Call me stupid.
1:30a.m- bobtailed from Cleveland to Macedonia to pick up a silvercote trailer headed to Weedville, PA. Couple the truck, tug test. All good. 2nd gear to pull up and shut doors. Bad idea. Trainer skipped the part about some trailers being locked to dock. Snag bumper. A lot of rain but pretty smooth night.
Rest in Dubois, PA about 30 min from dropoff because load can't be delivered until 7:30. Front to back top to bottom 80lb bags of insulation. No problem, just quit 4 years of moving for Two Men and a Truck. Still in shape.
Heading to backhaul in Franklin, PA. Hour and a half ride. 40min into ride dispatch has found a spot for me to get bumper wielded... Back in Weedville.
Turn it around. 40 minutes back to steepest, skinniest gravel hill into some Lily's body shop. Probably there an hour.
Headed back to Franklin. Load cancels. 2 hours left from my 14. Niy enough time to drive to a spot get loaded and find somewhere to shut it down I guess. Dispatch tells me to wrap it up.
Back to Dubois pilot I go. Where I've been since 1:40 this afternoon. Got a load out of Warren, PA at 8a.m., about a hour and a half from here, to take back to Cleveland. Probably take off at 6.
Hey, at least the Browns won.
Rough 1st trip solo
Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by KNGPIN, Sep 17, 2019.
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You win some, you lose some. Hope it gets better. Just be careful and don't forget chocks either.. Always have a 1st, 2nd and 3rd plan in mind, just in case. Finding parking is a major chore sometimes, and takes a lot of created spots. Just getting from point A to B is going to be a pain for the drivers. Remember PC moves if you can, esp off duty.
Good luck. I am just an armchair from home helper for the husband. Know enough to get me into trouble. I did ride with him for a year several years ago before the truck parking got as bad as it is now.Dave_in_AZ, x1Heavy, TripleSix and 3 others Thank this. -
I am not calling you stupid.
I have absolutely sunk a whole day and night thinking I am driving somewhere getting things done and still have not escaped say Johnstown PA. (A place where you have to climb three stiff ridges in and three stiff ridges back out after loading... but wait there is a few more local places to get more stuff at around town...) I like mountains. Love em. But those ridges up and over back and forth and back and forth got my goat that day.
I hate surprises. Told to load there in one place but wait... go here get 4 pallets, go there get two more pallets go where now?
Why didnt dispatch tell me all this #### up front? Story of my life, I cannot make proper decisions on what I don't know. And the fact that dispatch failed or deliberately withheld information like that from me implies I have no value there. And ultimately I moved on. *(That company went out of business so I don't have to explain this story to the next employer which is on surface a whiny sob story of a driver who is lazy and wont go get all the pickups to be full loaded...)
Bottom line you are going to have loads like this now and then.Spend all day driving 50 miles in 9 hours worth of traffic.
There is another place called Valley Forge. part of our history as a country, one of the darkest times ever. The four times I have been there with a big truck dealing with a load in the area she broke. Not just break but toss severe codes requiring roadservice from hell and a tow every time. Tow tow and tow and tow done.
Every time since 1992 when dispatcher says you got a load to Valley Forge PA, I tell them right back even in 2001, no I do not.
Why not?
The four times I was there dealing with loads the truck has broken to where it needs a tow 4 times.
Ive been there a total of 5 times in life. Once as a teen going through GW's Army camp in history and 4 times being towed out of there with a dead truck.
Never again.tarmadilo, KNGPIN, 70’Nova and 1 other person Thank this. -
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Vic Firth and FlaSwampRat Thank this.
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The one good thing about Philly.
Street Food trucks. And Sub people who are very good for you. Toss a few extrys into a wrapped paper and foil knowing you might be somewhere in the morning with nothing around.
I wonder how much fuel will it take to have 10 of those street food trucks in my area for a week...NavigatorWife Thanks this. -
Wait until you accidentally side step the clutch trying to back to a dock. LOL Not one of my better moments.
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Sounds like a normal day of truckin if u ask me
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IF I stayed in it something will happen.
The last time I had two roosters parading around the sales line with a itsy bitsy Mercedes that they scored to sell with vocal dreams of 30,000 profit etc Verbally spending the windfall to each other while in line waiting with the car. I ignored them.
They noticed. Hey you dumb temp minimum wage #####, why don't you tell us what you think of this fine car.
I drove through the sale floor past the round up man and the mike caller into the salvage lot and kept going. I found a spot inside a mudhole and walked back, car was sunk 2 feet up to floor pans. Clocked out and stalked to the car.
Before i got there I was experiencing a vision that was red primarily. A dangerous time. A lawman got to me with some coffee leaned on my fender and said why don't you tell me about it.
I don't know how they do it but he sure fixed it by taking the big burrs times two out of my saddle. The reason I walked off the job like that for the day (Not quit, there is a difference) is because the possibility of workplace violence on those two pipsqueaks were just not worth being arrested for Agg assault. And as a CHL holder I should know better.
There has been coffee all my life, but a handful of times where a coffee was really important. That was one of them.NavigatorWife and KNGPIN Thank this.
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