Feel free to add some of your experiences to this thread Island57. You are in the same boat I am starting right out of school only with a different home terminal.

Monday 2/11

Started our day at 5:00 AM and bobtailed about 40 miles up to Reidsville to pick up a loaded tank. It was stuck in a hole with a box truck trailer blocking it in. That was the first sign of the way this day was going to go.

After waiting for the workers to get there we found out they had to unload and load that trailer before we could hook to ours, get weighed and on our way. This load delivered in Blacksburg SC and since we were behind schedule and I tend to drive cautiously and slower my trainer drove the load. He made good time and we were there on time. Then the fun begain. A guard came out to our truck that reminded us of Barney Fife. He gave us some maps, checked IDs, hung something on the mirror and told uswhere we needed to go. After weighing in we went to the unloading area and backed in. The unloader guy came out and told us we had to wear our acid gear even though this wasn't a hazmat load. They had security cameras and he made a point of pointing them out. Thats fine no problem. Then they took 2 samples of the product and after 45 minutes refused the load. We called dispatch and they told us to stay there while the company salespeople talk to them. After sitting there for about 3 hours the guy came out told us we had to leave. I drove the load down to a small truck stop where we ate lunch (at 3:30PM) then drove the load back. I really drove crappy. I don't know if it is the week off without driving or the difference in the transmissions. Once I got on the road I was fine but basically today pretty much sucked.

Tuesday 2/12

Today they sent us out OTR. I am currently in a hotel in Nashville TN. We started about 6:00 AM and drove to Graham NC. I am shifting better but still not as well as I did in Kingsport. This plant has a real tight scale and pull through loading area. I made it on the scale fine but when I was pulling off I had a close call. There was a guard rail to the right that someone had hit and some of the metal was sticking out about 6 inches at tire level. I was trying to stay tight to the guardrail to set my trailer up to go into the loading area and also clear a yellow pole with my right trailer tandum. My trainer says I almost cut the tires and only missed the guardrail by about an inch. He was pretty pissed that I didn't cut it hard left when he yelled at me but I was worried about hitting the yellow pole. Once we got loaded I did fine and drove all the way to Newberry TN up Black Mountain and through the gourge on I 40. This load delivers in Nashville tomorrow and then we go to Memphis to pick up another load heading back home by Friday.

This will be a good experience I am sure but I sort of wish it had taken place earlier in my training. I was sort of looking forward to doing local stuff this week since I have been out of town the past 3 weeks. This is what the job will be though so I might as well get used to it.

Sounds like you got all the crap out of the way early in the week. Do you get detention for all that screwup or are you paid by the hour no matter what you run into? Also looks like they would repair anything that might damage a tire on a tanker. Cheaper than messing with a hazmat spill.

I am still training so i make the same money no matter what. Anything after the second hour loading pays by the hour so my trainer made some money for sitting in the truck I think. No way that could have caused a spill. Flat tire maybe but not a spill. Its really not that bad. You just have to look for it. I was staying farther right than I needed to to get into the hole and still I didn't hit it.

Enjoying your posts. Nice to hear about another segment of trucking instead of same old van and flatbed stories.

great post wsrob.I,m taking road test on thursday for my cdl.

Good Luck!!

Thanks,I'll keep you posted. PASSED MY ROAD TEST AND GOT MY CDL!WOOOO

Congrats!!! Now the real training begins!

Wed 2/13

Left about 7:30 AM EST to deliver our load in West Nashville. My trainer drove to the plant. We found it easily but once we got there had a bit of a hassle finding where to unload. The guard at the gate didn't stop us and just waved us through. We saw another tanker so we headed in that direction, parked behind it and went looking for someone. This was a plant that makes bath mat material and there were big machines everywhere with it. We asked a couple of people who asked a few more and finally got high enough up the food chain to find out where to go. They had us drive all the around the building on a serpentine gravel road to a dead end in the back. About the time we thought we were screwed the last women we talked to came out with another guy who showed us where to hook up the hoses and showed us where to turn the truck around. They had to have people move about 4 cars and the truck had to be backed into a 6 foot indention in the building to have room to make a 3 point type 180 degree turn. Then you could back right up to the loading area headed back the way we came in. About this time it starts snowing. We aired off our load and headed out to Memphis. My trainer drove this leg of the trip as well.

Once we got to Memphis our trailer and paperwork was waiting for us. We hooked to it and did a pretrip. It was missing a side light bulb and the nut on the external valve was so loose it was about about to come off and about half a cup of product had leaked out on the ground. Good thing this wasn't a hazmat load or someone could have gotten a big fine bring that down the road. We pulled up to the shop, replaced the bulb, tightened up the nut and that stopped the leak. Now it was my turn to drive.

This tank was loaded heavy at 44800 Lbs and it bumped you pretty good but seemed to settle down faster than some of the other loads i have pulled. I pulled it nonstop back to Nashville. Hit Nashville traffic right around 5:00 so I got a good taste of rush hour in a decent size city. Got to the same hotel as last night around 6:00PM and we decided to get an early start to get back in time for Valentines day. Our load doesn't deliver until 1:00 Friday so we could take our time.

Thurs 2/14

Left about 6:00 AM and drove the load back to High Point with only one fuel stop just past Knoxville. I did all the driving. This was the longest stretch that I have done in one day. I logged 8.75 hours driving that day. We came back through the gorge on I40 and down Black mountain. This was different than when I drove through there on Tuesday. Then we only had about 10,000 Lbs of product. Today it was 44,800. The gorge was pretty easy. I just downshifted into 9th and pretty much cruised through those turns. In a loaded tanker we try to stay at least 5 mph below the posted caution speed signs in curves. 9th gear worked great. At Black Mountain the truck speed limit is 35 mph. You have to stop at the top. I shifted up to 7th but that was running too many RPMs so on a short flat spot right at the top I grabbed 8th and snub braked to keep my speed around 35 mph. Made it down without using the jake brake. That will probably be the last time I go down a mountain without the jake but it was good to know how without it.

At the bottom we got a message from dispatch saying we could drop our trailer at the customer so we went on to Greensboro, spotted our load and bob tailed back to the terminal. Finished up about 3:30PM and my trainer got Friday off.