New Truck Driver Ride-a-Long

Day 8:  Got a busy day today. Today is the 13th, we have 8h 40m on our 70 for today and getting 7h back today and just over 9h back in 2 days. We need to drop and hook in Breiningsville PA, head to Carbondale PA for a 60m live load, go to New Milford CT for another drop and hook, then to Tobyhanna PA then Huntington WV by 0730 on the 15th.  Up through Tobyhanna will be approx 550m.  We had 2 more trips planned after that, but after he did some figuring, he realized that he wouldn't have enough time to do it.  So he called in to his IPA and they immediately knew he couldn't do it all.  Luckily when I'm a company driver I wont have to worry about that.  But knowing that now, we need to find a load coming out of WV hopefully going to GA.

We start our day at 1030, do a quick drop and hook in Breiningsville where I got to quickly drop and hook another set of trailers.  I was feeling rushed so I almost blanked on raising and lowering the landing gears; didn't realize we were on an uneven surface so when the passenger side foot touched and I felt resistance, the handle came out of the straight arm (?).  I pushed it back in and tried to lower it some more but couldn't so my uncle called me off it and pulled forward and I noticed my side of the trailer drop more than usual.  That's when he told me it was on uneven ground.  While raising the feet on the empty we were picking up, I couldn't for the life of me get the crank into the faster gear.  No literature that my uncle has at his disposal that I'm thumbing through on down time is saying anything about it either.  Anyone care to chime in on advice on how to help with that?

We arrive in Carbondale at 1300 for a 60m live load.  I'm seeing that this time is prime time to plan out your next move. For us, its finding a truck stop along the way for fuel/showers. Departing at 1430, 30m after we were hoping.  Hopefully it doesn't screw up our days too much. Boring drive yet again. Its getting to the point where I've seen and experienced enough that I feel like I'm ready for class now.  I'm not really having that many more questions for him at this point, I'm ready to just do it!

We got to new Milford and i got to hook another trailer.  Still couldnt figure out how to put the crank into high gear.  I'm just standing there cranking the damn handle on low gear, the feet barely moving and the handle coming out.  Finally, after doing his time stuff on the quallcom, my uncle comes out and throws it into high gear.  Apparently you have to jiggle the handle in and out until the bar gets pushed in.  Omg much easier!! I think once I get that part mastered, I'll be fine with coupling and uncoupling trailers.  I seem to be handling the lifestyle itself just fine, so now all that's left is learning how to drive the truck.  2h 30m left to go 53m to a truck stop in Newburgh NY.

Parked at 1930, got 1h15m left on our 70h and getting back 7h 20m tomorrow.  Got 104m to drive to the pickup in Tobyhanna PA, then 517m to the drop off in Huntington WV, needing to be there by 0730 on the 15th, the day after tomorrow.

Sometimes you just gotta wiggle those goosenecks (yes, that's the actual technical term) until they go into gear. On our trailers, pulling out engages high gear and pushing in engages low gear.

Sometimes you just gotta wiggle those goosenecks (yes, that's the actual technical term) until they go into gear. On our trailers, pulling out engages high gear and pushing in engages low gear.

Yeah he said every trailers different which is annoying to say the least. I crank counterclockwise thinking its gonna raise the feet, but it lowers it instead!!

Day 9:  Gonna be a short entry today.  We woke up at about 0500 and started rolling at 0530, but I didnt.  I stayed asleep until 1030, we only have 120 more miles until we stop again, to determine what our next move is; either stay there for the night and start rolling at 0230 to be just on time for our 2h live unload at 0730, or try to find a stop further down. Going down I-68 in WV, we see a sign that states that trucks must pull over and check brakes. I take that literally and lift the hood to visually check the brakes.  He comes around and asks me what I'm doing, saying that i just needed to see if they were smoking.  I didnt know, but eh, it didnt hurt anything.  We jumped back in the cab and he showed me how to do an in cab brake test.  He pumped the brakes until the air gauge went all the way down and the alarm came on. We then waited til they both filled up again, indicating that there was no issue; apparently this is something you should do every day and with every trailer you pick up. We got to the pilot outside Morganstown WV at 1500, we got 192m to our 0730 live unload in Huntington, so the plan is to start rolling at around 0300 so we'll have enough time to get there.

Day 10:  Start rolling at 0300, on our way to Huntington for our 2h live unload at 0730, then on to Dayton OH for our final job.  Drop and hook there with 2 live unloads, one in TN and GA. At mm 3 on I-79 South, we hear that theres a truck on fire.  We see idiots reversing in the truck lane!!! How ****ing stupid can you be!?  Sitting here in stopped traffic, we hear that the nose of the trailer caught fire, makes me think that it was caused by the electrical cord shorting and catching fire spreading to the contents of the trailer.  After an hour, the left lane starts to open up and we continue rolling. By this time, we have 50m to the drop off and just over 1h to be there. We arrive with about 20m to spare. 2h live unload in progress. I take this time to play around with the crank a little bit, finding the gears on the gooseneck. I think I get the idea now, just gotta put into practice at our next drop and hook.  While they unload, I take the opportunity to catch some z's since the APU has been acting up and shutting off in the middle of the night, its been too hot for me to sleep comfortably on the top bunk.  He thinks its because the fan in the APU is overheating. They complete the unload and counting at 0930 and we start rolling toward a flying j in Vandalia OH, 184m. Should take us about 3.5-4h and we have a good 6.5h of drive time. Hopefully we dont run into anymore issues. We arive in Vandalia at 1315 ready to turn in for the night. We're very close to our pickup for the morning which wont be ready until about 0800 or so, then we got 2 live unloads, in varragut tn at 0530 the next morning and ringold ga at 0930 the same day.

Drop And Hook:

Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.

In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.

OOS:

When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Ringgold Ga? That's my hood :P

Ringgold Ga? That's my hood :P

A lot of my family lives there or in East Ridge. I lived there for a short time when I was a kid.

I've lived in Ringgold and Ft. Oglethorpe for most of my life. Spent 5 years in Grand Rapids MI when I hit my 20's.

Thanks for the nice post Im going out with my trainer in 2 to 3 weeks Wish I had this oppurtunity.

Its a relative of mine, one of my 3 uncles in the business. They all live in Georgia, I live in Iowa, and neither of them ever go to the midwest so it took a little bit to get down here to have this opportunity, but its well worth it. Getting to experience all the in and outs of the job and lifestyle first hand is really getting me excited to start classes, and of course getting some visual and hands on practice without even getting behind the wheel.

Day 7: Pretrip review, I didnt do too bad. I remembered a couple of things, but needed a little help on finding where some **** is.  We start rolling towards buffalo, 486 to 90. About 62 miles left to go to reach our destination by 1400, its 1210 right now and over the cb we hear that theres a 30 min delay, construction about 13 miles.  Stop n go traffic, lot of cross chatter on the radio, "passing the time" my uncle calls it.  After what feels like an hour, its hammer time!  We get to Buffalo and hit high wind gusts.  Must be that canadian wind coming across lake Ontario.  Made to our destination at 1350. Time for a supposed 1h live load.  20 mins later, the load is done and my uncle comes out with his paperwork; he had to sign and date about 20 BOLs for himself and 20 for them! Hell, they were done loading by the time he was finished with the paperwork! We got 321m to Breiningsville PA and 7.5h on the clock.  GPS tried to take him on the back roads again rather than staying on 90, but he knows better.  Me, I'd probably take that route and either get lost or take forever.  But I guess knowledge comes with experience. Boring trip.  It takes alot out of you going down the same interstate twice in the same day.  I-90 from syracuse to buffalo, the buffalo passing through syracuse!  God damn that was a boring drive, and I thought I-80 west of des moines ia was horrible! Welcome to Allentown PA. The place where truck stop addresses lead to an employees only back entrance from a residential road... Seriously, how off could the quallcom really be?? Luckily, theres another truck stop close by.  Nearly pitch black, absolutely no lighting at all!  There were even 4 wheelers parked in the truck spots, one of them may have even been a boat... WTF!! We eventually find the service plaza we originally wanted on a toll road, luckily it had plenty of parking available.  Maybe thats something to look out for in the future, legal parking within toll areas.  Its been a long day...

I've lived in Ringgold and Ft. Oglethorpe for most of my life. Spent 5 years in Grand Rapids MI when I hit my 20's.

I don't mean to hijack your thread UHC!

Captain, is there a decent place to park a truck around there for awhile? I'm thinking about stopping in the next time I get over that way to have dinner with my family.