Finally, otr with my trainer...

And I couldn't be more happy. This guy is great. Older driver, and he trains because he enjoys it, not for the money. This guy wrote up an entire 3 ring binder with all the info I need to learn along with some forms he made himself for keeping track of your trips month to month. I wasn't in the truck 30 mins before he pulled over at a truck stop, at around 1 am, and told me to drive. Mostly interstate driving but in the dark, pouring rain, and fog. After the first 125 miles he goes back in the sleeper to catch some zzzs and sleeps through the next 100 miles. I am extremely flattered at this point. He is very patient but quick to point out when I need to adjust. I have learned so much in just the last 11 hours. I'm really going to enjoy my time with this guy.

Now we are trying to trip plan. Qualcom beepe dispatch has an "extremely hot load" for nashville and wants to know if we can do it asap. Then makes us wait over 30 mins for the load assignment Then we get the load assignment and it has 4 stops in it and is about 1300 miles in 31 hours....let me pull some extra hours outta my ### lol

 

I'm with PAM. Yeah the whole trainer thing had me worried but it's working out well.

 

OK this whole trip got weird. The hot load was actually for nashville IL. We get to the shipper and we are supposed to drop our empty, hook to already loaded trailer and be on our way. We get our bol with the trailer number and notice tthe trailer number isn't right. It should have 5 digits for a pam trailer and it only has 4. They loaded the wrong trailer.

So at this point they tell us to hook back to our original trailer and back into a bay and they will transfer the load into our trailer. It is a heavy load, 43k+. We pop over to the scales and we are at 39k+ on the tandems. eeek. So we adjust the tandems and realize we are way past max length for IL. At best with max allowable length we were still 3,1003lb over. So we pull to the dock, they rearrange us 2 different times before deciding they cannot load us legal with this load. So they change it up and now we went from 4 stops to 6 stops. I feel like someone painted ups on the side of the truck while I was sleeping. Yeah I pretty much finished out my 10 hour brake during this snafu.

And the best thing is our first and last stop are in the same #### town. lol

 

Did 596 miles today in 11hr 15 min, 10hr 15min of driving. And all before lunch. Not bad for my second day. Working on my 10 hr in the sleeper and I'll be good to go again tonight. And only 45 mins of on duty not driving...take that 70 hours hehe.

I really like the nighttime driving. I generally start just after 12am. I like to watch the sun come up.

 

Sorry I can't stop gushing about Phil my trainer. I have seen him take 4 calls now from students he has trained, each call averaging an hour, counseling them or just shooting the bull.he's like a surrogate father to us. Bought me lunch today. And was impressed with my preparation, mainly in what to bring (I read the thread on what to bring with your trainer, sleeping bag is a primo idea). He also carries extra supplies so you never have to worry about buying stuff like pens, ruler, he has extra logbooks. Just a real class act that loves what he does. I'm his 9th trainee this year. He has been out 2 months right now and will be with me about 3 weeks before he goes home.

I forgot I got to fuel the truck this morning. He was in the sleeper on his 10. I just woke him up and asked for his comdata and points card (my comdata card wasn't activated yet for buying fuel and I didn't have a points card yet). He seemed suprised but thankful to go back to sleep while I handled refueling duties. First time I ever pumped over $550 worth of fuel.

I still need practice city driving and next load I get to do trip planning, but he has full confidence in my interstate driving and ability to follow directions without getting lost which makes me happy. I also think I have the log book down pretty good. He seems happy when I shoot him random questions about anything.

Also had a bit of a panic attack this morning. He forgot to explain about the weigh station bypass doohicky (technical term, doohicky). This morning , like 4am, I am driving and come to a weigh station. It's closed but this box on my windshield is beeping at me and flashing a green light. I let it go. Then later this morning I come to another weigh station and wake him up as I'm pulling in. I'm panicing because I forgot to flag the city of my last pee break. Luckily I get the green light after weighing. He tells me the doohicky is a bypass box and if it blinks green I don't even have to stop at the weigh station. Later he is awake and we come to another open weigh station and he points out that I have to stay in the right lane on the highway. There is a pole that looks like a street light on steroids hanging over the road, its a sensor. There is a metal plate in the road you drive over that is a scale. after that is another sensor and it tells your doohicky to flash green meaning bypass the scale (yay!) or red meaning pull in the scale (boo!). Pretty cool.

Well I'm gonna try and get some shuteye so I'm rested for tonight. I have to say one of my favorite parts of this job is never knowing where I will end up next. getting the next dispatch is like opening up a christmas present lol.