Adventures In Stupidity

I run for Knight currently. ^.^

Brett, it's all good if G-Town emails me.

In lieu of that, it’s on my TT profile photo gallery. I believe you can copy and past from there into a word doc.

I put it up on my hosting account, if anyone else wants it.

Wind Chart

Hey thanks Grumpy.

No problem, it doesn't cost me anything, so no big deal

One evening not too long ago I was sitting in the bunk while my brother (co-driver) was backing into a trailer. Suddenly I felt something hit the wall next to me and yelled to him to stop! Sure enough, he didn't GOAL to make sure that the trailer was at the right level and it overshot the fifth wheel. Thankfully, no damage to the reefer and the only damage to the truck was a bent handhold. Could have been a lot worse.

I copied this from something I recently posted in the Rookie Tips & Techniques thread, applies to the event which Paul just described...and how to prevent it:

“Hooking”, “coupling” definitely an area that requires careful attention. Trailers set too high, cranked too high can either cause a “high-hook” coupling or overriding the kingpin. I have always G.O.A.L.’d before getting completely under any trailer. Here is why...

As follows; yesterday morning an image of a trailer set too high that will likely cause a high-hook to occur, invariably resulting with dropping a loaded trailer. This is how it looked:

Notice the space (gap) between the lower edge of the trailer and the fifth wheel plate. No way it will positively couple. It required lowering the trailer so the edge is just touching the center pivot of the fifth wheel.

Here is the same angle after lowering the trailer a couple of inches.

This entire process required no more than 5 minutes, but likely saved 10x that time and a preventable in the event of a dropped trailer. G.O.A.L.’ing isn’t just for backing or close-quarter maneuvering. Performing this check before getting completely under a trailer part of my routine, I never skip it. "An ounce of prevention is worth pound of cure."

This is sort of in conjunction with my other thread about the update for my 250k milestone with Knight -- (figure it's better to just resurrect this than clutter up a new thread? some good info here from G-Town and others)

I got my local spot July of last year, which puts me somewhere around 8 or 9 months as a local driver right now. The first 4 months went relatively smoothly, a much heavier workload than I had anticipated, but a fun challenge to adjust to. Starting around the middle of November though, I lost focus on the big picture of things, and lost track of quite a few little things.

I've racked up three preventables (by Knight's counting) (no accidents/tickets, but still a fireable offense (I think more because of insurance than anything else? I am not sure where the line is drawn.) since then. The only thing that has actually saved me from being fired is my relationship with the office [[[which is the good takeaway from this -- the proof is in the pudding. Both the terminal manager and terminal safety person stuck their necks out to give me one more shot to keep my nose clean, and our safety person directly told me it was because of how I've handled myself in the past. (I have to run two years and keep my nose clean before I'm off thin ice at all)]]]

All three preventables were from 1 or 2 underlying factors: I was either rushing when they happened (1 backing incident with company property, 1 sideswipe with our company's yard dog and another company's trailer parked in a door), or just plain trying to play fancy (a combining factor with the yard dog incident).

I'd gotten so focused on the difficulty of the schedule and trying to force work to change for my benefit as opposed to altering my own schedule to mesh better with the corporate machines and routines already in place that I took much of my attention off the road in a general sense, away from the truck, and away from my job. I'd forgotten for a while that I am driving an eighty thousand pound weapon, and was otherwise in the business of being an incredibly irresponsible and unsafe driver. It's only through sheer luck that nothing has happened, and through the efforts of a few people I know that managed to wake me up out of that fog.

So... for the folks that read this-- two takeaways: One, this is why you can't afford to sabotage your own focus on the truck and the job you are doing, the responsibility you wield. It *will* cost money if you're lucky, and if you're not it will cost lives.

Two: the importance of cultivating relationships with your office staff. Without those, they have no incentive whatsoever to go the extra mile for you. Without my attempts to do that I'd be out trying to find a job at this very moment, and with things having gone pear shaped almost everywhere I might be in for a task doing that.

(My apologies if any of this is phrased weird, I can clarify or add to anything that anyone wants to know about. I partially wanted to write this for myself as a... documentation of my own idiocy that I can't forget.)

Keith, that's a great post. Everything you've learned is relevant to any newbie just getting into trucking. Each of us will make some mistakes. Our relationships with those folks in the office are critical to success at this, and even more important when our job is hanging in the balance.

Thanks for bringing this up, and I like the way you tied it into this older conversation. Well done!

Keith,

I just wanted to add to the theme of your thread and Old School's comment posted below:

Our relationships with those folks in the office are critical to success at this, and even more important when our job is hanging in the balance.

I spoke with my recruiter this morning who asked me to show up next Wednesday, instead of Monday. Of course, I agreed to accommodate her. I then mentioned how I learned on this forum that orientation and training is a "continuing interview." She opened up a little and responded that she and the other Prime staff often discuss how they evaluate all prospective drivers from the perspective of whether they would want to invite this person to dinner at their house. And she said that notes with regard to every conversation are entered into the driver's file. She emphasized how tight knit the corporate environment is at Prime. And while I won't interact much with my recruiter once I begin orientation, she said she looked forward to meeting me some day. Maybe its just recruiter talk.

But without disclosing too much, I have already started developing relationships with other people within Prime. I just hope that those will lead to just good loads and flexibility in home time rather than my "job hanging in the balance."

Thanks for updating this thread.

Good to hear from you Keith, and those are some excellent lessons indeed. Thanks for sharing!

Hey everyone! It's been an absolutely WILD six months.

After racking up those preventables with Knight, I added another incident to the list: I was coming out of Glenwood Canyon on I-70 headed Eastbound back to Denver, came around a curve with a hill blocking the view of what's on the shoulder where there was police activity. I made a lane change beginning while I thought it was safe and a little passenger vehicle came soaring up my left side and I took their mirror off. I was written a ticket for an unsafe lane change, charged $110, and drug tested by Knight. Everyone who questioned me about it (safety department, the officer that pulled me over, etc.) came to the determination there wasn't really anything I could do. The distance and shape of the curve meant a really horrendous and unsafe braking maneuver (which hindsight being 20/20 I should have done), but it was my last preferred option and the lane had been clear and was clear when I began my change to the left lane.

It was not a fun moment for me and I expected to be dismissed from Knight essentially that day, given I was already on thin ice, but it held out for a few more weeks. They let me go in the middle of May, about two weeks after the accident and another very small and stupid mistake that was just too much for the company to stomach. My terminal manager and the terminal safety person had both stuck their necks out as far as they could but they can't say no to a decision handed down from on high.

I had been expecting something of the nature for months so when it happened it honestly wasn't much of a surprise to me, but it's turned out to be a catalyst for making steps on my goal of going to school and getting out of truck driving. I was out of work for all told about five weeks while looking for a company that would have the flexibility I needed to make classes work, and ended up working for a small local company contracted to the USPS and it's been about three months with them now. Classes are going well so far, but if I'm being quite honest there is definitely a very strong part of me that misses being an OTR driver. It's incredibly conflicting sometimes, since I also feel like going back to school was a really good decision. It might just be yearning for something familiar and comfortable, but I'm really not sure. Anyways, I'm still alive and learning more every day about what it takes to really be a professional truck driver.

Keith you have been through a lot of ups and downs for sure. I’m sorry to hear all the issues you have endured. Things can happen in the blink of an eye, as tou found out during the last incident.

Staying completely focused is not an easy task by any means. It does take ones full attention constantly. We go through cycles as humans. Learning cycle we are hyper focused, then after 6 months to a year we learn and start to get comfortable. Them around 2-3 year mark we start to get complacent. That is the most dangerous time. It happens.

I hope everything works the way you want it too with your schooling, and wish you well.

Thank you for sharing your experiences so others can learn. Please stay in touch.

I was definitely victim to that sense of complacency, and watched it happen. I didn't catch on early enough to save my employment with Knight but I did catch on before they let me go. I was trying to work on shoring things up but that's always a harder task after things have eroded.