Mad At Myself

This morning went to Compton to pick up a preloaded trailer. It was at a exporter/importer place so it was really tight. Full of shipping containers and dry vans.

Anyways get there and drop the trailer, go to get my paper work and no one is there to give it to me so I have to wait. Go in again and still no one will be there for another 3 hours. Another swift driver got his paper work, so I asked him and he told me there is a guy in there who has it, so I went back in and got it taken care of.

My clock is burning up and the traffic is starting so I get in a hurry to get out, pull my trailer out of the tight slot and pull up to the guard shack. Guard checks seal and let's me leave.

I made the big mistake of not pretripping my trailer or even checking the seal. Get to the receiver and there is no seal on the trailer... They went ahead and let me drop anyways, with one of their own seals.

Not sure if the guard waved me off even though I didn't have a seal, the seal was in the trailer and I needed to seal it myself, or somebody removed it when I was at the loves for a quick break, but I doubt it.

So I had to talk about it to my DM and let him know what happened. Really hope nothing is missing, cause I know I'll be blamed for it. Seems like every time I start doing good, I **** up again. Man I am mad at myself.

So you've been mad at yourself for at least the 20 min since you posted this and maybe a little longer. Long enough, give yourself a break. If it bothered you enough to post it here, then it made a strong enough impression so that you'll remember it and won't repeat the mistake. Reading your post, it seems apparent that you know what you did wrong. When I first started 6 yrs ago, patience, which I'm certain I was born without, was the hardest thing I had to learn and then put into practice. A lot of OTR is the hurry up and wait game. Too many things in OTR over which you have no control to let them get to you. Follow your routine and don't rush the things over which you DO have control. That will keep you safe, efficient, in compliance and save you time in the long run. Above all, don't beat yourself up over it. Experience is the best teacher and that comes with time. Look at your "mistakes" as opportunities to learn. Everyone, including veteran drivers, make mistakes or has an off day.

Yeah... What he said!

You got this... Chalk it up to a learning experience and move forward. We learn from the past, plan for the future, but live in the present... Go live!!!

We all make mistakes. Learn from it. But u didn't hit anything ;). So yay.

So you've been mad at yourself for at least the 20 min since you posted this and maybe a little longer. Long enough, give yourself a break. If it bothered you enough to post it here, then it made a strong enough impression so that you'll remember it and won't repeat the mistake. Reading your post, it seems apparent that you know what you did wrong. When I first started 6 yrs ago, patience, which I'm certain I was born without, was the hardest thing I had to learn and then put into practice. A lot of OTR is the hurry up and wait game. Too many things in OTR over which you have no control to let them get to you. Follow your routine and don't rush the things over which you DO have control. That will keep you safe, efficient, in compliance and save you time in the long run. Above all, don't beat yourself up over it. Experience is the best teacher and that comes with time. Look at your "mistakes" as opportunities to learn. Everyone, including veteran drivers, make mistakes or has an off day.

I don't know, Sneaky Pete... maybe The Best First Post Ever? Hope to hear more from you!

Thanks Pete B. You will hear more. This is a good positive forum.

Don't be mad at yourself... But come on man, it only takes like 2 minutes to do a quick trailer pretrip and get all the important stuff--tires, lights, tandems locked, brake pads, splash guards secure, doors shut/sealed properly, visual king pin check, air/electrical connections. It's not as good as doing a real air brake test, but if you push in the red knob before you do your walk around, you can listen for air leaks when you check your tires and brake pads.

It doesn't have to take 15 minutes, but you should at least walk around the trailer slowly to do a visual inspection and th-ump your tires so you know what you're pulling.

True story...one time I was also in a hurry at a shipper and just did my pretrip while the trailer was still in the door. It was a tight lot and I had to wait for the yard dog to come get it. I thought I checked just about everything but the lights, which I checked once I pulled it out. I was literally pulling out of the yard when this guy hollered at me. Apparently I had missed that one of my mudflaps was falling off--it was hanging by only one screw from the bracket. If I'd left like that, it could have fallen off and caused a wreck (not to mention the citation I would have gotten if I'd been caught in a weigh station).

There have been other things I've missed on pretrips, but that was probably the worst one. Pretrips are important buddy.

Pianoman wrote to Gladhand:

Don't be mad at yourself... But come on man, it only takes like 2 minutes to do a quick trailer pretrip and get all the important stuff--tires, lights, tandems locked, brake pads, splash guards secure, doors shut/sealed properly, visual king pin check, air/electrical connections. It's not as good as doing a real air brake test, but if you push in the red knob before you do your walk around, you can listen for air leaks when you check your tires and brake pads.

It doesn't have to take 15 minutes, but you should at least walk around the trailer slowly to do a visual inspection and th-ump your tires so you know what you're pulling.

Pianoman,...I am glad you called this for what it was. Needed to be said.

I read this a half a dozen times; shakes head. No mistake Gladhand, you made a bad decision and understood the risk of your omission. Rushed! You got off lucky. I think you know that and know better.

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't rushing the root cause of most incidents that you have experienced? You have (guessing) 80k or more miles under your belt. Not that much of a rookie anymore...

Slow down Man (and I don't mean road speed), stop rushing. We like you here,...in one piece.