Wow, Made a year solo.

As of March 22 I have one year solo, now, according to some, I am experianced. I am proud to say I have accumulated enough wisdom to know I don't know a whole lot. Don't get me wrong, I have learned so much this last year it's not funny, I consider myself a good driver, safe, professional, but experienced? seems a little much. I could fill pages with some helpful tips for newbies but I am also realistic enough to know that for the drivers with many years of time behind the wheel these tips are basicaly instincual for them. But good news for you newbies struggling to learn and just get thru from week to week, it gets easyer, better, every thing, every day seems to be more positive. Now for a tip that will help you more than any other, SLOW DOWN! I don't mean for something as simple as the speed limit, but everything. The more you try to hurry the higher propensity for mistakes to occure. If you feel rushed, maybe your running late for your delivery, ect, ect, the more you try to take shortcuts, and that way lay madness. You will never make up time by skipping your pretrip, hurrying thru a truckstop, trying to back into a dock or parking spot fast, speeding thru a work zone, tailgating fourwheelers, jumping lanes without looking three times, ect,ect,ect. The list goes on and on. All you are going to do is put yourself in a position for something that will really slow you down to occure. Relax, settle down, think thru it. You can think of any scenario and it can cause you a lot of trouble if you hurry. For instance, you think " Im running late, I ran thru this work zone twice last week and there were no bears, so i can rush thru and save some time. Then you the those lights in your mirror, and you sit for 30 minutes while he writes a ticket, checks your logs ect. No this did not happen to me but I saw it happen this week to a driver that blew past me and about 8 other trucks. Thats my big tip, I wish my trainer would have told me, but I learned it over time and mistakes. A trailer door ripped off, I put my trailer over the dot bumper of another trailer, all when I thought I was in a hurry. Theres my tip for what its worth.
Safe days and long weekends.
b