Transport America

Well, I went out from Friday to Wednesday with my first trainer (so that would be 6 days)... and I've been out with my current trainer since last Friday night (Saturday Morning really), and this is Wednesday night (so that would be 5 days) except we sat for a day waiting on an assignment, so I guess that would be 4 days... so something like 10 days altogether?! The truth is, I'm going to try to extend my training past the 21 days, for at least another week. I'm not in any hurry to go solo (at this point).

Wow - yeah - I heard the same thing... they said their trucks are rotated out every 3 years!?

My trainer says that those are all supposed to be out of the fleet within the next 60 days max, she says. (I showed her your post)
She also says those trucks are 'Trade-in trucks' and they are being rotated out. (She assumes it's a Columbia)
She says you probably won't have it long - maybe 30 days max.

Yeah - no doubt - I wouldn't want to end up with one of those either.
Luckily for me I guess, she also said there aren't any Columbia's in our terminal.

Where is your terminal? Mine is in North Jackson, Ohio.

 

Yep! Mike was my first trainer! I got your request and accepted it... I noticed you were a friend of Mike's!
Just curious... how'd you know I was one and the same person? I'm glad you could make the connection.
For all I know, there's some piece of information I put somewhere in here that has my name on it... I just don't remember?

I told Mike about this site, but don't know if he's looked at it yet? If you think about it, the next time you talk to him, maybe you could tell him how you found it?!

 

So... today I got to see and spend some time at the Dallas terminal - and take a much needed shower!!!
It was REALLY windy here today. If Chicago is supposed to be the Windy City... I think this place put it to shame today!

We picked up a loaded trailer this morning in Tyler TX, and dropped it for a relay at the Dallas terminal. There we picked up a relay and we're now headed to Laredo TX.

I've never been this far south before... it was really interesting to learn that Arkansas has a LOT of rice fields! I had no idea! Another interesting tidbit, was the alligator displays at the truck stops... heads, teeth and necklaces... kinda cool!

If I had my own truck I might have bought some for Christmas gifts or stocking stuffers... but I have enough crap to carry as it is!!

One thing I'll say is... DO YOUR PRE-TRIPS on the trailers especially!!!

Since I've been out here (all of 10 days) I've found missing valve stem caps on several wheels - I'm starting to think it's pretty common... I've also found a broken hinge on one of the doors, twine wrapped around the drum between the wheels (a lot of twine... it took awhile to cut it all off and get it out), a running light out on the top right front, 2 trailers needed license plate lights... and on the trailer we picked up at the terminal (that had just been dropped), my trainer found that the emergency brakes on one of the wheels wasn't touching the drum (slack adjusters had to be manually adjusted).

(((Note to self: get a BUNCH of valve stem caps and white license plate lights (both kinds) from the shop when you get your own truck... and probably wouldn't hurt to get some extra marker lights for the truck and trailer, not to mention stop, ways and signals)))

Be safe! Catch ya later! =)

 

Yeah... we had glad hand seals missing on one of the trailers that came back - but the tires were the same.
My trainer told me, trailers come back with all kinds of stuff stripped from them or exchanged... the one we picked up didn't have the drivers signature on the paperwork.

 

Well, we picked up a dropped trailer at the Laredo terminal (yesterday) and we're headed back toward Chicago now. It's over 1400 miles altogether. We didn't get out of Dallas until after noon, and ran out of hours around 6 PM. Today I drove over 500 miles in just over 10 hours (my personal best so far)!

The number of miles have varied so far. I haven't added up all of the miles I've driven in the past week yet... I'll have to do that, just out of curiosity - but this is the first week that I've filled every day with hours toward my 70. I think I still have about 14 hours on the books.

I've had 2 runs of over 1000 miles though, in the time since I left orientation - one with my first trainer, and now this one with my 2nd. The number of runs we did to get to Laredo probably all add up to over 1000 miles too (seems to make sense that it would, since we started in North Jackson, Ohio and went to Indianapolis first). So, just a guess off the top of my head, would be over 2,000 miles in a week... and this is getting into the slow period for the industry.

After the holidays, freight will probably drop off a lot. That can be good and bad for me I guess... good in the sense that when I go solo, I might have a little more time to figure things out - but bad in the sense that it means less miles and lower pay (probably). I really won't know until it happens. Hopefully, I'll be able to hit the ground running after training, and be able to get things in order pretty quick. I think the hardest part will be to get / keep my bearings when pulling in / out of truck stops - and customer locations. The in-between driving is the easy part!

Hmmmm - let me rephrase that... it's the easy part when the road is dry and the weather is good... since we're now heading up north where the snow storms have been pounding the country from the west to the east, and shut down Iowa... the 'easy part' is about to become a whole new ballgame!