twice in 2 days

Kinda reminds of something I/we saw about 3 wks ago....

We're at the training range, (my class & I), going through an alley dock practice session. The main road outside of the range is US301, (undivided, 4 lanes), there's also a major intersection with stoplights and a gas station/Subway shop on the range side of the highway.

Including the turn lanes, this is a 5-lane intersection. Big truck pulls up to the stripe and stops for the red, sits there for a second, tugs the horn once, throws on the 4-ways, and starts backing up. Backs-up a total of about 75 feet, pulls the brakes, jumps out and runs into the gas station.....with the truck still in the far right lane of US301!

Comes back out about 6 minutes later with his Subway bag, hops in, releases brakes, turns off 4-ways, and drives off on down the road.

Instructors just look at us, shake their heads, and one of them states, "Now class, that there is a perfect example of what NOT to do....ever!"

While I won't say which company it was, I will say that it WASN'T Swift or JB.

 

LOL talk about having to have a thick skin. When I first started driving I pulled a trailer that said EAT MORE FRUIT on the side of it up and down the east coast. You think I didn't catch hell for that!?

 

I have come up to intersection where there was only one lane going my direction and then all of a sudden I now have three lanes to my left when I want to make a right. If I had swung it into the far left lane when it spread out my trailer still would have been in the right lane. By the way I spent a week in that area and I saw local drivers go through this intersection and they come down the hill and took up two and a half lanes to make this corner. I just went extra deep into the intersection. Rookie mistake, yes. Though wern't we all rookies at one point in time?

 

When i first started driving i was in chicago in this "little" industrial park. I was in the dock getting loaded, meantime while sleeping some guy parks his pickup truck right at the corner of the lot i was in. Thought i could make it when pulling out but realized no at the last second so i went over the curb on the far side of the street trying to swing wide and got my drive axles hung on the curb. Had to call a wrecker to pull me off the curb, and did i mention it was 3 pm in chicago and this was the only drive in and out of this industrial park so needless to say i was a huge hit with all the employees and other trucks coming in and out.

 

Thanks for the laugh!!!

 

Do you happen to remember the wrecker company? Was it O'Hare Towing? As in the show "Wrecked" that comes on on the Speed Channel?

 

Couldn't tell ya. It's been almost 11 years ago but i don't think it was.

 

Getting back to the original comment, the majority of the time use the outside lane. If your have ever driven in downtown Harrisburg on Cameron steet near HACC, there is a double left turn lane from Cameron going back towards the rail yard near the college. Trucks must make that turn in the inside lane because of the turning traffic for the college. If you get caught in the ouside lane you will get a ticket. The bad part as of a couple of months ago it wasn't marked, not sure now. I have heard drivers make comments about trucks being in the inside lane making that turn, but do not always assume they are not correct in what they are doing.

 

that tends to happen when you have the most trucks out on the road. Its the law of averages....or the law of probabilities....take your pick. if swift with say 18,000 trucks, and you compare them to JB Hunt or the pumpkins, who each has, say 18,000 trucks COMBINED (i'm just throwing numbers out there for argument sake), then who do you think you'll see in more 'trouble' than others??

Now everytime i see some bonehead swift driver proving why they get such a bad rap, it p!sses me off, and want to walk over to them, pull them out of the truck, and slap them in the mouth because they had a brain fart and forgot how big an ### they were pulling behind them.

EXAMPLE....i was at a shipper few weeks ago, picking up aluminum cans. They had a pretty narrow enterance, onto a pretty narrow 2-lane blacktop, with NO shoulder. Inside i see a picture and a narrative explaining how you have to hug the left side of the drive to make the tight turn to the right. They then show a picture of a swift driver who almost rolled the truck, but the rear axle on the tandems and one foot on the landing gear saved the truck. The entire left side of the tractor was up off the ground.

First thing i noticed, was the driver didnt slide his tandems, he left them full rear. Now even if he had hugged the left side of the drive, he would never have made that tight turn to the right. The guy in the S&H office told me the story on how it happened. He said, "i've got a CDL, i know how much general experience a driver has based on how he sets up for a back." Told me how he watched him set up, and it took him 15 min. to do that, THEN took another 30 to actually back it in. Then once he got it in the dock, dropped the trailer, and hooked to a preloaded one, the guy said how it took him an hour to get hooked and then get moving. Said he spent alot of time second guessing himself, nothing was a 'habbit'. As it turns out, that driver was in his first week of being solo.....and ended up getting termed.

I think if a driver that goes solo (with any company) and had just come off a mentor's truck, gets into an accident his first or second MONTH, the mentor should be atleast written up, or at least investigated as to their method of training. If a mentor is found to EVER be in the sleeper during the first week or two, its automatic banishment for a year from training....

thats just my take.

 

Now that would have done a lot of good... And they would have had time to reflect while they sat in jail.