Profile For Rubber Duck

Just keep on being careful and keep on trucking. You got this. You want to be a trucker just keep on keeping on and do whatever it takes to be safe! You got this!

After about 6 months out here I feel like I should be way better at it then I am, I think after having a couple of close calls trying to get in to REALLY tight spots it's made me nervous and made me loose some of the skills and confidence that I've had before. Thankfully I've never hit anything except for the one time I clipped a trailer my first week on a trainers truck. I always swallow my pride and pull up for get out and look which is why I haven't hit anything since then even if it makes me look like a jackass. I don't think it's a lack of skill that's causing my problems I think it's nerves after the couple of close calls and getting banned from a customer for taking over an hour to get squared up with a dock.. I'm making really good money and getting good miles I don't want to loose my job over this, does anyone have any advice on what I should do?

Everyone seems to think they can work what they want, truth is once you get it in the truck your in the truck. Your gone for a week at a time or more. Work all you can and make all you can while you can. Trucking is theres no time to waste.

I'm so grateful to have found this site and appreciative of the community here that has shared their knowledge and experience in trucking! I'm currently looking into getting my CDL and am trying to learn all I can about the industry and I've found this site to be a wealth of information. I feel like it would be a very fulfilling career, but I want to make sure it's a good fit before I take the leap.

I've always thought trucking would be a really cool career but have never pursued it for a couple of reasons, one, my life circumstances have been that I have personal obligations that would have kept me from traveling extensively and secondly, I've always been very intimidated at driving something so enormous! I've kind of had a mental block that I just could never do that.

I left an unfulfilling career a few years back to take care of my dad who had Parkinson's and when he past I sold my house wanting to live a simpler and more fulfilling life. I bought a cargo van at the beginning of 2020 and spent most of the year converting it into my tiny home on wheels. Since it's been done I've been traveling with my dog and absolutely love being on the road with her living out of my van.

I understand that driving a truck is not the same as a cargo van by any means, but going through the process of building out a van, has giving me the confidence that maybe I'm capable of more than I realize and traveling in it has grown in me a passion for being on the open road and now I am at a time in my life where my primary responsibility is to myself rather than others.

What I've heard others express repeatedly is despite all it's benefits, it's really hard work which I get and I'm ok with but I'm also aware that the number of miles I can drive while still being happy may not be what everyone else is capable of. Most people's goal seems to be making lots of money, which while making money is important to me, my higher goal is having a healthy work life balance. I'm a stellar employee in that I am dependable, mature, teachable, disciplined, patient with myself and others, focused, organized, determined, and I strive to be the very best I can be at whatever I endeavor to do. I'm confident that I can drive 2K miles a week and to me that would be ideally what I want even if I'm not making a big paycheck. Maybe I could do 2500 miles a week for a while but 3k miles a week isn't realistic for me. My question is, how realistic is it that I will find a company that will hire me to work roughly 2k to 2500 miles weekly? I'm willing to trade off making less money, even a lot less money for a while to have this and I feel like I have a lot to offer an employer in exchange.

This one of them on you things. Contact the consignee is a good idea and satellite it. Your fleet manager will probably be no help.

I have a hot load, expedited I guess. Furniture going to a holiday inn express. Consignee has hired a crew to unload by hand. I could probably get it into the parking lot and turned around if there are no cars in it. If not I can do street side and turn around in a culdesac at the end of the street.

I'll ask my DM about it. But in the meantime, any suggestions and experience with loads like this?

Thanks.

They might. Just get through it and get on your own🧜‍♂️

Say I got a local delivery or linehaul job...something like Sysco, US Foods, Oak Harbor Freight...etc... and got 6 months to a year experience, maybe more.

Then I decide I want to give OTR or a shot...

Would most companies still require me to do OTR training with a TE??

All that matters is you don’t hit anything. Everyone with no experience with combination struggles with backing for a very long time. Looking like a newb is part or trucking. Don’t even worry about it. Just keep being safe until the day comes you got this!

Not all of it was an hour but I would say a good 20 minutes of it was. It was a t a retail home depot store. The other part was spent dealing with the various quirks of the store.

After 3months, should it take me 20 minutes to safely back in? Am I being too slow or dumb? I guess I'm just doubting myself a bit today.

On the plus side I replaced grommets in my glad hands and now have reefer pretrip nailed down...but backingbhas me feeling a bit...... tarded today.....

If you got it in without hitting anything you did a good job. Don’t worry about being banned. There’s a million or more other places to deliver.

What your trainer is teaching you based on what you described is a 45

I'm currently going through Primes PSD program. My trainer took me on the road for about two weeks and unfortunately i didn't get a chance to practice much. We returned to the Springfield terminal and I got a chance to practice at the pad today. I can do the straight back, offset (I usually need a pull up), and the parallel parking without too much trouble. But i haven't been able to do an alley dock. My trainer has me pull up so that the white line is between my rear tires and the mud flaps. Then I turn the wheele all the way to the right and back up until i see a gap between the mud flaps on the drivers and the landing gear on the passenger side. I maintain the gap until the end of the trailer is near the cone then i just have to push it in. Unfortunately im always either too far left or too far right. I just can't seen to find a way that will work for me. Any tips or advice?

I did 89 this year. Covid did set me back a little. Covid didn’t really hurt me to bad. What hurt me was percentage pay and the rates being in the toilet. Hopefully the rates go up this year and I can get Rich.

Did you explain to them you didn’t run a red light. I’ve been caught off guard at many lights and I’ve seen them turn red as I passed under them. If that’s what you did that’s not really that bad. Another thing I’ve done is pulled out into the intersection on a green left turn. Then the light turned red and I completed the turn on red. That’s also not a big deal if done safely. What was your red light like?

Basically I was in training still didn’t completely understand what I was doing and they said that I blew through a red light when that wasn’t the case.

David, welcome to our forum!

Roehl has a top notch training program. Would you like to tell us what the real problem is? We're all truck drivers here - we don't fall for bull excrement. If you want to own your issues and move forward we can help.

How about telling us the whole story? I think we can help you then. By the way, I don't think you'll find many companies hiring rookies that don't use DAC. There's a good reason for that.

I don’t think that’s going to be on your dac report. And if it is I truly believe the person who put it there worships the devil.