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Thank you Semi-Retired That is exactly what I was looking for. Sadly, we have done more blind and straights than 90s. My first blind was backing up in between 2 shopping mall type buildings into the car parking to turn around so I could back past my dock to line up for my 90 which I couldn't make because of the tight quarters. STT said it was built for 28' trailers not 53' trailers so he took over. He was supposed to just set me up but he just did the docking himself.

Thank you PattyJ. I think so too. How else can I explain the week long run from CA to WA to CA to TX back to WA back to CA. We left the afternoon of Monday the 15th and I finished driving Tuesday the 23 about 11ish pm with about 3,600 miles with his miles it was over 7000 miles.

Thanks I can only hope I will be.

I don't have much of a choice with him as he's the only trainer available right now. It strikes me as sad that his last trainee still calls him daily to learn what to do. Isn't the point to training to teach the student how to do paperwork, handle HOS, dispatch, etc before they leave the truck? That is mostly what she calls about. That and I swear the other day he was giving her permission to call dispatch and tell them where to shove they load they wanted her to take because she wanted to get home for her 10 to wash laundry and pay bills....

BrenYoda883 I grew up in a trucking family but I am myself a newbie. Just got my license in June and started with TWT in August. I've been with STT since August 17th. So far the 1st day was the only day that he actually followed the rules set by TWT for training. I was only supposed to drive for 4 hours or 200 miles for the 1st week.

Day 1 I drove 150 miles.

Day 2 I drove over the Siskiyou mountains pretty much by myself (463+ miles) because he was sick in the passenger seat doped up on cold meds. He only woke up when I really needed him when the jake brake went out going downhill and to show me how to downshift and floor it in the next lower gear to get up the hill and to tell me not to slow down just push my way through past all the slower trucks.

Since then that's pretty much the story. Team driving and no time to practice backing or anything else pretty much. I've figured out the straight back pretty well. I still have some work on getting it close in to the trailer next to me but much better than when I started.

I'm not even supposed to drive between 12am and 6 am yet let alone drive a full 11 hour shift but I have been doing that since we got back in the truck that first time he was sick and I was stuck in the hotel for 2 days. Then there was the week and a half that he was sick then there is this time that he just wanted home time.... Oh well I will rise above this and use his crappy driving as what not to do and the time I have with him to make myself better no matter how hard it is.

In a way I'm kind of glad he trusts me enough to go in the sleeper and snooze now because that gives me a chance to try different things that I've read here while driving like not flooring it going up hills but trying to see if I can work with the truck getting up hill. I'm teaching myself when the truck wants to be shifted to get the best mpg and power out of it. I still have some problems with grinding but I'm slowly figuring out what's behind it and how to correct it.

Thank y'all for helping me. I really appreciate it.

 

Well nothing has changed. Back to teaming. Left yesterday from French camp CA to Portland OR now in North East OR picking up a load . Got a message on the Qualcomm that we need to be back at french camp tomorrow then off to Texas again.

So far 2 straight backs today with a 90 looming. Ended up being half 90 half straight. *sigh *

However even though I've been in the sleeper berth my hours have been ticking away. I'm almost out of my 14 but still have 6 drive left. Argh! I'm getting so frustrated. Just when I think I've finally got through to them and him they drop the ball again and my training suffers.

I've been threatening to call safety and my trainer manager but nothing so I'm stuck. Blasted it all anyway. They are going to hear from me .

Bad windshield wipers and tabs that are expiring this month. Please tell me that if caught i won't get my first ticket ever....please. ..he says we have the registration just not the tabs and they are routing us as far away from the tabs as they can. With the promise of sending them with someone else to hopefully catch up to us.... I'm so ready to blow up at their stupidity.

 

STT has really started to frustrate me. I can drop & hook a trailer and slide the tandems myself but he is insistent that he has to help me.

In LA yesterday and he was constantly "helping " me by guiding me around and helping me drop and hook the new trailer. I bit my tongue until we went around front and the shipper needed to get in the trailer so i had to dock it. I started since it was a fairly simple 90 to straight. I barely got the truck moving when he was already telling me turn, back, forward, etc. I ignored him the best I could but he was relentless until I snapped and told him I would get there. After that he backed off some and after some work I got it in the dock. He came to me and said i should have done this and that but grudgingly admitted that i didn't do to bad.

The other day I was driving when we got to french camp to drop and hook. He told me to flip it here and straight back in. I outright refused since i was driving he couldn't do anything about it. I practiced my 90 and did terrible. He had me move the trailer and try again. Since then he's found 2 more times for me to practice. Today i did better but if there had been someone in that other spot i would have creamed them . STT said it was OK because i was still learning and that i was getting it faster than he expected because I'm already figuring out where i need to stop and correct my oops. Thanks TTR!! I did get it in with a little bit of work.

Sad thing is that i only have 2 more weeks left. That will be 7 weeks with him drive time not counting hotel time. I got a message this afternoon from my training manager to call him. STT then told me that he talked to my t.m. and my t.m. felt i was behind in my training. I just wanted to cry. All I'm doing and I'm behind. STT puts it to him being sick. I put it to him failing to train me! I'm going to fix that.

I'm going to pass this final testing and once i have the keys to my truck I'm going to delete STT's phone number. Never to contact him again!!!!!

Oh and I've been practicing with my atlas and i successfully made 3 routes from one place to another state and choose the best one. STT caught me and said i did well in my choice. Sadly it took me forever to figure it out. Guess that comes with practice?

Time to drive again. Have a good one y'all.