Your first time out?

I'm 100% certain that it's more difficult to get a cdl now. Hell, one actually needs a cdl now.

 

Not nervous no.

My dispatcher essentially told me here is your box go get it (Container), ship is in Portsmouth VA by the Navy base, leaving at noon, be there #### you. That was at 8PM previous night. 2 am I was crossing the American Legion working on the 95 problem before it got jammed. Got to the area, tunnel in rush and turned in the box by sunup. It made the ship.

Now we wait. Cook in the sun. at 5 PM I had a empty chassis bound for baltimore and a new problem staying awake in a day cab. Box of caffinee pills took care of that.

Fast forward several months of pills. Tolerance built up. Coming off 95 asleep with eyes open for US 1 due to construction closure.

That was the end of the container day cab adventure. I told the owner you put sleeper berths in those trucks, small ones and it will be plenty to help prevent the problems of staying awake. And I saw some his trucks later on in Virginia running new sleepers.

Nervous came in later when I hit 7 mountains in PA on 322 in a proper storm, pushing two feet of snow upgrade after passing schnider, JB and CRST slid off into the ditch together at the bottom. Upgrade westbound was easy, anyone can do it. It really got serious coming back across this time in three feet of powder loaded eastbound and downgrade no jake. 7 miles of winding.

A few of those went well. Nervous went away followed by a bit of ####y walk on ice during the rest of winter in Altoona making deliveries early in the morning on time. Then coming back off the mountain too steep to walk on. I got full of myself at that point. Needed a few adventures to burst the bubble a little bit.

If I had a problem fear was present and I would ignore it and work the problem. One time all lanes of 95 stopped dead with me coming on at 85 plus near the Tydings bridge at Havre De grace. I did not know if I was going to stop with everything locked up and pouring blue even the steers. I did stop, then stepped down onto the hood of a station wagon with 5 kids in the back. I put the tractor into a sort of a jackknife to force it to one side away from the thing.

Not knowing if it would stop with the children watching death coming on, 110K in the box over license for Philly that day. THAT finally got me. Paid for three of the tires later when the boss man saw the damage back at the yard. A small price for a lesson.

Fast forward many years, I don't worry about it anymore. I shake with a smoke after it's all over and no one gets hit.

Two weeks ago we almost hit two runners in our car on the freeway here in Arkansas. I was more angry with them being stupid and then worried that they wont stop at the median, one did not the second did (Saving his life under my wheels.) Anger usually takes over the nervousness in battle I worry about the shakes afterward.

 

First day with the trainer solo we took a load from Phoenix to Provo, Utah and I convinced him to take the 150 mile shorter route, which doesn't loop up through Vegas. Little did I know, it was also the "scenic route" which was basically 8.5+% grades and me learning to drive a 13 speed and also hauling my first trailer that wasn't empty. I'd say he was a lot more nervous than I was. I didn't know what I didn't know, so I was too ignorant to be scared.

First load solo, ####... My lame ### mentor had basically stayed in the sleeper the entire time after the first couple of loads and I ran almost exclusively night. I haven't been nervous pretty much the entire time.

The one time I have actually been nervous was my first inspection, which I got when called into the coop with my cdl and permits. Asks for my medical card. And like a ####### I had left it in the truck. Well he was happy to escort me back out to the truck to retrieve it... And get the creeper out and massage every part on the truck.

The only other time I've really been genuinely nervous was when I had to secure my first load. Knowing that if my load comes on the deck, it's most likely going to seriously hurt or kill someone and I'm not only jobless but probably going to prison was and remains very nerve racking.

The time not more than a few weeks ago when I got tired of chaining up and removing chains and chaining up, so I blew the mandatory chain area at Lookout Pass in Idaho, only to crest the hill at the Montana state line as they closed the gate behind me and see not so much as a tire track, let alone any sign of having been plowed in at least 6 inches worth of snow... That's the most scared I've been in my life.

Literally turned on my dashcam and started saying goodbyes and apologies to family and friends and my son. Thought for sure I was dead where I stood.

There are far scarier things than going with a trainer or going solo. Take your time and don't hit ####. If you screw up, stop exactly where you are and call for help to back out before you make things worse.

And don't blow the mandatory chain sign. Ever.

 

Then there was the time when the fog was so thick in Louisiana that I couldn't see past the nose of the tractor. Scared that if I pulled over on the shoulder someone would think the shoulder was the road, I found the nearest truck stop on trucker's path. Mom and pop, but I really only needed to pull in long enough to let dispatch know we would be late because I couldn't tell if I was driving uphill or downhill for the last couple of hours and was very disoriented.

So I had my phone gps map the route. Just take this exit, make a left... Make a right onto the service road and take this left into the tru... Gravel driveway with a mailbox? Nah can't be it. I'll just stay on this service road. It's only a few miles to the next exit and there's a Loves. So I drive the winding 3 or so miles to what would have been the next exit except it's now a dead end with nowhere to turn around.

Wake my mentor up a he refused to back out, instead opting to grab a really bright LED flashlight and walk along the edge of the service road next to a swamp at the end of my trailer because that's the only way I could tell where either the trailer or the edge of the road were, and had him talk me back 3 miles. We both agreed not to relay this event to dispatch and I somehow still made it to the first stop on time.

Really as long as you don't hit anything and take your time, there's nothing to be worried about. You'll have a lot of funny stories to tell when someone else asks if they should be nervous. Hopefully they won't be cautionary tales.

 

=) Some of you got to me, it's really good lessons in these stories. Stories you will have.

I was in VA Beach one time with two problems. First was a dispatcher trying to give me directions under the take off runway of the Navy Fighterbase ROOOAAARRR HELLO!> Yes ROOOAAHRRR>.. etc. so much for that. Leads to the problem number two.. turned off a road onto another that was all wrong.

A freaking school house with cars parked both sides of the road by it with mirriors folded in. The new ones in the 80's that fold for parking in tight spaces. There I was. Too wide to backup and too fat to forward. Hum. I worked through it, folding more mirriors in about a hour sweating the whole time. I thought for sure they will laugh at me. They should have then and there it would made it easier for a dumb like me that day.

First DOT. Near Charlestown WVA I think it was, I have to think on it very carefully. Anyway. My first trainer, my first everything logbook with over the road that month, only two weeks in. DOT man picked the scribble book from my hands very gently, eyeballed the sanskrit covering the whole thing in every page with a eyeball on me after each one.

He says to my trainer. Sir, Im taking a smoke here. When Im done... We did not hear the rest we were hitting 70 plus coming off the ramp. However, I spent the next two weeks, every stinking waking day and moment being beat over the head in logbook school. That trainer taught me everything possible. Until I had no more questions. Then I was told to shut up and listen on how to do two or three logs if there was a problem with the boss someday. That did not happen as far anyone was concerned.

He was a good trainer. Able to sleep when I did battle in valley rain, mountain snow and ice in between until I passed out and he would take us into Kentucky... i literally knew nothing about chain, had none did not need any and there was no idea at the time being that young and stupid that I should be afraid of the knee deep snow and 6% grade coming up on a city of bridges in WVa that is all ice. It was what it was, a pack of smokes took care of the emotional problems of worry.

After that first winter was over, I craved more and they told me to wait until next winter. I had finally found something I was happy to do on sandstone mountain with no traffic to speak of other than plows and trucks. And the trucks, unlike the cars knew what they were doing. So for me it's literally in some cases monkey see monkey do. In those days engines poured different smoke types and volume depending on what the driver in front was doing with his shifting and power. You simply evaluated it, copied it and kept moving and learned as you went. Today's trucks don't smoke much until 10 degrees. And that's no help.

 

As somebody who is still really new to trucking, those experiences are fresh in my mind. The first time I drove a truck in school, I was a nervous wreck. It took me a few days to get over it and by the end of the 1st week I had gotten over my fears of misusing the clutch and turning improperly and was doing okay. When I got on my trainers truck, it was the same thing all over again, especially with his convoluted method of "teaching" backing which I did okay with on my own in school.

Getting on my own truck, I thought it would be more of the same. It wasn't, in fact I was the most relaxed I had been yet. Nobody yelling at me telling me how to drive, or BS'ing about something dumb while I need to focus. Just driving. It's totally different once that phase is over.

 

I was in New Hampshire I was dead heading back to my to grab a load home. My GPS told me vt9 was the best route. It's a cool road till I got to the mountain pass part. Sign at the bottom said manditory chains. I dont have chains. There wasent any weather anyways. So I hammer down past the sign. About 2 miles later (and a few thousand feet higher) I'm in a blizzard. Made it up the mountain alright. Now it was time to go down. Was on the radio with a few other drivers advising where to take the corners based on the ice (I was one of the last trucks in the pack) made it almost to the end I was just about to take the 25mph turn right after the runaway ramp. I hear one of the guys say "I'm in the ditch"
I start taking the turn. I'm in the other lane trying to find traction on that banked turn. Didn't work. Slid into the ditch now I was saying "I'm in the ditch" I was going 3mph in first with the pdl on. Truck was fine just stuck.