Some Experiences And Questions After My First Month Solo

Wow, time really flies out here. Tomorrow will mark my first month solo. That flew by. Every day the time vanishing from my clocks flies by. I haven't even logged on here in a few days so I'm catching up, and have even more respect for the regular contributors because there doesn't seem to be enough time in the day!

I'll start with the bad. Nothing major, haven't hit anything, haven't been late except weather and breakdown delays. In Minneapolis I backed under a trailer in a snowy/icy lot before realizing it needed to be repaired before moving. Unfortunately I got stuck still attached, and after utilizing road salt, a shovel, some wood blocks, and an hour of time I was able to unstuck myself. Lesson learned: get out and look at any trailer I'm going to grab before backing under it.

That said, it leads to my other bad experience, which was just today. I forgot to put the air back in after dropping a trailer, moved a few spaces down to the one I was grabbing, and while looking at everything else, I misjudged the heights and high-hooked it. I thought, oh boy that trailer looks too close to my tractor in the mirrors. I did this in the same exact lot where my trainer high-hooked it and afterwards said, "Well at least you know what to do in this situation now." I couldn't put my wood board on the plate though because the plate and trailer were flush. So with a phone call to my trainer he talked me through it, and I'll be updating my notes of how to handle it in the future.

I started out getting smaller runs, but the last week and a half some have been longer. My company doesn't do the whole lower 48 but I'm hoping to get to other places I haven't seen yet, and have more than a couple just-drive days. Overall I've been centered around the Midwest, with same day or next day appointments.

And now some questions. Some things I'm understanding more as I do it more, but some I could really use guidance on.

Scaling and sliding tandems: How much of a weight difference is too much between the drives and tandems? Sometimes when trying to get the weights closer I misjudge how far to move them, and I've turned legal into overweight so I have to readjust and rescale. I'd been deciding on a number like go back 2 or 3 feet then using the lug nut trick for knowing how many feet I moved that I learned in the school to know how far I backed but I'm not having success with that method. So I am going to start counting the tandem hole placement to see how much movement there was and add or subtract the 250 or 400 lbs to see if that helps me. I feel like each time I scale and need to move it, I end of readjusting twice and scaling three times and still uncertain if the weight balance is acceptible, I just know it's legal.

Knowing about weather and traffic issues beforehand: I don't have my GPS connected to my phone because if it is, that's where calls will go through and I can't hear the call. But it would need to be connected to get those updates. I'm not tech-savvy and tried in the settings to make it not do that, but haven't found the right way yet. I listen to the CB for related chatter, and as I was sitting in traffic around Gary, IN, a driver mentioned a pileup in Wisconsin (not the 50 car one on 90, this was supposedly a 20 car one on 94 at the IL/WI border). I thought no way that would affect me by the time I went through there, but sure enough I was sitting in that mess with all lanes closed. My 14 was going to expire so I called Safety to see if I should PC or violate and he said violate and notate, so that's what I was going to do, but it opened up just in time for me to park at the scale house with one minute left. Knowing how to avoid those situations would be extremely helpful.

You're on the highway, another truck will be merging on, but you can't change lanes: I was told to maintain my speed and it's up to the merging truck to adjust, but I'm struggling with that. It feels like we're both going to end up in the same space and I had been backing off but that would hinder both of us to too-slow speeds. I'm working on my mentality to say just maintain like you were told, it's just hard to get through my mind during the moment.

This is already long and I can't think of other issues I wanted to ask about at the monent, so I'll just say sometimes this is really stressful, really go-go-go. There's bad times and there's times it feels like heaven. Despite any negatives, I'm loving it, and soooo glad I made the career switch. Looking forward to the countless experiences and lessons to learn coming my way.

I just recently posted a thread on weight distribution and sliding tandems and got some great advice.

I try to get my axle weights fairly even. The advice I got was to keep a little more weight on the tractor axles than the trailer tandems. Somebody can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think having more weight on the drive axles is especially important in winter driving conditions for traction and braking.

I carry some sidewalk chalk with me so I can mark the hole I want to slide to before I actually do the slide. I figure 500 pounds per hole with our trailers and that is usually pretty accurate. Remember that when you slide you are shifting weight off one set of axles and adding weight to the other set of axles. So when you figure your weight differential, divide it in half and then divide that number by 400 or 500 pounds to get the number of holes you want to slide.

The most fiddling around I’ve had to do is two re-weighs. After some experience, you will normally get adjusted properly the first time and only have to do one reweigh. But even if I had to do three re-weighs, the time, effort and scale fee is much cheaper that an overweight citation.

Merging traffic can be problematic and calls for careful judgement. Just because you have the right of way, doesn’t mean the other driver will yield. I’d much rather slow down to let another vehicle merge safely than to risk a collision.

Sounds like your experience so far has been great. Keep up the good work.

Depending on your gps, I have a garmin, and android. Set the configuration on the phone to allow audio but not calls. I run my phone audio through the radio but calls disabled and the reverse on my headset, so it only does calls. To recap: headset, calls and contacts. Truck radio audio and contacts, no calls. GPS is contacts only, no calls no audio.

As far as trucks merging, I've learned to look way ahead and allow a huge space in front of me. Anticipate high volume of traffic on some ramps like around Truck stops, rest areas, dcs. Yes, traffic in the road way has the right of way, but sometimes it's a convoluted mess. If you can see what's on the ramp long before you get to the ramp, it will help. As you get more experienced, your field of view and peripheral vision will expand. Practicing looking way ahead and checking side areas early will help.

Scaling and sliding tandems: How much of a weight difference is too much between the drives and tandems?

I would say get them within 3,000 pounds or so. In other words:

Steer: 12,000
Tractor: 33,000
Trailer: 30,000

That's totally fine. Even more of a difference is fine. You may have heard us mention that balancing the weight between drives and tandems is safer, especially on slick roads. The main reason you want them balanced is for traction. If there's an imbalance, you want more weight on the drives than the tandems.

I wasn't overly concerned about how much the balance was off. I was more concerned about one set of tandems being very close to the limit. So if you had:

Steer: 12,000
Tractor: 33,800
Trailer: 30,000

...I would balance that out better just to get those drives away from the legal limit.

Don't obsess over getting the weights balanced. You're fine if you're within 3,000 pounds, which is very conservative. You could go much further than that and likely never have an issue.

You're on the highway, another truck will be merging on, but you can't change lanes: I was told to maintain my speed and it's up to the merging truck to adjust, but I'm struggling with that

Every situation is unique, and looking as far ahead as possible is the key. The more time you have to adjust to changing circumstances, the better, and that comes from looking way ahead.

I always had a rule: When in doubt, keep doing what you're doing. I'll explain.

When you think about it, multi-vehicle accidents are almost always a result of someone doing something that someone else didn't expect. Example: Car #1 runs a red light and collides with car #2. Running the red light wasn't the problem. The problem is that car #2 didn't know car #1 was going to do that. If car #2 had known, they would have stopped and let car #1 go through the red light. Accident avoided.

So based on that idea, when I was in a tense situation with multiple vehicles and there was no clear action that I should take, I would keep doing what I was doing. If a truck was merging and I was in the righthand lane with vehicles all around me, I would most likely just maintain my lane and my speed. That makes my movement predictable and allows the surrounding vehicles to adjust to what I'm doing.

You'd like to get over and make room for the truck, but you won't always be able to do that. In those circumstances, maintain your speed and your lane. You will be predictable, and others can adjust to your actions.

All that was the excellent advice I knew I'd receive. That really makes me feel better about the weights too. I was probably thinking there's some magic formula or balance I wasn't in the know on. Thanks guys!

I thought of some more questions too.

For trip planning, say you're heading east and changing time zones. Do you try to shut down an hour earlier to be able to find a spot? I don't like leaving too much time on my clocks but I also hate the stress of wondering if a spot will be available before they expire. I keep notes of where I stay so I can reference it when in that area again, like if I was able to find a spot later in the day or if it was packed, and of lesser known places, like small truck stops, company drop lots, etc. If you use TruckerPath while trip planning, wouldn't that info be old by the time you got to your destination?

On a 34, do you just stay in Off Duty or Sleeper or switch back and forth? I know log what you do and do what you log, but sometimes even on a 10 I forget to switch to Sleeper.

I understand dressing professionally at customers, but if I'm going to be driving for a long while I put comfy pants or shorts on. Thoughts on switching back to regular clothes while running into a truck stop or rest area, or stay as is?

Thanks, and sorry for the long posts, I've been pondering this stuff for awhile but didn't have a chance to get on here.

Sandman asks

If you use TruckerPath while trip planning, wouldn't that info be old by the time you got to your destination?

Trucker path, even in the free version, has a trend option where it tells you when spots are available at different times a day. Plus, if you're deciding to stop at a rest area that's before the truck stop you can stop at the rest area go off duty then check Trucker Path to see if the truck stops further down the road have available spots.

All that was the excellent advice I knew I'd receive. That really makes me feel better about the weights too. I was probably thinking there's some magic formula or balance I wasn't in the know on. Thanks guys!

I thought of some more questions too.

For trip planning, say you're heading east and changing time zones. Do you try to shut down an hour earlier to be able to find a spot? I don't like leaving too much time on my clocks but I also hate the stress of wondering if a spot will be available before they expire. I keep notes of where I stay so I can reference it when in that area again, like if I was able to find a spot later in the day or if it was packed, and of lesser known places, like small truck stops, company drop lots, etc. If you use TruckerPath while trip planning, wouldn't that info be old by the time you got to your destination?

On a 34, do you just stay in Off Duty or Sleeper or switch back and forth? I know log what you do and do what you log, but sometimes even on a 10 I forget to switch to Sleeper.

I understand dressing professionally at customers, but if I'm going to be driving for a long while I put comfy pants or shorts on. Thoughts on switching back to regular clothes while running into a truck stop or rest area, or stay as is?

Thanks, and sorry for the long posts, I've been pondering this stuff for awhile but didn't have a chance to get on here.

On the trip planning, I frequently drive where I am having to find a spot when the time is well past anything being available at the typical locations. There is always a place to park available somewhere. Trucker Path will show you locations that are not common spots for parking. Get used to using those, as needed. Fit in taking a shower when you fuel, keep food on your truck, and this way when looking for that parking spot, your only concern is that the spot is safe and legal.

Just offering a couple examples:

On I-80 in Brookville, PA (exit 78), there is a Flying J, TA, and a Love's. All three of those have filled up before I got there in the past. Right down the street is a Chinese Restaurant with truck parking. I have yet to arrive at that location with it being full.

Also on I-80 near Loganton, PA (exit 192), there is a Georgian/Russian restaurant with a huge lot that allows truck parking. It's never full. Across the street is a fueling station with a small number of spots for parking.

All over the US there are spots like that where we can park. The tough part is when you are in a major city after 19:00 and need a place to park. It really becomes a crap shoot. As for the time and picking a place to park when trip planning. This kund of becomes something that you learn with experience. In some areas, some truck stops never seem to fill up. Some locations have certain days that are busy and others where parking is readily available all the time. Some places are full from local drivers no matter what time of day. For now, assume that a chain truck stop is going to be full, so look for an alternative place to park nearby. You can try the chain truck stop when you get there and if there is a spot available, win. If it's full, you already have that alternative spotted. Give yourself an hour left on your clock when you start looking for that place to park. That way, if you run into a situation where every place you are trying in an area is full, you can use PC to drive to another area without giving the perception that you were trying to extend your clock.

Another tip to trip planning, until you become familiar with those lesser known places to park, look for exits along your route that have several places to park. By doing this, you increase the odds of finding a spot in that general area. Kind find a place among those several places? That's when you can figure out where the next closest area for parking is. This is when the Trucker Path reporting from other drivers comes in handy. If I have two possible areas that are about the same distance and one is showing everything is full, while the other is showing spots available, I am going to the one where drivers are showing spots available. Determine your route to get there, then log PC. You are now off-duty because your only purpose, at that point, is looking for a place to park legally.

I understand dressing professionally at customers, but if I'm going to be driving for a long while I put comfy pants or shorts on. Thoughts on switching back to regular clothes while running into a truck stop or rest area, or stay as is?

Thanks, and sorry for the long posts, I've been pondering this stuff for awhile but didn't have a chance to get on here.

The most important aspects to your clothing when arriving at a customer:

Close-toed shoes.

Clothes fit and worn properly.

Clothes are clean.

No profanity nor controversial slogans/symbols on clothing.

Beyond those things, I wear clothes that are comfortable to wear all day.

My strategy is to “layer”. In warm weather I wear the basketball type shorts. When it gets colder, I have a snug pair of company logo sweat pants to wear over the shorts. If it really gets cold, I have a larger, baggier pair of sweat pants to wear over the first pair. I go from warm areas to cold areas frequently during winter months, so this lets me add and subtract layers as needed. I haven’t worn a pair of trousers that require a belt for quite some time. Elastic waist gear is much more comfortable to wear while in the driver’s seat.

I like my company logo clothing. I think it adds a professional touch and is designed for a truck driver.

As far as the GPS data question - you don't mention what brand GPS or what phone monopoly you use (Android or Apple) so I can't give specific steps to fix your issue. I have a second phone line just for data on my truck. Mine powers the wifi on my truck which links to my GPS but you can get a line on the Verizon network with unlimited data through Visible.com for $15/mo. for your first year ($30/mo. afterwards) just for your GPS. A second phone line is worth it for the updated functionality for weather/accidents/construction imo. I use the weather radar A LOT this time of year. Shows rain and snow on my route and which direction the clouds are going. Very nice for making routing or shutdown decisions.

Trip planning isn't a one and done. You need to be aware of weather, construction, accidents and sadly, political protests that may affect your progress as you go. I like to take my break close to the 8 hour mark and evaluate my progress and look for any known hazards before taking off for my last 3 hours or so. I have it easier now since I run dedicated so the options don't change, just the variables. I like to shut down close to 11 hours but may shut down earlier depending on the time of day and the location (some parts of the country fill up faster than others). If you know you're going to be shutting down in an unfamiliar part of the country after dark you can always PAY for parking in advance just to know you won't be roaming the earth looking for a safe, legal place to park your truck.