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

Thank you. When I first got in the truck, the trainer said two rules. 1. Everything we do must be safe. 2. If it it doesn't violate rule 1, make money.

Quick question, mentally I know I can get trailer in the hole and manipulate it to do what I want it to most of the time, but fear steps in and I keep hitting the brakes. Doc says he can cure it, and it's pretty normal. Id like to not resemble a teenager in drivers ed when backing, any suggestions for getting through that fear or staying off the brake pedal so much?

It's just going to take many repetitions. Every back is different, even if it seems the same. With time and practice, these should get easier, and you'll be able to do them more quickly. Going slowly is not a bad thing.

For sure, My thoughts too. I practiced not so much on backing but learning to be smoother and the dynamics of the trailer turned and it really helped. I was much smoother and one shot it in at a walmart DC. It wasnt speed I was looking for, more for not stopping and starting, I would hit the brakes to hard and then hit the gas too hard. I was able to do it after Doc had me do some drills, totally smooth and even controlled speed with no stops and starts until I got it in the hole. My instincts for where it needs to go and how to control it usually seem to be spot on, its just fear that was causing issues. I still have a long way to go, but it felt good to feel like I was driving the truck instead of it driving me.

Day 4 and 5 updates.

Did 576 miles yesterday, easy miles, 20000 pound load, so was light and easy to run, also we ran an average of 10.1 mpg brought the truck average back up 8.2. I got within striking distance of our drop one day ahead of schedule. DM already had two more loads for us. Was a great day, I burned more off my clock than I should have, but will be ok. I had 25.30 left on my 70, and I dont get recaps til sat. So, I have essentially three 8 hours shifts left. That will work out, its Tuesday, so weds-Friday and then I pick up days starting sat.

Day 5, stopped for BBQ in Texas, really good, ill post the place in the hole in the wall food joints thread and pics. Did a bunch of two-lane road driving from I-10 up to Pflugerville, got to our receiver, totally cool guys, let us drop a day early and pick up our empty. I got to practice parking, the lot was wide open. Only two empties on the lot, one was in bad shape, missing a mud flap, the other had the safety latch on the electrical pigtail connector broken off, but there was bailing wire rigged on to hold it in place, so I secured it, tested the lights, checked out the rest of the trailer and we hightailed it for our next pickup at the wally world, sams club DC. Again, guy was totally cool, explained to him Im in training and he ran me through everything there. This load is 44000. Scaled out fine though close. 33604 on the tandems , 31300 on the drives and 11.7k on the steers, not exact numbers but anyway, were good. I drove out the rest of my 8 hours for today, I cant afford to burn anymore. We have the luxury of my trainer being able to run too, so we semi teamed it, he put in 5 hours to bring us to the receiver and were ready for drop tomorrow, there's 4 knight trucks here and 4 empties. should be interesting in the morning lol. I did 392 I think for miles today, but with two drop and hooks, that's not bad, we got in and out pretty quick.

Definitely increased my skills driving tight two lane roads in TX and Austin area has some very heavy congestion and really narrow lanes with lots of construction, interesting and challenging, I like it and find it rewarding.

Off to Tennessee next.

Quick update. Doing good, brought my 70 hour clock to 3 hours and stopped. Recaps start tomorrow. Will make the load in Tennessee, pickup next half hour away and head to haddiesburg MS. Exhausted, to tired to get laptop out and do proper update. Will tomorrow though. Trainer says I. Good to go Solo after next week.

Day 7-8

Made the load to Tennessee, Lowes flatbed DC. Drove through some rain, but nothing major on I 40, Some hills, nothing too major, but I handled them well, set and kept appropriate speed. Learning a ton of stuff still. Trainer and I had looked at the route carefully. My recommended route had me going pretty far out of the way, Google had us down state highway 59 which the RM truckers atlas still lists as a truck route to a road called national campground road....I nixed that choice, any road that says campground road doesnt sound promising, but I did take 59....Very very tight road, lots of 25 and 35 mph turns, very narrow and zero shoulders, coupled with nice deep ditches. Alot of the corners on the blind side I had to encroach on the opposite lane just to keep the tandems out of the ditch, did a little tree trimming in a few places too. Other than that, although I was very nervous for about half of the road, I managed to avoid hitting anything and remodeling anyones mailboxes. Our suggested routes are very truck safe and I will most likely use those as the basis for the route when Im solo, also our fuel solution is based off those routes.

Planning the trip, checking to make sure my HOS lines up for me to get it done and get the next load, triple checking my routes for safety and to prevent accidents has been forefront, My trainer had been down that road today and he knew I was capable of doing it, I didnt think I was at first. It definitely gives me a valuable lesson in route planning and checking the map, satellite and then checking again

Dropped at the DC, cool old timer at the desk, very nice guy. Picked up an empty, swept it out and headed over to Kimberly Clark plant in Loudon, bout a half hour away, I was out of hours for the day, had 1.5 left. Doc drove to the KC plant, Kind of a zoo there. I took care of the paperwork with the s/r gal, nice gal, We dropped our empty and grabbed our load for Hattiesburg MS. We scaled out at their scale, its a light load 19K. The scale is a single plate, so, steers, then tractor, then total, then tandems. Subtract the drives from the tractor gives you approx drives. we were 21k on the drives, 20k on the tandems with em at the 40' Oh yeah, almost forgot, we went down a winding road through the business park to the front entrance of the place, had to turn around, luckily they had a spot to. It pays to look at the place through google earth. Another lesson there. Doc drove for a couple hours and we shut it down for the night.

Im doing all the components a trip by myself not. Doc will still give me pointers, but Im able to plan, execute and conclude a load from preplan to delivery and get the appropriate documents and paperwork done and sent. Im preparing for not having my trainer there after next week.

We dont have a load lined up after this, but we will be on it like a hawk, We drop this tomorrow, its supposed to be a 24 hour drop and hook DC, and then will be setup to arrange loads that put me back in Denver on Friday. I will take a couple days off and will be getting my truck. Nervous but excited.

Couple typos I didnt catch. *subtract the steers from the tractor. *Im doing all the components of the load myself but Doc will.....

Day9

We stopped at the Loves on i59 bout 2 hours from Hattiesburg. We knew we would be arriving a day early and no one avail at the receiver. Load isnt scheduled til Mon 0800. Since Im running on recaps, and wont be driving today, coupled with the 15 hours of off duty from yesterday afternoon on, that gives me a 34 reset, so Ill start the week with a fresh clock. Yes, we have the luxury of doing that because there are two of us on the truck, but I figured that might be a handy scheme to keep a mental note of in the future. We caught it as I was doing the pretrip (we have to show 15 minutes of on duty). I can edit on duty, just not driving. So I did. Doc redid the pre trip and we headed out.

Got to the Receiver, Hot and muggy down here. PC over to wally world for supplies, and were camped out in the receivers lot til 0700. We have our next load, Macy's DC to DC in Houston TX. Its another one day load. Im liking the southern routes weve been on, although the blower fan in the truck isnt working, I checked the cabin filters and we reset the AC unit a couple times, but no luck. It will come on intermittently when we are driving, usually when its cold enough that we dont need AC lol. Neither one of us want to mess with it until after we get done with my training, Were setting a good pace, thats sustainable and working. Doc is a DIY kind of guy, as am I. I dont want to spend my training time waiting at a terminal for a non essential gremlin fix. From Houston, which drops Tues I think, but we will get it in Mon, we will be routed to hit Denver Friday.

I need to set up my fuel points cards and I have lists of things I will get for the truck. I like the systems that we have for paper work, Its very methodical and logical but efficient if that makes sense.

Ive found I can build custom routes in google maps that are hybrids of our suggested routes, the Rand McNalley truckers atlas and googles route by zooming in, adding a stop along the route I wish to take so it forces google to use my route instead of googles. I then set the origin as "My current location" so it will always route me from where ever Im at. Lastly I save it to my homescreen on my phone. Our Zonar system has a GPS on it, with some good features but it is difficult to use and from what Ive seen isnt as customizable nor as detailed as google. As and added backup, I also check it on Truckerpath, which Ill probably keep running for the benefit of Truck stop info. Doc relied on my route today, which saved us some grief getting to our receiver, though it was based mostly on our directions on the Zonar.

Day 10

Exhausted again. Left from Hattiesburg MS after a live unload. Drove through very heavy rain down to our yard in Gulfport MS, picked up a TCall loaded trailer at our terminal yard there. drove it out to the Macy's DC in Houston. Tons of road construction on 10 right inside of TX. I was getting really tense at times with the jersey barriers right on the edge of the lane. I would just breathe out , relax my shoulders and grip on the wheel, look far up ahead and calm down. Getting more used to it and to be able to enjoy the drive more without carrying so much stress .

I drove the full route, finally found the truck entrance to Macys with a little help from the guard, again, very nice gal. Got in, dropped the load after a slow but uneventful creative parking job. It was pretty bumpy and involved some off roading, so I predictably slowed down, but its getting better and while I may work against myself by hitting the brakes and being jerky, Im confident I can get it in the hole without hitting anything, so I just kinda chuckle and occassionally pause, then slowly restart. The ability to laugh at myself seems to kind of put things in perspective. I have a tendency to be really hard on myself...Ive been driving a truck for a week. The foundation is there, but experience will come with time.

No empties at the DC, I bobtailed to our Katy TX yard after calling after hours dispatch. Much to our surprise, there was an empty there in great shape, It was on the edge of a hole. Ive been working on slowly bumping the kingpin when coupling, I did it perfect but the back drives were off the ground cause the hole, with the axles locked, it still just spun, so I pulled forward, and carried enough speed backwards to get it locked. Tug tested and coupled. we are parked for the night in the yard. Next run is from Pasadena TX to just outside of SLC Utah. I have a few different route options I want to collaborate with Doc on.

Im not sure of miles drove today and I dont feel like getting off the bunk to check. I used 10 of my 11 hours with about 2 left on my 14 hour. I have a fresh clock and I think we have about 27 hours of driving on the next load. I need to check. Breezing through paperwork most of the time. Feel pretty confident in traffic, and cities (which is a blessing. I dont know why, but they dont see, to bother me too much) Getting better on tight construction zones. Getting better on when im stuck in the right lane on two lane interstates when cars try merging, it seems they are oblivious to the tractor trailer that is right beside them. I try to take the hammer lane if I can or anticipate their ignorance and work around it, but a lot of times, I just have to hold my place, I cant go faster and I cant really slow it up either, its taking me some time to get used to.

I'm still following your great updates.

Getting close now!

Keep the updates going, enjoying them!

I am still in a holding pattern, but that changes tomorrow. I go for an echocardiogram tomorrow - I had a heart attack in 2016. I need that before I go get my DOT physical, so my cardiologist can clear me. My appointment with my cardiologist is next week - then assuming all goes well, which I have no reason to believe it won't, I will go get my DOT physical, then my CDL Permit. I have been in contact with Knight - and I explained some personal circumstances I have, and the recruiter says he is confident they can find something that will work for me that will allow me some more hometime. I admit, Knight is not my first choice, but appeared to be the one who would most be able to work with/for me - so they may be the best choice. So they were the first one I applied with.

I am excited to get started finally. Initially, they couldn't get me in for an echocardiogram until late June. I had to fight for an earlier appointment.