leaving with my trainer on monday

Overall the day wasn't bad at all. Parked at the receiver s place for the night. Picking up dry vents tomorrow after we unload here in alden new york and taking them a menards dc somewhere by Chicago. Trainer s a good guy, not crazy or anything. I start driving tomorrow so we'll see if he stays laid back. Said he used to drive for trans am and told me some horror stories about that place. Ah well let's see how it goes tomorrow!

 

Well got home early Friday morning and going back out early Sunday. My trainer said this is about the norm for them so I can't complain about that. So far he drove the first day and since them I've been doing it all until I'm out of hours. Good practice and I'm learning a lot. Driving wise I haven't had any issues, said I'm about a week ahead of where he thought. Backing is decent but at the tighter docks I had some issues but that's what training is for.The trucks an automatic as is about half the fleet garner has. Mixed feelings about it though, i love it in traffic but I feel like I'm missing out on getting my shifting down. I sucked at down shifting in school, never really had it down so if I end up in one I'm in for a tough time. The runs aren't too bad, never too far. The longest run they have is Wisconsin to western ny. Mostly it's Ashley furniture,Lowe's and rewards stuff and empty pop cans for coke. Paper work and the logs are still confusing but I'm getting better. Figuring out where to have the tandem still has me totally lost! Haven't had any hygiene issues the trainers a pretty clean guy. Doesn't have any rules in the truck really and buys extra food so I haven't had to spend any money yet. He wouldn't even let me pay him for it. Tells me to bring whatever I want and gave me two cabinets to use. Teaching me a lot on trip planning because garner has a lot of tight delivery times and writing out your routes instead of relying on a GPS. Great experience so far though, trainers always upfront with me giving me pointers here and there while I drive and no stinky feet!

 

We're actually heading up to la crosse tomorrow

 

Well after two weeks things are still going good. Lots of stuff to learn and only a week left so hopefully I can get it all down. Got the hang of all the paper work and dealing with the shippers and receivers. Driving I haven't had any issues, backing is starting to get a little better. Still look like an idiot sometimes messing up on wide open docks. See all the other drivers standing off to a side laughing at me but afterwards most of them come up and give me some advice and others just have some choice words for me. Oh well gotta learn somehow, have the hardest time backing at truck stops though. A lot to watch out for. My trip planning is way better now, just gotta get faster at it. Still miss the obvious routes sometimes though. We always have tight delivery times so if I mess up too much I'm not gonna last long here. That's probably the area I'm most concerned with along with knowing where to have the tandems at. My trainers showing me it and trying his best to explain it but I'm still pretty lost on it. It's a pain to get those pins to release on the older trailers. The newer ones though you just pull a button, saves a ton of time. The week starts off tomorrow with another Lowe's run out of findlay so ill update again when I can!