On Board With Knight Transportation, Squire School Started 03/22/21

GET THE CB!

Rather have it and not use it, then need it and not have it. And your "Davy Downer" voice feeding your self-doubt, ignore it. Even IF that voice is correct, which it isn't...you can sell the CB if you choose. I don't know if I'd buy from a Pilot, unless you get a good discount with points or something...I'd imagine their cost is pretty elevated. A CB is one of the first purchases I will be making when I get through these first steps...if I ever do, seems to be going on forever just trying to clear medical.

Love it, I grew up with them. Went down to the local Flyin J, picked up a uniden 800 series, nothing special, but should work. Also picked up a garmin dezl 500, just another tool to help, nothing to rely soley on. Wasnt a service that the truck is in for, It was repairs, exhaust leak and a sensor I think. The shop said should be done tomorrow, no telling about the cleaning. I dont expect them to have it cleaned, Ill do it myself at this point. Getting paid while waiting.

Rookie Solo adventure number 1.

Got my truck, finally won over the shop manager with grace and humbleness. He gave me a po to go get it cleaned, it was disgusting inside (even for me). Bobtailed a few miles down the road to the truck wash. The interior cleaner went home at 4:00, I was there at 4:14. (anyone seen the movie "Falling Down" with Michael Douglass lol) Anyway, got the outside washed. Went to wally world, got cleaning supplies, cleaned it myself, took about 5 hours. Then I proceeded to stock the truck with provisions, Microwave, tools, Nav systems, Comm systems (got the Bluetooth up and running, phone holders, etc) Paperwork handling systems (two clip boards, one that holds blanks of delivery, trip sheets and the other I put my BOL, delivery sheets etc in chronological order once scanned) Very organized, very systematic, and leaves me with one less thing to worry bout.

Went to bed at 1:00 AM, exhausted, but happy to sleep in my new home office. Load dispatched at 0800, 1100 pickup in Hutchins TX, delivery to Sams Club in Lubbock TX. I still have to return the rental car and Uber back to the yard. Get to the yard at 0930. Do a route setup in Google, check sat photos of shipper and receiver, fuel solution is easy (dead on empty, fuel at yard) Check my route against suggested route, I like mine better, also check it rand McNally and Garmin (because I'm nervous as hell of getting somewhere i cant get out of) REALLY nervous about the receiver, but finally figure a way in, and back out.

No empty in the yard. Call dispatch, get directions to empty. bout 20 miles away at a Target DC. I get in, beautiful brand new trailer....that someone hit something with. Back door wont shut, I notice it after I hook to it and am at the gate. Luckily the previous truck owner left behind a good assortment of crowbars. I have a wealth of experience with getting doors to close. I ask the guard if I can fix it there. He says yes. I wedge the bar between the hinge and the jamb, just enough to get the door to latch top and bottom. Drive over to the shipper with my nice new trailer. Shipper is unconcerned about the door, I let dispatch know, they too could care less lol. It is functional now though. Drop the shiny new trailer.

Im nervous of course, so I over complicated my back, but it was still fun. Gut level told me to GOAL, and I was about 5 inches away from contact with another trailer. Sigh. Anyhow, got it in the hole, nice and straight. Hooked up to my load. Obsessively check everything about 4 times over. Obsessively check my route numerous times. (this is where I will become much more efficient as time goes on) All in all, I wasted about an hour of time at the shipper. And spent more time at my break after a couple hours than I should have, although I did practice backing.

0500 drop the next day. I got to the receivers at 1000 pm the night before. I argued with myself incessantly about weather to spend the night at a truckstop nearby or at the receiver, tried calling them, no answer. Finally the solution I came up with was to do a split sleeper berth so that I could drive again at 0500 and would have about 2.5 hours left if needed in the am. As it was, I found a place to sleep at Sams, parking lot was deserted. I think I was right to do the split, because there was no way I would get 10 hours off duty to reset. Much of my stress was for nothing. The place was remarkably easy to get into, deserted and I was able to literally back straight up from my sleeping spot across the parking lot and access road to the dock. I did have to do some work to get back out, but nothing too bad.

Sorry for the long winded post, but it was my first of hopefully many safe, and on time loads.

Great update! It will get easier and faster, both. Google satellite view is a resource I use for nearly every new customer I encounter.

I was shopping at that same Sam's Club in Lubbock two days ago.

Congratulations Davy!

It's always great to hear of your progress.

Thanks you guys.

Rookie adventure number 2, about halfway through.

Dispatched to deadhead back to the yard for the night, then drop my beloved trailer 81711 and pick up at Case Stack in Grand Prairie TX, drive it to the Walmart DC in Loveland CO. Good miles, gets me home and I get paid for the deadhead.

Uneventful run down to the yard aside from the Safedrive disagreeing with me hard braking to catch a light in the same small town I got pulled over in the rental car.

Make it to the shipper , its a really tight yard, but I feel comfortable so far. The ladies are really nice to me, Im not belly aching like all the other drivers there, so they bump me ahead of a bunch of people, also, I made sure not block the employees cars in. It still takes a while. She says drop your empty at the back of the building, so I did....she meant the back side lol. I angle parked it, so it will be an easy pick anyway and she just laughed and said youre ok. I get my preloaded trailer and there is the mother of all bottlenecks to get out. I leave it where its at, jog over, sign 63 pages of BOL...yes, all 63.

Now here is where it gets interesting, and what could have been a very costly and deadly mistake on my part.

When I hooked to the load, My gut was ringing alarm bells. Something didnt feel right, I did an immediate tug twice to verify the locking jaws were around the kingpin, made sure it was flat when I backed under, got out and checked before I hooked. I then got out and crawled under, took a flash light and visually inspected the jaws and kingpin. Did a quick tire check, lights. I noticed the tandems were all the way up, which struck me as odd, since it was 35k in the box....I didnt stop to check the tandem release handle was PMS and in the locked position, I also didnt check the pins.

I finally got out by going against the traffic routing for the warehouse, pulled a U-turn in their lot and exited. My brain was screaming at me, but I couldnt figure out what, I didnt like the way the trailer was showing in the mirrors either, I had too much of it on my side. I drove a few miles in a heavy downpour, really gentle because I kept thinking something was off with the trailer....it was.

I ended up driving about 12 miles with my flashers on, at slower speeds till I got to a scale. Those 12 miles were with the tandem release handle in the unlocked position!. Luckily, luck was on my side, Im guessing the previous driver had an issue, the tandems were stuck all the way forward, with one pin stuck but not fully locked. My ride didnt loosen it up. But after weighing I was able to adjust them, beat on it with a hammer, then rocked back and forth to get it to fully lock and unlock.

I spent a few moments thanking God for keeping me and others safe. I did a very thorough inspection of the trailer, and will use this an opportunity to follow a system that will prevent this. This could have had catastrophic consequences in my opinion. I will be doing a complete pre trip on any trailer I pick up from now on as well as a standard tug test after I have hooked and raised the landing gear, in addition to the one immediately after hooking. I will also adjust the tandems before leaving the shippers and or receivers yard.

The rest of the trip has been smooth sailing. Pulled into my scheduled fuel stop, low fuel light came on. Pulled across the street to the TA that was empty, practiced a couple backs and shut it down for the night.

If you are in school, wondering why they are so hung up on pre trip...this is why.

Rookie adventure number 2, 3 and 4 are ready to go.

Drove up from the TA in Amarillo to Loveland CO. Thought about taking CO highway 71 to 34 west, shows as a truck route, but at the end where it connects to 34, theres a suspect looking railroad bridge and I couldnt find a height for it. So I slugged it out with I-270 and I 25. Got to receiver with about 2.5 left on my 14 hour thanks to the Denver metro area traffic.

I had a lot of messaging small mishaps, ended up sending the wrong macro, had to correct that. Didnt have a trailer number for my outbound load, and. There were no spots to drop where I was supposed to, again, very friendly staff at the DC, finally got a place to drop it. Go back to the guard shack once I got a trailer number after sending the right message and a few more wrong ones lol. In my defense, I normally do all the messaging and macros, scanning of paperwork off the app on my phone, but decided to use the tablet on the truck which is an older one being phased out...didnt work out so well.

Went and picked up the new trailer, 1 hour left on 14 hour clock. The landing gear handle and gears were in really bad , I had to work my a$$ off to get em up. I enjoy hard work, but not when Im watching my clock deteriorate. Inspected the trailer thoroughly, One of the air hook ups was shot, grabbed a washer from the truck, replaced it, straightened the metal guides. Pulled up to the gate (after another tug test on the trailer lol) with 29 minutes left on my clock. Tandems are just behind the 40' mark. BOL says 40k in the box. Load instructions says do not use customers scale. Fine. I get checked out, 21 minutes left. I hit PC as I cant park at the customer, ended up driving another 45 miles to the nearest open rest stop at the CO/WY boarder. Ill sleep ,here tonight. I have to drop at Sams club in Murray UT tomorrow, then go the SLC yard, pick up and drop back at the Loveland DC I just came from Friday anytime after midnight. I have home time scheduled Friday through Monday so I will try to drop it Thursday night if they let me.

I really enjoy it when it gets busy and hustling. My DM seems into handing me load after load and keeping me busy. Backing improving, confidence improving.

10 hours driving today, 547 miles. Traffic and inexperience at the receiver hampered that a bit I think. Load number two delivered safely on time.

Crap. 527 on the miles, not 547. Also, i dont know if it matters, but 45 of those were PC. Also deviated from suggested route of 287 to Laramie to 80.. I went north on 25 because I needed to find a place to park asap, and there isnt much at all on the 287 route.