What was your worst rookie mistake?

sorry guys and gals didnt see this was in the prime company section ill try and delete if need be


pulled out of pepsi cola in bend or proceeded to go out the way i came will its next to the post office i belive anyways cars parked all along the curbs in no parking zones instead of runnin them over i backed out but bein in a corner and tryin to take it wide in the frist place to try to aviod the cars i ended up havin to spin back out of it in the process i cut a nice trench in the hill from the car stop on the trailor then i had to weasle my out the back avioding the fire hydrant, fence lesson learned ill walk the tight spots frist to see if i can make it.

 

Throwing my trainer physically out of the truck and proceeding down the Interstate. took me a while to find a new job after that. But, it was worth it they fired him too.

I had a cop stop me in Chicago a long time ago. He asked if I knew where I was going. Sheepishly I admitted I was lost, and he informed me I was headed into the projects, and he was pretty sure I didn't want to go there. He was nice enough to stop traffic so I could do a U turn.

 

LOL, My mistake was taking a load that delivered downtown Manhattan.

 

I posted this before, but it's worth repeating.
Started driving in 1972. I did line haul work, pulling doubles and triples.
Was at the docks in Seattle. Had to drop my middle trailer, so I uncoupled my last one, as I was suppose to. But I was in a hurry and prone to shortcuts. I had been driving about 6 months at the time.
Failed to chauk the wheels and watched the trailer slowly roll down the dock and into Elliot Bay.
It was empty, thank goodness.
Paid the crane operator to fish it out, did everything else and headed back to the yard in Portland.
Two days later was out hooking up my trailers, preparing to to head out when my boss came by:
"Can you tell me why my trailer # 12345 has a high tide mark inside?!"
I was flaberghasted.
"Next time, chalk the #### wheels!"

And that was one of my two worst rookie mistakes.

 

I got lost in Oakland... Thank GOD my trainer knew where we were goin. Cause I sure didnt. In my defense... The directions were messed up.

 

Two stories come to mind.

The first was a National Lampoon's "Big Ben, Parliament" deal. I was trying to get to a shipper in Kearny, NY. The place was UNDER a bridge. I followed the directions coming in, got to where it should have been, and realized I was lost. A quick pull over and phone call told me I was close, I just needed to get flipped around. What the guy didn't tell me was I needed to do two "detroit left turns" in order to get onto the right side of the street to enter the shipper's property. I spent 2 hours driving around and over this place before I figured it out.

The second was backing into a dock at a consignee. You turned in off the street and then made a left into the receiving area or continued around back to shipping. I pulled in, got my dock assignment, and then because there wasn't room to get flipped around proceeded to blind side in. Almost 30 minutes later I finally get it in the dock and then watch a guy pull past the receiving area, sight side back into the receiving area, and then continue backing into a dock. It never occurred to me that it was permissible to do something like that.

 

Why I try not to park on off/on ramps lol

 

really hot day,shipper wouldnt let me have lded trl til I slid the tandems to the rear.after a half hour of rockin the trl I gotem loose and slid to the rear.cranked down the landing gear and got back in truck.so glad to be done when I took off I heard a bang on the back of the cab,then another bang,and then another.I forgot to unhook airlines.