My Experiance with Watkins Shepard!

Well first let me thank everyone for following my journey so far, and wondering where I was.

Well I don't even know what to say!

OK so on Friday October 8th I got my truck at about 4:30pm, rolled out about 6pm with 2 other guys in my truck to take them to there trucks. Our load went from Conover, NC to SLC, UT 2058 Miles got there Sunday around noon. Sat there until Monday late afternoon (got a 34 hour reset and them some lol) I got a load from SLC, UT to SFS, CA 705 miles delivered Tuesday. Then I bobtailed over to the Shop/Drivers lounge and spent the night there until about 2am wen morning, then went back over to the Terminal to pickup my load and take it to Denver, CO 1060 miles, delivered Thursday around noon, walked 2.5 miles to get food from subway (I was out of hours lol) then spent the night at the Denver Terminal. Woke up the next day sat around took my chains out and checked them, I need one more single haha. Then around 11am I rolled out almost 24 hours after getting there and Dead headed 219 miles to Scottsbluff, NE to pick up a load going to Memphis, TN another 1050 miles from where I loaded so 1269 miles total estimated (I'm still on this load now). So here I sit somewhere in NE at 10:30pm with only 9 hours left on my 70. My load delivers 08:00 mon in Memphis I'm trying to figure out the best way to get there on time with a few hours so I can leave there and get to a Truck stop as I wont get any hours back until sun or mon night at midnight I'm not sure lol. Any way GPS says I'm 288 miles out from the receiver and 4.75 hours out............


So far I'm really liking it out here. Las Vegas at night is by far the brightest thing I have ever seen in my life, I could see the light from the other side of the mountain. It kinda sucked though my dad was at a Truck stop right down the street and I didn't get a chance to see him, I was exhausted and hadn't eaten since Sunday after noon so I got some BK from the Truck stop/casino lol and went to bed. At first I was like OMG out here but after the first load It started to smooth out. I'm fine with the driving I'll take this truck anywhere without breaking a sweat lol, and The trip envelopes are easy and same with the log book. BUT where my problem is, is the routing! They QC you directions and my GPS Rand McNally TND 700 say no no stupid go this way......both ways work but I can't put in a route myself. And some of these places, I wish I could meet the person who created these places, I would knock them out lol. Scotts bluff, NE is in the middle of NO WHERE and yet It took me forever to get to the shipper even though I could see them from the highway. EVERY single road says NO TRUCKS............WTF haha. But I'm getting it so far I haven't gotten lost just wasted hours driving in circles trying to get to the middle of said circle haha.


I've only had one problem with the truck and it only took the road service guy 30 min to get there and 10 min to fix it, one of the fittings on the Air compressor was leaking. Other then that I still need a new mattress for the bottom and one for the top because there isn't one up there, and I need to clean it bad inside and out.


First Weeks miles: from fri October 8th to fri October 15th 4376 Miles, keep in mind the first 2058 where team miles (I drove 1/3 of that), but I still think thats #### good for my first week lol.



Life on the road is definitely different, but I'm starting to settle into it.



Hopefully I can get a air card soon, or at least have time to use T/S WiFi.


American Trucker

 

Ya I was surprised to get so many my first week, I figured they'd take it easy on me for a week or so, but hey more miles = more money

Only in the early morning 3am-8am is when its a real pain in the butt to drive, but once the sun comes up I could drive all day then most of the night. For me anyway I don't really feel it till I stop, Like while I'm going on about my day I'm alert and good to go, but once I say I'm done for the day and park it, all of a sudden I feel tired and Food a hot shower and bed is all I need lol. I had a fresh 70 monday a like 4pm its only sat night and I only have 9 hours left.

heres my recap:

Mon:9.25
Tues:6.75
Wen:11.5
Thurs:11.25
Fri:11.5
Sat:10.75

That leaves 9 hours left, I think I get the 9.25 back sunday night at midnight? or is it monday night? lol I donno I'll have to find out tomorrow I'm exhausted and going to bed lol.



American Trucker

 

I don't have time for a 34 reset on this load, although I wish I did haha. I just spent like 2 hours thinking (ya my head hurts lol) And I'm going to roll out early tomorrow 8am run to Memphis and park at one of the 3 truck stops within 20 min of the receiver Preferably the one thats 3 miles and 9 minutes away, I figure Worst case scenario if I get lost or what ever I can't possibly take more then 7 hours to go the 288 miles to the T/S thats including pre-trip and everything. That way worst case I get to Memphis by 3pm my time 2pm there time before the T/S fills up and park. Then I can sit there Till mon morning and leave 1 hour early to go the 9 min to the receiver and then I'll still have 1 hour to get back to the T/S after unloading while I either reset or wait for hours to roll over. thats all worst case so provided nothing bad happens I'll get there on time but with very few hours to spare lol.

I got here at 9pm sat night, Apt is 9am mon morning,thats 36 hours. with the time zone change if I did a reset that would only give me 3 hours to go 288 miles and find the place.

American Trucker

 

Well I'm here in Memphis (somewhere) it only took 5 hours to drive here + my 15 min pre-trip so that still leaves me with 3.75 hours to get the 3 miles to the receiver in the morning which is good because I'm sure I'll run into more one way streets going the opposite way that I need to go and or NO TRUCK signs lol.

I don't know if they'll let me do a reset after I unload in the morning or if I'll just have to run off my recap.

The T/S I'm at only had 2 open spots one was right in front of the entrance next to the shop but there where 2 trucks parked in the NO PARKING zone right in front of the spot so that spot was not going to happen so then I found the second one then had to turn around because I was not going to blind side it. It should have been an easy hole to hit but some idiot decided to park a TMC Day cab the the NO PARKING ZONE next to the open spot, which made the tight area to work with even tighter. So after 20 min and god only knows how many failed attempts to get in the hole I remembered what Tim had said in orientation "slide the tandems to the back" so I did and BAM right in the hole on the first shot . But hey at least I was able to entertain the 10 or so drivers sitting in there trucks watching lol.

I also baught another 24 hours of WiFi here so I'll be on all night catching up!

American Trucker