Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

I thought I'd update this with how things have been going for me.

First off: I managed to have an accident! Yes, I'll man up and admit it. Did I back into something with a trailer? No. Was I following too close and ran into the back of a car? No. Did I manage to hit my upper fairing on the sleeper cab on a tree branch in my own driveway during my hometime? *Sigh* yes.

Oh but it gets better. I've taken the truck home before, and had no problems getting in and out of the driveway. Apparently, after the driveway was leveled out since I brought the truck home last it raised up the height of the ruts that used to be there *just* enough so that a tree limb caught the corner of my fairing and bent it over a bit.

Honesty, I considered throwing a torx bit on my impact gun, taking the fairing off and beating the corner back into shape, putting it back on and going on with my life. The fairings were already beat up from this being a new driver truck, I reported that on my "new driver damage report" when I first got the truck, and no one would probably have ever noticed.

But, I had to be honest with myself. I DID screw up, it was no ones doing but my own and I needed to own up to it. So, I called it in and reported it.

I spoke with my DBL today, told her what happened and she said since it was damage to the equipment it will be considered a preventable accident and I will be routed back through an OC to go through "safety training". I am assuming it will ruin any chance of me getting the bonus (not concerned about that because I drive foot on the floor all the time anyway), but I am disappointed that it will reset my 6-month timer of being able to have a passenger ride along in the truck.

So... yeah, disappointed about that. Of all the places in my first 23,000 miles of being a new driver to run into something, I do it in my own driveway during my hometime just getting my truck turned around to leave.

Oh well, live and learn I guess.

So, time for the paycheck/load/mileage/truck reliability report: I'll make it simple: CRAP!

Before I took my hometime I got routed from PA to SC, then from SC to GA. On the way from SC to GA I let off the throttle with a heavy load and my jake brake greeted me with a much nicer rumble than its usual near-silent operation. After a quick inspection I found that my hard pipe under the cab had broken all the way off right at the u-bolt mount.

So, I the truck stop heading to make my delivery in Atlanta before going to get the exhaust fixed, I hit the highway with a big grin on my face as I wind the old Detroit out and listen to the nice rumble its making. However, my childish excitement about my straight pipe is quickly diminished as the hot exhaust melts through the air line to the cab air suspension valve. Started losing air fast, but managed to get off the road and the check valve kept the primary tank from draining down all the way.

After calling SEM to report it I remembered that I used to actually do this kind of work and instead of waiting 4 hours for someone to fix it I should just fix it myself. I cut out the section of melted plastic air line, shoved it back in the valve, got under the truck and slammed the exhaust over the best I could to where it was directing most of the heat up the stack, fired it up, air came back up and I was on my way.

I made it to my delivery, and headed to the Atlanta OC to get my truck fixed.

My start time went from 6pm, to 8pm, to 10pm, to a guy knocking on my door at 11pm surprised to see me in the truck. Someone put on the notes that I had gone home. WHAT? He said it wouldn't be started on until 3am. So I ended up getting a hotel room for the night. When I got there the next day the truck was thankfully finished and I got under a load headed back home. The Atlanta OC still never fails to impress me with just how unorganized they can be.

Foot on the floor from Atlanta to Greensboro I was bound and determined to get home that night. After running around looking for this companies secondary lot in the dark I finally found it, got my trailer out from under me and bobtailed home.

As expected, my first load after my home time a. grossed 75k+ and b. went straight up to the Northeast. Again, no surprises there. I decided I wanted the challenge of the GW Bridge again, I just wasn't in the mood for sitting in traffic the long way around over the Tappan Zee. This time shortly after crossing the bridge I "accidentally" took the first right after the bridge, I forget which interstate that is, but other than it being super tight going through the curves after the bridge, I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth it went. Much better than my first go-round on I-95 all the way through. This time my windows were down, radio was on, the "scary" NY traffic was just an afterthought.

So, I have some stupid multi-part load up next that will take me through CT and end up in Rochester, NY. Its one of those that appears to be strip-mall stores as well. I absolutely despise those almost as much as I despise the Northeast. Combine the two together with my "accident", another $450 paycheck last week, and having to waste more time going through "safety training" because of my accident and you have a very frustrated me.

Well, that's the update from here. On the bright side, I'm hoping that it can only get better from here?

 

So, yesterday made my two pickups for this staples loads. Overall uneventful, and once I got on I-90W it was a nice easy ride with a relatively light load all the way to just outside of Rochester where I stopped at the closest service plaza. This morning I headed in to Rochester to make my delivery. I checked my route on Google Maps to see where I was headed in to, it looked like I would have to back in off the road, but I would worry about that when the time comes.

So, I finally got the the Staples warehouse and turned in the first entrance and parked along the side. I headed in with my paperwork and am told I am here too early, my appointment is at 9 and to come back in at 830. My appointment was at 8 though? Whatever, nothing I could do. I went back out to my truck and checked the Qualcomm and sure enough it said my appointment was at 8.

Anyway, after waiting until 830 I went back in and am told to back into dock 2. I ask if dock 2 is one of the ones of the street, he says yes. I remember Schneider drilling into our heads at training that under NO circumstances are we ever allowed to back in off of a roadway. I told him this, I asked if I could use one of the docks on the side, he says no and tells me if I don't want to do it just refuse to deliver, but that Schneider has been delivering here for 40 years. I get on the phone and call my DBL, she calls customer service, I sit on hold, finally she says "just use your judgement", it was a pretty low-traffic road and of course I was comfortable backing. I just wanted to get the "OK" from them because if I DID hit something and was found to be backing in off of a street without the go-ahead, I'm pretty sure I would lose my job.

So, I come around to the front, its one of the enclosed docks, UPS is in dock 1 next to me. Its too tight and the dock is designed for trucks with roll-up doors, I would have ripped my trailer doors off trying to get in and not hitting UPS. UPS was finished up so he tells me he's pulling out so I just wait. Once he is out, I back up the best I can to the dock. Looking down the "line" of the side of the dock, the bumper on the wall was actually beside some of the concrete posts. I had no choice but to do it at an angle, but it was good enough that they could have gotten the dock plate in.

So, I go back inside and am told there is an issue with the paperwork. Someone, somewhere screwed up and they had no idea this second part of the load from Staples was coming here. So I have to go across the street and get that unloaded there. At this point I'm beyond being frustrated and just don't care, so I shrug my shoulders and go across the street. 45 minutes later they have the first set of pallets off.

So, I head back down the street, wall off a few oncoming cars with my trailer and back in again. Before I left last time I asked if I could back into dock 1, because I could back straight in without catching my trailer doors on anything. He said this was fine, so I get in to dock 1 nice and straight, get out to go make sure I'm lined up right at the rear because I can't see crap inside the enclosed dock, and he pokes his head out the door and says "chock your wheels, I'm going on break, you take a break too". Thanks bud, I've only been sitting since 730am, I guess some more can't harm.

So, that's where I am now, and its 10am. I was supposed to be out of here by now, but hey, its just another day with Schneider in the Northeast. No preassignment yet either - I'm assuming its because they manage to screw stuff up so much that they don't give out preassignments because who knows when you will ACTUALLY be ready to go.

I'm not sure when I'll be headed south to get my "safety training" done either, I just want to get that out of the way. Honestly, I'm just ready to get my 6 months out of the way. This is getting ridiculous.

 

Yep, I couldn't believe that exit after the bridge. I was just waiting for someone to try to sneak their car in between my trailer and the wall as it took up half of the second lane going around that corner. Then the second corner where all the scrapes are from tractors and trailers hitting it - man that was tight, and I had my tandems slid pretty far forward. I'd hate to go through that at night with them slid all the way back to the 43' mark... I'm sure that's when most of the damage happens... Check the right side wall next time you go through, its in rough shape from getting hit so much.

I'm glad to hear that the training shouldn't take too long... my truck is due for a PM so to be honest I wouldn't mind getting home for a night this weekend if its possible.

 

So, as I mentioned in an earlier post my DBL tried routing me through home to get me through safety training. But, the timing was too tight, and there was a chance that I wouldn't be able to make it back to the OC in time after dropping off my load, so she called it off. I told her that I'd be fine sitting through the weekend and doing the training early Monday morning since I was already there, could get my PM done on my truck, could get the safety training done, and I had my pickup truck there so I could at least head home and sleep in a bed while my PM was being done along with several other issues that have popped up with this truck.

But no, she said she didn't want me sitting through the weekend so a load sent me out straight back up to the Northeast again. I had a decent run up I-95 to deliver that load, but then since Saturday its all gone to crap again.

Then I get a load assignment from PA to MA... I could have made that run in 1 day, but instead the appointment time would have required me to sit for over 24 hours before having to get up and deliver the load at 3am. WUT. No. So I called in yesterday and asked to have it relayed, they agreed it was a stupid assignment and sent me to a drop yard up here in MA.

So, I arrived with about an hour left on my clock so I set my NAT for 0600, drop my relay and park up on the hill at this drop yard where there is a nice breeze, made a sandwich and relaxed.

Around 0500 I wake up and check for a preassignment since I didn't hear it squawk anything about one during the middle of the night. Nothing. Great, so now I have to babysit the Qualcomm, because you know, it'll go into sleep mode and I'll have no idea that I've received a preassignment. So, every 10 minutes or so I have to delay it from sleeping, or if I wait too long it goes into sleep mode. Then I have to go turn the ignition on and wait for (literally) 5 minutes for it to boot up (its developed this problem where the speaker makes a "popping" sound for 5 minutes before it finally boots up), wait for the popping to stop, then turn the ignition on again for it to finally load all the way up.

After spending the morning doing this, around 1130 a preassignment shows up, a decent load to IN. I search around the yard for a decent trailer - this was going to be a 900+ mile run so I needed to find a trailer that looked like it would at least stay dry and not lose the recaps within the first 50 miles. Of course, any of the decent trailers are sealed, and the other decent ones have a tag on them stating the reason they are out of service. I start looking at the crappy trailers, even the crappy ones are sealed or out of service. Some are not sealed and full of 5 billion pallets. Great. There are maybe one or two others that aren't tagged OOS or sealed, but they're in such rough shape, and sitting in line with others that are OOS I have a feeling they're not quite up for this trip.

So, I send in the exception for another empty trailer. Don't hear anything for about an hour. I call in, tell the DBL that answers the situation, she says the box planner is working on it and will update me. 2 hours later, still nothing. My load picks up at 1600 and I've got to go 118 miles to get there, through what looks like some small towns, so I figure I need at least 3 hours to get there since I won't be able to go 63 on the highway from door to door. So, its almost 1400 now, I get a message on the Qualcomm thinking its related to my load, but nope, its just a message about the phones going down for an hour at the OC. I messaged my DBL and told her what was going on and that at this point I probably wouldn't be able to make an on-time pickup, and that if I didn't hear from her I'd call when the phones came back up...

Just another day. Sorry if it seems like I'm complaining in these posts, I'm not trying to be negative... just need to vent a bit if anything. I keep hoping that one week it'll just be like someone flips a switch and I can get some half decent runs and a half decent paycheck, but week after week after week I keep running into problem after problem and setback after setback and I find myself just getting "used" to this crap. I don't like that, I don't like knowing that I'm just settling for crap.

I know that trucking is not some glorious job where every day you drive 550 miles with a drop and hook load and end up with a nice $1200 paycheck in your account every week. I'm fine putting up with some BS here and there because I know that no matter what job you do, there will ALWAYS be some BS that you have to deal with it. But when I sit here and feel like the BS is being flung at me no matter what corner I turn around, all I can say is I sure hope I have it in me to put up with this for another 3 months. Looking back at my thread I believe I started driving around February 17th, so that'll make it three months this upcoming Friday. I want to stick around for the 6 months because then it may open up the option for me to finance a truck through Schneider, or if nothing else have 6 months of experience to take with me elsewhere. But, I am not going to put up this crap much longer.