This is just not any ordinary bus. It is an OTR driver experience simulator. Better known as OTRDES. It is designed for anyone who criticizes us, those who try and pass laws that make our lives and jobs harder and other pinheads and morons that try to negatively impact our profession.Inside there are six (6) modules. Each one simulates what it is like to drive a tractor trailer and be on the road for three weeks. When the participant is done, we can pretty much guarantee that they will experience a serious attitude adjustment. Here is a partial list of what they will experience during the simulation.
1. being forced to drive at 55 mph when everybody else around you is going 70.
2. waiting 10 minutes to enter a weigh station even though you have prepass.
3. waiting 5 hours at a T/A to get your tire repaired.
4. not being able to park at a truck stop at 9pm because the last space is run by Idle Aire and they won't let you have it.
5. being tailgated by another truck who is in a rush to go nowhere
6. being ticketed by the GA DOT because you moved into a lane on I285 where trucks aren't allowed trying to get out of the way of an emergency vehicle.
7. explaining to a new dispatcher why that trip to Indiana won't get you home to Florida.
8. being out of hours in a VA rest area with only 8 truck spaces that were filled hours earlier.
9. learning that you a being charged with a preventable accident even though the car in front of your came to a dead stop on the interstate in an ice storm.
10. waiting for two hours to obtain clearance to get into the port to load freight that is less than 100 yards in plain view from the security gate.
11. watching uninspected containers from Columbia, China and Russia leaving the port for delivery.
12. being told you can't bring your dog, your wife and son on the premises where you are picking up freight.
13. being told you need to wear safety glasses, gloves, steel toe boots, long sleeves, long pants and a hard hat to pick up freight in 95 degree summer weather.
14. being told you have to tarp a load that is sitting in the mud and will be unloaded and left in the snow until the spring.
15. being asked for your truck license, your full name and drivers license # to get into a plant.
16. not being able to take your cell phone into that same plant.
17. trying to fuel at a truck stop during a shift change.
18. trying to fuel at a truck stop when Comdata is not working.
19. trying to use your Comdata card at a FJ.
20. standing on line at Love's with your wet dirty towels waiting to get your points card back.
21. trying to get into a space at a full FJ anywhere.
22. trying to get sleep at either of the T/A's in Ontario, CA.
23. turning on the CB for road info and hearing vile nasty crude unnecessary gibberish.
24. getting the bird from the soccer mom because you're blocking her way as you try to find the truck entrance for company you're picking up at.
25. trying to get directions when your cell service keeps dropping your call.
26. watching another truck cut in front of you while you're waiting to fuel for over an hour at the Pilot in Carlisle, PA.
27. trying to get your fuel receipt and pay for a hot dog and coke while the driver in front of your is faxing 25 pages of customs documents and pays in coins.
28. being told you have to blind back your trailer into a dock built in the 1940's in downtown Chicago.
29. being told there is no freight to get you home for Christmas and you've been on the road for eight weeks.
30. being on the road for eight weeks after the recruiter told you they get their drivers home every weekend.
31. with no clean showers facilities washing yourself with Huggies baby wipes and paper towels.
32. having to transfer 53 ft of freight from the pallets they were shipped on to the pallets that the receiver wants them on.
33. having to drive off Wal-Mart property at 4am after a few hours sleep because they don't want trucks on their property.
(there are well over 100 items on the list)
