New Career ... From the beginning.

If they let you drive it home wouldnt be a problem.You could plug it in..And your suppose to do this on your time off..

 

Does your yard have any plug in parking?

 

For future reference Markus the industry runs on a 24 hour clock. 1:30 in the afternoon would have read 13:30 on your qualcomm. Also all delivery times are in the time zone you are delivering in. Logbooks are run on the time zone your main office is located in.

 

Mark
If you can take the tractor home-just make sure that you check your local roads for weight limits and also- can you park the tractor in your driveway and not have neighbors complain or violate a local law? Reason I bring this up is the ex brought the tractor home (just about ) every weekend as he was on a dedicated run. LUCKILY my neighbors did NOT complain about the noise of the tractor coming in at 1900 to 0200 on a Friday night!! ( and I live in the city so the houses are 12 or so odd feet apart! The top of the tractor was more than half way up the house!!) The ex was able to leave the trailer in a secure lot so that was not an issue. He also did not pay attention to the weight limits on some of the local roads he took to get to the secure lot ( I mentioned it to him) so he found an alternative route to get to the expressways. Living in the city was also a logistical nightmare for trying to get the tractor IN and OUT of the driveway! I had to 'get' a parking spot in front of the house so he had enough room to swing in/out-most of the times the neighbors were great about moving cars or letting me have the spots/saving them but a few times I couldn't get a spot and he couldn't get in the driveway. I never 'checked' to see if it was even legal for him to park in the driveway but I have read other posts on here about people having problems with LEO's about parking in their driveway.

Just hoping to give you a little help from the bit of 'experience' I have.....

 

Markus, you are going to have all sorts of little things like that happen until you get experienced. Its just part of the process of getting experienced. You can' t know everything from the get go and your trainer sure isn't going to remember to teach you every little detail.

Some of the top ones though are:

Don't get in an accident (obviously)...

Never, ever, ever SWERVE to miss anything unless it is another big rig!!! Whether it be a squirrel or a car you hit it! Otherwise you are taking the risk of rolling that truck and possibly killing a lot more people including yourself!

Don't get stuck!!! Stay on the pavement no matter what! If you aren't sure, don't go there! What will most likely result is that you will get stuck and your company will make you pay the tow bill which usually starts at $750 +. Also damage can occur to the truck in the process. While on this subject stay off the shoulder of the road ANYWHERE! This time of year it is deceiving and some ground maybe frozen and some maybe deep mud. What usually happens is one side of the truck will sink in the mud causing the whole truck to rollover. You will most likely see a few of these.

Also the simple little things like checking on your truck. (not giving you a hard time) but even when you are at home you are responsible for that truck. Not to mention it will only behoove you to make sure the batteries are good, its not broken into, brakes aren't frozen etc... Otherwise when you get the call to head back out you are going to have to deal with all this before you get your load causing you to be late or loose the load completely. Also, always keep jumper cables. The 20'ft ones. This time of year batteries go bad! Other small things to watch are your gladhands and airlines. In the winter they get very brittle and bust so keep some extra ones aboard. One blows, you throw the spare one, loosing a total of 5 minutes instead of waiting 4hrs for road service to bring you one for twice the price plus service call. Keep duct tape, zip ties, hose clamps, spare hoses, and an old mud flap. The old mud flap can be cut up to use in combination with the zip ties to protect hoses and airlines from rubbing on the frame or other components. Happens all the time!

Make sure you have tools and a few bags of ice melt.

Always make sure your weight is correct. Also your king pin for bridge laws.

Once a week make sure everything is up to date in your permits. If you are hauling alcohol make sure you have the permit for that state.

Sorry this is getting lengthy maybe everyone else can name a few little things that are sometimes missed by newbies and trainers that are important.

 

Make sure its cool with your company to do so Markus. You will also need a king pin lock if you are going to do that. Once again you are going to want to check on that trailer every few hours if you are going to leave it unattented. They will hold you responsible for that trailer and load if loaded.

 

Looks like a pretty friendly group, Marcus......keep after it and good luck.