Profile For 18 Wheels of Steel

That's what I did! The POS still kicked me back to the drive line. I never got out of 3rd gear in the lot. I'm not sure if I exceeded the distance required to kick it into drive time or what. Maybe because I spent like 45 minutes circling and resetting?

I'm not even sure what my problem was, I've parked in harder spots than this, but it just wasn't clicking today.

I'm hoping this is something that dispatch can edit on their end tomorrow morning. I just did my 6 month review a couple weeks ago, and when he pulled up the compliance screen on the computer, it was totally blank. I'd really like to keep it that way. It's a nice counterbalance to those two preventables.

18 W's, you'll easily survive this crisis. The QC considers you are in driving mode since the engine was on, and the truck was in gear.

Next time, the moment you start getting into a parking spot, manually switch your time to On Duty, and you can take all the time you need, even driving SLOWLY around the lot.

Since it reverted back to when i first started trying to back, it actually put me 22 minutes over. I guess the FMCSA book says drive time is all time at the driving controls. it doesn't say anything about private property or anything like that, so i guess i am screwed. My compliance has been perfect thus far, but i do have a couple minor backing incidents, so who knows what is going to happen to me. I really hate having to worry about this stuff, but I guess I will find out one way or the other by tomorrow.

My company isn't that strict about it. If you're a few minutes over once in a while they don't say anything. In fact I think they actually appreciate it if you're doing it to get a load delivered. A while back I was 1/2 hour over my 14 because I got stuck behind an accident, and I was told not to do that. We're supposed to pull over and call in, and I guess they send a tow truck or something.

I did, they told me to send a message describing the situation on the QC. This was night dispatch I dealt with so they told me I have to wait until my actual DM arrives tomorrow morning. I'm just trying to figure out if this is actually a violation of HOS or not.

I suggest contacting your driver manager and speak to them about what happened.

So today i got to the truck stop with about 15 minutes of driving time left. I switched to on duty and attempted to back into my spot. For whatever reason, i was having a rough time at it and kept having to reset, even circle around the lot to try and set up better. I managed to take a good 45 minutes to finally get parked.

During this time, the QualComm kicked me back onto the drive line, retroactive to when the wheels first started turning, giving me a nice little HOS violation on the QC.

Now, since I never left the parking lot, that entire time should have been considered on duty, not driving, right?

I've heard nothing but good things about the company. anxious to get started training. do you do the 48 or 11 western?

All 48.

Greetings fellow May Driver, or soon to be May driver I suppose. They are a pretty good company, especially for an Entry Level Driver. I went solo about 2 and a half months ago. Let's just say we could've done a lot worse in choosing a company. They know we are new drivers and are going to make mistakes and screw up at first, and are very forgiving of that. My miles have been great right from the get go. I've been consistently putting down 2500-3000 a week right from the start. I think you will be happy with your choice.

I do pretty well with my tandems in hole 7. Not too much tail swing and the tandems react fairly quickly.

As far as having a bad spotter, I was at a reciever in NY and accidentally rubbed the rubber on my trailer doors on someone's mirror, moving it just a hair. No damage, just a rub. But this guy jumped out of his truck, yelling at me and then proceed to say that he was an experienced driver and knew what he was talking about and began telling me what to do. I followed his directions for a few minutes and then realized I was going to hit the truck on the other side and started correcting. At this point, he jumped up on the passenger steps and was hanging in my window yelling at me and telling me to keep going which would have caused me to hit the other truck. So I raised my voice and brought out the inner ChickieMonster and told him to get the heck off my truck. He started saying if I hit his truck he was going to call the cops. Right then a yard dog showed up and told him to get down and move his truck. Turns out he was parked too far over in his spot!! The yard dog very kindly helped me to get in my door and told me that I was doing just fine and that the other guy obviously couldn't park because he wasn't in the door properly.

I say all that to say that sometimes you have to be assertive and tell someone to back off when they are giving you bad instructions. Don't just blindly follow someone's instructions. Just because they can back up well doesn't mean they can help someone else do it!

And for the record, I would never have someone else drive my truck. For one thing, if they were to dock too hard, they would set off my camera and then it would be my job. Second, that's my home and sanctuary and I don't want some stranger in there. If this had been at a shipper/reciever, I would have taken Rainy's approach and got a yard dog to put it in the spot.

Also (and maybe this is just my jaded point of view), but there seems to be two types of guys who will try to help. The first is the good kind. He remembers what it was like to be a struggling rookie and wants to pay it back for the times that he was helped in those difficult days. The other is the self-important King of the Truckers, who can do no wrong, and sees it as his duty to get the stupid rookie into his spot without hitting anything. I've encountered both types, and both have at times put me in a bad spot. It's the same solution for both, ignore or drive around the lot and come back and try again. I do feel kinda bad when I have to do it to the first type, but again, hurt feelings trump safety meetings in my opinion!

I do pretty well with my tandems in hole 7. Not too much tail swing and the tandems react fairly quickly.

As far as having a bad spotter, I was at a reciever in NY and accidentally rubbed the rubber on my trailer doors on someone's mirror, moving it just a hair. No damage, just a rub. But this guy jumped out of his truck, yelling at me and then proceed to say that he was an experienced driver and knew what he was talking about and began telling me what to do. I followed his directions for a few minutes and then realized I was going to hit the truck on the other side and started correcting. At this point, he jumped up on the passenger steps and was hanging in my window yelling at me and telling me to keep going which would have caused me to hit the other truck. So I raised my voice and brought out the inner ChickieMonster and told him to get the heck off my truck. He started saying if I hit his truck he was going to call the cops. Right then a yard dog showed up and told him to get down and move his truck. Turns out he was parked too far over in his spot!! The yard dog very kindly helped me to get in my door and told me that I was doing just fine and that the other guy obviously couldn't park because he wasn't in the door properly.

I say all that to say that sometimes you have to be assertive and tell someone to back off when they are giving you bad instructions. Don't just blindly follow someone's instructions. Just because they can back up well doesn't mean they can help someone else do it!

And for the record, I would never have someone else drive my truck. For one thing, if they were to dock too hard, they would set off my camera and then it would be my job. Second, that's my home and sanctuary and I don't want some stranger in there. If this had been at a shipper/reciever, I would have taken Rainy's approach and got a yard dog to put it in the spot.

That's about the same deal I had, with the guy not seeing that I was going to hit on my drivers side from not being able to get back in front of the trailer fast enough. Generally, if they are putting me in a bad spot, I just ignore them then they seem to go away. Never had anyone get that aggressive about it though. I would've done the same thing in telling him to take a walk.

I agree with not letting someone else drive your truck. How would one explain that if he happened to hit something?

Or is this a common practice in the trucking world to allow more experienced drivers to assist in this manner?

I wouldn't let anyone drive my truck, regardless of how hard of a time I was having. If they screw up and hit something, I know I would be on the hook for it.

Some docks have straight flat pieces of metal sticking out, about 1/2 inch thick, right around where those rubber pads are that you back into. If you are off center to the dock door, you'd hit them with your open doors right about where the hinge is. I'm sure that would do some damage.