6/21/16 Is the beginning of my Schneider career!!!

Yeah, there's no appropriate warning for the last week lol. I left at 2pm today and my head is still throbbing trying to find room to store all of this information. I feel confident that I'm prepared to get thrown to the wolves but I know I'm going to freeze when it comes to ETA and NAT setting lol. But, I feel confident that I have support in my DBL for help. Just in the short time I met him yesterday and today I noticed him remembering things and I was surprised. I'm a Kenworth away from being the happiest man on Earth!!!

Thanks for your condolences. It's actually an interesting situation. My grandmother passed 5 years ago. She wanted to be cremated but buried with her mother. Her brother (my great uncle) wanted the same. He passed away last October. The family made all the arrangements fast but called the military last to arrange their service. They couldn't do it the same weekend they had it all booked and they would have had to wait a month (if I remember right). So they scheduled it near his birthday this year. Instead of rearranging and pushing everything else back. So, essentially the funeral is an at rest type of thing. My grandmother was like my mother. She raised me from 8 on up. I didn't think this would be as emotional as it has been leading up to it. But it's more of a happy emotion of finally fulfilling her wish. I'm looking forward to it as a good time. If that doesn't sound morbid.

 

I'm less worried about heat. I like it cold. We go camping about March and after October every year. Usually below 30 at night. I sleep fine. I refuse to camp in the summer. I'm no stranger to working in heat. I did it for years in Tampa FL working construction. When I relax or go home I like it cold. Our AC is set to 73 in the summer and heat at 70 in the winter. That is my only concern. My trainer had something on the back of his tractor that did AC. I forget what he called it. It's not an APU though.

 

Whew..... interesting first week. Every day I've been maxing out my 14 almost. Until today. I'll get more into that a little later.

I left out on my first week alone.... in my own truck.... by myself.... thrown to the wolves. I've made minor mistakes. My truck has no damage (caused by me). To the best of my knowledge I didn't kill anyone. Unless I scared them to death or something (Missouri backroads.... need I say more?). I have scared myself at times (Missouri roads PERIOD). But to start off I went in Monday and was sent to recover a truck. I wasn't given much info. Nor did I ask. I like suspense lol. So I drove a rental car (go kart) from West Memphis to Fort Smith AR. The whole way imagining a truck full of piss bottles and feces. Or worse (off there is such a thing) a dead body. After all they've had no contact with the driver. I get there and it's literally right by the river but I don't see it. Again my imagination wanders to it being in the river lol. Navigation tells me I've arrived. I'm at a bar lol. I see the river. The bar. No truck. I make a left. Nothing. I U-turn in the go kart and pass the bar and it's parked right behind the bar. It's a brand new Freightliner. But behind a bar. I imagine some hooker drugged him up and he died. I knock first. No answer. I open it up. Smells. But not like dead bodies lol. For a new truck it's pretty dirty but I can live with that. 38k miles. Not bad. I got lucky. I was expecting a beat up truck with some years and miles. I'm happy. I know how to clean. It'll work. I drive to drop off the rental, then a cab back to truck, then couple miles to truck stop.

They set me up with pre-assignment and I map out my route set my ETA and NAT and set up the truck and go to bed. I wake up to find out that they changed my assignment late the night before to pick up an empty an hour away from me then hour back to original assignment. I guess they finally realized I was bobtailing and couldn't live load without a trailer. Duh. I should have caught on as well but I'm new. They're professionals lol. Oops. Either way, I call and they say they'll call to let them know. Well I get my trailer without a hitch (figuratively) and head to the load. I'm late. I'm going to have to wait they say. Hmm. No one called. Hmmmm. I wait 8 hours to get loaded. I called numerous times. I'm frustrated. Anyway I finally get on the road. Get to a truck stop. Go to sleep. Wake up early and start running again. I'm driving and I get a message to stop and call. So I get to a truck stop and call to be told that my numbers are all messed up with my ETA as and NAT and the next pre-assignment and I should have called yesterday. I said I called 4 times yesterday. Luckily I remembered the guys name cause I about went off on him one of the times. They had me set up for a fuel route but when they changed my assignment to get the empty trailer it disappeared. I told the guy that I needed fuel and needed to have one set up with amount to fuel without hurting my fuel route bonus thing. He told me it stays active for 4 days. I said great tell me where it is because I can't see it. He looks and sees is not there then tells me to send a message in macros. I did and went on. Blah blah blah. Anyway. Now I'm ticked lol. So the guy I'm on the phone with is cool. Awesome guy. He gets me all fixed up. Explains mistakes I've been making and we move on. No worries. We'll start over. Rest of the week was pretty low key. I've been figuring some stuff out as I go along. Boosted up .8mpg today with a trick. So on my trip I'm at 7.9mpg. Hopefully get into the mid 8s tomorrow. I bought some clorox wipes and cleaned the truck top to bottom. I'm finally happy with the way it looks outside. Today I ran 584.9 miles. Wish the next truck stop was a little closer and I would have broke 600. But overall I've gotten 1800 miles for the week. I'm still out right now in OH. Headed home tomorrow for a restart and then I'm going to try to be out for 2 full weeks. The wife is going out of town with some friends. Might as well run when I can.

Today was interesting though driving. I was running some uneven pavement and horribly paved roads. It was a test. I was thinking the whole time that every trucker that passes knows I'm new because of my swerving. I just could not keep it straight. I don't get the opportunity to pass as many people to see them from behind to tell if everyone struggles with it or just me. Then I hit a work zone and people have to go my speed lol. I see them struggling to stay straight as well. I'm relieved. I don't look like a total ###. So far I'm happy though. I don't like sitting. Who does?

The saga continues. More updates when I'm able to. Days where I'm working off of my 11 are better days. Like today. Be safe out there fellow drivers!