Another Little Update After Two More Weeks Out As Solo

Hey Again Everybody!

Just ended my third week under the guidance of my "developmental fleet manager" and must say that I am feeling more relaxed and confident. Again, as with my first week, I didn't hit anything and nobody got hurt, so it's all good. The mileage held up ok during the second week with 2100, but fell off a cliff this week at only a tad less than 1300 (basically, in a four day work week). During the 2nd week, I ran from San Antonio to Okla. City to Tulsa to St. Louis all the way back to Houston. This week was all in Texas between Dallas, Houston, Tyler and San Antonio. Also, this week about everything was live load and unload which killed my 14 hour clock. I think my actual driving time averaged only about 6 hours a day this week. Oh well, I "ain't" complaining 'cause this is still training time for the next two or three weeks.

As to experiences, nothing to report that's unusual or entertaining. At one humongous Distribution Center, my assigned slot to drop the loaded trailer had to be in the busiest part of the whole center. My first attempt to back in almost succeeded, but still needed another pull up and the space in front of me was really tight. I got out to look at the situation and noticed that I was holding up two trucks and a yardman on one side and two yardmen on the other side. One of the yardmen asked me if I wanted him to do park the trailer. I told him that unless he did help, it was going to tie up everybody for several more minutes. He said, no problem man, just pull it on down the line a ways and I will come pick it up. That broke the logjam. I put my trailer on its landing gear. He picked it up with his little special tractor and backed it into the slot in about 30 seconds. I thanked him and shook his hand. He said, glad to help out; we all had to learn it too and it takes time.

Otherwise, I have done all of my own backing and managed to get it done fairly promptly. One good thing about the waiting during live loading/unloading is the chance to watch other drivers come and go and see their backing techniques. At one place in San Antonio, the favored approach was to drive along the row of trucks/trailers on the blind side and, at the right moment, swing a hard left, that turned the trailer tandems on a dime, then straighten out the rig and straight line back right into the slot without even a pull-up. I'll admit to being a bit "goggle-eyed" as I watched those little shows!

I am not yet doing any "online" stuff when out during the week and last week on my days off, I was just too busy with catch up stuff at home and did not even turn on my computer. As already mentioned, this was a short work week and I won't be out again until Monday AM, so I have a little extra time and wanted to reconnect with the trucking truth community. Thanks again to Brett for making the site so valuable and friendly!