Rug_Trucker Goes OTR What I Am Learning

I will try and chronical my times here at Swift. This will be a slow moving thread as I don't have a computer in the truck.

I went solo April 9th. I was out for 14 days.

I have a 670 Volvo, I got lucky! Lots of room! 400K on it. It was pretty clean when I got it. Carpet looks bad and a burn on the headliner above the top bunk.

My score on states so far is 26 and District of Columbia. 7 weeks with my mentor.

I have a great support group. My former mentor who has been with Swift 4+ years. A rehire that was gone 2 years who became my friend at orientation. And a long time friend who has been OTR since 1984. We have known each other since 1980. I actually hooked him up with his first job driving semi. I talk with all of them on a daily basis. All are interested in me making it.

On thing I learned is when doing a live load and unload find out if the are going to notify you when you are good to go! I had only 6 parts bins loaded at one shipper. I took a nap and eventually the yard dog woke me up and told me I had been loaded for quite a while! They apologized and sent me on my way. No service failure.

Annehauser Busch in Williamsburg didn't tell me either. They expect you to sit and stare in the mirror for the light to go green.

If you think you can get to a shipper earlier than scheduled most you can call and check about early delivery.

I did get to have dinner with my long time friend at a cool non corporate truck stop in VA while doing my 10 hour break. It was close to his home in Waynesboro. He was headed down 81 to SC to start pulling for Estes. He has been O/O since '04. I had lunch the same day with the friend I made in orientation at the same place.

I have had problems with a few things on my truck. The Wabasco heater would cycle once and shut down. Not good in PA and NJ! Mentor told me to make sure nothing was on top of it, and check the intake. Turned out there was a T-shirt sleeve in there, a plastic bag, and some paper. It works fine now.

Air leaks, low air pressure. I had a leaky fitting on the turbo actuator. Was "fixed" at a Petro. Also a loose fitting on a cab air bag. When I got to Memphis 2 weeks later I still had a leak. While waiting in line to get repairs I discovered the airleak was only when the key was on! Turned out the turbo actuator was leaking. They replaced it. Cranked up the pressure on the compressor too.

I had squeeling on the fan. A mechanic in the closed Eden NC terminal said the valve on the firewall was bad and had my fan locked in full time. he didn't have one and I needed to roll. When it was in Memphis they replaced the serpentine, and A/C belt.

I had low battery problems from day 1. Mentioned it to the mechanic and they told me to run it and see how it did as the truck had probably sat for 6 weeks. It came to a head in NJ as I kept having to restart the truck without putting much of a load on the electrical system. I was doing my 34 at a T/A. I messaged on road and the told me to take it to their shop. My batteries were suppossed to be 700+ cranking amps. One tested # 400, another 350 or so, and the other 0. It had a dead cell. New batteries! I still think I have a problem. I went out last night to send my macro 10 and turned on the Wasbasco heater. The low voltage warning instantly came on. The truck was sitting over 24hrs.

My fiance got us new phones. My old phone is 3 1/2 years old. It works fine. The phones arrived after I left on my first trip I put in for 14 days. While doing my 10 hour break we were talking on the phone with her. She was going to set up my new phone. I was in Ohio, she was in Tennessee. She plugged in the battery and my old phone died She didn't realize what she did until one of my friends kept calling and getting her answering my phone. He realizedI had to go buy a go phone and pay $3 a day and alert my DM of my new number.

My rehire friend and I have the same DM. He speaks highly of her. I met her on Thursday as she was on vacation when I got my truck. I can tell she has all she can handle. She was talking to my rehire friend and told him she hadn't been inundated with calls from me. She had 9-10 other newbies that have been eating up her time. He explained that my former mentor and he have been checking with me and giving me tips and advice. So far I have been 100% on time. Got a message that I am in the lowest % on my idle time, and thanks for being on time.

I did have to invoke the "safe haven" rule on one delivery. I got to the consignee with 8 minutes to spare on my 70. I messaged my DM wrote it on my log and went to the nearest truck stop and shut down. I didn't realize I had 11.25hrs dropping off the next day and might have gotten out of there and kept rolling. Lesson learned.

While heading there I got to talking to a Werner driver and met up at the T/A. Young kid 23. He ended up buying me dinner. I couldn't fuel until 2 days from then or I would have messed up my reset. He had 2 showers on his T/A card. I had none. He got the ticket several hours before I was going to take it. The manager signed the receipt told me who to talk to to redeem it. When I was walking in a Covenant driver was needing a shower and was going to have to pay for it. I suggested he call out on the radio and see if anyone had an extra shower. They guy at the fuel desk heard the conversation and gave him a ticket and called it a team shower! Kudo's to him.

Well all I can think of for now.

 

My problems have been minor. I would love to hold onto this truck as long as possible. It's a great truck.

Just cooked up a bunch of boneless chicken breasts, cubed and frozen in freezer Ziplocks. Fresh spinach, broccoli, apples, bananas lots of canned goods. A case of bottled water, and 3 gallons of it.

I don't have an electric cooler yet. Just an old Igloo marine ice chest.

Got a twin size air mattress to cover the new cheap foam mattress.

Ready to rock!

Be safe and make money!