What is your worst experience you have had in your driving career?

People wasting my time with questions they don't really care to know...

 

The 1 month I had to ride with my trainer when I first started. Don't get me wrong, he was a cool guy who I had no trouble talking to. He just had disgusting/annoying habits. He kept a piss jug under his bunk. Now, I have no problem with piss jugs personally, but he NEVER cleaned his. How did I know? Because the instant he opened it I could smell it from the top bunk. I've never smelled something so foul before. I thought I was going to die. I think the guy had some kind of urinary disease because that smelled like death.

Second was his snoring. This is obviously common but this guy's snoring was something else. It sounded like he was dying. He was so #### loud that I swear the other trucks next to us would take off at any moment. I never got any good sleep. One time at a shipper he said he really had to take a #### and there wasn't a bathroom anywhere. So he goes behind a tree 10ft from the truck and well, takes a ####.

Third was that he chewed tobacco. It's not as bad as dealing with a smoker but it's still a gross habit. He'd spit that crap out every 5 mins in a water bottle. Sometimes there'd be 2-3 bottles of spit out tobacco laying everywhere.

Finally he was hell bent on shutting down at big truck stops only(Loves/Pilot) during the busiest parts of the day. As a newbie parking at a truck stop is probably the most anxiety filled thing ever, so him wanting to do that every day was just hell. I much preferred rest areas where I could just pull in. Anyway I'm glad those days are long over.

 

First, last and only OTR trainer driving nights and running recklessly from shoulder to shoulder from attempting to "train" me and get in more mileage without any sleep. Run was multiple round trips to FedEx Olive Branch to some FedEx in CT route. By day 4 he was pulled over by TN HP before we made it back to FedEx Olive Branch. Needless to say I was give out from white knuckling the bunk attempting to get some sleep but got none. First time in my life I've ever had to "talk" to to grown man. many years older than me, like a child. Got plenty of video, which i posted privately all to YouTube, including me constantly balling him out to the top of my lungs before, during and after he got pulled over and put outta service (PRO TIP: always carry a heavy T-shirt with a front pocket with you that doesn't cover your phones camera lens). Picked up the next load at FedEx and swung by the terminal after giving him some bogus excuse why to keep him from getting his ### kicked by me for attempting to stop me. Got to the terminal, showed his DM the video, DM asked my what did I think about leasing, literally looked at him for about 5 seconds without uttering a word, turned around, grabbed my bags, walked about 100 meters to the shuttle, told him to take me to the bus station, got on the bus, sent videos to safety & my recruiter along with my resignation, turned off phone and slept like a baby for 6 hours, couple of hours before my final stop at home, called a company back home running trucks for a construction outfit, went straight to their office, filled out app, took drug test, took two days off and was local from there on out until covid.

 

dang, that made MY heart stop.

 

mine was,

i was going south on I-295 in NJ

i had just come out of a truck stop.

i was in the far right lane, and it was about 2AM.

as i was driving, i'd suspect a drunk, was coming north, on my side.!!

i went into the shoulder, and made sure i turned off all my lights.

i was told in trucking school that drunks drive into the "light".

well, that so and so, zipped past me.

all i could do was yell into the cb radio for all others to watch out.

back then, we did not have cell phones either. so i could not call the state police.

 

A few happened when I was on the road.

First was watching a 9 year old kid go head first out of a truck when his dad got out to piss behind the trailer, the kid didn’t survive. This was the second time I saw a kid get hurt at a truck stop, the first was a 12 year old wandering around while her dad was being serviced by a local male prostitute. She was hit by a guy flying into the parking lot with his straight pipes and jakes going, was going around the corner and hit hard enough she flew 60 feet.

the worst thing for me was going on i40 and had a couple who was trying to commit suicide by truck almost hit me, but hitting the truck that was trying to pass me. One was killed, the driver survived and the truck they hit was totaled. The driver of the truck never drove again, it was too much for him.

as for company crap, having to deal with an agent who offering me a load which I was only to take the overflow for a two truck shipment. getting there to find out that I was to be packed full then having me packed so much the shipped could barely close my doors, then getting to the receiver and having to wait for 11 hours after the other truck was unloaded immediately who arrived ten minutes after me. I was compensated for everything but the other truck took the load I was to get to get home so I dh all the way from near Atlanta to home.

 

How did that make you feel?........

 

Lethargic...

 

I’m sure he was still seeing you while cleaning his seat.