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

The Lowes load turned out to be a pain in a lot of ways.

Day 2 Lowes load.

I had my days set up for the Florida load, It was a preloaded trailer that wouldnt be ready until after 6 pm. I had an all day window at the receiver before hand, bout an hour and a half travel between the two. I didnt want to start my 14 hour too early and end up running out of hours if anything went wrong at the shipper for the florida load so I started the day at 10:00 am. That put me at the Lowes DC (receiver) at about 1:00 pm. I got the call for the lowes load to OK. at about 12:00 pm and it had to be at the store at 4:00 pm the next day. Knowing that I have to take a 10 hour in there, no matter how I slice it, I knew it would be tight. That instinct told me to let the DM know that, but I moved on to other things.

Things that eroded my buffer: Moving the 5th wheel platform, it was stuck and from the looks of it had never been moved yet. Moving the tandems , scaling, doing paperwork and messaging for both a receiver and shipper back to back. and lastly, hunting for parking, It took 3 truck stops and 2 rest areas for me to find an open spot. I like to build my days with those type of things taken into account.

So, I was kinda miffed a bit when my DM called and told me they noticed I was still 8 hours out and that its a hard delivery time. At least they opened up the appointment for me and moved it to 5 pm. I bit my tongue and just said ok, thank you. I made a mental note to let my DM know right away if a load is suspect in the future. I think its better to address it before, not after so it doesnt sound like an excuse.

I drove hard all day, in Tulsa on I44 and US75, its a mess there and it delayed me 25 minutes. I got to the Lowes store at 5:01 pm. The receiving staff had went home at 4 pm lol. I finally went around to the front of the store and got the manager, gave him the "its my second week solo and I might get fired" speech. He was sympathetic. I also showed him the message that said delivery rescheduled to 5:00 pm. He became more sympathetic then, and indicated that my DM wasnt the sharpest knife in the drawer perhaps. I said nothing but thank you very much, you are a life saver.

Played 3 card Monty with the loaded trailer and empty, so Unhook from my load, grab the empty, move it, un hook from it, rehook to my load, put it in door 2, unhook, rehook to the empty, then do paperwork, and go. Found a Knight terminal 4.5 miles away. Brand new one. Really cool staff there, very clean and one of our Fleet Of Heros trucks was there. Was cool to drive a big rig down old Route 66. Nice scenery.

8 and 1/2 hours 604 miles

Day 1 of Glass bottle load to Cartersville GA.

Today went super smooth. DM gave me this load as I was pulling out of the Lowes yesterday. Nice miles. Load at the Mode Transportation Glass factory in Tulsa. Sapul-something. Its right off Route 66. Huge place. I got the directions right, recon-ed it well. Again, the shipping gals were very nice, jumped me into a dock after making the other driver who had taken the dock move, He spent more time *****ing about how this place sucked and bla bla blah. I just ignored him.

Train tracks roll right through the edge of the parking lot and across the street. I came at it from the blindside, but scoped it out and asked the yard dog if its possible to do a half moon turn there to convert it to sight side. He said yep. I cut across the parking lot and gravel, went in deep, lined it up perfectly and one shot it beautifully. I felt totally comfortable, like in a strange bubble. Almost seemed like the more chaotic it got, the easier it was for me. I dont know where it came from, but Ill take it lol. Maybe just beginners luck, but all my backs today have been one and done.

Live load, they got me in and out super quick. When I went in for my paperwork, they signed it, gave me the seal and I off I went. The offended driver was still *****ing and still hadnt gotten loaded, nor his paper work. As I was leaving, an old timer was parked next to me, tapped his horn and reminded me to close the left door first. I laughed and said thanks, explained I was new. He said he still gets it backwards after 30 years some days.

During the course of the day, I was stuck in traffic on I40, at a standstill. I got tired of the Zonar asking me if I was still driving, so I hit Off Duty...It didnt come back on for 3 hours. I told my DM, he said it should catch up. My instinct says to manually edit those hours to drive. It adds 3 hours to my 70, which is nice, but my gut says it will come back to bit me in the a$$. Should I correct it?

Also, I shut it down fairly early tonight, I was tired and am trying to conserve hours because Im on recaps. If I fix those hours, its leaves me with only 8 and change on my 70, although I pick up 10 and 3/4 tomorrow, but Sunday I will only get like 2 or 3 back.

6 hours driving today 336 miles.

Shipper:

The customer who is shipping the freight. This is where the driver will pick up a load and then deliver it to the receiver or consignee.

Terminal:

A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.

Tandems:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

Tandem:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

SAP:

Substance Abuse Professional

The Substance Abuse Professional (SAP) is a person who evaluates employees who have violated a DOT drug and alcohol program regulation and makes recommendations concerning education, treatment, follow-up testing, and aftercare.

Dm:

Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager

The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

OWI:

Operating While Intoxicated

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.

Quick update. Im tired.

Some days you eat the bear, some days it eats you. Finished the glass bottle load. Got to my receiver late Sat night, so a day early. I did split berth so I could use the remaining time if needed, it was. The were totally cool and said they would unload me that night. I had to wait a few hours and they finally sent me to their other warehouse a few miles away. It was a very tight spot in the woods. Blind side, but I managed to get it turned around and did it sight side, but was up against trees. very little room. Another driver was having a tough go of it too, we helped each other out. I needed to move the whole thing a foot over, and must have done about 50 pull ups to do it. Good work out though lol. I finally got it, they finally unloaded me.

The ware house guy was really cool, asked if I was out of hours, I said yep, he told me to use the front parking lot. I pulled in, and realized it was a maze of little islands with trees in them. I scoped the whole thing out, came up with a hairbrained idea on how to weave my way through them and set up to leave in the morning. I was successful with it, and it was honestly fun although kind of stressful. I did put the tandems on one of the curbs, but it was minor. I also had a back at there other warehouse just to park that wasnt one of my shining moments, but then again, everyone else there was struggling too. I actually kind of found it entertaining. Once again, i didnt hit any thing, got it safely in the hole and Im ok with it.

9 hours driving, 544 miles

Load Im on now is why I wanted to get out of that receiver before my appointment. Its another Lowes load. I made it to the DC to pick up early. My window didnt start till noon and I got there at 9:00 am. They let let me take the load. My delivery is tomorrow by 3:00 pm in Conway AR, outside of Little Rock. I stopped at the last rest stop ill hit before the receiver which is about 2 hours out. Its Sunday and most of the truck stops are full, It would have been really tight on my 11 hour clock if I went all the way to the receiver. Also I only got back 3 hours today in recaps.

8 hours driving, 477 miles.

My next pre plan is tight. Ill talk to my DM tomorrow. I have some concerns on it. I have 2 hours of driving tomorrow, probably another 2 hours at the receiver shuffling trailers around and waiting on them, then a half hour of time to get to the shipper , then an hour or 2 at the shipper depending on how they are, Its Kimberly Clark, and the last one I did was in training, they were somewhat disorganized. Then I have to drive 366 miles to the Walmart DC in Opelousas LA to drop by 11:59. I can just see my 14 hour being ground into dust by being at 2 receivers and 1 shipper in one day, plus paperwork and messaging. I dont think it leaves me any wiggle room. Im planning on asking if he can extend the delivery window if need arises.

A lot happens in a day.

Got the Lowes load to the store in Conway AR. Google satellite intel looked good for going around the back of the store, most of them are set up that way. I get back there, they tell me they use it for extra storage and I have to go back around the front. Cars parked illegally, cant get em to move em. They finally move two. I back up, then squeeze it in, tight u turn and get set up.

There's no empty. Receiving clerk says, Yeah someone came by real early and took it....I asked if they had paperwork, she just shrugged her shoulders. She says just put it in 2. We will unload you. Ok, I call my DM , tell him. after about 3 hours of waiting, and me checking with them a couple times, She says oh no, just drop it there. We wont unload it til later. Frustrating. I explain to her that I cant bobtail out and I have to have an empty, like the one that she let someone else take without sticking another trailer in its place. I even explained that you cant miss our trailers, they have a big "Knight Transportation" written on the side of them. It doesn't compute with her obviously. So I call my DM explain the situation, about an hour later I get the go ahead to bobtail into the shipper for my preloaded to the Walmart DC in Opelousas GA.

I have until midnight which isnt much. I get over to the shipper, grab the trailer fill out the paperwork and go. In my hurry and stress I forgot to do a loaded call, but I get that resolved later at the receiver. Get to the receiver at 11:00 pm, Walmart says that another truck from my company already delivered on my delivery number. Ughhhhh. She says its a different trailer number though. They cant get it figured out with any of my numbers, the PO, BOL, delivery, truck number or trailer number. She says call your dispatch and have them reschedule your load so it gets a new delivery number......yeah right at 1130 pm at night.

Anyway, I call afterhours, really nice gentleman, we get my loaded call squared away and detention call done. He says it will have to be a Walmart account manager, probably not going to happen tonight. I go to the truck stop about 3 miles away, park it for the night. Call my DM in the morning, He starts to work on it. I finally get the ok to move it to a truck stop with showers and without drunk idiots fighting at 10:00 in the morning on PC, No resolution at all, My DM is frustrated, rightfully so with Walmart.

I've been waiting all day, good news is that I will have a 34 hour reset out of all this and be getting paid detention for it. The bad news is that detention pay doesn't help with my bonus, nor do I get paid as much as I would if I was running my next load witch will now have to be rescheduled.

To top it all off, some genius decided to attempt to park nose in next to me with a flatbed and then figured out that he couldn't get out so easy and backed into my truck trying to get it back out. He did minor damage to my steps and broke a bit of plastic. I kept him from running off. He spoke almost no English, He just kept asking me "How Much?" and pointing to the damage. But I managed to get his info from him, reported the incident to claims and documented it. He started to get mighty unhappy when he realized the gig was up and I was reporting the incident. He seemed to figure out, though, that it might be the healthy thing to do for himself to accept the consequences of his actions and not try my rapidly deteriorating mood.

I kept it professional and calm. I'm an employee and my employer will deal with it. It is what it is. I love my truck and am definitely not happy about it being damaged, but nothing to get emotional about. It just means some shop time for the girl, at which time they can fix the hail damage to my passenger mirror too.

I think that Ill ask my DM if there is a yard around close that I can drop this load for a T-call and be on my merry way to the next load if this isnt resolved in the morning. Ill have my 34 done by 9 am or so as a possible solution.

yesterday was 9.5 hours driving. 566 miles. Today was a big fat zero but 24 hours of detention.

Man, the trials & tribs, Davy!!

This SO reminds me of when my other half was out there OTR'ing!!!

Your diary is PRICELESS, man. So many future drivers will glean SO FLIPPING MUCH, right here, about Knight. On behalf of Trucking Truth, I thank you!!

Keep on keeping on, sorry about your plight(s!)

~ Anne ~

Thanks Anne,

I figure its just all in a days work. It doesn't get me stressed out. The only thing I can control is my reactions and possible solutions. I presented a couple of ideas to my DM this morning, but we both agreed they weren't any better than waiting for Walmart to get their crap together. One was to play dumb and go back up to the DC without a delivery number, but that would probably just end up wasting my clock for the day. The other was to drop at our Gulfport terminal but that's too far away, I'm 180 miles from it.

It wouldnt do me any good to complain and push my DM on it, hes doing everything he can. So it is what it is.

Hopefully people interested in Knight will read this diary. I noticed that there are a lot fewer diaries here for Knight than other carriers, Im not quite sure why. From what Ive seen from them, they seem to be a very high quality company with professionalism and Ive gotten everything and anything Ive requested.

Pics of your damage?

Glad it wasn't worse, but it does happen. I've been hit while parked three times in two years. They always aim for the tractor, never the trailer.

Hopefully people interested in Knight will read this diary. I noticed that there are a lot fewer diaries here for Knight than other carriers, Im not quite sure why. From what Ive seen from them, they seem to be a very high quality company with professionalism and Ive gotten everything and anything Ive requested.

Davy A.,

I've been reading it and it is one of the many factors I've decided to go to Knight. I'm scheduled to start in Phoenix on 6/28 and will do so unless some sort of life events interfere. Stay safe and keep posting!

Pics of your damage?

Glad it wasn't worse, but it does happen. I've been hit while parked three times in two years. They always aim for the tractor, never the trailer.

really minor damage in my opinion, the frame for the step is bent and the the fairing is a tad broken. stuff happens.

Hopefully people interested in Knight will read this diary. I noticed that there are a lot fewer diaries here for Knight than other carriers, Im not quite sure why. From what Ive seen from them, they seem to be a very high quality company with professionalism and Ive gotten everything and anything Ive requested.

Davy A.,

I've been reading it and it is one of the many factors I've decided to go to Knight. I'm scheduled to start in Phoenix on 6/28 and will do so unless some sort of life events interfere. Stay safe and keep posting!

Good to hear. It will be cookin' down there. Say Hi to the instructors for me. They are great guys. Id highly recommend asking your recruiter and them at the school about Top Gun Training.

Well, Ive lost count of the trips. So, Im pretty sure its my 4th week solo. I started solo around the 22nd of may.

My miles are tracking really nicely in spite of some hiccups. For June, I have 5823 processed miles as of tonight, I drop the load Im on now tomorrow afternoon which will add 1239 miles to that total. Ive got a deadhead from PA to OH for about 200 miles, Then a load from OH to DE and from DE to MD which all pay more because they are in the NE corridor. (Im really nervous about being up there and probably pole-vaulting mouse turds over it). From MD down to FL scheduled. So that will rack up some good miles, then from FL I expect to be routed back towards Denver for home time on the 29th.

Last week I had 2699 miles, with a 250 dollar transition bonus, Check was 1431.00 Even without the transition bonus, Im good with that. How you choose to structure your taxes and benefits is up to you and of course will impact your take home greatly. I do not recommend following my path financially. I have a very unique situation and made plans based on that. This first year Im going for maximum take home because of my tax situation with active businesses and losses that greatly offset tax liabilities, and I already have health ins as well as Ill handle my own retirement funds with properties, I can net better returns on that than having it in a 401K or mutual fund.

Ok, back to trucking.

Finally got the go ahead mid day to get rid of the Wally World load. Went back to the DC, Had a nice smooth backing experience, my set up was a tad off and I realized it, calmed down and adjusted, little by little, my confidence is improving. Im also getting better at picking holes and picking empties. In this case, the empties were packed so tightly together that you couldnt get the landing gear handle out. I found one that had a gap on that side, it was almost touching on the other side, I didnt feel like waiting for the yard dog to pull it, and I didnt want to damage the landing gear. Any how, got it and away I went after doing my paperwork and messaging.

Went up the road to Pineville LA, Dropped my shinny new trailer, picked up my load. 45500 pounds in the box. I was worried about it being over weight. No scale at Country Bob's dirt lot there. (Actually its Proctor and Gamble's drop lot). I slid the tandems to about 41 feet back (just past the 40' mark a bit) as a guesstimate. I didnt feel like driving around with the tandems all the way back. Short hop down the nearest Cat scale. Tandems scaled at 34010, drives at 32000. I just did a quick math rather than using the formula. Moved em back 4 holes. Put me at 33k on the drives, 33k on the tandems. steers were fine. total was 77k and change. I like the process of evening out the weight, it appeals to my numbers side. Brand new trailer, towed really nice.

From Pineville up to Duncan OK. Dropped it at the Family Dollar DC. Went smooth there. I like those. Again, the backing went easy. Set up was good. I surprised myself on it. I kept thinking it should be harder. I got my paperwork done, messaging done. Plucked my empty and headed out. Because I started these trips in the afternoon, my driving time has been starting about 10 or 11 am and finishing around midnight. That leaves a really bad time to find parking at truck stops, I usually end up looking for smaller old ones, rest stops or creative parking opportunities like closed scales or wally worlds and such. Ive had pretty good luck with getting spots though and feel pretty comfortable getting into a tough spot If I need to. I turn the CB off when I pull in the truck stop and people usually seem to mind their own business.

Anyway, drove up from Duncan to Jenks, got my load that Im on now, which is a pretty healthy miles one, as mentioned its 1239. I got to the DC at Jenks at night, still had 4 hours left on my 11. thought about staying at the terminal about a half hour away, but I really wanted to shorten my time on this load. Its about 18 or 19 hours drive time and I wanted a cushion. I gambled with finding a spot to pull off, but did recon on it well. I brought it down to an hour and a half left and parked at a rest stop. Today I knew would be a gravy day of just driving.

Yesterday was 9.5 hours driving, 477 miles Today 10 hours driving 598 miles. (I really really thought about pushing it to see if I could crack 650 miles, but it seems too risky to be stranded out of hours)

Really nervous about driving in the North East. If anyone has tips on it, Id greatly appreciate it. Fwiw, my appointments there are all at DC's of good size I think.

Really nervous about driving in the North East. If anyone has tips on it

Know where you are going to park and get there early.