Tips for the new driver

I agree with this. When I was new I only broke a running light off my trailer. I went to a TA and just bought a replacement light and put it on myself. Looked like nothing ever happened. Another time I got stuck in the mud trying to turn around in some hillbilly town without any signs or warnings and just paid for the tow truck to pull me out. It is better to spend your own money than to get a spanking and writeup from your company.

 

Oh boy, who'd you run over this time and where's the body buried?

 

Anybody has that video of two semi off tracking into some guys lawn and trying to run? =D sounds like they following your practice

 

If you DROP a trailer in some dusty drop-yard in the middle of the night , Does it make a SOUND ???!! ( the truth will NOT set you free )

 

I learned this 4 days ago. I made my way towards a pathway not for trucks (dont trust your gps!). It was the wrong entrance of a truck stop for employees only, very narrow pathway and gated entry with a voice receiving machine to request entry. I needed to make a uturn but i didnt have room so i was going to buzz the machine to request hey opn the gate so i can just get in that way rather than try to make a uturn. Anywho long story short i read a sign threatening to involve the authorities if trucks are spotted on this road. So i got in my truck and MADE the uturn happen. Lets just say there are several plants that did not make it to see another day due to that episode, and i skipped on that truckstop all together and reunited with the freedom of the highway.

 

I delivered in a shopping center and when time to leave, cars parked illegally everywhere. Left two huge clumps of beautiful bushes and lots of mulch on the highway. I just kept right on trucking.

One time I arrived at a receiver early in the morning and was told to back in and wait. A one dock operation and pitch dark. As I was backing in, felt something; it was a bunch of copper guttering draped across the trailer. Got it all off and laid it by the fence. Pulled back around the front of the store and waited. When they arrived, I told them I haven't been there before and where should I back in. Unloaded and left and never heard anything about it.

One time saw a Swift truck do a u-turn behind a shopping center and took out about 50 feet of chain link fence. He kept on trucking. The receiver finally came outside and threw a fit and accused me of it. I said, well, check my trailer for scratches, but I didn't do it, it was that way when I arrived. I didn't snitch on the Swift driver either. The receiver said it must have happened very early that morning when no one was around.

Don't snitch on yourself or another driver.

 

Any time there's a body involved, take the body to a truckstop and stuff it under some flatbedders tarps.

 

Only if there is no damage trail...

Mikeeee

 

Had to pull a u-e to get back on the Pennsylvania I-70 Turnpike during my training period one time headed to Pittsburgh around 2:30 am. Some little no name town with no city around it for 120 plus miles in either direction. (I thought that we were going to run out of fuel before we made it to the fuel stop my trainer wanted to stop at) Woke my trainer up at this small corner store gas station with diesel at it to see if he wanted to put some fuel in the truck to make sure we didn't get stranded on this middle of nowhere turnpike. (It had been hours of driving without seeing much for towns, fuel stations, or any exits even off the tollway) He assured me we'd make it on the fumes and then went back to bed.

So since I couldn't turn around at the gas station I was at, I went down the road to the only other public building in that town which was this small bank that had quite a few parking spaces that were empty that I could get the truck in and turn around. It was a four point turn around to get myself pointed the way I wanted to go.

Before driving into the parking lot, I made a mental note of most everything that I could potentially hit and needed to watch out for while turning around. Everything went good, except the last little scooch backwards to pull out of the lot. I had forgotten about the sign for the bank which by this point in my turnaround was directly behind my trailer and not visible out of either mirror.

I checked my mirrors and saw nothing behind me but empty lot and then grass behind that, thought oh yea I got room to get back a little more, so I hit the fuel in reverse and THUNK. I started sweating and wondering what in the world that noise was. Racked my brain for a second and then it dawned on me, THE SIGN. It didn't feel like I hit hard, but I know how little it takes to straight bend a little sign like that over at a 90. So I didn't even get out and look, just started pulling out and confirmed from my mirrors as I was pulling away that yep, knocked their sign over.

Got back on the road like nothing happened and didn't mention anything to my trainer or the company about it. Figured if the bank wanted to though, they could pull up the security image and fine the company for the replacement, then the company would contact the trainer and I'd be contacted shortly after. Haven't heard a word from it.