Tell us about your first solo trip

Do any of you old hands remember running Route 66 especially from Chicago to Los Angeles or back? How was it?

 

My first trip was with a trainer, but it would prove to be more of an event than my first solo trip. This was my only trip with a trainer, after this I would drive solo to this same destination, as well as St. Louis, western Mn, and Indianapolis.

I got my cdl in May, 2010. My first job was pulling a milk tanker from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to a cheese plant in Lake Norden,South Dakota. My trainer was 19 years old, so he could not drive legally outside the state of IA. He drove to the Minn. border and then I drove. It was my first time driving an 18 speed and I watched the kid do the shifting and learned how to use the splitter button for each gear. After a while, he gets into the sleeper and says to wake him up if I need anything.

I had checked the Minn. route using I-90 and I-25 in South Dakota and had made a mental note that there were not any weigh stations shown on the current Rand McNally map. The Minn. page showed the portion of South Dakota we would be driving on, and no weigh scales were shown for our route.

After several hours we were getting close to South Dakota and there was a lot of construction with many warning signs. The speed limit dropped from 70 mph to 60 mph in the construction zone in South Dakota. I was watching the signs carefully thinking there would be signs to slow me down to 45 mph, like there is in Iowa construction zones. After a few miles of construction, I see a highway patrol car following me.....and following me......I am thinking, why doesn't he put his lights on, if he is going to pull me over. Well then he finally drops off my tail, and then a DOT car pulls in behind me, and he puts his lights on and I pull over.

Here I am, driving 4 hours, on my first day of driving a truck and I am pulling over for the DOT!!!

The nice officer comes up to the truck and I ask him what is going on. He says, "You missed the Port of Entry". I am perplexed...thinking to myself, what the hell is a port of entry doing up here on dry land??? (I had been through a port of entry in FL when I went on a cruise a few years back). I asked the officer, "What is a port of entry".. His reply, " A weigh scale"......I go, "What, I didn't see any sign, and I didn't see one on my Rand McNally map....I would never miss a weigh scale on purpose....I was busy looking for a 45 mph speed limit sign for the construction zone, but I didn't see one". He responds, "Oh, in SD they don't care about the people working in construction zones, as the speed limit stays at 60 mph". Ok then, that explains why I didn't see any 45 mph speed limit signs.....I had thought perhaps that I was being pulled over for speeding in a construction zone, which I would not intentionally do. (The weigh station was in a rest stop, and I recalled seeing the rest stop signs only)

So, he invites me back to his car, along with his partner. He looks at my log book as we are walking back to his car and says, "You don't have the prior 7 days logged in your log book". I explain, "Today is my first day driving". As he is telling me about the regs, I start to recall the 7 day prior rule......and he has me write in my log book for those dates, "Off Duty".....
The other officer is then walking back to the car shaking his head, and tells the senior officer, "The guy in the sleeper is only 19 years old". They discuss the fact that there is nothing wrong with a co-driver that is in the sleeper, as I was the one driving and my log book shows I took over at the Minn. state line, which I did.

So the officer writes me up for 1. Missing a weigh scale, 2. Log book violation.....but he writes it as a Warning. No fine, which would have been $160 each. Tankers don't load over weight, which I am sure the officer knew, so I had no motive to not stop at the weigh scale.

Finally, I am back on the road, and the rest of the trip goes fine.

Back at home, I go to the instructors at the community college school I had my cdl training to tell them about what had happened. The one instructor said, "Oh, we usually have student drivers keep a log book up during their driving training, but we didn't this semester." I didn't care for that answer. And they commented they have never heard of a DOT officer writing a warning ticket instead of a ticket with a fine, so I felt fortunate to not have to pay a fine for my two infractions.

And finally, why did the 2010 Rand McNally atlas not have the weigh scale on the map??? Because I was looking at the Minn. page. which had the eastern part of South Dakota on it, and the route I would take. When I flipped over to the South Dakota page, the Weigh scale was shown on that page. Lesson learned.....check the state map for each state, because Rand McNally does not list weigh scales of the border states shown around a state. I wonder if anyone else has ever noticed this????

And I would, of course, never forget to carry the prior 7 day record of my log book with me ever again, even if I had not worked the prior 7 days!!!

 

LOL a 19 year old training a 59 year old. Now I heard everything.

 

I don't remember the pickup and delivery details, just the problems. It might have been my second trip or third.

Picked up and was overweight on the steers. Had to slide the fifth wheel and it was not cooperating.

After about an hour I got it legal and then rolled another 20 miles to fuel at my "scheduled fuel stop".

Fuel card is not working, even though it opened the pump and I fueled before they told me. After fueling it said "see cashier"! I pulled forward of the pump and spent 45 minutes inside trying to resolve the issue. I kept telling the clerk, "You have my license and company fuel card. I need to move my truck off the island!" She says, "You will be fine", as I hear horns honking nonstop... I get it resolved, and paid, and come back out to find graffiti sprayed on my trailer.

During my pretrip on this run I found a marker light out on the trailer. So I am freaking out that I am going to lose my license or something... The truck stop does not have the light. I run the remaining four hours "illegal"!!! Rolling the back roads to avoid a scale! What a dork...

Almost at the receiver, 2am on a four lane road, oncoming trucks are flashing their lights at me. I had a CB, from when I as like 12, but it was not working.

I slow down and roll up on three deer standing in the middle of my lanes! Licking salt off the road or something.

I made my appointment time by 15 minutes. Got unloaded and then spent 20 minutes backing into the last spot available at the pilot.

Mikeeee

 

I remember another trip I was on just shortly after I started driving. It wasn't my first trip, but close. I had an old MC Atlas and was heading to VA through WVA. It didn't show that I-64 connected to I-77. So I took US 60 to head over to I-81. Boy was that a mistake and was I pissed when I found out I-64 was completed. I immediately bought a new map.

 

Aminal ,

That was a terrific read about your first solo. It was funny,serious, all at the same time. I don't think that can be topped.