What would you say is the hardest part about actually driving a truck?

Driving the truck out of my driveway.

 

Yeah, driving away from home after hometime.

 

Not cracking the first few weeks out on the road

 

Really? You thin that's tough and requires "skills" or can't be handled by anyone? Have you been to a truck stop recently? All right then, you know this is not a highly skilled profession, we'd like to think that of ourselves, but that's not the reality...It's an easy gig anyone can do...Good try coming up with something you think makes it a skilled job, but you'd have to really really stretch to make that point...

 

I wasn't the best backer in the (driving school world). I did quite a bit of flat bedding in the Navy moving aircraft carrier non-skid machinery back and forth from the ships to the navy repair facilities. I used to do that with a 44' trailer and a day cab. Then I went to school, and they put me in a big ole OTR truck with a sleeper that was hooked up to a 53' van. I didn't have the back window of the day cab anymore and I couldn't see over the trailer anymore either. I went from super trucker to pollywog in 5 seconds flat. I got by just fine, but it took a few days to trust my distance from objects.

Blind side backing was always my folly. I'm sure there were a few dock workers who had a good laugh at my expense in NYC.

Backing into a sheltered dock from bright sun light lot was a PITA some times as well. I took it nice and slow.

 

Skill is being able to do something few others can do.

What makes it a skill, is being able to do it without getting any tickets, without hitting anything, without losing your temper with a customer or dispatch or another driver. Do this over the course of time, in good weather and bad, in traffic and tight situations and then you are skilled. That is not a stretch.

 

BOOOOOORRREDOM!

Driving the truck is the fun part.

It's the loading, unloading, scheduling, budgeting, dropping, hooking, PTI'ing, reporting, DOTing, fixing, counting, yard checking, truck stop shopping, eating overpriced crap, and trying to tell a broker that yes the 12" of snow WILL delay the delivery that's the hard part.

But driving? Weeeeeeee!

 

Running a 350 mile route thru the mountain passes at 100 am in inclement weather and trying to get 7 or 8 deliveries made before your 14 hrs is up.

 

That's a lot of deliveries unless they're not far apart.

 

Yeah backing into a sheltered dock from the bright sunlight is a _________ <---insert your colorful adjective.
What I used to help me get my trailer docked safely inside was to turn on my marker lights on the trailer, that showed where the rear corners of the trailer were.
This task is even more difficult when there is snow on the ground. The glare is blinding.
How do you get your trailer into a inside dock?