stupidest thing u have done or seen a rookie do?

That is nice to hear! It gives a noob a little bit of room to work in.

 

My worst:
I made a last second decision to whip a u-turn and got stuck. My trailer was blocking part of an entrance ramp leading to I-55. This led to a minor accident where another truck hit my trailer.

Heres my most embarassing mistake:
I just dropped a loaded trailer at a UPS yard, so I went to find my empty and get out of there. I find the emptys and I backed under it, but I didnt let the kingpin lock. I did this on purpose because I wanted to make sure the trailer was empty. I still wonder why I didnt just park by it, then check it out without backing under it. doh!

So I walked back and checked the trailer and it was empty, so I went ahead and hooked up the lines, raised the landing gear, and did my inspection of the trailer. (Guess which part I left out?)

I sent in my empty call and updated the book and started to pull out of the slot. I got all the way out and as I turned...BAM!!
I look back and my lines are pulled out and the trailer is sitting in the middle of the lot.

So there I am for the next 10 minutes...raising up the landing gear in slow(was too hard to use fast), and to make things worse, there was another driver from my company that saw the whole thing...and UPS drivers driving by shaking their heads.

It did no damage to the trailer or my air lines, but taught me one thing.
ALWAYS check the kingpin/do a tug test!! Funny, I always make sure to do a tug test, but the one time you dont do it is when it costs you. Crazy how that works.

Im sure UPS caught it on their cameras, but I never heard a word from my company about it...

 

Well, after reading the brave souls here owning up to their own mistakes, figured I'd register and provide my own. Hope it won't ruin yall's opinion of me.

So I started with Swift after going through their driving academy in Richmond. Had a great mentor who taught me alot. Got my first truck at their terminal in WV. Got back home, threw my stuff in it, and my DM got me a load to pick up the next day picking up in Hanover, PA. We'd grab an mt somewhere in Harrisburg.

So I get on the QC in the morning, he gives me the loc of an mt. I get there, but the trlr I need to grab is buried 3 deep behind other trailers. Spend an hour jockeying trlrs to get it out (during which I made a booboo of dropping one trlr without disconnecting my airlines... luckily I noticed before I got out from it too far. ) So, I hop back in and get rdy to roll when I get a msg from him asking if I ever got an enforcer lock. Nope. So I have to roll back to the terminal and get it. By this time I started to get worried about making the load apt on time. Anyway, grab the lock and head down to the place, get there with 15 mins to spare! Whoo! So I check in, they give me a door, and I look at the spot they want me to back into. The yard isn't too bad, but there's trucks in the spots on both sides. Nothing I hadn't done before, but not the easiest back I've done either. So I setup, and BAM nail the back in the first try. So I'm set the brakes, sitting there all proud, and the driver in the truck on my left is smiling, nods at me, then grabs his mic and shakes it. So I turn my CB up and I hear this, "Nice back Swift! This your first load?"

So, I reply, "Sure is! First solo load anyway! How did ya know?"

He replies, "Well, you backed er in good, but you might want to open those trailer doors so you can be loaded next time!"

We all had a good laugh over that...

 

I bet my list is longer than your list.

 

All right ladies and gentlemen, hold on to your hats.

I was maybe four loads out of training, running solo.

I dropped a load in Tracy, CA (you know, that place in the 580, 205, 5 triangle), and promptly got a load of lettuce out of San Jose. Sweet!

Well, I got there and they wanted me to scale empty. So I got on the scale...but I needed my tandems all the way back. So I went around and went through the rigamarole of sliding the empty tandems (newbie took extra time for that). Good, got that done, got her scaled. Dropped the trailer. Pick up Trailer 13XXX. Picked it up all right, go to the scale. WAAaaaAAY overweight on the drives.

Did you adjust your tandems, driver?

Yeah, I sure did!...Oh wait. I'd slid the empty tandems, not the loaded tandems (all that work made it feel like I'd done enough sliding of tandems for the day, apparently). So I got off the scale and adjusted those tandems as well.

I scaled out all right and was just happy to get the hell out of there.

I was running low on hours for the day, but my routing took me north on 680 up through San Fran to 80 (I forget where the load was headed). I figured, there'll be a place to park! I'll go and scout one out. This is San Fransisco we speak of. I did not know then what I know know about parking a truck in San Fransisco...like how you can't, so much.

So I'm running north on 680, creeping ever closer to my 11 hour limit. Every exit is either tiny and unparkable, or signed "NO TRUCKS!" Forget about anything resembling a truck stop.

So I'm right up against the 11 hour wall when I see "BENICIA MARTINEZ TOLL BRIDGE...TRUCKS $11.25" Did I mention I was fresh out of training? I'd overlooked the necessity for spare cash-on-hand for tolls. I have NO CASH on this truck.

So I get off at the last possible exit...and it gets a little murky at this point. I know I looked at my map furiously and tried not to kill anybody, and somehow reasoned that taking surface streets to the 4 freeway across to 80 would solve my problem. I think some of you might know the punchline that's coming here.

So I'm navigating surface streets...bombing through downtown suburban San Fransisco, eyes peeled wider than eyes can peel for low clearances. Just about took out a power pole on a right turn, but saved it...thank God. And finally (after what felt like HOURS) I'm onto the 4 westbound...headed for 80. Patted myself on the back for such a creative, on-the-fly save.

Then I got on 80. "CARQUINEZ BRIDGE...TRUCKS $11.25"

Mother F____ER!

Some how in my frantic looking at maps and avoiding street traffic accidents, I didn't notice that EVERY SINGLE N/B BRIDGE OUT OF THE BAY AREA IS A TOLL!

So I'm still out of cash, about 30 minutes outside my 11 hours, and I MUST get off the freeway to find an ATM.

So I take the last exit before the bridge (the one you take to get to C&H sugar, incidentally).

The newbishness continues. Instead of taking a left at the bottom of the ramp so that I could aim myself at the on ramp, I took a right. Immediately I saw my mistake. Taking a right there leads you up a narrow, four-lane surface flanked by a solid wall of rock on the left, and an imposing chain-link fence on the right that keeps you from running off the cliff-like hill side and into the Carquinez Straight.

So I'm like, "F___ I'm going to have to turn this around."

Well, I says to myself, get some cash first, so that if you get out of this, you can at least get across the ###### bridge.

So I mosey down the street to this super posh, quaint, sea-side fish place. The maitre d' is about 30, and he looks at me like I just crawled out of the primordial soup. I'm guessing it was because I was a little beneath dress code for such an establishment. I politely asked if they had an ATM.

He relaxed a little, realizing that I wasn't there to eat or anything horrifying like that, and apologized, saying they didn't have one...but there was a bar down the road a stretch that had one.

So off I go. Past the exit ramp, past a perfect parking spot (had I been smart enough to go left at the bottom of the ramp instead of right) and down a massive hill into town. I find the bar and pop inside. I gun straight for that beautiful ATM, all the while blushing like a schoolgirl and avoiding the curious gaze of all of the locals. $40. Thank you very much, I'm out. I ducked out of there without so much as a word to anybody.

Back UP that massive hill I just walked down.

And now it's time to turn this big b__ch around.

I'm not about to go up the hill, because the road disappears around a bend, am I'm guessing it's just going to get tighter. So I scope out my surroundings.

Solid rock face on my left, so not much play there. Four narrow lanes to work with. And that blasted fence on the right.

Wait...there's a gap in the fence. I can run my trailer back there, get the tandems off the road surface, and stick the overhang into that big hole so that it can swing without hitting anything.

So I gingerly back down this hill, trying to maneuver the [heavy] trailer into this oddly shaped gap.

Got it in. All right, so here comes the ridiculously difficult u-turn. Don't hit the rocks with the tractor. Don't bend the fairing all to hell and gone. Watch the trailer tandems so that they don't run off the hillside and pull you off the cliff to your doom (okay, little dramatic there, but that was how nervous I was).

I waited for traffic to clear and went for it.

Jack the wheel all the way left and go as far a you can. Snuggle up to that rock at tight as you can. All right. Stop, reverse, tighten up the angle to complete it. Watch that fairing. Watch those tandems. Hug the rocks to keep the swing as wide as possible. I think I did it! We're clear...

Oh, no, we're not. My last check of that dang California-legal tail-swing shows a poor, unassuming, perfectly innocent 4x4 post dying a terrible death under my merciless back end.

So, somewhere in Crockett, CA, visitors, passers-through, and residents alike can no longer be notified that there is no soliciting within city limits without a license.

All in all, (after I found a spot to part 2 hours over my 11) the fact that the only damage I did that day was to a simple public notice sign is pretty miraculous.

I learned a lot of stuff about how not to drive that day.

 

Haha, learn by doing. Had a few times like that, running on roads that were clearly marked "NO TRUCKS" and finding out why. Thank god most cops are actually pretty decent and understanding when you are new to trucking.

 

I don't know if your bragging or complaining or just proud of the fact that you may be dumber than me.
Just kidding

 

Just being honest and admitting I'm human.
I figure, like you do as well, nobody wants to hear all the stupid stuff we did LOL

Then there are some guys that never make mistakes.
I know you have met them too.

 

First solo trip, of course...

I have a couple of pretty simple rules that I figured should keep me out of trouble. Don't rush and don't turn a small mistake into a bigger one.

So I just got my assigned truck and I'm off for my first run. I've got the directions to where I'm going. I talk to another driver who has been there many times and get the perfect directions right to the dock. I've got everything ready so off I go. I pull out of the yard, drive all the way across town to pick up a loaded trailer, get hooked up and I'm ready to roll. Oh yeah, in my rush to get going I forgot to fuel so back across town I go, fuel up and then back across town again. Pretty minor but cost me about an hour and broke my first rule.

Everything else went great that first day. Day two and rule two. I69 SB in Indiana. Just befoe Indianapolis my route had me getting onto the I465 but somehow I missed the exit. No big deal, I knew I would miss a turn or two. Just keep going until I can get back on track or find a place to stop and look at the map. Right away I see a sign which said something about Industrial at the first exit so I figure I take the exit into an industrial park and have no problem getting turned around and back on track. No industrial park though, instead a pretty nice residential area. What now? Oh wait, there's a truck coming the other way so it can't be too bad. Where'd that truck go, oh it just turned down that road so I should be able to go there!

Well that truck was a 5 ton service truck turning down that residential street to do some furnace work or something at one of the houses. So now I'm on a dead end street with no way to turn around. I've already taken a minor thing and turned it into a much bigger one. Now I get out and scope it out. The street is a dead end but there is another little road off of it. That one is a dead end too, so basically the road I turned onto is the shape of a Y. Looking at it I think that maybe I can back into the other part of the Y to get turned around. I pull forward to set this up and start to back. Didn't take long to realize there was no way I was getting backed onto there without driving through someones yard so that plan was out the window.

At this point I noticed the older lady with the pen and paper writing down something, probably the name and number on the truck. I got out and talked with her. Turns out every couple of weeks someone ends up in the same place. She said they usually make the backing maneuver I had been thinking of but they always tear up someones lawn or rip out a mailbox so she was getting my info for when that happened, lol.

Well, only one option left. I have to back off this side street onto the one I came off of. Got the truck lined up for the back onto the busy street but there's no way I was moving any further without someone stopping traffic. I see a guy just about to get into his suv at the house on the corner and approach him. I tell him the situation and ask him if he would be kind enough to either call the Police or, if he was willing, to stop traffic for me. He said he was due in the OR shortly but he could spare a couple of minutes.

So the good Doctor stopped the traffic, somehow I made the perfect blindside onto the road and was on my way.

Otherwise the first trip went smoothly. Thankfully they were smart enough to give me more than enough time for a couple of screw ups on the first couple of runs.