Newbie with USA

Its finally going alright (knocking on wood and crossing my fingers). The truck did break down two additional times however. Again I called and told them that it would not start but the lights, radio, windshield wipers, etc. still worked. So of course both times they sent somebody out to jump start the truck. The second time the jump did work but the third time with the generator on full blast for about twenty minutes the truck still would not start. To add to this I was at my delivery point (Front Royal VA) at the time attempting to drop a trailer when she wouldn't turn over (oh yeah, I named the truck Big Bertha). Either way she wouldn't start after I had driven nearly five straight hours with no food and in need of a shower. On top of that I was at a distribution center that was about five miles away from any restaurant and the consignee didn't want me to leave the truck. Either way it took the first mechanic about two hours to get to me. After he couldn't get the truck started he took pity on me and went and got me a burger. After that I waited for about another two hours for the second mechanic to come, who had to jump start "BB". Mind you I only had an hour and a half left on my 14 and about 3/4 left on my 11 when I originally arrived at the dist. center. After getting the truck started breakdown calls and tells me to pick up my next load and head immediately to the Vandalia terminal. Huh? I reminded him that I had long blown past my 11 and 14 hour rule and that by that time I had been on the clock for nearly 18 hours without a ten hour break. I also reminded him that Vandalia was an eight hour drive with at least three scale houses that were open 24/7 and that I was not willing to take a chance like that. He finally told me to bobtail down to the Roanoke terminal which was still a two hour drive. I was still upset but figured that that was at least doable, until I realized that he was giving me these instructions over the phone. I told him that I would drive down to Roanoke and quickly hung up. I then proceeded to pick up the Qualcomm and send a message asking if he was instructing me to drive two hours, knowing full well that I was past both my 14 and 11 and that I had been on the clock for close to 20 hrs at that point without as much as a 10hr break. The response came back a resounding no. He instead directed me to an International dealership that was maybe ten minutes away from my location with instructions to wait there till the morning and have someone look at the truck. TBC

 

This I could do. But before I could get moving, I get a message from dispatch. I have to pick up a load at 6am. It is already after midnight and I have a busted truck, I'm hungry, and still in need of a shower. I send them the message that again I had been on the clock since 0515 the morning before and still had not had a break or a decent dinner and there was no way I would legally be able to pick up that load or drop it in (get this) Ohio by 6pm that same night. I told them who to talk to in breakdown. They finally reassigned that load and off I went to the International dealership. I got there at about 3am (yes three hours after starting the fight with night dispatch and about 8 or 9 hours after the truck broke down.) I set the idle and set my alarm for 7am the time the shop opened. Just as I suspected the cab got to its temp, the truck shut off and didn't start back up. That was a cold four hours. After the shop opened up I went in and told them what was wrong. Guess what? USA hadn't called yet. I went out and called breakdown who in turn called the dealership. About five hours later the truck is fixed. Was it bad batteries. No it was the starter. This was what I told them that I suspected the third time the truck broke down. To add insult to injury when I called my fleet manager to let her know that the truck was "fixed" she asked me why I had not sent an MT mac so that I could be assigned a new load. Again I hung up the phone and picked up that handy QC and asked if she wanted me to pick up a load, knowing full well that in the last 30 hrs I had only had about 4 hrs worth of sleep because of a broken down truck. Again a resounding no. Instead I was allowed a 34 hour reset at a nearby truck stop. Since then the truck has been running fine and I haven't had too much trouble from dispatch. I just had to remember that I'm the captain of the ship not them. But I can't wait for my year to be finished.

 

I had just gotten the ticket in Sept of 07. I don't know that you'll have the same problem. However, I have met a lot of PAM drivers as well as a lot of former PAM drivers since I've been on the road. From what I understand PAM has become a lot like JB Hunt whereas they don't have enough freight for the amount of drivers that they have. From what I've been told 1800 miles is considered a good week. Not to scare you, but just letting you know what I've heard (and remember you can't always believe what you hear), but just so you know.

 

Last week was just not my week. I'm not one for bs-ing people so here's what happened. I really screwed up. Since i've started driving I've been really paranoid and worried about getting into an accident. I'd been told by my trainer to relax and everything would be fine but once I was let lose on my own that went out of the window. I should've relaxed. Like I've heard it said so many times, I worried so much about not having an accident that I had one. Two to be exact, in the same day. Not good. The first one came while I was backing onto a tight dock. I mean the employee lot was only about 80- 90 feet away from the dock doors while I was trying to manuever a 70 foot truck into a space. Either way, while watching the truck in my drivers side mirror I scratched (not dented) a Toyota Camry on my passenger side. After I was told that I had hit the car by another driver I called USA's accident line and went to the office of the warehouse so that they could page the employee. He came out looked at the damage and said no big deal, took the company's number and went back to work. After being told by USA not to worry and to be more careful, I was informed that my trailer was unloaded. I should've sat and calmed myself a little more. I went to pull out of the dock but was too close to the first set of dock doors (there was a set of overhead doors that you backed through before you actually backed into the dock) and you guessed it, my driver side trailer door caught the rail of that overhead door and ripped right off. All the drivers that had witnessed the first accident had a good laugh as I hit redial on my cell phone to call accident again. I was sure that I was fired. I had called to make sure a relative could pick me up at the bus station and told them to make sure that they brought the want ads with them. The people at the accident hotline spent most of the time trying to calm me down. I was more upset than they were. Either way, USA didn't fire me, they just had me take pictures of the damage and sent me to a terminal to drop off the old trailer and pick up an MT. The weird thing is that now that I've had my first two accidents even I've noticed that I feel more relaxed behind the wheel. I'm a lot less tense than before. But my trainer was right it doesn't pay to get yourself all wound up. Anyway I can't be alone. Somebody else out there must have an embarassing story, share them and let others know they're not alone. Don't worry I have been taking my time and watching what I'm doing a lot closer. And to other newbies just relax and you should do alright.

 

Thanks, I think. Seriously though, I'm glad that you enjoy the posts and thanks for your well wishes. You and I both hope that all goes well in the future. Although as I said before I'm just glad to still have a job after last week's misadventures in driving. I told some truckers that I met at a truckstop of my exploits. After they laughed they congratulated me. They told me that you're not really a trucker until you wreck something and my story definitely qualifies me as a trucker. Does anyone else out there agree?