Getting Into Flatbed Life in Ontario, Canada

Day 11 - Today was all backing practice. There is where the experience of my trainer is incredible. Spent the day trying out different backing scenarios and how the trailer reacts. My trainer is amazing when it comes to back, and his insight really helped me build on the fundamentals I was taught in school.

The guy was able to come up with a bunch of different scenarios then explain the set up and how the backing needs to be done. At the beginning of the day I was pretty rusty, but by the end it was starting to click in. Blind sides are tough, and in school we learned to avoid a blind side back whenever you can. My trainer wasn't having any of that and insisted we practice some super tight blind sides! It's better to be prepared in that way and I agree with the trainer for doing that.

Not much else to cover. We did one quick load securement with my trainer showing me a unique way of securing bagged freight on pallets. The guy really thinks outside the box when it comes to truck and he has a unique perspective on everything which I can tell is really going to help when i'm out on my own. Tomorrow is another day of backing!

 

Day 12 - Another day of backing practice. Spent the entire day focusing on backing into docks, tight spaces, and getting the feel of the pivot point in jack-knife backs. We also spent some time on blind-side backing, something I'm completely terrible at. Compared to yesterday, and especially compared to last week, my backing is definitely starting to improve!

Day 13 - Yet another day of backing practice. Spent the morning focusing on tight backing into a dock and still learning more about how the trailer reacts. I was on my own in the afternoon so I continued to practice similar driver-side backing. My blind-side backing is still terrible, but I imagine that will take a long time to improve.

 

Day 14 - Today was a local driving day. Got to the yard, pre-tripped the tractor, then backed one of the trailers into the dock. Loaded it with some wood and straps for a pickup in the afternoon. Turns out we had to bring another trailer to a nearby shipper, so dropped the one trailer and hooked up to the other.

Brought the new empty trailer to the shipper and backed into one of the spots. Dropped the trailer and bobtailed back to the yard. Picked up the original trailer and took the backroads to pick up aluminum in London. Took about an hour to load, secure the load in the van, and then get the paperwork before heading back.

Took the same backroads back to the yard. It's a totally different experience driving the truck when it's fully loaded. Feels like you have more control, since you're going slower, and you really have to pay attention to what's going on. Defensive driving really comes in handy when you're fully loaded.

Got back to the yard, angle-backed the trailer into a spot, unhooked, and then parked the tractor.

 

Day 15 - A short half-day for me. Finished up orientation with the tech guy, shop guy, and with dispatch. Afterwards we went out with my main trainer to tarp my first load - what a total sh*tshow. Even with 4 guys it took over an hour to tarp the load we had. I don't understand how I would have been able to do it on my own.

The freight we tarped was probably 10+ feet from the deck, and I wouldn't even be able to lift the tarp above my head to get in on the freight if I was on my own. Also, I guess the tarp was folded wrong and it took even more time trying to get everything covered. By the end of it I was pretty tired, especially having to reef on all those bungees trying to hook everything up.

Overall, an OK week of training. This upcoming week I'll be doing more local runs with a trainer, but i think I'll be getting my own truck finally. Can't wait to get on the highway and start putting down some real miles.

 

Day 16 - This week I'll be spending my time with the local trainer. Today, we made our way from the yard to our first drop in Mississauga. It was a load of dental plaster that we dropped at a small warehouse.

Afterwards, we went to pick up small (2200 lbs each) steel coils in Thornhill. We got there around 12:00 with a few trucks ahead of us. It was a union shop so at 12:30 the place shut down for lunch and we had to wait.

At 13:15 we were ready to be loaded so I backed into the warehouse for the forklift to be able to load us. Took me a few tries to straighten out, since the trailer had to be really close to the side of the flatbed on the drivers side for the forklift to add the coils.

After the coils were loaded I pulled out and we secured them. They were skidded and we used 3 straps for each set of coil (3 sets). They were double stacked, which my trainer didn't really like, but the forklift guy wouldn't break them up. Took it easy on the drive home for the delivery at Vic West. Dropped the trailer, picked up another, and brought it back to the yard.

A relatively easy day of driving, lots of waiting around, I think we ended up with 11.5 hours in total.

 

Day 17 - Another day of local driving. We had a 930 appointment for a crane load in Mississauga again so we were on the road by 630. Took us almost the entire time to get there, with rush hour traffic, but of course the crane was late, so more waiting around.

We didn't start to get unloaded until 11. The crane had to unload each piece of roofing, piece by piece, and it took about 2 hours to get unloaded. Drove back empty, dropped the trailer, and brought another one back to the yard.

Another easy day, the driving was done by 15:00. Back at the yard I spent an hour with a different trainer doing some tarping practice. Afterwards I got some things for the truck they gave me, a Cascadia, took a shower, and spoke to my GF for an hour before getting some sleep.

 

Day 18 - Our first full day of local drops. Today, we were dropping in the Dunnville area and stopped in places like Delhi, Waterford, Port Rowan, Hagersville, etc. I think we had about 10 stops of siding and other random building materials.

Local is a lot of work, but it's not hard work generally. Get out, open the roll tight, unstrap, find what needs to be unloaded, watch it unload, re-strap, do the roll-tight back up, and that's all she wrote. Repetitive, but relatively easy work.

The lumber yards and building centers had plenty of space to maneuver. My trainer was giving me #### for taking it too wide on my turns, saying I can't be driving into 3 lanes of traffic for coming out of lumber yards. He even complained about my turns in small towns, at those tight intersections.

At one of the turns he told me to "cut it" way earlier than I would have - and what do you know, the trailer tracked over the sidewalk and pretty close to a pole. He also doesn't really give me any advice, just criticizes what I'm doing. The rest of our time together, generally 8+ hours of the day, we sit in complete silence.

Otherwise, no real issues driving. Had some good backing practice. Made it back to the yard after 12.5 hours.

 

Day 19 - First big snowfall of the season. The drops for today were up in the Bruce Peninsula. Lots of snow already on the ground and white-out conditions at 530AM when we left.

So, I'm driving north from the yard and I can't see anything. At some points it doesn't even seem like the truck is moving, the snow is so bad. The road is white, I Can't see the lines, and the high-beams are making it worse. The windshield wipers are also covered in ice and hardly effective.

So twice the tractor tracked a bit off the road. Not dangerously, and I didn't swerve, but it went off the 2-lane and onto the gravel shoulder. At the 2nd time my trainer screams at me and says that's it, he can't do it, he has to drive. He said I'm too nervous and can't be driving in these conditions.

OK, i felt like things were going OK but we pulled off the road in a small town and he started driving. No suggestions or advice. Silent treatment for the next 8 hours.

During the next set of white-out conditions HE also tracked off the road twice, and had the same problem with the windshield wipers freezing up. Anyways, I eventually asked if I could drive again and he let me.

So I asked him next for any suggestions in driving in the snow. He says I should have stopped in the first small town we went through to bang off the wipers, and to drive slower in general. Why he didnt tell me this while it was happening, I have no idea. He also said if I have any problems with what he does I can take it up with the HR or Safety people. Really passive aggressive and this set the tone for the rest of our week.

We sat in silence for the rest of the ride. Getting back we did a trailer switch and a pickup of more freight. After tarping, I went into violation and drove in violation for the next 30 mins back to the yard. Not sure how that's supposed to go. I told him I only had 10 mins left of drive time and he said it would be fine.

Overall, a pretty bad day of training and I'm not really happy with the local trainer anymore. Oh well, I'm going to keep at it until I'm in my own truck and on the highway (which is what I signed up for). Considering it has been the same load for a few days now, i'm not learning any more about load securement.