Wait Is Over Finally At Prime PSD Training

Trade?

My dad always told me when you think you have it tough just look around and somebody else has it worse. Where you headed?

I drove through Tulsa about three hours ago! Right now I'm parked in Joplin, MO at The Joplin 44 Petro. Final destination is Lawrenceburg, KY with a heavy load of copper.

Part 6 Trainer came in late last night. Wanting to do pad time, raining and blowing 34 degrees. Waited on the pad , no trailers available. Finally after a while a trailer comes free. Trainer hooked up and shows me straight, offset passenger side, parallel and alley dock. I do straight, do ok. Try offset and wind is blowing rain in the window, I am having trouble seeing landing gear to spot angle. Try offset, no enough angle, can see one side and barely the other side. Decided I could get it in the box, I did and it wasn’t pretty. Trainer says set the brakes, shut off the truck. I did, he walks back and I didn’t know what he was doing. Pretty soon he walks up and shows me the cone I ran over with the front wheel. He calmly says that could have been somebody else’s truck. By then he was soaked and our fleet manager said no driving around town as we had a freezing rain warning. So back to the room. I started thinking about the cone and beat my own self up worse than he did. We had a load coming in we were supposed to grab and take to ElPaso. It didn’t show until around noon the next day. We hooked up and I started driving. It rained all the way until south of Oklahoma City. It was a miserable 5 hours. I was tense, it was poor visibility and a lot of watch your signs, your on the white line, slow down to 50. Wow was I exhausted. We stopped And did our 10 off. Next morning got up and at least it was sunny. Drove to ElPaso about 6 hours, trainer took over last couple hours and parked us at the shipped drop point. Next morning unloaded around 730am. Got confirmation of another load to pick up 5 miles away. Travel to shipper. Found a Mexican place just down the block. They had a special, 2 pancakes, 2 eggs, sausage or bacon for $2.99. It was tasty. Went back checked in and it was live load. A couple hours we pulled out. Load headed back to Springfield. Stopped for the night at Amarillo Big Texan. Had dinner and Parker there for the night. Next morning was on the road at about 730. I drove almost 9 hours and felt pretty good. Stretched our legs north of OKC and did a little backing training. Did a straight back, good. Did offset back, fair. Getting better. We pick up a load at noon tomorrow going to Ohio. Once we get to Ohio we are at about 2500 miles for my first week. Only murdered 1 cone so far. Ye haw

^^^^ Mid to upper 40's here all night and through tomorrow .. starting at sunrise.

Love Ohio weather, haha!

Be safe, Buck. Loving your diary~!!

~ Anne ~

Part 7 We wake up to a beautiful 53 degrees day in Fairfield Ohio for our 1215 drop of 47000 lbs of cheese slices for McD burgers. Hopefully not a long wait. Then we got another load to pickup a few miles away with 2 drops, the last in Detroit, MI. We are having some fun now. Yesterday afternoon coming over I missed my exit on to I 74 east. I think it was a test and I failed badly. I thought the right 3 lanes split off but it turned out only 2 did and I couldn’t move over due to traffic. I admitted I screwed up. He told me which exit to get off and we made a loop through town and came back out on the freeway. All life’s trucking lessons to learn. My trainer logic is you are going to make mistakes, one of my jobs is to show you how to fix them.

Good correction on that missed exit. You did the correct procedure, so good job! I promise you this will happen again.

I have seen trucks do things such as dive towards their exit, and hope they don't sideswipe another vehicle. I've also seen drivers get on the shoulder, then back up to make the exit.

Thanks Pack Rat. By the way I have been reading your diary of being OTR. Very enjoyable, picking up some good stuff. As I drive along I comment on the bone head moves I see cars and other truck drivers make. Like wow that truck is backing off a little to let me move over. Nice guy. Then the next truck cuts in front of me and sets my close following alert off. All the while in my head I am hearing keep your signal on until your trailer is completely in the lane. A few of these drivers need to go back for more training I think. Speaking of something to scare a new guy, we take an exit onto another road, trainer says careful it’s sharp, I seen the sign before marked 45. I slowed to just over 30 and was easing through the turn. It had several signs showing arrows to the left. Right in the middle of the turn the dash goes off red, and screams collision alert. The trainer said it is getting ready to nail the brakes when it does that. I am not sure what it picked up but it woke me right up! Guess the good thing is I was doing exactly what I was supposed to. More later

Part 8 After our drop in Detroit we are having an electrical problem with the trainers truck. Hill climb indicator stays on which in and of itself is no big deal, but we have no 4 way flashers and most of the in cab switches the same row as the Fraser switch are not working. So we asked for a load to get us back to SPrimo to get it looked at. We had to go about 120 miles to Reed Point,MI. As we were getting close the trainer says ya we haul a lot of yogurt out of here. Says there will be a few prime trailers on the lot. We pull in , they want to wash out our trailer then we get ready to drop it. While they are doing paperwork the trainer gives me a trailer number and says go track it down and call me. So I start looking I couned over 150 trailers (all Prime) on the lot. I found 2 rows, about 50 trailers with the refers running in the dark. Now we are getting somewhere. I finally find the trailer and call my trainer. He is dropping the other trailer then comes and hooks up this one. We were told to make sure it will scale for CA. We check it out, look at the air scales and are sure it’s fine but leave the yard, will stop at a scale to double check it. Just down the road is a small truck stop. We stop to get something to drink, I count 8 tractors, and 4 tractor trailer units at the pumps all prime. Ya we hall just a bit of yogurt out of here. I have driven a couple hours so far today and we head toward Chicago to stop so we can make it in to the mother ship tomorrow. We hit a scale, our math was fine. On a couple more hours and we stop for the night. More later

Part 9 Next morning just east of Chicago we are 563 miles east of SPrimo. We grab a bite and I start driving. Lots of construction. Drive all day, and into the night. We get very close to Springfield, trainer says exit number and Branson. I slow for exit and take it, couple more turns and into Primes Plaza building. All traffic inbound and outbound pass through here for trailer inspections. This is the first time I get to drive through the front gate and into a shop lane. I must be getting better. Trainer looks at me and says congrats. I asked what for and he said well first off you drove 10.5 hours for 563 miles. That is the longest time and miles for you so far. Second you didn’t drive by the exit like most of my students do. I said well my butt is tired of sitting and I am hungry. So I go hit the rest room and come back and they are writing all over the trailer tires and installing new ones, whatever that means. Only took a bout 15 minutes. Then we proceed to the truck wash and wash the truck and trailer. This the the city that never sleeps (SPrimo) we drop the trailer and head to the cafeteria for late supper. Some kind of fish and sides. Hit the spot. They go out of the way here to baby the drivers, good folks. We found a spot to park off the end of the training pad. Has its own bbq area , rest rooms and free great WiFi. I was out like a light. Next morning we sleep in a little. Then my trainer realizes he needs to renew his dot health card. Lucky Prime does that on site. He heads off to that, I eat breakfast, hash browns, scrambled eggs, biscuit and gravy and sausage. $3.00 Coffee tea and water are free. Can’t beat it. So then shower and I run into one of my class mates Eddie. He is getting close to testing out. Initially my trainer said we would be working on pretrip daily. Not so much. But not complaining, we get showers every other day, breaks when ever I ask , meals when ever and I think an excellent instructor on backing in a way I can comprehend. So I ask him how I’m doing and how long before testing out. He says your driving is fine , we need some pad time to work on backing and what ever questions you have on pretrip. So we set up a pad time 7 pm. We spent 4 hours on the pad, seemed like 2. Straight back no problem, offsets either direction no problem. Parrallel park, took some thought but is really just an offset back. Got here in the box first time and pretty straight. Then my first try at alley dock. Now that was a struggle. I had a time getting the arc down to turn sharp enough to get the back inside the cones. Tried some different things, got the arc too tight and hit the drivers side cone slightly. Ok now we are getting some place. Try again. , center between the cones, back in some more and struggling with it. Finally my trainer looks at me and says how have you been moving the trailer where you want in the other backs. Bingo offset back, still a little off. Offset a little more, I’m straight and just back it in, jump out run back to see the rear bumper centered in the spot. Yeeeeeees. Now I got it. Then since we missed time driving around town as it was storming last week we do it now. First stop down into the caves where they have cold storage. We just went down and made a loop and drove back out. We saw a yard dog come out of one of the cave openings pulling a Prime trailer and head up the hill some where. Then we just made a loop around town for a while and made lots of right turns. Came back and dropped the trailer and to the cafeteria for late supper. Buffet was shut down but grill is open 24/7. They make a mean cheese burger and fries. By now it’s almost 1 am as we walk back to the truck. All the trucks parked out around the building, apu’s purring in the night outside the mother ship. We go back to our night parking spot and pass out. Woke up about nine. Come in for breakfast, ran into my Classmate Eddie. After breakfast went with him and recited pretrip for about an hour. Then he wanted to go to the pad and watch another trainer work on the pad so I tagged along. The student was struggling with straight back. Man that was painful to watch as he is wanting to test out in a few days. It started getting hot on the pad so I walked back to my truck and grabbed my laundry to catch it up why I am waiting. Took a bit to get a washer. Visited with some other truckers and watched Top Gun’s Maverick do some of that pilot stuff for the 50th time. Still a tear jerker. Grabbed some dinner and ready to call it a night. We have a truck appointment at Monday 1600. Hoping it’s something stupid and we can get rolling again. Trainer is thinking of having me test out next week Monday. I am fine with that. Not sure if I am ready ready yet. Hope folks are enjoying reading my journey. Cheers

DOT:

Department Of Transportation

A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.

State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Part 10 Ok so we took the trainers truck in for no 4 ways and the rest of the lights non op in that switch section. Also told them the lower part of the windshield was leaking. This is on a FL. After 2 days they say it’s ready, we get a load of coffee mate going near Dallas, drop it go west a few hours and pick up a load of peanuts for Hershey’s near Indianapolis. We even each got a couple pound bag of fresh peanuts they had the best smell to them. Dispatch had told us this but vendor was very fussy about the Cleanliness in the trailer. We had a wash out. When we got there they got in the back and had us shut the doors and they checked for any rust and the door seals. We saw trucks leave mad as their trailers didn’t make the cut. Headed out to Effingham, IL area. Dropped the load at Hershey’s. They said we had no empty trailers available there. They did say they had a full load ready to go. We let dispatch now, but they said head to a truck stop and we will see what sales wants to do in the morning. We went about 20 minutes down the road and saw a Casey’s with a bare back lot, since we were bob tail we pulled in and parked ,we hoped in the morning they would send us back for the load at Hershey. Later that night it rained pretty hard, just helped me sleep! The next morning I woke up, my alarm is needing to pee. I got a cup of coffee and a burrito and came back to the truck. I called and was talking to my bride when I noticed the cubby area on top of the dash was full of water. So much for the windshield. So we asked for a load to get us back to SPrimo to FL to fix this leak. So we sit all day and about 1600 we get dispatch. Bobtail to St Lous. We did and picked up a trailer in Henderson trucking yard, returned to SPrimo. Had an appt for the truck. More to come