Profile For Iron Emu

I'm a bit late for congratulations, but either way, congratulations on accomplishing a goal! Good driver trainers don't receive near enough acknowledgement, and while I heavily respect what you and them do, I couldn't do it myself. I'm not a good teacher, so thank you for shouldering that responsibility to help keep the rest of us safer.

Even if you talk to your dispatcher, or driver manager (whichever term is preferred), on the phone I recommend making sure you get anything confused over the ELD. It allows you to go back and review the information, also if something goes wrong AND you followed direction to the T, then you can say look I did what I was told and you have proof. I haven't had this happen to me personally but I've heard stories. Never hurts to have a copy of instructions either way. Any time I return to my home terminal, I can go see my driver manager. I don't know if it means anything to anyone else but I like being able to put a face to a name, and it reminds me that it's another human being I am dealing with. I do one have one complaint with messaging over the ELD, and that is the time spent waiting on messages to come through rather than calling. This is only a real problem at night and on weekends when my manager typically is off and I have to wait to get ahold of someone that doesn't know me at all, and is probably a little overwhelmed. I'm getting off topic. Once a month or so to answer the original question.

Rushing yourself is the number one reason I've seen people make mistakes that left them with their face in a palm. Saw a guy try to drop a trailer but was in such a rush didn't unhook his airlines which resulted in them being ripped out if his truck. I've always double checked everything before dropping a trailer but after that it's now a triple check. This is all fantastic advice, it never hurts to ask for help if you need it like you mentioned with getting stuck. I know they are out there, but I've yet to run into any drivers that just wanted to be jerks for the sake of being jerks.

My training was 4 weeks, the trainer was awake and watching the entire time I was driving the first two weeks. We did mostly shorter runs during that time, around 600 miles, and mostly in the North East around cities which was out of my comfort zone and I am thankful for the way it was done. Aside from those first two weeks where he was awake for every moment I was driving, he also overwatched load securement the entire time. Only offering advice toward the end on how it could be faster or more efficient with time management. Brett you are right though, toward the end of the time I was thankful to have what was the closest to being by myself I could get. We did have a big conflict of personality but it never got in the way of the mentor/pupil relationship, though that was probably the worst part of being with a trainer. What are the odds you get a trainer that is someone you would actually want to talk to or hang out with, you know? Just gotta stick it out, and maintain your professionalism.

G-town even if you were being mean it would be understandable, a failure of planning can be (and was) dangerous. I believe that was the name of the pass I was on though, and going back now and looking at it on a map it should have been indicative of the nature of the road. This goes further to prove my point in my initial post about being careful in the area, well not just in that particular area as you have pointed out and I now have to amend, but in any area you really don't know.

G-town, while I know you are right about the time frame differences and optimal path given the geography, at the very least some gradient signs would be nice. I'm sure you are right that as I, hopefully, spend more time in the northwest I will become more comfortable and accustomed to the combination of weather and terrain. The only way to be more okay with it is to keep working it. Old School, I run with Western Express and I do indeed have chains in my possession. I had misunderstood the question. I love it though, a couple of other guys I knew who were Marine/Navy started doing it and it seemed a great way to keep in shape and drive a rig. Still have a workout routine aside from the work but it helps.

Chains aren't necesarry right now in this area (still in Oregon right now on my way back with a gravy run) cause their isn't snow on the road. The ice was there and it was like a random land mine waiting to ruin your day. But their is absolutely no doubt to the beauty of the state, none. I got a couple good photos, but it is gorgeous. Just whoever planned that interstate was drunk I'm certain.

I got a load heading to Seattle, Washington as the title says and it was my first time up in Washington period. I just wanted to throw a word of warning out to any new drivers like myself, I've been through the mountains and in the snow in several places, if you've been through West Virginia in winter then you know it gets sobering really fast under full load. But nothing I've been through prepared me for this morning. 90W through the mountains, which is basically all of Washington from my experience, will not only sober you; It will put you in your place. This is the first time I've been legitimately scared, and I don't mean like spooked. The only time I can remember being more fightened was boarding a helicopter to go in country. I'm not trying to scare anyone, you will see alot of trucks on this route and I have no idea how some of them were doing the speeds they were but please take it slow your first time. I don't know the name of this particular section, but their is an area where your only warning if a steep grade is a small yellow sign, their is no mention of the actual grade. You come around a bend and it's just a straight shot down with a sharp left hook at the bottom where it runs to a cliff wall. A more experienced person than myself probably knows what I am talking about. If you are prepared for it isn't that bad I'm sure, probably still a little scary but not what I came to considering I'm a calm guy who keeps his head cool under most stress. Thank you for your time.

This was a cool moment from the other day, it wasn't really fun. Actually kind of creepy, but cool to me sort of. It will make more sense when I tell you.

I was at a Pilot, at the Christmasville Rd exit near Jackson, TN. Went inside to grab a drink and was on my reset at the time. As I walked out I glanced over at the fuel islands where you have to walk by anyways and in the lane closest to me was a stepdeck flatbed with a big can shaped cylinder arranged eye to the sky if that makes sense. Either way. The container had only one sticker on it that said Biohazard warning, the top of the container or the lid I guess was chained to the base of itself with these massive thick chains and then the base was chained to the trailer. I had never seen a biohazard load before, so I looked at the placards which I didn't recognize as a flammable or anything, but they were official and didn't seem familiar. The trailer had no company name on it, so I look at the tractor. Also no company name, just typical designation such as weight, number, etc. I stared at it for a moment and realized the driver who was pumping fuel was just staring at me. Not blinking, just staring. I turned and walked away, as I got to my rig which was within eyesight of the fuel aisle I looked back and he was still staring at me but the fuel nozzle was put up now. He got back in his tractor and left.

It was really weird, kind of creepy. Still cool.

I believe the 3rd gear issue he may be refering to is the inability to just remain in the gear at low speed, such as pulling through a yard or parking lot. It jumps around alot and in some instances with mine the truck has stopped entirely while it tries to figure out what it wants to do.

Also update! I had a couple mentions about putting the auto in manual selection mode to correct the above issue and some hill climb/descent issue I had previously. Unfortunately their is one of 3 possibilities before me:

1) The company I work for has disabled that ability in their trucks, or at least the Cascadias, and it will not go into manual select and hold. 2) I'm retarded and can't figure it out despite following what seems like simple instructions. 3) No one on here has any idea what they are talking about.

I very seriously doubt even the plausibility of 3, the odds of so many more experienced people being wrong just seems impossible. 2 is a possibility but I hope I'm not so clueless.