Start at McElroy on Monday!

Well, thank you very much! Just sharing my experiences is all. As for photos, I'll see what I can do.

 

Here's a pic of my rig & my first load solo!

 

Here's a shot of the same load from the other side. I don't know, but not too bad for my first one all by myself. Bottom line, it didn't flop in the breeze goin' down the road, the tarp didn't fly off the load, & the load was delivered on time!

 

I've not personally been to Savannah or into SC, but have been east of Atlanta an hour or so a couple times. I believe there are guys that've gone into SC. If you're in MTL's hiring area, I'd expect freight goes that way.

Yes, after those four weeks on the trainer truck I was fairly confident in my ability to safely move the rig down the road & thru all sorts of traffic. During that time I'd been on the beltway around Atlanta 4 different times during either morning or afternoon rush hour, & thru "Crashville" (Nashville) during the same times of day 5 or 6 times. lol Still a bit nervous/anxious about backing this split axle trailer in a busy truck stop tho. When these things are loaded they'll wanna sorta just "sit down" on ya. A bit different from backing a regular tandem axle, but nothing one can't learn with time. Just gotta breathe & drive/back the thing! At least that's what I keep preaching to myself! lol

 

Thanks for the comments, Raezzor! Yeah, I learned just the other night about not placing the ratchet straps over a tire. Got stopped for the night, set the brakes. Apparently the thing just sat down on the rear axle pretty good & the heat from the tire melted the strap. I found it as I was going around undoing most of the bungees (leave a few on just in case a big wind blows up during the night) & unstrapping, prepping for the early A.M. unload. I simply replaced the strap & thought, "Lesson learned! From now on, only portables over the tires!" lol That that could happen had not occurred to me, nor had it ever been brought to my attention.

Good advice on the bungees inside the rub rail, too. While on the trainer truck I was actually running the ones I was hooking behind the rub rail on the first load we picked up. Trainer saw me & said it wasn't really necessary. First thought that came to my mind was, "Hmm...we run the straps behind the rub rail to avoid possible damage to the straps, so why is it any different for the bungees?" But hey, I just figured his truck, his load, his rules. Guess it's a semi-bad habit I developed. What you say about running the bungees behind the rub rail helping to reduce flapping makes logical sense, too. Thanks for the heads-up! I appreciate the critique & advice.

Oh, & yep, I was glad my first load was pretty much a straight, flat load. I did have one section that was offset, but still a good load with which to get my feet wet. I've had several Lowes loads that were misconfigured in all sorts of ways. My favorite was the one with a pallet of barbed wire up top. Getting that tarp off was very interesting. lol

 

Picked up that load with the tarp already lying across it. At the Lowes DCs we're not allowed up on top of the load, so I couldn't even see the barbed wire. It was wrapped really well, so couldn't tell what it was looking up under the tarp from the ground. Appeared to be a pallet of fertilizer, potting soil, or something like it. When I cranked the straps down & there was no real give to it, I figured it might be quikcrete or something. We don't get the paperwork on what's on these loads till we're all weighed, strapped, bungeed, & ready to leave. For that reason I never sign the form in the "Carrier" line until I can actually count the bundles coming off the trailer at the consignee. I know...that doesn't sound to good at all, but with many of these loads there's just no way of accurately counting the number of pallets, let alone verifying everything that's on the trailer. I figure if there's ever an issue, I'll just say, "Take it up with your DC. They loaded & counted it." lol

The strap was no biggie. Just took me a second to figure out how it happened. I knew I'd not hit anything. But when I found it, it was up off the tire. There was no damage to the tire, so it really threw me for a bit. Then I realized I'd first parked the truck & set the brake about a truck & trailer length from where I was when I found it. I'd moved the truck b/c there wasn't room for me to pull & fold the tarps where I'd been. Sorta freaked me out for a second, but then as I thought through it all, it hit me. Just glad I had an extra strap in the truck! lol

Good that the company worked with ya on that snafu ya had there. "Training budget". Ha ha! Nothing like good ol' on the job training, eh?