Location:
St. Cloud, MN
Driving Status:
Experienced Driver
Social Link:
I got my CDL A in November of 2022 and took an LTL job with a company called Manions about two months later delivering wholesale building products to lumberyards. In August of 2023 I left Manions and took a job with Midas Trucking. I have a dedicated route. I leave St. Cloud on Sunday morning, drive to Gas City Indiana. From there I drive to Nashville to unload the rest of my load. From there I dead head for about an hour to Mt. Pleasant, TN where I pick up a load of rough cut lumber to bring back to St. Cloud.
Leave Sunday morning, get home on Wednesday morning. Pretty sweet deal!
Posted: 2 weeks, 2 days ago
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Knight to get AI Netradyne Cameras
I shudder to think where this could be heading as AI advances...
Posted: 2 months, 1 week ago
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Rookie solo driver terminated, with preventable accident.
I was on i 80 E (Wyoming) and the highway was closed to high profile vehicles 40,000 and under. My total GVW was 76,000. Im from Florida and never driven in weather conditions like this it was my first time ever seeing snow. I didnt see any black ice even though ive never seen it before, or would know how to identify it. the roads looked dry but there was snow blowing off the sides onto the highway. The crosswinds were 60 mph. there were other trucks on the road and i know i should never follow other trucks, but to me it was a sign that the road was not totally shut down. i was going 37 mph and started to slide, slide all the way left across the 3 lane highway until i ended up back on the right off the side of the road in a jacknife. I freaked out and slammed on the brakes. my mind was not thinking to do anything else at the time. There were no injuries, no other cars involved, or any state damage.. Just a shook up Florida girl, and a damaged company truck..I ended up getting a warning from the DOT officer. About a month prior to that i had wrote a message saying i didnt want to travel to Wyoming, bc i didnt feel safe. They didnt even respond to it. thy fired me and sent me home on the bus. Trucking changed my life, i had finally found my purpose, a career that made me feel important and proud. Now nobody will touch me. I probably reached out to every company in America. thy all say the same thing "sorry and good luck" Ive beat myself up over and over again. i dont want to throw in the towel because, something in me is saying not to and that ive come to far to give up... the company has reported it as a preventable jacknife termination. Any hope at all? Or advise on moving forward. i can handle the truth.... oh yea, and the first thing my DM called and said afterwards was " did you leave the paperwork in the trailer?"
Hi Sheena.
You're in a tough situation but it's not hopeless. If I were you and were serious about continuing your career as a driver, I would look for some kind of local delivery(day cab) work. Often, these jobs are much easier for someone with a blemish or two on their record to obtain because the turnover rate is very high. There is a reason for this. The hours can be brutal and they can be physically demanding.(loading/unloading, etc...) If you can deal with this, you may be able to continue driving and, provided you keep your record clean going forward, put yourself in a position to get back to doing what you were prior to this accident.
Sometimes life presents us with situations where the only two options are to either give up or roll up the sleeves, grit the teeth, and grind through it.
Best of luck to you.
Posted: 3 months, 2 weeks ago
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Is Everyone safe? Winter Mess!
I leave Sunday morning for Nashville. I know they are going to get hit with significant amounts of snow tomorrow. Sure hope the roads are clear by Monday when I get there...
Posted: 4 months, 2 weeks ago
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Thoughts on what might have caused this?
A rock flung from the other side of the highway? Just big enough to smack off the glass, never be found again. Or it did come through and you found it but didn't make the connection?
Could a bird... Nah, suppose there would be some evidence of that.
Golf ball? Who's playing in December?
Stray pellet from shot gun blast? Maybe had enough velocity and small enough to be overlooked, or bounced off the glass. Similar to what you were saying about a bullet.
Do you have those wind wings, or whatever they're called, that wrap around the A pillar? Maybe caught a rock from the front and it was funnelled around and hit right near the front edge of the window? Probably bounced off in the process.
I was in a rural area of southern Wisconsin and the median is pretty wide where it happened so I doubt it could have been a rock that somehow came from the westbound lanes. I looked very carefully as I was cleaning up the glass but didn't find anything and I also don't have wings that could have funneled something. Whatever it was must have come at me at about a 45 degree angle, otherwise it would have hit the mirror before it could have hit the window. Hitting at an angle would also support the idea that whatever it was bounced out.
It was the last day of deer season in Wisconsin and I was traveling through a rural area.
Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago
View Topic:
Thoughts on what might have caused this?
WOW!
Did you look for a bullet or similar in the cab? Do you drive for Swift or Schneider? (Just kidding.)
I did look very carefully as I was cleaning it up but didn't find anything. Whatever struck the window must have ricochet out.
Posted: 4 months, 3 weeks ago
View Topic:
Thoughts on what might have caused this?
Sunday morning at about 10am I was driving eastbound on I94 about ten miles south of Wisconsin Dells. There wasn't much traffic and I was in the process of passing a slow moving box truck. So I'm in the left lane and as I'm about to pull back into the right lane, SMACK!!! My drivers side window just shatters. There was a hole about the size of a softball in the lower front, there was glass all over the floor and in my lap. The rest of the shattered glass was just kind of hanging in place. By the time I got pulled over at a rest area a little further up the road about half of the glass had fallen out.
I cleaned up the mess in my truck and removed the remaining glass from the window. I located a Menards about 15 miles further up the road where I bought a couple sheets of a plexiglass type material and was able to make a patchwork window with the plexiglass and a whole bunch of Gorilla tape which held up well until I got back home on Wednesday.
Other than a bullet, I can't think of anything else that could have caused this.
Posted: 5 months, 3 weeks ago
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Dg Fleet breaking my contract?
I transfered from warehouse to fleet through the cdl program with DollarG, passed the school easy, they told me I had to do 6 weeks of training before I could start on my own...then gave me another trainer and made it 8 weeks ... Then gave me ANOTHER trainer and made it 10 weeks... Then didnt tell me anything for a week until I went up there in person and then they told me that due to things going on in fleet and observations made by other drivers they didn't want me on team and said I could resign or see if I could get my job back in warehouse. I feel very wronged and have felt that way since week 7, did they do me wrong? Did they break contract? One of my trainers said I did good, I haven't told the other two because they were kinda *******s , thank you
What you need to do is to, very calmly, very professionally, and very humbly, go back "up there" and ask them to explain to you, specifically, what you did wrong. This is the only way you're going to get anything positive out of this experience. There is a reason why they don't want you on the team and for the sake of your career as a driver, you need to find out what that reason is, own it, correct it, and move forward.
This is the best advice I can give.
Posted: 5 months, 3 weeks ago
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What NOT to eat. Nutrition on the road.
Week 2 of carnivore is now complete.
For my route this week I left home with 9 hard boiled eggs, 3 half pound cheeseburgers(no buns) and a full rack of ribs. I found that if I ate 2 eggs in the morning and another at about noon, this tied me over nicely until I ate supper around 7ish pm. I came home with one of the burgers and about a third of the ribs so I'm starting to figure out how much food I need to eat each day.
I feel great! I was anticipating experiencing some of the symptoms that people are describing but I haven't. I had a little bit of diarrhea the first week but that has cleared and I have not eaten a single carb in over a week. It seems like my body likes this diet and I have easily adapted to it.
Prior to starting carnivore I have always had allergy issues. Itchy/watery eyes, nasal congestion, skin rashes like dermatitis, etc... Over the past two weeks, ALL of these symptoms have disappeared. To me, after living with this my entire life(I'm 57), it almost feels miraculous to wake up in the morning with clear eyes and no congestion.
I'm sold!
I'll probably deviate every now and then(special occasions) but I'm a carnivore going forward.
Posted: 6 months ago
View Topic:
What NOT to eat. Nutrition on the road.
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...the world's population would instantly become way more healthy and we'd work together to figure out any challenges along the way.
It would be a glorious health revolution!
The "working together" part is already underway. It's called "lab grown meat". You wanna eat that crap?
My opinion is that those who care and want to find out for themselves will discover a better way to live. The rest(vast majority) who don't can live the way they do, get by, and remain blissfully unaware.
Posted: 1 week, 2 days ago
View Topic:
Knight to get AI Netradyne Cameras
When we drivers talk to the folks in the office, we have to speak to them in a completely different way than we do each other. We can't be combative or even a little rough around the edges. I'm being honest with you when I tell you I am super sweet and gentle when talking with the folks in the office.
This is a fundamental problem.
It not only implies, it overtly STATES that truck drivers are **** compared to the people who command them... who have never actually driven a truck.