stupidest thing u have done or seen a rookie do?

True. Lord only knows how many bushes and trees have been fertilized off some of these highways. *Chuckle

 

True, but not what I meant.


I was meaning that they have trouble retaining their training after few minutes break. But now I'll never see roadside bushes in the same light!

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My Dad, hauled local (livehaul) and as a kid, I remember watching him come home everyday, pop on the 4ways and back his Mack with trailer into the driveway, up the hill and alongside a grapevine at our home.....flawless, perfect and without a single pullup for years!! To a kid, this was the greatest thing in the world to watch, AWESOME!! LOL Fastforward years later, I had just started out, get a load delivered not too far from my parents home and decide to "show-off" a bit to my old man! Surely I can do this manuever, Dad is the local, home everyday driver.....I've driven to NY, etc, etc....I come down the road, pop the 4ways, start backing and my right drive axles run off the road....they are sitting on nothing but air, spinning. Can't go forward, cant back up...and of course my Dad is standing in the doorway watching......Dad climbs into his truck, hooks up a chain and pulls his young "Super Trucker" out.....I felt like an idiot! Dad climbs into my passenger seat and tells me to try it again..explaining the exact moment to start turning my steering wheel to the right is when I could see my reflection off the front door of the house....PRICELESS KNOWLEDGE! Stuck it in the driveway, parked...Old man says, "NICE JOB" WE GO IN AND HAVE A GREAT DINNER THAT MOM COOKED!! GOTTA LOVE IT!

 

Reminds me of the time I had broken tandems. The pins didn't line up cause the rack was bent. I released them and couldn't get them back in. So after about a half hour of banging on them I figured what the hell. They were stuck in place right? I was burning daylight. I drive down the road and the tandems go crashing back making the loudest boom I've ever heard a truck make. After getting out to check and calm a few people my next stop was the shop

 

I'm sorry to hear that. As a flatbedder I learned the hard way why when we are unsecuring a load we never loosen up all the straps on one side and then go around to the other side and pull them over. Half of them have hooks

 

During orientation at my present company one guy missed a turn on the road test. He then proceeded to stop in the middle of the road and reverse back to it. The instructor took over at that point and he was quickly dismissed.

 

The craziest story Ive heard was one my driving instructor told me, I wont tell anyone his name. He said he was traveling somewhere cross country and he had the cruise set and the radio on and he had been driving a while and was good and relaxed, and he starts getting a little hungry right. So he remembers he has a big bag of Doritos laying behind him on the edge of his sleeper bed, Said he could see them and almost reach them, said he had light traffic so he stretches and he can barley touch them and he stretches just a little farther and BAM the truck hit a bump in the road and he falls out of his seat and lands in the sleeper on his belly, lol He has the cruise set on 65 mph and hes back in the back on his belly. He said that's the fastest he ever moved in his life, said he came off that floor like a panther and was back in the seat again with no problems. He said the truck just stayed straight in his lane. I like to have sheit when he told me this. I laughed so hard. I wonder how far it traveled in those 4 or 5 seconds?

 

About 95 ft/second, so 475 ft in 5 seconds.

 

This thread is awesome. I needed some comic relief tonight. Here's my addition:

I was to start my day and observe a new driver. I called him up the day before and told him to be in at 0500. I had about 3 hours sleep before screaming Mimi went off. Bear in mind I'm not a morning person and I am not a fan of Volvo. The new guys shows up at 0500. I tell him to go ahead and do a pretrip and I will shadow him. So rockstar in one had and my eyes barely open looking down the drivers side of the trailer I see all the clearance lights flash, then the marker lights, then the brake lights. The driver continued on down the trailer doing his pretrip while I just froze watching the lights do something I had never witnessed before. The new guy makes it all the way back around to me and says he's ready to go. Still puzzled I asked him if he saw anything wrong with his trailer. He answered assured "no", I was baffled and proceeded to tell him we couldn't take a possessed trailer like that down the road. And then I turned around and saw the high beams and low beams flashing on the side of the building. I had to light a cigarette then. I made the decision to take a different truck and trailer to the customer.

When we arrived back at the terminal I was asked why the new guy used a different truck and trailer. I explained the whole story at which point the mechanics and safety director laughed so hard they were crying and told me that the new guy could train me options Volvo is equipped with. I love Kenworth!!!

 

so what was up with the lights? Im a newbie lol