Superior Carriers

Started my orientation / training on Monday as well at Pasadena. Did paper work and got shown around the facility yesterday. Went through how to hook up hoses for a pump off this morning and then watched a bunch of training vids this afternoon. My trainer seems like a great lady so far, I just hope she stays patient w/ my very green ###! LOL!

Tomorrow we're going at 4 a.m. to pick up our first local load so expect to learn a lot!

 

Nice! After I got to the terminal today we didn't have any loads scheduled so I drove bobtail for a bit so my trainer can see how I handle the truck. Our trailer pickup tomorrow isn't until noon, so we're gonna try and grab an empty and do some driving with that and work on backing. I like my trainer as well, pretty old school, but also a bit of a "young at heart" kinda guy.

 

Yeah I'm kinda bummed I haven't been able to use the winter clothes I got for this job yet lol. So first loaded day is done. We did some more driving with an empty while we were waiting for our tank to get prepped. After that, we worked on some backing. Did my first blindside and holy crap does it suck lol. Still having a little trouble seeing when the trailer is straight due to the awkward angle of the mirrors. My coupling is getting better tho.

Anyway, our trailer was ready a little early, so we went ahead and hooked up and headed out. I drove to the shipper and got it in the loading area. It was pretty awkward as you have to do a pretty big button hook out of the scale to get lined up and even then you have to do almost an offset back to get it in there. Took me a couple of pullups but I got it in there. Once we were loaded, my trainer had me bring it back around to the scale to weigh heavy to get a little taste of loaded, then he took over and drove back to the terminal. Yeah, the surge is real lol. I'm not a fan of how the Prostars shift. To much time out of gear and they're not very smooth on the clutch, which makes the surge worse. Tomorrow if we don't have a load we're gonna hook up to an empty and go across the river and fill up the DEF, then come back across and do some interstate driving. Maybe go to Hammond about 40 miles away for a truck wash. If we do have a load, I'm gonna be doing it start to finish. So much for observing the trainer for a week lol.

 

Are you adjusting your passenger side mirror for the blindside back?

 

Nope just a lot of GOAL and getting some advice from my trainer lol. I'll remember that for next time. Thanks for the tip!

 

I'm not suggesting a mirror adjustment should replace GOAL. Clearly, it depends upon what's going on at both sides of the rear of your trailer.

 

oh no doubt. but it would have made it easier having sight of my tandems for a little longer