mistakes that let everyone know youre a rookie

can a rookie mistake be counted while your in school??

 

Self described newbie overheard at a terminal...

"... so I'm pulling out of the customer's yard when the Qualcomm navigation started going haywire! Another trucker is behind me and I figured I can either turn right or turn left out of the yard, so I made a decision and I turned left. About a minute later the Qualcomm lady comes on and says I'm 'Out of route' and I need to turn around. The problem is it was a two lane country road in the middle of Iowa. I couldn't turn around for almost two hundred miles..."

:O ????

 

NO. Once your out of school and no trainer. In other words once you leave the nest. Fly the straight and narrow.

 

Dump truck driver taking down a overhead powerline. My dad did that Friday and he's been construction trucking since the 70's!

 

Marker lights and taillights won't stay on though. Lights aren't there just for you to see, but also to be seen. Both of the companies I drove for required to have the lights on at all times because of this.

 

That is why cars have daytime running lights.

But who was the genius that decided lights on in front but not in back was a good idea.

Mikeeee

 

I too am guilty of that,lol.The guy who tells the drivers where to dump the dirt told me dump it right here, I did and that's all she wrote.That was yrs ago.That entire block did'nt have power all that afternoon.

 

My first month driving solo, I stopped at a flying J to fuel, I pulled up to get my receipt and locked the keys in the truck, to make matters worse a fedex truck pulling triples pulls in behind and was not able to back out from the pump so he had to wait at the pump until I was unlocked. Needless to say he was just a bit irritated (understatement) after about an hour when someone showed up to unlock the truck for me. I now carry 2 spare keys with me, 1 inside the engine compartment and another in my wallet. Never had a problem since.

 

Yep. Two spares are better than one. I also have one for ignition, one in my pocket and one hidden on the truck.

Mikeeee

 

Geeze, let's see. This covers both dump trucks and expedite trucks. So far in my short career:

- Forgot to release the tail gate on the dump truck and started dumping like normal. Other dump truck driver beside me notices and starts honking his air horn to get my attention. Felt a little sheepish, especially after lowering the box because I had to get out and hammer at the release pins since the pressure from the load was jammed against the gate.

- Got unloaded from the receiver and went to pull away. Heard a nasty scrape and stopped. Oops! Forgot to raise the landing gear. Had to lower my head and hope no one saw.

- Heading to a shipper and drove in the wrong parking lot (the ones for employees and customers). "Alright, no big deal, I can get turned around pretty easy in here", I thought. Well, a little carelessness on my part led me to reverse near a set of trees and stupid as I was I put myself in a position where I couldn't see a thick branch directly behind me. Ended up putting a decent size hole in the cargo door. Boss wasn't thrilled about that one.

- First day on the job I was with a trainer. Was loaded and heading to the dump site. Got off the highway and was making a right turn at a light. Got up to third gear and I missed fourth, and couldn't get it back in so I ended up coming to a complete stop to clutch and get back in first. The trucks behind me were not at all impressed, and I don't blame them. I can laugh now, but boy was I red in the face.

- Fuelled up in Lancaster, Ontario. Drove the truck to Toronto (350ish kms away). Parking the truck and I see no fuel cap on one of the tanks. Hope whoever found it put it to good use.

I probably have a few more. I'm not embarrassed by the mistakes I've made, we all have to learn somehow. Some just harder than others. By far my favourite thread on this site so far.