From School to Superior Carriers

Congrats!!! Now the real training begins!

 

Wed 2/13

Left about 7:30 AM EST to deliver our load in West Nashville. My trainer drove to the plant. We found it easily but once we got there had a bit of a hassle finding where to unload. The guard at the gate didn't stop us and just waved us through. We saw another tanker so we headed in that direction, parked behind it and went looking for someone. This was a plant that makes bath mat material and there were big machines everywhere with it. We asked a couple of people who asked a few more and finally got high enough up the food chain to find out where to go. They had us drive all the around the building on a serpentine gravel road to a dead end in the back. About the time we thought we were screwed the last women we talked to came out with another guy who showed us where to hook up the hoses and showed us where to turn the truck around. They had to have people move about 4 cars and the truck had to be backed into a 6 foot indention in the building to have room to make a 3 point type 180 degree turn. Then you could back right up to the loading area headed back the way we came in. About this time it starts snowing. We aired off our load and headed out to Memphis. My trainer drove this leg of the trip as well.

Once we got to Memphis our trailer and paperwork was waiting for us. We hooked to it and did a pretrip. It was missing a side light bulb and the nut on the external valve was so loose it was about about to come off and about half a cup of product had leaked out on the ground. Good thing this wasn't a hazmat load or someone could have gotten a big fine bring that down the road. We pulled up to the shop, replaced the bulb, tightened up the nut and that stopped the leak. Now it was my turn to drive.

This tank was loaded heavy at 44800 Lbs and it bumped you pretty good but seemed to settle down faster than some of the other loads i have pulled. I pulled it nonstop back to Nashville. Hit Nashville traffic right around 5:00 so I got a good taste of rush hour in a decent size city. Got to the same hotel as last night around 6:00PM and we decided to get an early start to get back in time for Valentines day. Our load doesn't deliver until 1:00 Friday so we could take our time.

Thurs 2/14

Left about 6:00 AM and drove the load back to High Point with only one fuel stop just past Knoxville. I did all the driving. This was the longest stretch that I have done in one day. I logged 8.75 hours driving that day. We came back through the gorge on I40 and down Black mountain. This was different than when I drove through there on Tuesday. Then we only had about 10,000 Lbs of product. Today it was 44,800. The gorge was pretty easy. I just downshifted into 9th and pretty much cruised through those turns. In a loaded tanker we try to stay at least 5 mph below the posted caution speed signs in curves. 9th gear worked great. At Black Mountain the truck speed limit is 35 mph. You have to stop at the top. I shifted up to 7th but that was running too many RPMs so on a short flat spot right at the top I grabbed 8th and snub braked to keep my speed around 35 mph. Made it down without using the jake brake. That will probably be the last time I go down a mountain without the jake but it was good to know how without it.

At the bottom we got a message from dispatch saying we could drop our trailer at the customer so we went on to Greensboro, spotted our load and bob tailed back to the terminal. Finished up about 3:30PM and my trainer got Friday off.

 

Friday 2/15

Came in about 8:30 AM and loaded another load of tank wash waste water. I talked to my terminal manager and he issued me a comdata card. My first solo dispatch will be Monday so I am officially a company driver now. My first load will be a 6:00 AM delivery over in Greensboro of a spotted tank on our yard. They are going to run me local this week. I also found out they have a truck for me. Its a 2003 Freightliner with 700,000 miles on it and is located in Pasadena TX. If they get a load headed that way I may be riding with someone to get it. Until then I will be driving a day cab doing local work. I am a bit apprehensive about it since it has a super 10 transmission and I have never driven one before. I am going to go down to the terminal on Sunday and drive it around bobtail until I get the hang of it and then hook to my load so I can get an early start on Monday and not have to worry about that. This site has been helpful. I found a nice video made by Eaton on here of how to shift a super 10.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...eos/33327-video-on-super-10-transmission.html

 

Sounds good BigDaddyJollyRob. Only thing I might caution you on. I have read that some companies do not count experience in a straight truck as experience. When you try to go back to tractor trailers they make you start over with the training. I am a rookie too so take that for what its worth. Congrats on your new job and i hope it works out for you.