Beginning the Long Awaited CDL Process

Chompi, I hope you and the family had the best of holidays. I was headed in your direction and I've been.........side tracked.....so to speak.


Time to type.

 

Hello Everyone.

Well, my truck is back at a Freightliner dealership.........again.

And I'm at a hotel.........again.


Let's see....In our last episode......sorry, commercial. I was sitting in Hammond, LA on New Years day waiting for dispatch when I get a load from Pineville, La to.................ready?................Miami, FL. Nothing says happy driver like a 1000 mile load to start off the new year.

The load (pre-loaded trailer) couldn't be picked up until Monday, so I decided to head toward Pineville on Sunday and stop about an 45 minutes from the shipper in Bunkie, LA. I stopped at Sammy's Auto & Truck Plaza on I 49. Nothing remarkable about this TS but it had all the basics and more room for parking than they'll ever need.

So on Monday morning, with a 0900 pick up appoint, and me still on EST, I head to the shipper (P&G) and arrive about 40 minutes early. Wasn't a problem at all. Checked in with guard shack, found out where to drop my mty, and the location of my loaded trailer. Grabbed the new box, which only had 21K aboard, so no need to scale, sent in my "Loaded at Shipper" macro and bugged out all before my 0900 appointment time.

I head back down I 49 and pick up I 10 eastbound with a plan on stopping somewhere in the Mariana, FL area for my 10 hr. break. So far, so good, right?

Here's where it gets interesting...


As I'm cruising along on 10 in Mississippi, there's a portion where there are a couple of bridges that cross over a lake or inlet basin. Well, as I'm approaching the crest of the bridge just on the other side is a parking lot of traffic because two un-related 4 car accidents.

Was I taken by suprise?.....sure... who wouldn't be.....so knowing that slowing gradually and downshifting was out of the question had to apply moderate to heavy pressure on the brakes to slow down.





The steering wheel shook so violently (oscillating left to right like bad a bad brake rotor) I had trouble controlling the beast. Being in the right hand lane, I pointed the truck in the direction of the break down lane which would give me a little more room to stop and allowed me to ease off the brakes and get control back.

I was able to pump the brakes and and slow the truck enough where I could stop safely, and never did need the breakdown lane.

My first reaction was followed by . (The angry little dude face is expressing his discontent with the condition of the truck brakes, not with people.)


I was surprised by the accident, but had plenty of time to stop without losing control of the tractor and trailer. What I was not prepared for was the sudden steering wheel shake that accompanied this hard braking situation. I was not a happy camper.

Once the traffic cleared and we started moving again, I paid close attention to the tractor as I brought her up to speed. The vibrations that I wrote about in an early post were still there. I tested the braking in light to moderate braking and it seemed OK. I elected to continue with my plan to head toward FL and decided to put in at the TA, contact breakdown, and see how they wanted to proceed. I had a time critical load and there wasn't much margin for delays.

Breakdown said "Get it to Freightliner Immediately." So when I got up from my 10 hour break, I headed into Alabama to a nearby Freightliner dealer. This, of course concerns dispatch, and I told them to line up someone to repower this load, because I knew USX wasn't going to let my truck back on the road with any type of brake problem.

30 minutes after I arrived, service comes out to the drivers lounge to tell me the brake drums needed to be replaced. ETA on the drums is Friday. I sent an e-mail into my FM and told her that the truck was out of service, and she repowered my load. No trip to Miami for me.......bummer.

So I get to spend some more time in the hotel while they get my buggy sorted out. I'm hoping I'll be under way before the weekend.


This episode drove home the point about focus and paying attention when you drive. I was watching the road, it was daylight, sun was out, and I still got caught off guard. I saw the roof line of another truck not moving so I had lifted off the throttle. The crest of that bridge hid the cars from my line of sight and I thank God I was able to stop safely.

Any new drivers reading this should make certain to be aware that if you can't see what's in front of you, speed is not your friend.



Ok, enough gloomy stuff.


Down below is a picture of my Dixie. One of these days I'll have to get AT to show me how to bring in full size images.


That's it for now. I'll let you know how the repairs are proceeding with my truck.





Thanks for reading.

-Wedge

 

I'm fine, Sammycat. Thanks.

If my truck was operating normally, there would be no story. All of us have been in that situation at least once in our lives whether we drive cars or trucks.

The steering shake added an element that I didn't expect, so it caused me to act defensivly to ensure the safety of others. And as it turned out, I was successful in slowing the truck down, and I think I was the only one who noticed.

That's the truck that had the wonderful aroma. They did do a great job of eliminating the smell. I get a little hint of it from time to time but that might be more pyscologial than anything else.

You can evaluate it when I come up there for that coffee.

 

Indeed.

Any distraction in that situation could have easily resulted in an unpleasant outcome. As all are taught, or should be, proper defensive driving in a tractor requires the driver to see at least a 1/4 of a mile ahead so he or she can be prepared to react in case of a situation such as this.

Driving at night and poor weather conditions are not the only things that impede our vision. Anything that disrupts our 'line of sight' must be taken into account.

I was compelled to write about this event to help others.

The reason why I have never started a US Xpress thread is that I'm still in the learning stages of my CMV career, and there are many TTR members and guests that read these threads to learn about trucking and what they can expect.

 

You're right, Chompi. Excellent idea.

I always keep it on. It's a good early warning system.

I don't remember if I got a heads up over the CB or not. I do remember seeing the back of a non-moving box and that made me lift off the throttle. I was one of the first tractors to arrive at the scene which would explain the lack of CB chatter.

 

Hello Everyone.

Where do I begin?


The good news is I'm on the road again. The bad news is I'm in another truck.

Apparently, brake drum problems with these Cascadias are fairly common. It was going to take 3-5 days to get the replacements, so USX decided to re-seat me into another truck.

I'm now in a 2010 Cascadia with an Autoshift. It has 345k for mileage, but the truck's condition seems pretty good. But that's not making up for taking away my 10 speed. I was glad to get away from the Autoshift this past summer. It just doesn't offer the touch (for lack of a better word) that you have with a manual transmission. And by that, I mean things like coupling, sliding tandems, adjusting 5th wheel positions, docking, and even parking. I'm not happy with being put back in one now that winter is here. Mountain driving with snow conditions is enough of a challenge without having to deal with controlling speed with an auto. It's much easier with a manual transmission.

How long I'll be relegated to this tractor is unknown. I guess until I can talk to someone about this I'll have to make the best of it.

Well, I just finished up a paper load from Monroe, LA to Barling AR. It delivered late last night...........well 8 pm was my appointment time. But by the time it was unloaded, I had been there almost 4 hours. With my clock running low, finding a place to park can be a challenge at that hour.

Here's a tip.....

I have learned that trying to find late night parking at a Pilot, Flying J, Loves, or even sometimes a TA can be near impossible. Whenever I know that my delivery is going to be at a late hour, I plan on heading to truck stops that are not the ones listed above. Right now, as an example, I'm at Hilltop Travel Center, on I 540 in Rudy, AR. There was plenty of available parking when I rolled in last night (about midnight), and they have a real sit down restaurant. The place is modern and clean, and they have showers and laundry available. Only shortcoming is they don't have a scale and they don't do repairs. It's a haven and has just about everything that you need. So if you need to find a TS late at night, don't forget to keep these places in mind.

So right now I'm waiting to be dispatched. I don't much care for having no pre-plan on a weekend. The re-seat into this truck caused most of that. My regular FM had already left for the weekend by the time I was dispatched on that paper load. In most cases I'm always dispatched over a weekend with a delivery on Monday or so, but with the holidays being over, freight demands fall off, so I could be here for a while, or at least until my regular FM comes in tomorrow.


At the least, I'll get some laundry done. Oh...and I'll be sure to keep you updated on the truck situation.



Thanks for reading.

-Wedge