What is the worst experience you have had driving OTR?

Many of us new trainees who are reading these forums are operating on flawed perceptions full of rainbows and sunshine (so to speak) about out new careers (even though we don't want to admit it) and are totally surprised by the reality of this industry. So I was just wondering what was the worst experience drivers have had driving OTR. And how did you deal with it? Maybe if we hear your stories and solutions we might be a bit better prepaired when we face these situations.

Thank you for your time

 

Probably the hardest part of the job for you as a newbie will be getting used to the lifestyle. It takes a good three to four months before you are used to whats going on out there with the day to day operations. The driving is the easy part!

The worst thing about being on the road though overall is when you are sick! You can't just sit at home in bed and watch tv. Though you can get a hotel if you are that under the weather. Also for most, being away from home can be a challenge. Being in that truck for a couple months at a time takes some getting used too and if you want to make any kind of money out there that's what it takes.

 

Miss a turn in a 4 wheeler and you are not very troubled.

Do it in a rig and there ain't no telling when you'll be able to turn around!

Some of the places I had to back in... if the truck had been an inch longer it would NEVER have fit.

 

Was a few feet from going over the side of donner pass because of some moron driving a swift truck, i know those two words go together quite often. We had a nice talk after I saw him pull into boomtown when we could still go there. One of the worst moments I ever had happen to me.

 

I think what used to tick me off the most was the ole hurry up and wait, mostly at food wharehouse's.
No reason to keep you waiting for hours when you made the appt time.

 

lady ran a stop sign and I t-boned her. I thought it was a couple of teenagers.. turned out to be a mom and her son... Son was life flighted out.. mom didn't make it.
That is by far the worst experience I have ever had in a truck.

 

I can sho 'nuff see how that could be!

 

by far the worst experience was being sick for 2 weeks and just having to suck it up and keep rolling.....you don't exactly get to pull over and take a sick day

beyond that.....taking a wrong turn in philly....or more accurately, not making a turn i was supposed to..... and ending up in a hardcore residential area on a 8-9% grade and having to figure out how to get out of there......streets just barely wide enough for 2 cars to scrape by each other and they're parked back to back on the sides of the streets as well and i'm way up in there with the cars.....the only way out was to negotiate 2 turns coming back downhill the other way and then having to stop in the middle of traffic and slide the tandems all the way forward so i could make the right turn out of the nieghborhood....the only way out....and then having to do a u-turn as soon as i got a big enough hole to do it and get back where i was supposed to be.....76 at the 338 exit across the bridge and up into that nieghborhood for those of you that know the area......that place would be hell in a car and i'm up in there with a sleeper cab and a 53 lol.....company directions said over the bridge and turn left.....but the sign at the light says trucks no left turn.....i see after the fact that no matter what the sign says there's no other way to get to the customer in a truck.....have to make that turn anyway....otherwise you end up in alot worse predicament than if you hadn't made that tight ### turn lol.....at least with our company, always follow the directions they usually are right on the money

every time i've been to philly it's been a bad experience but it gets easier every time i go there.....while that first bad experience could have been something i let get to me and scar me for every subsequent trip there lol.....i don't let it intimidate me i just go in there with the mindset that i'm not going to let that place beat me lol....and i always stop somewhere before i get in there and slide the tandems up before i get in somewhere i need to do it to be able to get out of....or backed into hahaha

 

Getting lost in Patterson, New Jersey, as a rookie was pretty bad experience. Especially when I was looking for West Patterson, which was side by side with Patterson, and the few people I asked for directions had never heard of it!
There are a few places in Chicago I'd like to forget, too.....

 

I got lost looking for a grocery warehouse in NJ once when I was newish.

I had been out on the road for 3 weeks and wanted to go home, and couple that frustration with getting lost in NJ, well I had about enough and I pulled off onto the side of the street and just bawled for a few minutes.

Found the warehouse shortly after.


There was another time when I had been fed up and just cried out of frustration.

Nothing wrong with letting out some tears when you get that frustrated, sometimes you have to clear out that emotional crap from your mind and crying is the best way to get it out.

Being more experienced, I've learned to just let it go, if you get lost, it ain't that big of a deal, just don't get worked up over it.

I keep my laptop and mobile internet with me in the truck and always Google Map the place I'm going to so I know exactly how to get there. I try not to rely on Qualcomm directions or word-of-mouth directions unless there is a specific way to have to get somewhere without going onto a non-truck road.