mistakes that let everyone know youre a rookie

I might have mentioned this in another thread, but for me the all time Rookie thing boils down to sitting in a yard waiting for my turn at the dock of a paper mill. I have a good view of the scale everyone has to cross to check out. I watch as a bottom feeder truck pulls onto the scale, and I can see that his trailer tandems are too heavy. Then I watch him pull around the yard and get back on the scale. Same result. He pulls around a third time. Same result. Then a fourth time. Yep, same result.

Finally he comes and asks for help. "I keep reweighing but the weights don't change."

"Did you try sliding your trailer tandems?"

"Huh?"

Yep, he kept circling the yard hoping the magic fairy would fix his weights. Apparently nobody explained to him the part about moving trailer tandems or 5th wheel.

 

Guilty of this too.

 

we all are. Just that some don't admit to anything.

 

Never done the hood flip. But I can not count the times I've only latched one side...

 

Well if you were in the Bx he probably got his CDL from one of those "schools" that practice over on zerega by all the bus companies/mta building. All those "5 hour CDL course" companies are a joke.

 

I had a similar issue earlier this week. After doing my pretrip, I somehow forgot to lock the hood on both sides. I then preceded on to drive 500 miles and stop for a 30 minute break. During my break I walked around the truck and noticed my hood totally unsecured. I fixed it and said to myself thank goodness I wasn't hard breaking or driving on I-65 Indiana.

 

If you only run on highways that begin with "I", you might be a rookie...

 

Earlier this year I picked up a load in Burlington, IA when I was teaming with my brother. Another O/O with the same company was docked next to us and we both left the same time, headed to LA. A snowstorm was fast approaching, so my brother and I decided to boogie straight west through small towns to hook up with the I-35 and get south out of the storm. The other O/O (with less than two years experience) headed North to the I-80, then west to get to the I-35. He ended up getting stuck in the blizzard for two days.

We made our delivery on time and headed back east with another load. We met that other O/O in New Mexico on the I-40 as he was still headed west.

 

that is funny. Some people just don't know how to drive on 2 lane highways, or how to pass. Then again.. That GPS may have told them to go north to 80.

 

I have done both. Thankfully, the completely unlatched hood never did flip up on me!