Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

Does Ohio count??? So, they had my truck to supposedly work on it and I went home for the weekend, headed back down to pick it up Monday morning. I talked with them about some of what was going on, left feeling pretty good about how the conversation went. The biggest thing was a citation that I received for having an expired IFTA sticker - no one had ever checked this on my truck when we first went over the trucks with an OSR, nor was I ever showed what it was, so I had no idea until I was going through a weigh station in Virginia and got stopped for it. So, they apologized for letting that happen and will take care of it. No idea how/if that will affect me at all... but just another lack of proper preparation before sending me out on the road.

Anyway, Monday morning I got my new IFTA (and NY HUT sticker, which was ALSO expired), put them on my truck, and was assigned a load up to Ohio.

I bobtailed about 80 miles out, picked up my load and headed north. No issues with that trip until Tuesday night when the snow storm came through. The night before I BARELY made it into a Pilot before I ran out of hours, and while I usually avoid those "leftover" parking spots that no one wants because they're in a crappy spot, after doing 1 circle around the Pilot I said screw it, and decided that I had no choice. It was tight, but got in there without issue and didn't hold up truck stop traffic for too long.

Its a good thing I got stopped there, because that night we got dumped on with snow. The next morning was an absolute mess, people were getting stuck everywhere, I think a TMC guy with super singles and an empty flatbed spent about an hour trying to get into a spot, then just gave up and sat in the middle of the lane and spun his way back and fourth every time someone needed to get out or go by. I waited until about noon before heading south again with another load. EVERYONE with super singles was having trouble... remind me to stay away from those trucks. I can't imagine trying to bobtail around a snowy lot with one of those. I needed to use the scale, but the Pilot itself was closed, no fuel, etc., until early afternoon.

I finally headed around to use the scale and traffic was backed up out on to the street, so luckily there was a TA on the other side of the overpass that had plowed their lot and a CAT scale.

So, I start heading south, I'm at about 73k and its damp out, so of course the first time I come to a stop at the bottom of an off-ramp the front left brake vibration/pull shows back up. I messaged my DBL over the Qualcomm since I'm almost out of minutes from talking to them with my cell phone, eventually she gets back to me saying she'll try to get me a load back up to Charlotte so I can have this brake issue looked at (again). I'm going to guess the automatic adjustment is not working right on the slack adjuster, so the brake drum flash rusts whenever its wet/damp out. But what do I know I'm just the dumb-dumb truck driver that they wouldn't let install a new plastic hangar for my air lines since the one on the truck was broken when I first got it...

I checked my pay statement today, and like the last one its going to be absolutely abysmal. Honestly, my paychecks during training were higher. Between the bad weather and having my truck in the shop I couldn't get decent miles if my life depended on it.

So, sitting here at a Pilot in South Carolina waiting to hear where I'm headed to next... looking forward to seeing how the next couple weeks go, there needs to be a very big improvement in my miles...

 

My ETA to final delivery % shows 66%. Which is bull, but its not worth arguing at this point. When I was back at the OC last time, they told me I was doing a great job and to keep up the good work, so I don't know... My out of route shows 20% too, yeah right. Average 299 miles per work day. Average 6.147 MPG. Any time I've had an issue with the weather, etc., that causes a delay I've ALWAYS called ahead and gotten the "thanks for calling we'll inform the receiver and let them know" deal.

I never got a load out of South Carolina today, I messaged my DBL last night about the brake issue and she messaged me today saying she would try to get me routed back through the OC. Its 6pm now, so I'm sure there isn't much hope of anything happening tonight. Been here since about 2PM. I'm about 90 miles away from the OC, I guess they didn't think it was worth me going up there with my trailer empty, letting them fix the truck overnight and be ready to roll tomorrow morning... so I'll just sit here at the Pilot and wait until the DBL gets back in tomorrow morning.

The adventures continue...

 

What can SEM do differently from my DBL? Here is the update for the past couple days.

Been asking every day since earlier this week to get routed through an OC to get this issue with my brakes looked at. Still haven't been sent there.

Here is how today's attempt went:

Last night I picked up a relay at a drop yard in TN. I didn't have much time left on my clock so I just spent the night there. DVIR comes back good but I still check it over carefully in the morning. Of course, I find that two of the tires on the trailer are worn down the steel belts on a flat spot. I called the SEM tire line and asked if they wanted me to drive it or get it fixed there at the yard, they decide I'm OK to drive on it and there is a Wingfoot about 30 miles away that opens at 7am.

So, I head out for the Wingfoot, get there and sure enough they open at 7am... during the week. Don't open until 10am on Saturday. So, I wait around until first shift shows up, then call them, explain whats going on. I also explain that this is going to delay my load and make it difficult to arrive on time, and that since I'm headed in the direction of Charlotte, maybe I can take it to Charlotte, get it relayed, and get my brakes looked at. I get the response "Well if you can drive the truck to Charlotte, why can't you drive it to deliver the load? I'm asking because I'll have to explain this to the higher-ups". So, I explain the issue I've been having, how it only happens when its wet or damp out, explain that I've been trying to get it looked at all week, etc.

So they end up telling me to call SEM back about the tires and see if they can get someone out here earlier, and then to call the DBLs back and let them know when they think the tires will be fixed.

So, another set of phone calls later and I'm told they're sending someone out to the Wingfoot a little earlier that can look at the tires for me. I call the DBLs back and explain the times, I tell them I'll be cutting it real close to missing my appointment, he tells me to just do the best I can and then he'll work on getting me routed where I need to in order to get my brakes looked at.

So, after about 5 coffee breaks, they finally get the 2 tires on the trailer replaced. I know I'm headed through the mountains (my load runs from Tennessee out towards eastern NC), I'm cutting it real close on my appointment time, so I decide that today is a day to say "screw it" with the cruise control. I held my foot on the floor the entire trip, my overspeed for the day shows as 56% and cruise control usage at 4%... LOL.

I arrived 15 minutes after the appointment time. Not bad.

So, I finally get unloaded and head to the truck stop to transflow my papers in, get something to eat and head back to the truck.

Two pre-assignments show up, I'm headed to New Jersey and then back down to Virginia. Don't see any stops at an OC to get my brakes looked at.

How long am I going to have to play this game for? If it keeps up this way, the next time I feel the vibration and pull on the brakes I'm just going to stop the truck right there on the side of the road, call in and say I'm refusing to drive it any more because its unsafe.

Any suggestions on how to handle this?? Thanks.