I Start With Averitt in January 2012

From the "What A Day" department...Yesterday it took almost 4 hours on the dock to get unloaded and reloaded. By the time I hit the road in NJ my 11 had caught up with my 14. Baltimore took about 2 hours to get through and a shut down on 70 headed to 81. Total of 330 miles driven. That left 675 to run today. About 60 miles shy of Tennessee on 81 I am climbing up this hill and all of sudden I get a check engine light and start losing all power. I get over to the side of the road and hit my flashers. Check all radiator and engine oil...both are full and fine. I get back in the tractor and it starts up no problem. I head for the Tri Cities yard in Kingston and the shop there hooks my rig up to a laptop. Turns out the new oil they started using is gunking up the oil filters. They replaced them and I was on my way. Now I had a 10 minute window of difference between my 14 and my 11. I drove it like I stole it. Got to within 11 miles of my customer in Vance, AL and shut down at the Petro with 10 minutes on my clock.

I am ready for rest and an uneventful day tomorrow. Maybe even getting home on Friday for a change. Maybe. LOL

 

That is awesome! Congrats on the new position. Now where is my #### load??? LOL

I had a wonderful weekend. Got in late Friday night. Spent Saturday and Sunday with my family, got a motorcycle ride in both days and was able to attend my MC's monthly meeting and ride with some of my club brothers.

Back to work today. Finished off a load from Chattanooga to Knoxville and then got a load from Loudon, TN to Mt. Laurel, NJ. It doesn't deliver until Wednesday morning and I will be at the customer by tomorrow afternoon but I'll take it.

It will be a short week. My grandson turns 14 this week so we are celebrating his birthday this weekend. I am supposed to get in early on Friday and am flagged not to go out again until Monday morning. Should be able to knock out a couple thousand miles this week though.

 

JSB, it does my heart good every time I hear from someone who read my thread and gets something positive and helpful out of it. Congrats on getting hired. You will love it.

As for advice on the training process, just soak up everything your trainer shows you. If you can write notes on everything (when you aren't driving of course) as it will come in handy when you go solo. Hopefully your trainer will be like mine and have you do lots of "yard work." Backing sessions where you learn the different types of backs and get a better idea of how to set them up and get them done.

For sure get familiar with the manual GPS...the truckers road atlas. If you can read a map you can get around some terrible back ups on interstates, etc by routing yourself around them. Your eletronic GPS isn't always reliable. You will save yourself a lot of heartache if you master the atlas.

I am sure Mustang and others will chime in. I am excited for you. Best of luck.