Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

Praxair pays well. If you go that route hopefully the position isn't running a cylinder truck and is a bulk tank. Guys at my company that run cylinder trucks get physically worn over time moving those cylinders and have a high rate of developing carpal tunnel syndrome. I'm so glad that the only trucks at my yard are bulk tanks.

 

McVeigh would downvote that on a Reddit thread.

 

bulk tank only baby !!! im not lugging cylinders

 

lmao

 

The yard at my office that is accessible to the public has a driveway and parking lot in the shape of a horseshoe. My yard is also located next to an Amazon drop lot where they keep hundreds of trailers on site and drivers are coming in to drop and hook through all hours of the day.

My yard however, is like flypaper to the inexperienced driver that misses their turn into the Amazon drop lot and many of these drivers think that they can use the driveway to turn around to go back to the drop lot. Unfortunately for them, there are two large boulders placed in the grass where you would swing the trailer to make a successful turn to prevent a trailer going through the grass and tearing up the landscaping.

A JB Hunt driver today got more than she bargained for. I got back from finishing my run around 1130 this morning, by the time I filled the truck up with gas, parked it and did my post trip, it was around 1230. I got into the office and engaged in the typical banter that I do with the rest of the guys.

One of the counter sales guys yelled back to us "Hey guys, get a load of this, a JB Hunt truck can't get out of the lot".

Myself and the other 2 drivers went to go look and we watched for a good 15 minutes while the JBH driver tried to get herself out of the lot. We offered to help spot her and try to give her instructions on how to get herself out of the situation.

The one driver we have that doesn't have a Class A volunteered either of us to get her truck out of the lot for her. She pulled her brakes and got out of the truck with tears rolling down her face and she was visibly flustered.

I would typically ignore it and let them figure it out, with or without helping to spot. But in this case, something rang true that she was very fresh to having a CDL and was in over her head.

She asked if one of us would get her truck out of the parking lot and for one reason or another, I went against my typical knee jerk reaction of "No" and hopped into the cab to get her out. I genuinely felt really bad for her because it it was very visible that she lacked sufficient training to run her truck properly.

I can't stress enough to people that if you miss your turn and are unfamiliar with the area, use the roads to turn around (keep driving and bring yourself back to the destination) and if you're going to be gutsy enough to try to turn around on private property, at least stop and do a thorough assessment of whether your truck can negotiate any obstacles in your path.

 

if the person is truly a new driver and i'm off the clock ill jump in the cab help a driver out. but it truly has to be a situation where i know i can help....

when i worked at this production rental company, they would store client equipment like trailers , trucks, gear and i remember when one of our guys hooked up to the clients custom 28 foot grip trailer ( photo below ) with a normal tandem axle freightliner and when backing he destroyed the jockey box with the bumper . well we had a meeting and the first thing i said was " that trailer is made for the clients custom truck but since you guys made him pull the trailer with our equipment its the companies fault. long story short they stopped having us moving clients equipment.


i remember when i was team driver with maybe 3 hours of experience my co driver got off an exit some where in Texas and it took him to a dead end where he had to u turn the 53 sleeper. i got out the cab and man he was like 2 inches from sending that trailer into the sleeper lololololol

 

I made a very similar rookie mistake a while ago. Took a pup down a dead end street after a delivery, and when my usual turn-around spot was blocked, I continued until I came to this driveway. Trailer ran over one of the rocks and I scraped the crap out of my truck in those shrubs on the right, but I did make it out on my own. Learned my lesson that day.

 

I took a set down a dead end road that my GPS said led to the terminal I was headed to for the first time lol.. I could see pups and dollys behind a fence when I turned down the road but I failed to see the gate was on the opposite side of the yard on a different road. Thankfully there was room to break the set and bring it around the corner piece by piece.. The jockey said yea you’re not the first one to make that mistake. It was right then and there that I stopped relying on GPS exclusively.