The joys of being a rookie

The very first load that I had to haul right after finishing training was a loaded trailer that I hooked to right at the yard. I left at 2 AM in the morning. Came out the yard down about a mile and got on the freeway and realized 35 miles down the road, that yes my very first load, totally on my own I was going the wrong direction. I haven’t done it since. Nobody ever said anything to me they probably all were laughing too hard. That company at that time knew any time you went off route.

 

I did that once .
Grabbed the wrong pre loaded trailer at a shipper, the guard at the shipper gate didn’t notice. the guard checking trailers in at the Railroad intermodal yard noticed the discrepancy between the trailer number on the bils and on the trailer but they never questioned it , they actually changed the trailer number in their dispatch computer .
Two days later when they back into the dock at an auto assembly plant and it’s empty racks , not seats for new Ford Taurus.
Trucking company had to charter a cargo plane to get the seats to the assembly plant in time before the plant shut down for lack of seats.

and yea I got fired. I was already on probation for a couple of other missteps .

 

I turned down a wrong dirt road awhile back. Crazy thing is I am hardcore about google satellite images etc and was sure I was on correct road. However as I approached where I thought I was supposed to be it was not it. So I just stopped. Set brakes, got out and looked down that dirt road thinking well, I guess I have to just back out to main road and then if I have to stop traffic to get out I will. (The road I was on was a dead end)

Then A cool homeowner who was out mowing his grass, he waved at me to stop, road his mower over and said your on the wrong road and it happens all the time. So just drive down around the corner. It dead ends at my place, pull into the drive and back into neighbors drive, don’t worry about running over the grass it’s okay. This happens all the time so we are used to it. Lolol. How lucky does one get. I thanked him and proceeded to get myself out of that snafu… funny thing is while I was turning around a utility truck pulled in so I jumped out and told him to pass. He was also on wrong road. Lolol. So some of the best advice I’ve gotten was to stop, and if needed call the cops to help get you out. Was not at that point but it was a bit of fun I didn’t need that day.

 

Too many of those 911 operators are complete idiots. I’ll call them only if I absolutely am forced to. Then keep in mind that I’m talking to the mind of a child.

 

I had a delivery at a new warehouse out south of the Denver airport. Garmin didn’t have the address or street yet. Found it on google. Followed... It brought me up the main road to the airport. About S! my pants when I came to an overhead freeway type sign that said: Welcome to the airport. Terminal xxx left lanes. Terminal xxx right lanes. ... Then looked at google map. About 100 yards up. There was an old two lane road going right. That was my way to go. .... Now I just take 56th out there. A big beautiful new Costco warehouse.

 

This reminds me of my first week my own. I realized I'd turned the wrong way on a narrow country road somewhere in Indiana. I saw a mobile home with a horseshoe drive that looked big enough to save the day. The home owner moved his front porch out of my way to save me from having to back out onto the street. He was totally cool about it.

 

Haha grocery warehouses. Last winter i booked a load going to buzzottos. Told my dad where it was going and he just laughed and said good luck Lol. Like 12 hours to pull 8-9 pallets off. Never again.

Tuesday i did Wakefern (shop rite) and was in and out within 2 hours. Got lucky there

 

Had that happen at DFW with a 16’ wide crate on. Still not quite sure how it happened, I was coming up 360 and next thing you know I’m staring at the toll booths for international parkway that runs right through DFW. luckily there is a small road that looks to be made just for my situation. Got turned around and headed back south.