The Adventures Of Daniel B.

12/13

Current Load: Souderton, PA to Hicksville, NY. Total weight - 76K.

What's so special about this load? Well, I'm delivering to Long Island and will be going through NYC/Bronx/George Washing Bridge. First time I'm in this area ever. My old dispatcher loved me too much to send me here

Next Load: New Berlin, NY to Twin Falls, ID.

What's so special about this load? I can finally go to the shop!!! This is my reward for going through NYC and coming out alive and damage free. Oh wait, I didnt come out damage free!

That's right. I finally have a stain on my record.

Let me start from the top... My appointment for the NYC load is scheduled at 0400. I am roughly 130 miles away. So I depart at roughly 0030. I leave some extra time in for traffic, or if I manage to attract attention from the police like Old School did.

The drive was not bad. I have been studying the route the entire day on the 12th. I had it memorized, no joke. I also watched a ton of YouTube videos so I had a good visual of the roads. I definitely came prepared. It was odd though to go under a bridge marked 10'2", all your instincts tell you to stop but you know that it's higher than that.

I arrived at 0300. This place was small! The driveway was difficult to get into. There was a truck in front of me, we both stood in line in the office. This guy had a strong New Yorker accent. And to be honest, I couldn't understand most of what he was saying. I questioned if he was even American - it was weird.

They took him and told me to park. Then I got the call on my appointment time to pull up to the dock. There was an additional two trucks in front of me because they told me to park in the back. So we had to get both of the trucks in front of me to move because I couldn't fit through. I finally get to the dock door and its very tight as predicted. I get on the dock but I'm at an angle. There's just not enough room to straighten out. I sit on the dock door for about two hours.

I plan my route out of the city. My fuel stops tell me to fuel in a small place near me. No thanks. I want to get out, not stay for fuel that I really don't need. I ignore the fuel stop and later call my fuel department to request a new fuel stop.

As I'm sitting here waiting to be unloaded, one of the forklift drivers is driving around and moving pallets outdoors. He's not bugging me, so I decide to just take a quick nap.

As I'm comfortable and falling asleep, my truck shakes. I jump out with a "wtf" look on my face. I'm met with the forklift driver telling me to come to him.

He hit my truck! He hit the passenger side bumper near the end of the fuel tank.

So I take pictures and call the company. Then I call the accident department at 0610. There was a witness who saw it all and he wrote me a statement. The forklift driver also signed my paper that stated what happened and he signed it saying that I was not at fault.

So there you go folks. I spend 11 months and 1 week being accident free. Then I go to this dump of a city and a forklift hits me. I worked so hard and am always focused on safety only to have someone else ruin my goal of a year of safe driving. Apparently the idiots in this city can't drive a car with their lives depended on it, and they also can't drive a forklift either.

I have my back covered with the accident. So it will go down as a non-preventable accident. But damn, I really wanted it to remain spotless.

The end result... My eye is twitching uncontrollably.

His personal information was blocked to protect his identity.

Amazing isn't it? After following your posts for a while and knowing how hard you have ran over the last year. You have drivin in heavy traffic, mountains, snow and ice, heck ya even drove near a freakin tornado! And what ends up denting your truck? A forklift

On the bright side your not at fault and more importantly you are not hurt. So if ya had to experience a first accident this was a good way to do it.

Could see the picture better on here than Facebook, so I assume you can keep trucking without delays from the accident?

Woody

Amazing isn't it? After following your posts for a while and knowing how hard you have ran over the last year. You have drivin in heavy traffic, mountains, snow and ice, heck ya even drove near a freakin tornado! And what ends up denting your truck? A forklift

On the bright side your not at fault and more importantly you are not hurt. So if ya had to experience a first accident this was a good way to do it.

Could see the picture better on here than Facebook, so I assume you can keep trucking without delays from the accident?

Woody

Exactly. No delay. Still running hard. My truck is supposed to be black but with all the snow and sloshy roads my truck is beginning to turn white. I examined the fuel tank and thankfully it does not appear that the fuel tank got damaged.

Besides, I was headed to the terminal anyways for my shattered window. So this is just another nice thing that the next driver of my truck will have. As for me, I have three weeks left and this will just cause me to wait longer for repairs. So it will eventually hurt my wallet when I have to sit extra at the terminal.

12/14

And my truck breaks down in the same city that it always breaks down in - Cleveland, OH.

I'm going to just leave it at that, don't want to really speak my mind my right - nothing good will come out of that.

I've had such an interesting week.

I spent a 34 hour rest in the shop at our terminal BSing with Swift drivers. Still trying to get used to Swift drivers in OUR terminals.

I traveled on US 6 in Utah and it was one of the most beautiful roads I've ever been on.

For the first time ever. I got a DOT inspection. It was a level III and took 40 minutes. It was a little scary at first but I knew I had to get on their good side. And I did! I managed to get all three DOT officers in the building to be in a conversation with me at the same time. It was a long chat and I really didnt feel like talking. But being a grumpy driver is the last thing I needed to be at that moment. So I definitely aimed to try to make new "friends".

The DOT officer inspected my logbook for the last 8 days with great detail. He spent about 15 minutes looking through all the days and asking small questions about it. I answered honestly, but I didnt tell him what he didnt need to know.

Anyways, I passed everything with flying colors! I got a document of the inspection from the officer and I will turn it into our Safety department. I was thrilled! I hope I get some kind of bonus...

I've been running very hard lately. Putting up 3k weeks, except last week because my truck broke down for three days. Then today my reefer broke down. Problem after problem but that's okay.

Lately I've just been resting myself. Yes, I'm running hard. But at the same time I'm mentally relaxing. I am preparing for my transition to Prime with no training period. Will be tough to figure some things out but I consider myself a smart guy, ill figure it out - or ill just call Ernie

I'm just taking it easy. One day at a time and not letting anything get under my skin.

Today my day started before the sun came up. I watched the sun rise while driving towards it this morning. Later in the day I watched the sun set in my mirrors. So in one day I watched the sunrise and sunset. I started driving in the dark and I parked in the dark. That's the kind of long days that exist in trucking.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Hey little buddy. Miss you. Hope all is going well for you. Hope you had a good Christmas. Praying for you for the New Year!

Hands Palm to Palm.

Lately I've just been resting myself. Yes, I'm running hard. But at the same time I'm mentally relaxing. I am preparing for my transition to Prime with no training period. Will be tough to figure some things out but I consider myself a smart guy, ill figure it out - or ill just call Ernie

Daniel,

Will be happy to help if I can.

Ernie

Finally, the road became a nightmare. Nothing but ice and the pavement wasn't even visible anymore. Everyone slowed down. I was very impressed with the Montana 4 wheelers today. They were all driving safe and yieled to me when I needed. I'm not used to this.

I must admit, this entire time driving I was looking out for any Watkins Shephard trucks on the road. Violently staring at them looking for our very own Epic Beard. I'm sure I'll know it when I see him, you cant miss that beard!

Awesome thread Daniel...sorry I didn't catch it earlier!

Glad the Montana drivers treated you well ... they SHOULD know how to drive in snow and cold. :)

Thanks for looking for me! The ironic thing is, as you wrote this, I was sunning myself in L.A.!

I'm really glad you did this...very helpful to new folks. I'm gathering questions that someone considering driving as a career has been asking me, along with my responses. I'll be posting those in hopes it helps. He's been pretty thorough in asking questions, so I'm sure they'll help, although the perspective will be somewhat limited since my experience is relatively new, with only one company, and only with Dry Vans. I'll try to get it organized on my next 34.

Let us know when you get to Prime...I really hope your miles increase!

Tracy

Thank you Epic Beard aka Tracy.

I don't think the miles can increase to be honest. Central has ran me harder than I could have dreamed of. But I am simply looking for more pay. There's no reason to cripple myself with .31cpm with 1 year experience when I can be making a lot more. I wish Central had other opportunities for me without having to lease but they don't.

This thread is dead for now. But I will start posting new updates on it when I get to Prime after I start solo with them. Ill be new to that company so it'll add an aspect to this thread that was never here before. Ill be starting with no one knowing me, ill be getting the "who is this guy" loads, and ill document my days and you'll eventually see my miles improve once I start proving myself.

I'm sure it'll be a fun adventure! Thanks for reading!

1/4/14

Current Load: Denver, CO to Phoenix, AZ and then to Oakland, CA. 1660 miles. Total weight - 70K.

Well, this is my last load for Central. I was actually supposed to be home on the 3rd but that didn't happen. I will be home on the 6th which is my orientation date for Prime. I had to reschedule my orientation date to the 13th because I wont make it home in time. Not upset about this at all, now I can take some days off!

I'm way ahead schedule on this load. I delivered my previous load 24 hours early so that allowed me to pick up this load a day early. As soon as I deliver in Phoenix, AZ I can start driving straight home. So I'm desperately hoping that my Phoenix delivery will accept me a day early. I'm delivering to Shamrock Foods, so I'm 95% sure they won't accept me early. I hate that place.

I get to my Phoenix delivery a day early and guess what? I was told to come back tomorrow. I'm only delivering 8 pallets I wish they weren't such jerks. So I have to sit in wait instead of driving home. That, I am not too happy about.

This past month has been unbelievable. I mean, its been almost as tough as my first month on the road.

I got hit by a forklift

I met a dog in a Flying J in NW and he was the sweetest dog I've ever met. I literally wanted to take him home.

I also popped a super single tire going 62mph on I40 in NM.

Since I'll basically be driving home tomorrow, I think its ended here. Here are my stats for my last month at Central. Pretty damn good!

I will be home so I can finally hang out on TT more often. I just haven't had the time at all lately, and I do apologize for that.