New Driver Problems

First things first, BREATHE and RELAX. I want you to do these 2 things. Next you are doing good, everything in the beginning can be very overwhelming. I know exactly how you feel.

My mentor taught me alright, but I had to teach myself how to trip plan. Make sure to always accept loads and counter them, the only time I declined when I was OTR was when a load would keep me away from home or send me farther from home when my hometime was near.

When it comes to routing follow what they want unless the fuel will take you farther out of route. Sometimes this is the case because there may be nowhere to fuel in an area or they are just trying to save a couple more cents. Once you get more familiar with places you can make the choice, but I usually try to fuel where they want me to. Only time it changes is if I have enough to make it delivery and there is a place close enough to fuel at near delivery if I'm pushing my fuel lower or if the truckstop they want me to go to is a fustercluck.

Also another thing with routing, shorter doesn't always mean better. Shortcuts can be suicide. I take Shortcuts on my route with walmart out here in new mexico, but only because I am from here and know the road I am taking. Being that you are new you should definitely follow the Swift routing as closely until you get more familiar with things.

Scale every load, especially if it's over 35000 pounds. DO NOT take a shortcut on scaling, SCALE, SCALE SCALE. Now why am I a lunatic in saying this? Well I got a 1200 dollar ticket courtesy of the state of Illinois on my birthday! So always scale!!!

Mac 22 is your friend when running late. Things happen, just let them know so they can let the receiver/shipper know.

When in doubt GOAL! No need to look cool, I rather hold up someone by being safe backing in, then holding up the whole lot because I hit someone. Which I did on my 9th month solo. It's not worth it.

My best word of advice to you is this, TAKE YOUR TIME! I AM dead serious, do not rush yourself. When you rush yourself it will lead to doing unsafe things. All the mistakes I have made were due to this.

The first year is tough. Just hit a year one week ago. It's an emotional Rollercoaster and will be very testing. It is up to you to be as safe as possible and survive. As long as you don't hit anything, you have won.

We are here to help man, everyone helped me and now it's my turn to help others. What terminal are you out of btw?

Good luck and be safe!

Well I can safely say I haven't hit anything... I did send a mac22 that's when my dm called to chew me out. He told me don't trust those computer generated routes; it sent me from Eastern Washington on i-90 to get to i-15 south to LA. I can kind of see how that's inneficient compared to another route I could have taken but not by much and thought I was following an approved fuel route. I had another fuel route in Las Vegas I guess I was supposed to take.

They must have wanted this on time and I guess the problem is I did it from a location where no drivers were available for a t call to come get it from me... But then a few minutes later I get a Qualcomm message saying it's been rescheduled so it doesn't seem like too big a deal.

My impression coming into this job and from the orientation was that they just had a "**** happens" kind of attitude when it comes to freight being delayed or late. My mentor and I used mac34 all the time to adjust the ETA on loads and it didn't seem to be a problem. I don't know if I wanna say what terminal I'm out of lol. It seems like a really small one and maybe they are trying to improve their image because my fleet leader is always putting out these messages about the wrecks people are getting in and too many people are bronze status and ****. Maybe I need to move terminals.

I can definitely say I scaled it correctly that's the one thing I made sure to get right, Iam not getting fined. I reweighed on a cat scale to be sure. Just have to be sure not to buy too much fuel or it will put my drives over.

My dm never chewed me out for something like that, he never has gotten mad at me to be honest. What you did was not too big of a deal, you should of headed 195 to lewiston to fuel instead, but it's all part of learning. It all worked out from the sounds of it and you didn't hit anything which is good as always.

Time management and handling the truck to avoid accidents are the two things rookies must over come...and that is why they hold that first year so high up on the pedestal... Cause time management can seriously take a year. So don't beat yourself up. Keep.learning. keep your head up. If your DM thinks you are an idiot for asking a question so what? You'd have your answer. And he'd be more mad if you did something wrong by guessing the answer.

My first week I had a 2200 mile load and got stuck in Nashville construction during rush hour. I messaged my FM and seven hours later I needed to relay the load. I was so upset. I asked him if he was mad, and apologized but I had run out my clock. He responded "I'd have been mad if you didn't tell me you needed help. I planned it all day cause you did your job and told me way ahead of time".

A night dispatcher flat out told me " there's always bumps in the road in the beginning. As long as you learn to work through them you'll do fine. But it takes a long time and we know it. Still, most of us couldn't do a drivers job and we know that too".

So stay calm and good luck

Maybe I need to move terminals.

Maybe just try to be a superstar at that terminal? Take an attitude to better yourself rather than quit. Hope that makes sense.