Profile For Papa Bird

Don't know about anyone else but personally speaking. ..wow , red flag. My schooling was 4 weeks and then sighned on with my company, three days orientation, then assigned a trainer for 8 wks. Started out light, about 300 miles a day worked up to full 11 hrs driving, By week 7 we were running like team, trainer was light sleeper so if i ran into a problem he was right there, but he wouldn't tell me how to fix it, he would more like talk to me and let me figure it out. My training was during feb, march, and we ran Wisconsin to Pennsylvania, Florida to Texas.

This is to all you experienced guys. My co. allows off duty driving, however we were told that we could only use it if we were not under a load, or dispatched to pick up a load, until yesterday. One of our company drivers recived a 14hr violation because he was ODD, he was not under a load, nore was he dispatched, which everyone thought was legal, but the DOT Officer told him that he was in violation because he was pulling a trailer, and not bobtailing. Question being, was the officer correct, or just calling it the way he felt like. We very rairly bobtail, so if that is correct the ODD for us is a waisted thought.

Guyjax, you know how to play nice, Daniel darn if you didn't give it away, oh well Ding, ding, schools out. Stay safe everyone.

Did not drop far enough to allow the trailer to slide over the fifth wheel.

Got a quiz for the new and future drivers, so you experienced guys, please hold off on your answers until we get a few answers. Your doing a drop and hook, the trailer your hooking is docked on an incline dock, and it's loaded, about 37000, it's early morning. As you back up to it your truck frame hits the nose, and you discover that it's about 5 inches to low. Now what do you do to get your load. Questions are welcome, and I have "my" solution to this problem, may not be right, but it works.

Have you been away for awhile, or have I just missed your posts. Before I started school I lurked on here, and you were one of my favorite posters. If you have been gone, I for one am glad to see you back, or else I definitely need new glasses

Rand-McNally map book, Rand-McNally GPS, google maps, in that order. Get the laminated map book. Had a Cobra GPS, it was cheaper, so i got it, now i know why it was cheaper, because it was garbage, if I had followed it's directions I wouldn't be trucking today because my DAC score would be so bad no company would look at me. And the thing quit before 2 months had even passed. Go cheap, get the best there is at the start and the money you save in the long run will make it the cheapest.

I could have gone to college, trained in another field, an hoped that when it was all said and done, I would have been able to get a job that would pay off the college debt, and the mountain of debt that I had before i started, where I'm from, that probably would have entailed a costly move, and more debt. If i got lucky, mabey in ten or fifteen years i could have afforded (more debt) to take a week or two to vacation in a small part of our country. As it is, i didn't drastically increase my debt, (My company is paying for my schooling) I'm making a good wage, my debt is being knocked down, and I'm seeing a good portion of this country. The question is not why am i doing this, but rather, why wasn't I doing this years ago, when it would have done the most good for my family.

My vote for bad would go to indiana, yea i hate Dallas and Chicago but the roads in indiana are really rough, and i swear they don't know what an overpass is, seams like every little town has at least 2 lights, and they are always red.

I personally had, one speeding ticket, a preventable accident, and a non preventable accident on my record when i started, and i still got pre-hires, and landed a job with a good "small" company, so i think you will be fine.