My Carolina Cargo Review of Orientation / Training and Driving

My trainer sleeps like a bear in the winter, it really bothers me. When I have a question that needs to be answered in real time I have to yell his name and I'm lucky if he answers back. And when he does answer it's with an attitude because he was sleeping. He did get me out of a jam and I thanked him for it but, he sleeps almost the whole time I'm driving, and if we get somewhere and he was driving and have to sit for a few hours he actually goes to sleep again.

No one should sleep that much, especially a trainer with an 18 wheeler on the road, I sleep almost 6-7 hours and that's the most my body will let me sleep. I have to stay up anyway to watch him drive because that's the only way I can learn from him, I know once I take the wheel he's back in the sleeper berth.

The jam he got me out of:
I had to use the bathroom really bad after driving for 6 hours straight non-stop trying to see how long I can drive without stopping and I wanted to hit 700 miles in one 11 hour shift but it's just not possible with a 65 MPH governor, because construction lanes hold me up and I don't go faster than the posted speed limit in construction lanes that's just not worth it on my driving record ( yes I know I have Felonies, someone is going to say that and so what) I want to keep a clean driving record. But anyway, I had to use it really bad so I pulled over at the next Shell station I saw, I've seen other truckers pull into the side of a regular gas station before but this one had no room and in the middle of nowhere for real. I drove through and went out the other side and as I turned out thinking I have enough on my wide turn to clear the drainage ditch I watched the trailer tires as I turned out and realized I miscalculated about 3 feet off in front of me on my room to turn because there was also another ditch in front, the driver side trailer tires weren't going to make it. As I tried to back up so I could make a wider turn, I made another miscalculation and got side jack knifed I guess that's what I would call it. So, I had a ditch on my left right in the path of my trailer tires and one in front of me just before an open field, the open field ditch is what stopped me from making the wider turn I thought I could make because it was night and I couldn't see it until my headlights shined on it, and even then I said to myself " I think I can make it," but nope. 2015 Peterbilts do not have a sharp turn and I knew that from driving it but I still thought I could make it. I woke him up and spotted him as he got me out of it, since he was now awake I went and took a dump while he waited on the side of the road with the hazards on.

The jam he got me into:

He programmed the GPS his and the standard PeopleNet that comes in the truck, and said "Stop at the Loves on I-70 and get fuel the address is already in both GPS but, follow the PeopleNet GPS not mine." He went in the sleeper berth and fell fast asleep as usual, when I get to about exit 159 on I-70 in Indiana I see a loves coming up, the GPS says it's at exit 166 but I see it at 159 or so, I yell his name and say "I see a loves coming up but it's not exit 166 like the GPS says." I get no response from the 64 year old sleeping beauty. In the blink of an eye I passed the off-ramp, yep, too late and I'm off to exit 166, I get off and don't see a Loves I follow the GPS about 2 minutes which was just long enough to get caught in a Mayberry type small community. I yell his name and tell him the deal, he responds with an attitude and says " Well follow the top GPS then" I do so and it leads me 3 more minutes in to this small very wholesome looking community.

As I saw low looking power lines I yell very loud and of course at this point he can hear the anger in my voice as I say " Wake up these power lines are low and I'm going to stop right here and turn on the hazards and call dispatch or someone!" He responds by saying "Just go through the power lines and if you hit some it's not on you it's on Carolina Cargo because they sent you this way." That was the dumbest thing I have ever heard, as he sat there on the bunk in his underwear yawning and scratching himself I was getting infuriated. I know if I hit anything it's on me, so I go about three miles an hour stopping and looking at each line before I proceed. I made them all and turned out on Indiana SR 127 and got extremely upset about the whole scenario, I pulled over and got out of the driver seat and said "You drive I'm taking a break!" He gave a final yawn put on his pants and shirt that he has been wearing for 5 days ( we took showers but he put on the same clothes) and drove to another Loves just for them to say we are not authorized to purchase from them.

As he drove again he said, " It was good that you stopped at every power line and looked to see if you could make it" I replied "I had no choice I'm not hitting anything anywhere." As he continued to drive he said " I had a trainee a month ago who actually hit a power line and he didn't say anything but someone else saw him and reported it and he got arrested." I asked how did he do that, he replied " he was driving through a small town in Charlottesville." I asked how he could even be doing that he said " he had off-duty time, I said " How could he just drive where he wants to on off-duty time. This angered my trainer very much because he knew that he should have not allowed that to happen in the first place so, he responded in anger and said " Look, he was waiting to get unloaded and when you wait to get unloaded you have off-duty time! Right! I don't want to talk about it anymore!" As he waved his hands in anger, he knew I was aware that it was his fault but he didn't own up to it. Who the hell drives away from a shipping dock while waiting to be unloaded. My trainer must have been sleeping as usual and the guy may have gotten into the same type of GPS issues as me but actually hit a power line.

This training at Carolina Cargo is very unprofessional to say the least, and that's being nice to say it that way.


I'm back at the motel 6 until they get our truck serviced for a routine check tomorrow, I'm glad I get to sleep in a bed at Carolina Cargo's expense.