The rookie

Ask them to show you how to work the drumming nozzle on the pump they should show you, I’m adamant in that because I went through the same thing did all air unloads but out of the 4 drivers I ran into at the tankwash 3 of them were there for pumpcleans and I had to get one of them to show me. Speaking of which I’m in Gary rn at the hotel as my truck is in the shop for the pump. The guide is meh it has pictures and a statement but just like everything in the book somebody with experience will tell you something the book doesn’t such as letting the compressor run with the hose attached for a few mins so it heats and blows hot air to aid in drying and after roll up a spill pad and stuff it into the discharge cause you can’t get the discharge full dry without doing so
Paper work gets easier the 2nd or 3rd time you do it half the information is there before you get a bill of laden, after you get your weights divide your net by the products weight per gallon and bam .. check off everything that applies in the boxes

 

Happy holidays to everybody I will have the holiday and the day after off ... yesterday was interesting, try sitting in a railyard with 2 expired reservation numbers haha.. luckily they we pretty quick this time sometimes I fall asleep waiting on them.. double checking my cal log to make sure I called them haha. But got back to Gary and seen that they dropped all my loads on me at once and it looked like I would get home early on Monday and that I would have that day to finish some shopping but my next load isn’t ready until tomorrow morning. So I’ll be going home and getting all my shopping done today. I will say they get you going pretty fast here and you gotta catch up, so many 1st’s these last 2 weeks. This next load will be my 1st relay... taking it east then bobtailing halfway back before I grab my next trailer... they supply us with logbooks and I’ve been using them to help me trip plan my days and it’s worked wonders the last few days. Also does anybody have a definite answer on how long the pilot shower credits last cause I have 4. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve either been parked at the oc or the tankwash in Wi so I had no reason to use them

 

Sitting here on a terrible dispatch so I got tons of time to update I have one of those dry erase calendars and it helps with remembering the days... So the 23rd I went out to Coraopolis to drop that tank and had a bit of fun with the mountains I can’t recall the exact location but I think it’s the beaver river on the penn turnpike but it’s beautiful. The way I remember it was I was battling the hill made it up and was coming down hill letting the surge coast me and I looked out of my windows and felt on top of the world.. or really high above a river. Made it back home to Michigan on that trip about 1100 on Xmas eve.. Christmas was interesting lol number 1 question was “What are you hauling?” And in short my response was I’m not a chemist yet I’m just a truck driver in his 1st month lol. The 27th was pretty boring just drove to Homewood,IL for a delivery finished up my day a about 2 hours early and parked at the oc. Yesterday was a mess, woke up at 6 hoping to have a load so I can go... nothing, turned the Qualcomm to max and went to take a nap... the load I i was given was a customer delivery at 0900 est and I recieved it at about 740 cst...delivery was also about 6 hours away so I start my day with the intention of delivering it and making it close back to the quala the next morning. So I get to Dow chem(all kinds of construction every where I go, I almost got stuck in the contstruction zone right in front of their shipping and receiving as it doesn’t look like it’s meant for trucks) park my truck 1st time being there(always just park it if it’s my first time at location because 9x out of 10 you gotta watch the safety video that was made in 1999) also my assignment was changed from a customer unload to a drop and exchange... which means more paperwork and more inspecting... yay smh So after the video you scale in. You have to get out take the keys out and let them inspect. Then you get a pass and a map. The guy said it’s the 1 first building right behind the scale house( the map looked handrawn, and the legend had a dotted line as not for trucks but the map was drawn so bad you couldn’t differentiate) So I pull through the 1st gate and the building is fenced off .. see the security office right in front I say I’m going to building xxx and they say oh you missed the turn in... I’m like it’s fenced off am I supposed to just yolo it?? So I went back to the truck services gate and they say you gotta got through the second gate security has to inspect the cab and then you turn this way and it right there... Go back through the 1st gate. Security office lights are off and those guys are gone(I think they were getting off and just didn’t care to show me the way, went through the second gate and I can see the tankers but no clear way to my buillding luckily I’m not a knucklehead and didn’t hit nothing or get lost, guy comes and shows me where to park it and next trailer I’m supposed to take. I don’t understand why they let yard jockeys park these tanks so close when a full sized semi is coming to pick them up I.. pretty much I had to squeeze/ inch my way out of this spot and guess my way back to the entrance. The after all that you have to scale out, park your trailer and comeback and bobtail scale... after all was said and done I ate up 4 hours at this place when it was supposed to be a 2 hour at the most process..Had enough time to start heading back and I was driving in the part of Michigan that had no civilization. No lights for miles just those beeping red lights from the windmills I was wondering if I made the right decision to leave.. I had about 2 and a half on my clock til I needed a 30 (took one about an hour before dow Incase something like that happened) but I would’ve only had an hour to gain so I found a little truck stop called it a night. Woke up to snow light snow ..didn’t really affect me but getting closer to the Gary/Chicago area where people are nuts cars where in ditches left and right..and that brings me to my next assignment where they had me picking up a trailer earlier this morning and my shipper is only 60 miles away(I’m like 5 mins away now) here comes the problem it doesn’t load till 1700 tomorrow.. I called dispatch and asked if I could get my time moved up cause at the time I had 8 hours on my clock, I was told that I could go there as they usually do first come first serve....as they are 24/7 and they usually take us...my first mistake and I knew it before I left but just didn’t want to sit for that long was listening to her...I get there and the guy is like yea we’re all booked out for next couple days you gotta wait till your appointment. You can wait til 12(00:00) and hope there’s some no shows but if there is I can’t promise they’ll take you cause you’re appointment isn’t priority for today...so here I am doing nothing to 1700 tomorrow and then only taking it 60 miles back to where I picked it up for a relay then probably done for the night as I’m not driving sleepy...The only 3 things I’m disliking so far about the job is the Chicago deadheads, The Chicago traffic and the this pos Qualcomm that in my truck gotta fight the thing to get it to do what you want

 

Got to that 1700 appointment only for to wait an hour to get to actually start. Got up to today no assignments again until 10 had to adjust all of the etas for 5 assignments because they were supposed to be sent at a earlier time smh spent a few minutes battling my Qualcomm. 2 of the assignments were shuttles back to the same place so pretty easy. The first one was one was a 30 min drive to the wash. Then my last two assignments are just headaches. So I’ve been sent back to the wash in wisc to drop a intermodal..(Last time I was here for 3 days waiting for 3 dirty trailers to be cleaned.) Everytime I go to Wisconsin it’s something. They just Recieved snow but the roads were clear cause everybody is home for New Years made it to the lot with about 30 mins left on my clock could’ve driven faster but wasn’t risking it. The lot has snow but it’s nothing crazy..Go to setup for my back in.. stuck, get unstuck and decide to try to move to some where else. Got stuck again.. So now I will probably get woke out of my sleep just to move the truck. To make things worse the last assignment, Doesn’t load till the 2nd so once again I’m stuck at my infamous tankwash and I have to deal with the Railyard

 

Before went to bed that night I called the BEST system and was told they’d probably have the lot plowed when I wake up and to call in and they get me towed out then..Yesterday did not go anywhere near to plan woke up around 10 when I felt cold and noticed my heater Went off and said low battery voltage... called Sem got a tow truck there in about an hour.. Somebody didn’t communicate that I needed to be jumpstarted. So he had to call other trucks to help out with the situation. Fast forward a few jumpstarts and pullstarts we could not get the truck to start so. At about 1400 I called back into Sem and the migraine began. The way their system is handled is beyond me, Everything was going well until I got transferred to a guy with a hostile attitude. He gave the tow truck driver instructions, didn’t work so we called back about 15 mins later and got an attitude with me saying he told the tow truck driver to call him not me...ok hung up, called my dbl informed her and she asked did I want to get transferred to Sem smh. (The whole company loves transferring calls). Finally got transferred to somebody who handles the hotel bookings got a room. Today woke up got towed further north into heavier snow to the truck Country. And I I’ll know what’s going on when they fix it

 

I tried to be detailed about it and include as much information as possible but if you’re like me coming in as a inexperienced driver (experienced drivers too) feel free to ask any questions you may have about the process.

oh man that sounds “Fun” as I call it and yea my truck is at 432k so I don’t know how long till they put her down I was able to get a manual pretty easily last time so when it’s time I’ll ask. And yea I’ve avg around 6-8 also but that’s with every load having a issue like you said, and still being kinda slow with paper work and being in the shop multiple times, when things runs smooth it’s amazing. But patience is key I feel like I’ve learned so much in just the past month on the road. And really going into this year my main focus wasn’t the cash but learning how to do the job correctly and get some experience then evaluate after. To these companies the most valuable thing ona resume experience. So this year is just head down ears open picking up whatever I can.

 

Cont.

So truck country didn’t get to the truck until later in the day about 1700 and their driver lounge is upstairs and in the hallway they have a window that overlooks the garage. So they pull the truck in and charge the batteries, nothing hooks up what looks like another fuel water separator and got it to start. Pulled it out did some test driving brought it back in the whole process took to about 2100 .. went downstairs to check cause they hadn’t came up to get me like the other 5 drivers that came and went. Was told they were still running diagnostics, so I called and got a hotel... They booked me 45 mins away with no way to get back to the truck country smh when there was the same hotel right across the street with a shuttle smh. Called in around 1100 the next day and was told it’s ready...went to pick it up and awaiting my next assignment. And my guess before it came in was I was going back to the very lot I just got stuck in... Should’ve seen my face when the pre-assignment came in... I wanted to just call sem and tell the tow truck to meet me there lol but they somewhat plowed it and I was able to get to my trailer, but got stuck trying to get out... thankfully I had a manual and was able to rock my way out. Headed back to Gary had safetrack/nalco cert in the morning
Safetrack is basically everything you do during the sqt put into one quick test to make sure you haven’t picked up bad habits. Then you have to take a route to get somewhere then route yourself back to the Oc using a atlas and write it down to turn in. Nalco cert is almost the exact same as the stuff you watch in the 1st 2 weeks in the classroom.
Done with that just received a preassignment..
Just take a wild guess where they’re sending me smh