Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

I got plenty of backing time. My TE started me off at the Gary OC by taking me to the Suicide back. No problem, no pull-up. I'm chalking it up to luck! I got to bump 4 or 5 docks in the 4 days I was out. I had an awesome TE that had me doing most of the driving and work at the shippers and consignees. It's been a great experience so far. We'll see how things go if/when they give me my own truck.

 

when you do get your truck, take your time with everything. I found it to be easier to do things when TE was watching. Kinda like a safety net, ya know? Solo, was nervous and let that get the beetter of me a few times.

 

My dumb ### got turned around in Gary just now in the company car. I don't know what the hell happened.

 

So your the one with the car, would you hurry up already.

 

like I said, when you get your TRUCK........hehehehe, company car all bets are off!!

 

I ended up getting lost around there one time, it was my first time in the area and I was trying to get to the truck stops to scale a relay load before dropping it. I ended up smack dab in the middle of a freaking BAD part of town. And I mean BADDDD. You should have seen me when I finally saw the trucks turning into the truck stop from about 2 blocks down the road, no trucks sign be ###### I beelined straight for it.

Anyway... on to today.

I got to meet Sledge07 this morning, it was nice to meet you man and shoot the #### for a few. After finishing my 3rd quarter safety training which apparently I had to do, I headed for Detroit. Delivered to Chrysler up there, after getting lost in their yard for a good 5 minutes trying to find the spot to drop my trailer in. Apparently you northerners refer to a "TANK" as a "WATER TOWER". Sorry, if its sitting straight on the ground and is only about twice the height of my truck that is not a TOWER.

After that, drive 11 miles, live load, drive to Woodhaven drop yard, drop relay. Hooray, one of my favorites!. They were slow to load me so there went the rest of my day. Thanks, Schneider, for ruining my day with yet another crap load.

Then I got another preassignment to grab out of Woodhaven up to Wisconsin.

By that time it was after 7pm, I had about 3.5 hours left on my clock, but I just decided to shut down here so I can get back on my normal schedule. Crap miles today, both Schneiders fault for giving me an absolutely stupid assignment but mine too since I want to get back on my start early/end early schedule.

Tomorrow I'll run the load to its delivery in Wisconsin, about 450ish miles, so I'll probably stop there for the night. Not sure where to next.

Also, I realized I left my jacket at home. Its fricking cold up here. Cold for me is anything below 70*... lol.

 

You know why they had you pickup that crap load, right? Friday, load had to pick up today probably cause they're closed on weekend, probably doesn't deliver til next week, so you were the "lucky" one to get it. Make sure though that you talk to your dbl if they don't give you the shorthaul rate on your paycheck. However many miles loaded it was from shipper to wood haven s/b the basis for any short haul pay, plus total miles at your regular rate, plus any detention on top of that. I noticed at first whenever you end up relaying a load to one of our yards they never did give me shorthaul pay. They just paid regular milage pay (wow, 11 miles at 38 cpm, 4 bucks to sit through that crap lol). Once I complained about it a couple times my dbl must have flagged my driver profile because now I always get shorthaul pay without saying anything. Pretty shady if you ask me but if they can nickle and dime an unsuspecting driver I guess they're going to do it. Basically if I'm trying to get back to Gary for home time and they want me to pick up a load on the way back, I don't expect any short haul pay because I'm requesting to come back there. However, if I want to run and they give me some stupid assignment like that then I expect short haul pay.

Anyway I should be back in Gary early tomorrow morning so if anyone is around there let me know, I'll say hi before heading home for time off.

 

You too man, and you ain't lying. #### this cold weather ####.

 

Lol you think this is cold? Wait til January and they send you up to Green Bay. Now let me put on my shorts and tshirt so I can make the long walk to the truckstop

 

time for you boys to sack up,lol