Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

Discussion in 'Schneider' started by dieselfuelonly, Feb 22, 2013.

  1. dieselfuelonly

    dieselfuelonly Road Train Member

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    5,082
    Nov 12, 2012
    Chapel Hill, NC
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    Just rolled out of the sleeper, tapped the Qualcomm, no preassignment... got back in bed, played around on my phone for all of 30 seconds and... a new preassignment has arrived! Good timing, lol. I have a 1400 appointment at Nike which if I remember correctly isn't too far from Kroger here. Last time I was there they were SLOW, you have to drop your empty, they dock and load it, then bring it back out, but, its only a 20k load with a nice 800 mile run up to Carlisle, PA, so I can't complain! Its got plenty of time on it too, so I can run short today and stop early, then get up early tomorrow and get back on my regular schedule. Hopefully I'll be able to stop through the Carlisle OC too, I always like to when I can because its nice to get a free shower and some good food and know you've got a guaranteed place to park.

    Anyway, I'll probably start heading towards Nike at about 1200 or so and get there a little early, in the meantime looks like I'll just be sitting here in the Kroger drop yard playing around on my laptop. If its not too far out of route I may swing through West Memphis to fill up my fuel on the way out.
     
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  3. HotH2o

    HotH2o Road Train Member

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    4,863
    Sep 23, 2012
    Bunyan Springs, Colorado
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    Get yourself a yardstick. I carry one with me. Works better than any fuel gauge they can install on the truck. My fuel gauge is off anywhere between 1/8-1/4 tank but my yardstick is dead on!
     
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  4. Boka

    Boka Light Load Member

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    Nov 6, 2012
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    This thread is like reading a book! Very interesting and very well written.... Cant wait for the next upload from dieselfuelonly
     
  5. dieselfuelonly

    dieselfuelonly Road Train Member

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    Nov 12, 2012
    Chapel Hill, NC
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    Arrived at Nike at 1200 and and wasn't a live load as the computer thought, they had me drop my empty and park outside the gate.

    Sat, and sat... and sat. Load was supposed to be ready at 1400, so if I have to wait its my fault for getting there a little early.

    1500 still sitting... OK, no problem, maybe its just taking a little extra time

    1600... still sitting, go inside, ask how things are coming along. They get on the radio and have no clue. They walk around for about 5 minutes and finally come back to me and tell me it will be ready in 30 minutes. (Yeah right I'll lay money someone completely forgot and hadn't even started loading it yet).

    1730, finally the guard comes out to my truck and tells me its ready. I pull it off the dock and look in the back. Its only 8000lbs worth of boxes that take up only a tiny fraction of the trailer. It would have taken all of 20 minutes to load it. Yeah, someone forgot to do their job today.

    As usual, even though I had a crappy day before, as soon as I hit the road, window down, some of my favorite songs playing, the smell of that heavy air after it just rained, sun starting to set, just completely and totally relaxed... I forget about all of the frustrations.

    I love this job.

    So, I got a whole 98 miles today. 4.5 hours left on my clock, but I want to get back on a "normal" schedule. Stopped at the Loves, went to the Hardees, got a burger, 5 minutes later my stomach started acting up, quickly had to find a garbage bag in my truck and launched it all up. Man there must have been something nasty in there.

    Tomorrow... hopefully... will be a very good day. Got 800 miles left, and hope to knock a big chuck out of them tomorrow. Shouldn't be a problem with only an 8000lb load and with full fuel tanks the only stopping I should have to do is when I have to hit the head, and I'll probably stop for about an hour to eat and take a nap, because on a long day of driving I always get tired after I eat lunch... a quick nap works wonders and then I can finish off the rest of the day without stopping.

    Well... been doing a TON of idling compared to what I usually do, idled all night last night to stay cool and almost the entire time sitting waiting for my load this morning. May try to shut it off and just use the sleeper vents and fan, but my rule of thumb for idling is I'm happy to turn it off, but if I wake up in the middle of the night because I'm sweating and rolling around trying to get back to sleep... its getting cranked back up.
     
  6. Worried Mom

    Worried Mom Light Load Member

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    Jun 19, 2013
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    My son got 3 days OTR training from Schneider and got put on his own in a clunker and is terrified too. Really, they need a law of OTR training time for newbies. It puts the truckers life and everyones life on the road at a crazy risk and it should not be happening, just so schneider don't have to pay the extra to train their new hires. Something should be done!!!!! GREEDY COMPANYS KILL and should be regulated!!!!
     
  7. ethos

    ethos Road Train Member

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    Mar 3, 2013
    Houston
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    Four post and all about this nonsense. If your son only got three days with a trainer he should have spoke up. If he is scared then he shouldn't drive.
     
  8. Opus

    Opus Road Train Member

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    Dec 18, 2011
    South GA
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    amen......
     
  9. dieselfuelonly

    dieselfuelonly Road Train Member

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    Nov 12, 2012
    Chapel Hill, NC
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    Please get this crap out of my thread. If your son is truly terrified and doesn't feel ready then why on earth is he out on his own. When I got done with my training time with the trainer, there were some things I still wasn't comfortable with (go back and read, bumping docks) so I DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT and asked for some practice which Schneider provided.

    Do I wish I had spent some more time training before I went out on my own? Yeah, probably. Would they have let me stay out longer with a trainer if I had really pushed it? Absolutely. Did I get out there and somehow survive the first week without the world collapsing? You bet. Bottom line is no one is sitting there holding a gun to your sons forehead telling him to drive the truck.
     
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  10. dieselfuelonly

    dieselfuelonly Road Train Member

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    Nov 12, 2012
    Chapel Hill, NC
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    That beside, its time for an update:

    Yesterday I got about 450 miles and made it to a Flying J somewhere kinda near Roanoke, VA. I had planned to go about an extra 50 miles and make it to a rest stop, but to be honest I wanted some food! So, I stopped at 450 miles for the day and 2 hours left on the clock. I had made really good time despite the crappy weather and Prime putting his truck in the median (but props to him for keeping it upright!), so I slept in a little bit this morning and then hit the road.

    Made my delivery at Ross in Carlisle, PA this afternoon. I had hoped to get a chance to stop through the OC for a shower and some food, but while I was at Ross a preassignment showed up with a full work assignment with a pickup and delivery that had to be made by tonight! Dang, there goes my little break. So, hooked up my empty and blasted out of Ross and headed towards Lancaster, PA for the pickup. 1500 stop lights, gear shifts, buggies, hills, etc., later, I made the pickup. Luckily instead of the 40,000lbs the Qualcomm predicted it was only about 10,000lbs of cardboard boxes! Slammed the tandems all the way forward and headed out for Dover, DE. Arrived at P&G in Dover, DE with 1:30 left on the 14 and ticking away. By the time I dropped my loaded trailer, and picked up my empty I was down to about an hour. Talked with a Werner driver for a second and we decided to try to find a place to park, we ended up making it to an abandoned Wal-Mart several miles down the road. Good enough I guess, though I would have loved to have done some shopping... I'm still out of bread, so for dinner my choices were either spend 15+ bucks at Bob Evans or enjoy a well-balanced meal of some random applesauce cans, some Toast-Chee crackers and some goldfish. I opted for the latter because to be honest I'm wiped out didn't feel like walking over to Bob Evans. Hows that for lazy? Today was a full day for sure, I'd say I worked 13:30 of my 14 hours, used up almost all of my 11, got 500 miles.

    And tomorrow... comes my least favorite kind of load...

    3 stop offs. All live loads. Drop and hook on 4th and final stop, thank God. Start at 0800 and will (hopefully) be done with it by mid afternoon. C'mon Schneider, give me some longer runs!!!

    Other than that... new truck is doing awesome, trying my best to keep it clean. Got the fuel figured out, it looks like when the fuel gets to a certain point it all gets pumped into the tank with the sender, so the gauge will "hover" around the 1/4 mark for quite some time as fuel gets pumped in.

    So, hopefully this load tomorrow won't be a nightmare. We'll see how it turns out.

    Until next time...
     
  11. burasjr123

    burasjr123 Bobtail Member

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    Jun 19, 2013
    AMITE,LA.
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    hello worried mom i'm about to become a truck driver with schneider hopefully as a newbie to the truck driving industry, but before that i did 10 years and 2 diployments in the navy so i know what its like to be gone a long time from home and i did a lot of growing up and now at 41 i have alot of experience being away from home and i'm use to it, my point is that every young man has to find his way in this world, you have to let him find his way, tell him that it's time to grow up become the grown man he needs to be nothing is going to be honkydory in this world. just tell him you love him, be save, trust in god, he already knows the basics of the job, the real test is how does he react to the real world, my guess he'll be find, it just takes getting experience. so just tell keep his head up and keep getting the experience that he needs.
     
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