Question:
Start my solo career tomorrow as a professional driver and have a couple of quick questions please:
I have bought a phone card to call the family at home in the evenings in order to save some money on the ol cell phone bill. What I was wondering is on the phones you see at the tables in the truck stops, can you dial the 800 number listed on the phone card without any additional charge, or does the truck stop charge you to use these phones?
Secondly, I was wondering if anybody knew of any Excel type spreadsheets that are available on the net, or if they have one they wouldn't mind sharing that will help a driver keep track of their expenses, tolls, fuel, etc., while out on the road.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer:
The phones do not charge you anything to call a toll free number. Your calling card should work just fine at them.
As far as the spreadsheet thing goes. I have never dealt with excel so I do not know what is available.
What I did was simply create a form with the Works program that came with my puter and listed out everything I wanted to keep track of which included: Date, trip number, paid miles, pay for that trip reimbursable expenses. I simply entered these in by hand, as I did not have a laptop.
There are programs available for truckers to keep track of expenses and such. These are designed with owner/ops and small fleet owners in mind, but could still be used for a company driver. Truckers Helper is probably one of the best known right now.
Another thing you could do is use the basic (home) version of Quicken or Microsoft money to keep track of your expenses if you just want to enter things into your computer as you go.
I will always be a mutter trucker at heart.
Answer:
Try this site http://office.microsoft.com/templates/default.aspx
They have templetes for microsoft excel that include expense reports. Also, Microsoft excel has a general expense templete that you can modify. Truckers helper is a great program, get the drivers version, and it has a section for expenses.
Hope this helps

Answer:
Reason I ask that question is b/c most of the major phone carriers nowadays have FREE NIGHTS & WkNds.
Maybe you should UpGrade your phone & calling plan so you get Free Nites & WkNds.
You may also want to think about getting a Toll-Free, NationWide Pager.
When I was OTR I had a cell phone AND a Toll-Free PAGER.(200 free pages a mnth & .25cents per page after that....I Never got close to 200 pages a mnth.)

Answer:
Packerfan
Just about all pay phones have some kind of access fee, my MCI card (from COSTCO) usually deducts 3 units. Be sure to read the fine print. Some cards offer $.029 per minute, after you have talked for 20 minutes at $.50 per minute. I saw one phone card that offered $.03 per minute but had a $1.50 connect fee. And I saw another one that had a $5.00 monthly fee. The phone cards from PNV seem to be the worst from what I saw in pricing. You might also check Target, Wal-Mart, etc.
While on that topic, you will find items purchased at trucks stops more expensive then if you went to Wal-Mart, Target, etc. The road atlases tend to be cheaper at the truck stops, though.
Keep in mind that the trucking environment can be vary hard on a computer. It will get bounced around a lot. Be sure to back up frequently, to floppy drive or a memory stick.
Another great program is for truck drivers is Drivers Daily Log (click here). It can be as simple as you like, just straight logging; or you can use it to track expenses, reconcile trip expenses, etc.
Good luck to you.
-J

Answer:
Choclit, I have US Cellular and have free nights and weekends per say, but will be hit with roaming charges if they are used out of my calling area Plus I have another year on the contract that we signed with them so will need to wait until next January to see about switching providers.
Driver J, I got my calling card from Walmart. It's ATT and noticed on the back of the card that by using a pay phone they will automatically deduct 10 minutes per call (subject to change). That's why I was wondering if the phones on the tables in the T/S if I would be able to bypass those charges.
I know what you mean about the Truckers Atlas being more money. I had to get one at the local Barnes and Noble (smallsville Wisconsin) and for the deluxe addition that I wanted, they wanted list price of almost 80 bucks. See you can get it direct from Rand McNally alot cheaper than that.
Again, thanks to all who posted a reply. Appreciate the advice and input.

Answer:
I'm not sure if you are aware of it or not, but...
You are allowed to UpGrade to one of the National Plans(No Roaming charge, No Long Distance charge, No Airtime charge) WithOut being Penalized.
***Your contract is so that you do Not Change Service Providers...But you CAN Change Calling Plans.***
With the National Plan, there is No Roaming Charges Outside of Home area.
U.S. Cellular's National Plan(click here)
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At the Very LEAST I feel that it's worth a CALL to your cell company to INQUIRE & find out for Certain.(you have Nothing to lose)
I'm with ATT & for the longest I did NOT have Free nights & wknds.(but seemed like Everyone else Did.)
So I got on the phone & Asked if there was a way that I could get Free Nights & wknds with No Roaming, No Long Distance, No Airtime charges....the lady said all I had to do was ASK for it.
So i did & I rec'd it.
At the time I had AT&T's Digital 1Rate Plan.(I had a Digital phone...and only rec'd 1000 Nights & wknds with No Roam, No Long Distance, No Air Time)
Now that I've UpGraded my phone to a Tri-Band(Next Generation), GSM,GPRS,TDMA, phone...I get UNLIMITED Nights & WkNds.(No Roam, No Long Distance, No AirTime charges)
[This message was edited by choclit snda on February 08, 2004 at 21:22.]

Answer:
The two most expensive places to buy them from are bookstores and direct from Rand Mcnally. Folks you can go down to the truck stop and pick up the current laminated version for around $30 all day long and the paperbound version for about half that.
I must aplogize for my over all response regarding phone cards. I brain farted and misread the original question. The table phones are a tricky answer. You can use them to call your companies 800 number (or a customer etc.) usually with no charges just like from any payphone, but when it comes to using a calling card they sometimes zap you with that additional connection fee above and beyond the standard fee the cards often charge.
BTW: If you are going to use calling cards for those long calls home (more than 15-20 min at a time) don't bother with the cards from Wal-Mart etc. You can find much better deals at gas stations, super market vending machines, and often time from phone card machines at the truck stops. Just be sure to read the fine print first to see what your connection fee from the card is and the exact per minute rate is for the areas you will be calling from.
I will always be a mutter trucker at heart.
Answer:
Here's a very easy & extremly inexpensive way to keep track of your expenses. Your accountant will love you for it and this served me well over the years. Get yourself a 31 & 12 pocket accordian folder along with a pocket size Dome record keeping book. Put your daily transactions in the 31 pocket folder. One pocket for each day of the month. At the end of the month group the expenses into their proper catagories and than record them in your Dome record keeping book. When done place the reciepts in the 12 pocket folder. One pocket for each month of the year. Why do it this way? The I.R.S. and your accountant need your hard copies anyway and will charge a lot less if everything is in order. So, why do you want to buy a software program, just to do extra work?

Answer:
The phones do not charge you anything to call a toll free number
You are seldom wrong U-Turn...but this time you are.
When using a "calling card" on the phones at a table in the restaurants---it is just like a coin operated phone.
See; the card provider is making money off the user by using their card and their phone system, so the phone companies have complained that their lines are being used and they are getting nothing---that is where the surcharge comes in.
With all cards you will be charged (usually) 10 units (minuets) to use every phone in a truck stop (unless other set-ups have been made...i.e.-Flying J card at a Flying J truck stop).
Wal-Mart cards (I've found) are by far the best there is...if you purchase your units at Wal-Mart, it is 5 cents per minute if you purchase them with a credit card by phone it is 7 cents per minute---the wife and I both have them for the house, which eliminates the need for a Long Distance provider (and is cheaper than any LD provider in my area). And when calling from a private line, there is no surecharge (conection fee).
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