Rookie Making Rookie Mistakes.

Sorry guys, I just need somewhere to vent to. Maybe I can get some help along the way. Let me tell you about today.

Woke up at 0500, had an appointment time of 1200. I forget how many miles away, but it would have taken roughly two hours to get there. Plenty of time to find an empty and get to the shipper early. I was calculating by 1100. Show up at drop yard around 700. Find trailer, it has a light out. I mess with it for a little bit to see if I can fix on my own, I can't. I also don't want to be the guy that leaves faulty equipment for the next person, so I notify breakdown. Sent two macros to breakdown, really cause I was being impatient, one at 730, one at 800. At 900 they respond saying someone will be on the way. I tell my dispatcher , they take my load away no big deal. Repair guy shows up around 945, fixes light within 15 minutes and is gone. I tell dispatch he puts me on available. So, I wait a little while then decide to go to a pilot about 5 miles away. While here (I'm still at the pilot) they give me a new load. Appointment 2000. I'm not sure I can make it. I call the shipper to see if they'll take me early. Lady I talked to transfers me to shipping and receiving, says leave a message they will call you back. They haven't. I understand people are busy and I can respect that but I got things to do too. Right now I have 4:15 left on my 14 hour clock. Had I stayed at the drop yard my clocks would've reset and there would be no problem. I tried reading about the split sleeper berth and got pretty confused quickly. I bet being stressed out isn't helping. I don't want to tell dispatch I can't make the delivery, one reason being the repairs earlier, and the other I kind of feel like they're testing me to see if I know how to do this.

Thanks if you read all this, and thanks even more if you try to help me out.

Shawn, I feel your pain. I've been driving (Swift) for 16 months. I pretty much have the timing down, until today.

I started the day with a delivery 200 miles away at 1200 at a DC. Then a pick up 40 miles from there at 1630. If I stuck with these appointments, i should start at 0800, deliver by noon, and have some free time till 1630.

By no! I knew I could deliver any time, I was 200 miles away. I left the ol' TA at 0400, arrived at 0815. Dropped, got an empty. Headed for my next pickup. 42 miles. Arrived at 1030 (for a 1630 appointment, I was 6 hours early!)

No early birdies here! So I have to burn that 14 hour clock, and after the pickup I'll barely get out of town tonight.

Let me quote from a driver that knows better:

Had I stayed at the drop yard my clocks would've reset and there would be no problem.

For the split sleeper, you need eight hours in the sleeper to make it work. If you can sit tight for eight hours, the time you had before you stopped will be available. Search for Split Sleeper for a description of how that works. It might be a good deal for you.

First u need to breathe. DO they have ovr nite parking? If so u can roll right in. And take ur break there. If not then is there street parking close to them? Check google earth. Most industrial parks will have some sort of parking. I'd drive in and park on the street IF there seems to be someplace trucks can park. If less than 2 miles your QC won't trip.

If you absolutely can't make it cause of your 14 then tell dispatch. A GOOD dispatcher will help rookies solve the problem.

The 8 in sleeper rule. It pauses your 14. So if at noon u have 4 hours and go in sleeper for 8 hours.... then at 8pm you will have 4 hours still. Say you then drive one hour to the shipper and go off duty for 2 hours... you get your full clock back MINUS the drive time between the rest stop and the shipper.... in this case you drove one hour. So you would get 10 hrs of drive time and the new 14 would be at the end of the 8 sleeper.

Once I read this I was relieved to see that the mistake you made didn't involve hitting anything or a citation. In the grand scheme of things you are experiencing the growing pains of your learning curve. Try not to sweat over it too much, you'll obviously learn from it.

Thanks guys! You guys calmed me down enough to at least let dispatch know what was going on. Haven't heard back yet, hopefully it isn't too bad.

I've read about the split sleeper before, but it was before I drove and completely confusing. Now that I've been out a while it's less confusing but I still don't get it, haha. I'll have to come back with a calmer mind.

Your doing alright man. I had to cancel a load on my 3rd day because I took forever to back up which lead to me not having enough time to go pick that one up. Some days everything will go wrong, but for the most part for me it has been uneventful, knock on wood. Just relax and take it as it comes. You are still alive and didn't hit anything!

So all that happened was they gave me a new load. Appointment is at 700 tomorrow and about 100 miles away. Fantastic.

So all that happened was they gave me a new load. Appointment is at 700 tomorrow and about 100 miles away. Fantastic.

Don't sweat the small stuff! Good luck and safe travels.

Grab trailer, drive 100-120 miles to shipper , arrive WAY early and then call about getting the light fixed.

I would have risked it because no one will know when that light went bad. Yea the last driver might have reported it but who is to say its not just a short that blew the bulb. Note it on the pretrip and roll out.

Cancel all that and do what you did if its a rear signal light........

I would have risked it because no one will know when that light went bad. Yea the last driver might have reported it but who is to say its not just a short that blew the bulb. Note it on the pretrip and roll out.

Keep in mind that if someone wants to write you a ticket for having a light out it doesn't matter when it happens. The driver who is driving it at the time gets the ticket.