in a cab yet. Based on my desk, though... it's cluttered as hell - but there's no trash or schmutz on it.. well, a few dead hard drives.. but those are paperweights until I get them ripped apart.

Paperwork - ok, I don't like messy paperwork. I have my aluminum police clip-board for current stuff, and one of them thar accordion files for everything else. I hope to get on with a company that lets me use a computer generated log, but if not, so be it. I have a 6-inch ruler and I write clearly.

Well, I'm certainly no NEAT FREAK! But, I like to keep my MESS "organized!" :lol:

Remember.... I drive TEAM, so we have twice the STUFF! Dashboards are MEANT to keep things on! On the passenger side, we keep the ATLAS and a few magazines for reading when sitting in the passenger seat. On the driver's side are the envelopes with the BOL's, my logbook, and my notepads for mileages and previous trip notes. Also, my little bag that holds my inkpens, reading glasses, and extra sunglasses. Inbetween, you might find a cellphone charger, a bag of candy, and ANYTHING ELSE I deem necessary for quick and SAFE access while I am driving. But.... NONE of it will impede my view of the right fender mirror!

When we "switch" drivers, we switch our personal affects to the other side. Everything else stays behind the curtain, or in a cubbyhole.

I CLEAN the inside of the windows when they NEED it! Same with the carpet. My logbook has straight lines and clear remarks, and has NEVER been seriously questioned.

I don't LIVE in my truck, but for 5 days a week, TWO of us do! We feel no need to be ANAL about cleanliness or organization, but we DO try to keep things in their place. And we MOVE them around as needed. I can clear my defroster vents in 2 seconds by consolidating the necessities on my dash.

I have NEVER been inspected BECAUSE of a messy dash, but I have never been told that it mattered! MOST DOT officers recognize the NEED to have some things handy. There is a BIG difference between TRASHY and ORGANIZED. Just as there is a big difference between being ORGANIZED and being a friggin NEAT FREAK!

I don't care HOW "neat" you keep your truck! Just make sure that you can stay in your lane, and don't "roadblock" the faster trucks and 4wheelers! :roll: The fact that there is a connection, says volumes about where a driver's head is at!

If theres one thing I can't stand....its a dirty cab. I was off for 7 weeks due to injury and when I got back, a buddy of mine had used my truck and hauled his dog. I've got allergies and he hadn't dusted in the whole time he had my truck to go along with the dog hair. I spent about 5 hours that weekend cleaning the cab. When I see a truck with crap all over the dash.....I often wonder how they get through scales looking like a sh*thole

What about posting a picture of yours?? ;)