Newbie with USA

I just finished my first week with the trainer. Man it was tough. My trainer is on a dedicated account so we started off running pretty hard. Monday we left Vandalia at 4am and headed to Opelika, AL. I drove first, which meant that I hit I-285, Atlanta right in the middle of rush hour. Real fun. It was like a Stephen King novel written specifically for truck drivers. My trainer took us back to Vandalia (Dayton) where we spent Tuesday at the terminal. At about 11:45pm Tuesday we left on our next trip. This time it was Vandalia to Brownsville TX. Talk about a long drive. Then on Thursday morning, we woke up at the truckstop and found a flat during the pre-trip. Took about three hours to fix, putting us two hours behind schedule. We pulled in last night (Friday), at about 11pm. Good news is that we're here until Monday afternoon, then its back to Opelika.

 

So much for the logistics, now for my performance. First of all, I haven't hit anything, or (as I heard a driver put it) I haven't tried to move any bridges. My trainer told me that I do still have some things to work on but that he doesn't forsee me having enough issues to keep me from passing my upgrade test in four weeks. He told me that I'm dumping the clutch and waiting to long to upshift, but that it's not to serious. I am starting to feel a lot more comfortable behind the wheel. I had to drive through the hills of Kentucky. I'm from Chicago so I'm not used to hills at all. The first hill I hit was at 4am, pitch black. Scared the bejesus out of me. To add on top of that my trainer had already gone into the sleeper so I was on my own. I guess it actually helped to do it by myself, cause when we came back, I was still nervous but not nearly as scared as the first time. I'm having a lot of fun. One bit of bad news though. I found out that since my trainer is a dedicated driver and drives fewer miles than a driver running general freight, i'll more than likely be with him for 5 weeks instead of the normal 4. I guess I'm all typed out. I'll try to update again next week. See you on the road.

 

I'm not really sure how much sleeping my trainer actually does when he's in the sleeper, as weird as that sounds. I thought he was, but usually he opens the curtains just as we're getting to weigh stations and where we have to change highways and things of the sort. I think that he does sleep, just not as much as I originally thought. Maybe, he just wants to see how I handle the truck when he's not looking over my shoulder? Also, we haven't had to wait too long yet, either. There was one day that it took like an hour and a half to get loaded but that was the extent of it. For the most part we get loaded and unloaded pretty quickly. Either way, I'm still having fun and can't wait to get my own truck. I'll keep you updated.

 

It has been a few weeks since my last post (about four) and I apologize for that. Well I just got off of my trainers truck today. I had to do five weeks instead of the normal four. All in all I've logged over 10,000 miles and my trainer told me that he sees no reason for me to fail my upgrade test and no reason for me not to have a profitable driving career. I did have a few scares but nothing major. Even with the morons, the four wheelers as well as other truckers, I still had fun and am still having fun. We ran a lot of Texas. That was fun and warm. I'm still a bit nervous about the idea of going out on my own, but I've been told that that's normal and will go away with time. My trainer was a great guy, a little weird though, but nothing that I couldn't handle. Hopefully, I will go for my final test on Monday, so I have the weekend to rest up. I'll post again after I test. Wish me luck.