What are some mistakes or blunders you've made as a newbie?

last week i left a shipper without giving them there copies of the bill of lading.....when i got back the dispatcher looked at me and said why do you have 2 copies of the bills of lading? i was like oh sh...

 

Pulled into the wrong store (costco) for delivery...... My store was 25 miles away. No service failure. Dock crew thought it was funny as heck.

 

3 a.m. and I'm driving with some O/O (who never paid me). He is in the sleeper. I come up on a 4-wheeler on the side of the road, with about six gypsies waving their arms, so I slow down. I stop in the middle of the road. "We need some help!" Me, all young and innocent:"Ok, I'll pull over to the side up here." Now, the O/O comes out of the sleeper: "What is going on?" I tell him, and he says, "just keep on going."
Now, I think that was pretty good advice.

 

how do you avoid not ever breaking the law as a trucker?? If you go the speed limit, make sure your log books are correct and check your equipment.....is there more to it than that? thanks

 

Eventually you will fudge up. Noone is perfect, some are just luckier than others.

About the only thing I can think of offhand, In my first year I was pulling into the main yard in a little single drive spring ride with an empty 53' Tridem Reefer unit... well, the main driveway has a bit of a hump to it, and even having the landing gear all the way up just wasnt enough... Doesnt crank down too good when its bent about 25* out of where its supposed to be...

 

In my first few months, I was on a mail delivery to Greensville, SC. I just past the truck entrance to the post office, so I turned on the next street. Pulled over on a deserted street I was studying my GPS trying to figure how to go around and after a minute, I notice, I was parked right outside the exit of the trucking exit of the post office. Cool, I thought. All I have to do is back up 20 feet and go in. Now, not a car has come by in either direction at all, the whole time I have been sitting there. So, just like I learned in school, I rolled down my window and put my 4 ways on. Slowly backing up and OMG, I see a car coming into my mirror view that I am pushing around like a toy car. Darn, Darn and Darn. Long story short. Even the cop agreed with me, that I was set up. She knew that trucking companies have good insurance, and yes, the next day, she called the office tons of times, wanting money. They did send her $1700.00, I think, just to shut her up. And of course, me being a newbie, I had to pay $75 a week out of my pay until I paid my portion of $1500.00 towards the accident. I did get a ticket. A $130.00 Ticket. But thank Goodness, I got tons of lawyers letters, wanting to help me. I called all of them. It turned out, I paid one $65.00 and they got it dropped and no points or any record of it, and I did not have to pay the $130 to the courts. Because the company paid the money direct to the girl, I did not have any insurance strikes against me either.

So from now on, if I ever stop on the public road again, and have to back up, I jump out and check to make sure no one is in my blind spot again.

And yes, it did happen again. I needed to back up, so this time (Learning the hard way) I got out and checked, and sure enough a old lady was on my bumper. I told her nicely to go ahead around, since I needed to back up. She did. On that one, she was not trying to set me up, but just a old lady driver, sitting way to close to my bumper.

Again. I learned my lesson, the hard way.

 

Wow where should I start!!! Just kidding we all make allot of mistakes I think. Two come to mind. I missed my turn and saw a convenience store that looked like a good place to turn around so I swung in there and started to turn back onto the road. This car started yelling and beeping his Horn so I stopped and he started swearing at me about a fire hydrant well to make a long story short there was a fire hydrant under my trailer and if was not for that guy I would of taken it out!!
I had a load from Maine to Ca. I looked on my map since I was still new at the time and saw where Chico was so I figured out my trip. I got to Chico and called to see how to get in there to my delivery I was calling it close. Come to find out it was in Chino not Chico needless to say I was late for that one!!

 

my fire hydrant story

i had hooked a load at an anonymous medical supply company. as i was coming around the last corner of the building, i saw the guard shack in the distance and decided that i would use the bathroom while the guard was checking my seal. so i grabbed my purse off the floor, propped it up on the steering wheel and started digging in it for a tampon. the wheel kept moving to the right, but i kept on digging. next thing i know i'm in the grass heading for a sign. but sigh it was too late, i had taken the hydrant out with the bumper. thank god it popped off the pipe, no gusher.

the explanation for the accident report was the worst part of it.