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- Tale Lites Issue 10
Are You Going to the Mid America Truck Show |
San Antonio Parking Ban
-Lombard
On Thursday March 20th the City Council of San Antonio voted unanimously to make it easier to restrict semi truck parking in non-residential areas. They reached this decision based on a total of 311 complaints. Initially the proposal wanted a 1000ft buffer zone between residential areas, but instead the City Council amended it to simply make it easier to restrict parking in specific areas. Signs will begin to get posted along 19 “known problem” streets mainly in the Northwest Side district. The orginial plan would have had 78% of the entire city off limits to truck parking.
Per the San Antonio Express, they estimate roughly 500 more parking spots would be needed to curb this issue. Studies show that over half of drivers in San Antonio struggle to find parking, and do park on city streets. A 2020 TxDOT study shows that 60% of drivers park in unauthorized areas at least once a week
Only one Councilwoman stands out as being the only one to do an ounce of research. Adriana Garcia said the city needs to do more for the truck parking shortage, and even asked City Officials to look into building parking facilities. However city staff told her that they’re “not in the business of creating additional parking because of possible liability issues.”
I’m sorry, but parking bans don’t just make problems go away, and all this well end up doing is making it worse for drivers and San Antonios already congested highways. What cities like San Antonio fail to grasp is that Texas leads the nation with the most truck drivers. These trucks are parked where they are not just out of necessity, but there are thousands of truckers who live in the city itself.
I want to hear from you! For Driver Submissions, questions, and comments contact me at: [email protected] or Text me directly at 423-275-2444
More details on the San Antonio story below:
DOT Compliance Corner
by, Santiago Talamantez
3rd Party DOT Solicitations
One of the main objectives I had back in 2019 when I set out on my own, was to expose a practice that I personally experienced while I was working on the company side. While some of these companies provide valuable services, it is my personal opinion that the majority don’t. I was always astounded as to how many different emails, letters, and phone calls I received at times by solicitors who were looking to sell goods or provide services, for something that I was 100% sure wasn’t necessary. As I looked into it more and more, it was pretty apparent what the majority of these solicitors were doing; attempting to get me to sign up for unnecessary services using scare tactics and outright threats of action being taken by FMCSA.
However, FMCSA themselves state on their site, “ While FMCSA requires financial responsibility and evidence of a process agent for many entities, the U.S. Government does not endorse and generally does not require the use of private businesses or vendors. FMCSA will not contact regulated entities through telemarketers or "robo-call" automated solicitations, nor will we request a credit card number or charge a fee for our downloadable forms.”
Therefore, as many of you have probably received them, any time you received a phone call or text message, you are already aware that they are not FMCSA nor any other federal agency. When you receive a letter in the mail or an email, the easiest way to ensure it is legit is to check the email domain it’s received from, specifically check if it comes from a (.gov) email. If the email address ends in anything other than (.gov) then 99.99% of the time, it is probably a 3rd party solicitor.
Let me make one more thing clear, so everyone reading this is aware. YOU DO NOT NEED ANY 3RD PARTY COMPANY OR PERSON TO OBTAIN YOUR OPERATING PERMITS AS A MOTOR CARRIER!! Lombard and I briefly discussed this on the podcast, but yes, whether you are going to operate interstate or intrastate, you don’t need to pay anybody to obtain any number you need. You can do it completely free on your own! In the coming weeks I will continue to post videos on this process, and just last week I uploaded a new video where I walk you through the entire process to obtain your USDOT#, which is absolutely 100% free. However, if you want to pay those additional fees, feel free, however I am simply a voice of reasoning, hoping to save drivers and motor carriers as much money as possible! Here is an example of what you might receive: 3rd Party DOT Solicitations
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Health Tip of the Week
Eating for Volume
Weight management can only be accomplished by monitoring your caloric intake, and output. If we are trying to lose weight, we must be consuming less calories than we take in. It can be challenging at first, especially when trying to build healthy habits. A great place to start is by searching for foods that are large in size, but low in calories.
Great examples of large quantities of food that are less calorie dense:
Fruits like berries, apples, and watermelon
Non-starchy vegetables like zucchini, celery, and cucumber
Veggies like Broccoli, cauliflower, and Kale
Puffed grains like rice cakes or popcorn
Egg Whites
You can get all of these at Walmart, where I did all my grocery shopping while OTR. When it came to eating boring veggies, I found adding hot sauce or mustard to anything made it that much better, and looked forward to it. Hot sauce and mustard have almost no extra calories. If you like BBQ Sauce go for the No Sugar Added Baby Ray’s. Below is a video showing an astounding calorie comparison between foods!
$10 towards your next booking!
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Partner Post of the Week
Scott aka F8 truckin shares with us the reality of what continues to happen on there in the market with an update for how things have been on his end
Truck Parking Club Partner Program
Do you create content for truckers, and want to help solve the truck parking crisis? Let’s work together! Click below to apply for Truck Parking Club’s Partner Program today!