I Might Be Done With Truck Driving

I don't know anything about swift but for someone at my company (assuming you get a chance to talk about it) I'd recommend to go in and tell them that you've been thinking a lot about why it happened and how to avoid it in the future.

Anyway, I'm just curious, you said in the first post that you hit a mirror and got put OOS , are those two different incidents, or how do you get OOS for hitting a mirror?

I don't know anything about swift but for someone at my company (assuming you get a chance to talk about it) I'd recommend to go in and tell them that you've been thinking a lot about why it happened and how to avoid it in the future.

Anyway, I'm just curious, you said in the first post that you hit a mirror and got put OOS , are those two different incidents, or how do you get OOS for hitting a mirror?

I got put out of service but the officer was nice enough to let me drive back to the truck stop and get the issue fixed. 2 hours later after all said is done I go to back into a spot and hit a trucks mirror. The next day I get s citation for a tire in California, but didn't get put out of service. Then a week later I damage another companies trailer door with my door when backing into a tight dock. When it rains it pours, but I do have to remember these things are not nearly as bad as me hurting someone else or worse getting myself killed. It just makes me nervous because of how close all the incidents are.

I don't know anything about swift but for someone at my company (assuming you get a chance to talk about it) I'd recommend to go in and tell them that you've been thinking a lot about why it happened and how to avoid it in the future.

Anyway, I'm just curious, you said in the first post that you hit a mirror and got put OOS , are those two different incidents, or how do you get OOS for hitting a mirror?

I got put out of service but the officer was nice enough to let me drive back to the truck stop and get the issue fixed. 2 hours later after all said is done I go to back into a spot and hit a trucks mirror. The next day I get s citation for a tire in California, but didn't get put out of service. Then a week later I damage another companies trailer door with my door when backing into a tight dock. When it rains it pours, but I do have to remember these things are not nearly as bad as me hurting someone else or worse getting myself killed. It just makes me nervous because of how close all the incidents are.

Wow, yeah, that's a rough couple of weeks. I can see why you'd tend to get discouraged. But I'm sure you'll get through it. I've had a few problems in the past year myself, but It's a new year, so we start over and try for an incident free 2017.

Gladhand, how long have you been solo now?

Gladhand, how long have you been solo now?

Almost 8 months now.

Gladhand, what's interesting about all of this is that none of it seems to have to do with being capable of safe driving. What it really boils down to is that you're ignoring important details or just being lazy. For example:

A bad tire going into California? Man, you know how strict California is. You can't go in there unprepared like that. Now if it happened while you were driving and you had no idea you had a bad tire then that's just bad luck. But if you rolled in there with a bad tire then it's something you know you should have caught in your PTI. Heck, I used to pull into one of the last truck stops that has a shop before going into California and did another check on the truck to make sure I was good to go. If I found anything I knew I could get it fixed right there before rolling into Cali.

Overweight ticket - unless they happened to get you in between leaving the shipper and getting to the first truck stop scale then it's simple a matter of not weighing a heavy load like you know you should.

Two backing incidents - laziness! Get out and look, right? You knew that.

The point of this was to say that you have nothing be nervous about. It's not like you're giving it your best and don't seem to be capable of doing your job. These incidents are all things that are 100% avoidable and would have been avoided if you would have taken your time and paid attention to the details along the way. As you're finding out the hard way, there are just way too many things that can go wrong out there for any driver to be lazy or make assumptions or cut corners. You simply can't do it.

One small example of this I've pointed out in the past is that I never used to take what I *thought* might be a little shortcut to get somewhere. If I knew a sure route I stuck to it. You might save a little time once in a while by discovering a shortcut to get somewhere. But more often than not you're going to find a low bridge or a restricted route or a bridge you can't cross and get yourself into a mess that never should have happened. So in the long run it pays to simply stick with what you know will work.

Take your time, focus on the details, don't make assumptions, and don't cut corners.

You'll be perfectly fine out there. This is all totally normal rookie year stuff. Everyone goes through it. If you sat down a handful of people that had just completed their first year the long list and the variety of 'war stories' would be amazing. And terrifying to the motoring public.

Gladhand, what's interesting about all of this is that none of it seems to have to do with being capable of safe driving. What it really boils down to is that you're ignoring important details or just being lazy. For example:

A bad tire going into California? Man, you know how strict California is. You can't go in there unprepared like that. Now if it happened while you were driving and you had no idea you had a bad tire then that's just bad luck. But if you rolled in there with a bad tire then it's something you know you should have caught in your PTI. Heck, I used to pull into one of the last truck stops that has a shop before going into California and did another check on the truck to make sure I was good to go. If I found anything I knew I could get it fixed right there before rolling into Cali.

Overweight ticket - unless they happened to get you in between leaving the shipper and getting to the first truck stop scale then it's simple a matter of not weighing a heavy load like you know you should.

Two backing incidents - laziness! Get out and look, right? You knew that.

The point of this was to say that you have nothing be nervous about. It's not like you're giving it your best and don't seem to be capable of doing your job. These incidents are all things that are 100% avoidable and would have been avoided if you would have taken your time and paid attention to the details along the way. As you're finding out the hard way, there are just way too many things that can go wrong out there for any driver to be lazy or make assumptions or cut corners. You simply can't do it.

One small example of this I've pointed out in the past is that I never used to take what I *thought* might be a little shortcut to get somewhere. If I knew a sure route I stuck to it. You might save a little time once in a while by discovering a shortcut to get somewhere. But more often than not you're going to find a low bridge or a restricted route or a bridge you can't cross and get yourself into a mess that never should have happened. So in the long run it pays to simply stick with what you know will work.

Take your time, focus on the details, don't make assumptions, and don't cut corners.

You'll be perfectly fine out there. This is all totally normal rookie year stuff. Everyone goes through it. If you sat down a handful of people that had just completed their first year the long list and the variety of 'war stories' would be amazing. And terrifying to the motoring public.

Pretty much spot on. The overweight ticket was back in September so it doesn't worry me. I make sure to scale now, no matter how much longer it will take me because I ended up wasting more time by losing a lot of money for 2 months. The tire didn't seem that bad to me and wasn't losing air so I let it be. Just so happened they were doing random inspections.

And honestly I knew I was too close to that other trailer that I needed to move over to the right but there was a truck on the right and I didn't think I had room. There was plenty of room to scoot over but I didn't goal...Basically I was being lazy and now I have to own up to that. I now see why people quit and then go on a rant about the company when the mistakes were that drivers fault.

I started to get to comfortable and it hurt me. Safety is the number 1 priority, but I let that fall to the wayside. I been doing good, so I shouldn't let these hindrances run me out of something that has been good to me. Thanks for your reply and the other replies. It's nice to have somewhat of a trucking support group. Now I can focus on doing my job at a higher level and running a good 2017.

Brett said:

One small example of this I've pointed out in the past is that I never used to take what I *thought* might be a little shortcut to get somewhere. If I knew a sure route I stuck to it. You might save a little time once in a while by discovering a shortcut to get somewhere. But more often than not you're going to find a low bridge or a restricted route or a bridge you can't cross and get yourself into a mess that never should have happened. So in the long run it pays to simply stick with what you know will work.

Dang Brett, you sure you weren't spying on me last week?

I literally just did this exact thing. My current position has me running almost exclusively back and forth on I25 from Pueblo to Denver in CO, so I know the stretch pretty well (not to mention I grew up here). A few weeks ago I was heading back to Pueblo from Denver and encountered a major slow down. I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to get off the interstate and go around it. It worked beautifully! No issues.

Last week I was heading down to Denver from Pueblo and encountered a similar situation in south Colorado Springs. I tried the same thing and ended up having to go through neighborhoods and narrow streets along the way. Finally got back to the interstate and, what do ya know?! 12'6 overpass. Had to call CSPD to come block traffic so I could make a U-turn and go to a different exit.

From now on, if there isn't a frontage road or clearly marked detour, I'll stay safely in the slowdown!

I started to get to comfortable and it hurt me.

That, too is very common. I've said a few times that the most dangerous drivers on the road are those that have been out there anywhere from a few months to a couple of years. When things have been going well for a little while it's easy to let your guard down, and that's when things go badly.

You see that with accidents, also. We talk a lot about the pileups you see in the fog, snow, and ice but the overwhelming majority of seriously awful accidents I've witnessed were in absolutely stellar driving conditions - sunny, warm, light traffic, open roads - beautiful days. People let their guard down and that's when you make a mistake.

I been doing good, so I shouldn't let these hindrances run me out of something that has been good to me...Now I can focus on doing my job at a higher level and running a good 2017.

Amen to that, brother! Keep on moving forward and getting better every day. You're also seeing why most veteran drivers that have been out there for a very long time are either as calm and pleasant as a monk or high strung and beat down and miserable. You either learn to keep yourself from being affected negatively by the constant stream of challenges and setbacks you face or you get beat you down and worn out after a while. Some people learn to deal with it, some don't.

The best part about it is that having patience, tolerance, and good spirits in spite of the circumstances is a skill that can be learned by anyone. Thoughts like, "I just have a hot temper. That's just who I am." or "I've never had patience. I'm just not a patient person." are often times falsely considered to be hard-wired traits instead of learned traits. No matter what your temperament may be you can always improve upon it but it takes practice like developing any other skill. You have to practice being patient and pleasant instead of blowing up when something goes wrong. You have to practice paying attention to details and making decisions with discipline. The more you do it the easier and more automatic it becomes.

Starting today almost everyone has a clean driving record for 2017 so go out there and make it an awesome year! For those of you who already have blemishes in 2017 I would recommend a desk job for this year, and maybe all years for that matter!

Dang Brett, you sure you weren't spying on me last week?

As you can easily guess I've done the same thing myself. Nothing worse than being in a perfectly fine situation and then screwing it up for yourself. Man you just want to punch yourself in the face. Like, "WHY didn't I just stick with the plan that was working????"