Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

Just from reading on here wouldn't want swift cre or werner, Schneider is your best bet ya need to know how to drive well when you get there is their only thing really and not from mom and pops school. People hate their training time with the other companys who train 3 to 4 weeks or more, ya, thats just too much, but 3-5 days ain't enough either, if they just extend their OTR training a lil bit Schneider is the best company to go with I think. Actually to sign off on newbies after 3 days OTR training seems might get ya in trouble don't even know why it happen the way it did. I guess it just slips by when only 5 is required, not actually sure though. Some guys don't want more than 5 days anyways but moms want that lol.

 

Not saying anything bad off you or your family but be carefull you don't run so much that they feel you have become a stranger.
It would not be the first time that has happend in trucking.

 

Dometic Coolfreeze CDF-25. I try to keep rolling, but as we all know the loads don't always work out that way. Sometimes you end up with appointment times that require to run out your days even when your hours are getting low. I might see about getting a relay, forgot we had that yard up in that area. Last time I did a relay through that yard though I sat at that yard for 24 hours until they could get me back out. Wasn't worth it, lol.

 

Ugh, just can't seem to get going today! Got out to do my pretrip and no lights are working on the trailer. Tried my usual tricks, cleaning the pins, wiggling the socket around, cleaning the cord on the tractor, checking the connection under the cab, spread the pins on the trailer socket a little in case they collapsed, etc etc. No luck. Got them to work a little bit intermittently but they'd cut off seconds later. Drove around to the yard where our empties are, lights would work when I was taking a corner but as soon as I'd straighten out they'd cut off. Drove up to one of our empties and plugged in, nothing worked there. I'm not sure if the trailer grounds through the harness or through the 5th wheel, but I'd imagine it would be the cord since the 5th wheel would be kind of an iffy ground with all the dust and grease between the two surfaces. So, I'm guessing its an issue with my tractor, probably my cord has a frayed wire somewhere in the bundle. Called SEM and told them what was going on, they've yet to get back to me. Luckily I'm not in a hurry to get going anywhere (except a bathroom would be nice, LOL) since I've only got 5ish hours to drive today. However, I want to get going soon so I can run that 5 hours down to nothing and make the truck stop I was planning too before all the parking spots fill up.

Time to just sit and wait I guess.

 

18 years out here and no issues.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2

 

Maybe i should have replied to a quote...but do you all have local drivers besides intermodal ones? For example the ones that would deliver you all relays once yall drop them in the OC's?

 

Ground is thru the cable.

 

Put in my hometime request for 7 off, got a call from my DBL the most I can take off is 5, can't stay out 5 weeks and build up more days like I tried to this time. Oh well, thats OK. Hopefully I'll be back by the end of next week. She said I can go 3 weeks and take 5 days off if I wanted to, but any longer than that doesn't earn me extra days. I like staying out for about a month though, as long as I'm getting these good runs! I know I have talked to other drivers that take off more than 5, so I guess it depends on where you are based out of for how long you can get home. No problem for me though, long as they can keep me moving I'll be happy to play by the rules. Service tech has been here working on my issue for a couple hours. Looks like its a ground issue, somewhere on the tractor side as I thought. Hopefully it'll be fixed up soon.

 

dieselfuelonly, I might have missed it, but can you say which terminal you're based out of? I would respect if you didn't want to mention that, though. Also, I'm wondering how many states you been to so far.

 

I'm based out of Charlotte, NC. I guess if you were to draw a line diagonally from where Lake Michigan meets Illinois down to Dallas, Texas, I've been to all the states to the right of that line. I spend a fair bit of time in the Northeast, after that Illinois/Indiana/Ohio, and every once and a while get a load down to South Carolina. Rarely get sent south.