TMC Day 1

Good to see ya back on here Grumpy1. I am back from my 1st week on the road and boy was it a interesting experience. We didn't leave until Monday morning as he was not loaded the Friday before. Which was good since it gave me some more time at home to get ready. My first load was Griffin pipe that we took to Kentucky on a small farm road with hardly any place to turn the truck around, then turned out the delivery directions were not the same place they wanted it, so we had to drive another 15 miles out. No big deal.

My next load was wall board (dry wall) out of the Lafarge plant, which was cool since you drive into the place get loaded and they even put your tarps on with a big machine, then you drive out and strap and bungee it. That load went to Syracuse NY, and it was snowing and cold most of the way up there. After we dropped that we were waiting for awhile at the truck stop for another load to run, things are slow so the wait time between loads is longer he said. Turn out our next run was 100 miles north at a Alcoa plant for some ingots. My trainer drove that part as I was already close to being out of hours, he wanted to be first in line in morning to load so we could get home Friday at decent time.

Well mother nature had other plans, and I know Grumpy would hate this, but at the Plant in Mansena where we bunked down for the night the temps got down to -19, so it was freaking cold. Then on the way home coming South on interstate 81 we hit a snow squall, well it too maybe 2-3 hours to drive maybe 5 miles or so as it completely covered the roadway with deep snow in no time, there was cars and trucks all over the place stuck, you couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of the truck, I was trying to keep sight of the truck in front of me but when he sped up up I lost sight of where the road was as it was white out conditions. We made it thru there without getting stuck but it was long and intense driving unlike I never drove in before, let alone in a tractor trailer. I mean it was crazy snowing, like 2 feet deep in less than 2 hours and the road dissapperaing easily.

Only thing that sucked was that it killed our chances of getting home at a decent time Friday, turned out we got back at 1 am, then I have to drive my 3+ hour drive home in my car. But that was ok since my trainer drove the last 3 hours in the truck so I could sleep some.

Over all my trainer is good, we get along just fine and he is good at what he does and in teaching me about life on the road. The truck he has is a 2008 388, it has plenty of power but a little small on the inside, I am not complaining though I liek the truck alot, just tight with 2 guys, but should be fine with 1. He has a fridge too so good to bring small stuff. We only ran 3 loads this week but next week should be more busy hopefully and I will get more miles on the road, and I already decided to go with percentage pay as we have been doing the math and percentage has been coming out on top so far. I like the job so far, rolling a tarp up in the snow and cold sucks but you take the good with the bad. Things will be easier if things go well and I get my own truck and have my own privacy too.

I'll still post here from time to time, but maybe not detail every load,,as many of the TMC verterans know all about it.

 

I will keep on trucking, I am liking it but it is hard being away from home for a week, but at least its not 2 weeks or more. Still trying to figuring out how to do things being away. I will get used to it as this is my first time being a real trucker.

 

I barely got home for the weekend and feel bad cause my trainer did not get home. He is at a truck stop about 45 minutes from my house, we were empty and didn't have a load to go home and they don't bounce you home empty over 200 miles, he is 263 miles away from where we were in North Jersey. I asked him if it was alright if I got a ride home and he said no problem.

I felt bad leaving him there and offered that he could stay at my house for the weekend but he decided to stay with the truck. My brother picked me up and I will meet up with him Sunday night. Just found out we have a load now to pick up in Maryland but he will still stay at truck stop.

My week was a long one, we were waiting on loads a few times for 5 hours or more most times, time for naps and some TV so not that bad but sucks waiting and as in todays case didn't get him home. We also waited 12 hours to load in Harvey IL. We were an half hour late to a load appointment that was impossible for us to meet as we got the load on the qualcomm like 10 minutes before the time. We got there at 5 pm and didn't get loaded till 5 am, the place was incredibly slow.

Over all I am liking it, but the wait times to get loaded and waiting for work isn't fun but to be expected this time of year I guess. We got screwed up after I missed an exit in North Jersey, but we only lost 45 minutes of time.

After reading all the new posts here about people getting let go for unknown reasons and unfair. I won't get into too much detail, who knows I might be next to go. I'll keep my head up and hope for the best.