Wrong turn...

Glad you got it outta there!! Everyday is a new lesson in trucking....

 

Another oops moment, involved the police earlier in my driving career. I had a 53' trailer of Box Wine headed to Woodbridge Winery in Lodi, CA. The BOL lists the delivery address as a residential address, but I didn't know it at the time. I just GPS'ed it and drove to the address.

I ended up at Robert Mondavi's luxury estate somewhere in Lodi. I call dispatch because I'm at some sprawling gated community with this monogram "R.M." on the gate.

Where the hell did you send me, I ask the dispatcher. I'm at the customer and it looks like a golf course of some sort? The dispatcher tells me, no, you went to the wrong place. "Were you going to tell me where to actually deliver this load," I ask. Truck is having electrical problems. I'm driving through a roundabout in an upper class part of Lodi, and the alternator goes out. There is no hope of starting this truck. Traffic queues up behind me at 5 PM , everybody is getting angry, honking at me, looking at me like they're gonna murder me. Couldn't even put on the emergency flashers. Bust out the reflective triangles. My cell phone is dying, pretty soon it's dead. I use the last of my battery to call police.

It was a no-truck zone. The cop feels so bad for me that he just says, "son I'm going to direct traffic until they get here." My coworkers show up and can't get the POS started, they tow it back to the yard and I'm stuck driving an even worse POS than before, which also breaks down on me at the end of that 16 hour day. I was so frustrated, I left the reflective triangles in the road.

The new truck breaks down after a long night of driving until the sun comes up. Oil leak, coolant leak, or something, I don't know, I barely remember it now. It's all a blur at this point. I left that **** on the side of the road near an orchard out in the country, told my dispatcher that I'm out of HOS and I'm going home. "You have to lay over," he says. "No, this isn't even my truck and I'm a local driver. There's a 16 year old mattress in this truck and I have no food, no water, no bedding. I'm not sleeping in here." He flips out and gives me a spiel about how I need to be there so the mechanics can fix the truck. I told him, that's his problem. I'm off the clock. I left that thing on the side of the road.

 

Happened to me in Seattle once. Couldn't even sit at the receiver for 10min so out came Google maps. Ahh, a cul-de-sac around the block I can go to, turn around and wait.

Turned down the road, went down the hill to the cul-de-sac and found two trucks parked in it...

Not much traffic on the road I needed to back out into, but the ones that did come were going like bats out of hell.

Gave some kids coming out of a nearby head shop $20 to block the road while I backed out.

 

Just poop in a bag and throw it out the window. It's the latest thing.

Bonus points if you hit a car and extra lives if it splatters on the windshield.

 

A few years ago I was going to deliver to a Walmart somewhere in the Midwest. I studied it on Google Satellite View, but failed to pay attention to the fact that the truck entrance was AFTER the traffic light. In fact, the traffic light turned into a narrow two lane dead end road.

As soon as I realized the situation I stopped, put on my 4-ways, and got on Google Street View to see if I could avoid backing into a small dentist's office. It's the middle of the night with icy conditions on the side road.

As I am studying Google and realizing there doesn't look like much in the way of good options, a 4-wheeler pulls up next to me. He says there is a good turn around at a truck yard near the end of the street. I look at Google and see it. No Street View, but heck, there's trucks there.

I drive a mile, then stop to check out the situation on foot. Down a steep, dirt driveway covered in ice with a tight turn around a building off the street. Then cross a section of grass that's beginning to thaw to pull around and gun it back up the icy driveway.

Glad I walked it before committing to it.

 

My first job outta truck driving school was with a traveling dance competition. On the 4th stop I was in albany NY. After the competition was over we loaded the truck late on a Sunday night. I had forgotten my cell phone charger in the hotel. I also left my GPS. But I knew the way from the theatre to the hotel.
I was tired, it was late, and I stupidly drove right past the exit I needed.
No big deal, I'll just get off the next exit and get back on the highway going the other way. Of course there was no reentry to the other direction. And low and behold, my cell phone dies. So I go down to a major street and hang a left..... I had been there a few days and had a rental car so I knew the general area... a little... just enough to make stupid decisions
I knew from where I was I just needed to turn left again and go about a mile to the road the hotel was on. So I picked a street with a double yellow line and a traffic light, thinking it was a major connecting road...
About half way down the street it rapidly turned into a residential area. Then the dreaded 'do not enter! One way' sign appeared. I couldn't continue straight. I turned left. It's 2am and I am driving a semi through a tightly packed residential neighborhood with cars parked on both sides. Then the street I'm on comes to an end. I need to turn right. It was the tightest turn I had taken in my short career.. 1" clearance between the parked cars and my trailer and 1" from front bumper too. I had a shorter trailer. Never would have made the turn in a 53'.... I just made it... and miraculously at the next intersection I saw the hotel.
I was absolutely ####ting my pants. I made a mistake. Everyone makes those. But I kept making bad decisions. What I learned that night was to STOP! THINK! And don't make a mistake worse with making rash, panicked actions and making the problem worse.
I was very lucky to get out of that situation without hitting something or getting stuck somewhere.
I've been is situations since... But I STOP! Pull the brakes, hit the flashers, get out and figure out a solution. I try to not panic.

Had it happen in Baltimore where I couldn't make a right turn because of an illegally parked car. I tried but would have hit it. So I backed out of the intersection and STOPPED. Then came up with a game plan. Ended up backing up for a couple block and getting out of trouble. Luckily traffic was light... I didn't need to call the cops. But I would have in a second if i needed to.
STOP!

 

I wouldn't be laughing too much your company may charge you for the wrecker.

 

When I was new, still had the shine on my CDL, I had a delivery for Design Transport out of Dallas. The load was wire going to a job site at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. Mistake one. I used my Garmin which at the time was not a trucking GPS. I drove past the street that I was to go down three times. Shirley the Garmin would not send me down there. But I could not find any other way to the site so off I went down the very road that George Washington personally laid out some 250 years ago and it hadn't been widen since. (over statement, read very narrow road). I got to the end of the road and there was no way I was going to be able to make the turn. I tried but there was a ditch on one side and a couple of telephone poles on the other. No way. So, I call for help. Not wanting to call the company, I called a wrecker. I would prefer to pay then to face the embarrassment of telling someone at the company I did not know what I was doing. Wrecker driver gets there and says "I can get that out with no problem." He gets into the truck and pulls it into the ditch and gets stuck. He also spill diesel fuel into a beautiful little creek but said nothing about it. He gives up on the idea of driving it out and now has the truck totally jack knifed around. He ends up running the wrecker around the block and pulls the trailer around the corner from the side. To make the tires slide he pours liquid dishwashing soap all over the road way and makes it very slick. The dish soap washes into the same creek with the diesel fuel.

I was out of trouble but then hear comes the bad news. He wanted me to pay him for the 3 hour wrecker call. You would not believe the bill. I said sure. Let me call the EPA and we will deal with the spill into the creek. He left after tearing up the bill.

 

You were that savvy as a brand new CDL holder?