First Load

Well after a bad start yesterday morning, I finally got underway. Qualcomm tells me to get off at 16C. But of course there is only 16A, then 15. I spent the next 30 minutes trying to get back to my exit . Then step of a ******* day. I get to the shipper at the gate and he tells me and the driver from Marten that we have to back up and go to the staging area to open the doors and move the tandoms back all the way. The Marten driver takes up two spaces for the staging area. So I'm half out in the driveway. He leaves to go into the gate and then it's my turn and the gal gives the paper for dropping my MT and which spot to put it and where I pickup the loaded one. The spot to drop is the 3rd spot from the gate. I tried to blindside but it was too tight. I go to the end of the yard and turn around and get it put into the spot. Then go get my loaded and slide the tandoms back at 40. Go to get my paperwork (BOL), and the clerk has gone to lunch. It say on the window back in 30 minutes. Well, me and the Marten guy go back in 30 minutes she is still gone come back 15 minutes later and still gone. So another 20 minutes and she takes the gone to lunch sign down. Then she can't find my BOL. It was sitting right in front of her. I go to leave and hand the papers to the gate guard and hands it back. So start my travels to Denver.

Fast forward to my 30 minute break and I find and open spot at a Love's. Go to eat and the guy behind the food place is from Sacramento, and another guy comes in to order and he is from Sacramento. It's a small world.

Fast forward I go to Wallyworld to get my fridge for the truck. They only have those tiny ones. So I look up the fridge I'm looking for and Homeless depot has it. BUT none on US 287. So maybe when I get to Denver and get unloaded I will have time to swing by and get one. The terminal in Lancaster said that most don't have fridges but they could order me one. It will only take 2 weeks. I told them no thank you I will buy it myself and when I leave I can take it with me. Not that I'm planning to leave Swift, but .........

Fast forward to get close to shutdown for the night and I go by several Love's and flying j 's. All full to capacity. I now have like 45 minutes left, so panic mode starts to set in. With 15 minutes left, I find this mom & pop truck stop and park with just minutes to do my post trip and send my DVIR. So when I have done all that and put myself into sleeper mode I have "one" minute left on the clock. Too close for comfort.

Fast forward to this morning and I see I got a message that my trip number and trailer number are wrong. So I go back over the dispatch and the trip# is correct and I memorized the trailer #, but went out to make sure I didn't transpose the numbers so since I have to wait on California time to talk to my DM , and I still have 40 minutes left before I can get underway. I thought I would make a small diary of my first day.

Raptor

Once you are parked you don't have to worry about going over on your clock. If you get parked with 1 minute left on your clock and then spend the next 15 minutes on duty for your post trip, you are completely legal. Your Qualcomm may say -14 minutes but don't worry, you are not in violation as long as you don't start driving again.

Sounds like a typical day in the life of a trucker! You're killing it Raptor!

Plan B That's good I was starting to sweat it being my first load and get a violation.

Old School

It did feel good to just be by myself. I had to make all the decisions and if wrong own up to the fact that I might have screwed up on my first day. But I told myself, there is no panicking in truck driving. Only solutions around it. I was going to be late anyway to the shipper because I had to have the Qualcomm replaced. It would keep saying you are not loged in. So I would log in and then it would say you cannot have duplicate log ins. And the buttons wouldn't let you move from message to message without going out of messaging and back in. So they worked on then said they would replace it. Well some of the problems are still there but it let's me do my clocks ok. Anyway my pre- was done a few minutes ago. So back on the road.

Raptor

Raptor says

Plan B That's good I was starting to sweat it being my first load and get a violation.

It also applies to your 8 hr clock (before break) you're able to be on duty past 8 consecutive hours and you won't be in violation as long as you're not on the drive line without taking the 30 minute break.

Here's some of my advice. It's probably worth half of what you pay for it:

Yes, Driving is what your QC log is all about. As PlanB says, if you're On Duty, you can go over your daily time limits. But, you still need 10 hours after you knock off to start your next duty cycle. In PlanB's example, if you are On Duty that extra 15 minutes, say till 8:15 pm, you can't properly go On Duty till 6:15am the next day.

ProTip, and you didn't get this from me: Any time you're not doing anything - like when you're waiting for Ms. Paperwork Clerk to get back, or waiting for your turn at the dock, be Off Duty or better, in the Sleeper.

The other stuff is basic Rookie stuff. You'll get the hang of it in no time. We've all been there, even Old School, as he says in one of his shortest posts.

Patience, Cricket.

Got lost but found a way back to the correct route, no tickets, safely parked, didn’t run into anything, learned things for future use, and didn’t make the local news. Sounds like a successful first day solo.

Got lost but found a way back to the correct route, no tickets, safely parked, didn’t run into anything, learned things for future use, and didn’t make the local news. Sounds like a successful first day solo.

***THIS***

Good job, Raptor!!

Awesome job for first run. As someone else stated above, safely parked and nothing damaged or zero accidents, sounds darn good to me.

My FM.says "If you got there early and didnt hit anything, you did great!"