My Life As A Rookie Driver

Jersey City is just brutal. There's nothing good about driving a truck there. All you can do is try not to hit anything and expect the worst.

Even after 15 years of driving I dreaded going there. I'd take Chicago, Atlanta, or St Louis over Jersey City any day.

I left Jetro Cash & Carry, I wanted to turn left, and I had to turn right instead , because of the way I was set up. I was hoping to turn left at the next block up, but couldn't. I eventually ended up on Ocean, which turned into a "truck route." The police blocked off the road for an hour because a "situation" was taking place. My phone GPS said Ocean turned into another street which would take me to the turnpike.

That was a lie. I drove under a 13' 7" bridge. Thank God it was 13' 7". I eventually came to a traffic light, and had to decide between route to turnpike over truck route. Luckily, I made the right decision.

Dave

Scaryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

G MAN

Scaryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

G MAN

Tell me about it. Cars parked on the side of the street. The tractor-trailer hugging the yellow line in hopes that you don't hit a car. Using every lane on a turn in hopes you don't clip a light pole.

It's all good. I forgot to do my Macros on the Qualcomm , but I eventually got caught up.

Dave

You definately sound like your going thru it! My first month was so crazy ( documented in the other forum) I kinda miss those crazy days lol.......NOT! IT does get easier. Im 7 months in now. Damn cant believe its been that long!

10 minutes left on my 70, with a recap of just under nine hours tomorrow. I was lucky. I found three parking spaces next to each other in which to back into at around 4:30 this afternoon. Hopefully, this is a good sign.

Dave

My stepmother thinks I made a mistake by becoming a truck driver. She thinks I should quit before I get fired. I look at it this way. If I was going to get fired, I don't think they would have continued to put me on other loads.

Dave

Have you gotten into any accidents, fines, oos , freight claims, or caused damage to anything besides maybe your truck? If not then nothing to worry about stuff happens. Keep on trucking and drive safely.

My stepmother thinks I made a mistake by becoming a truck driver. She thinks I should quit before I get fired. I look at it this way. If I was going to get fired, I don't think they would have continued to put me on other loads.

Dave

Have you gotten into any accidents, fines, oos , freight claims, or caused damage to anything besides maybe your truck? If not then nothing to worry about stuff happens. Keep on trucking and drive safely.

Not in over a week. It kind of sucks, when you think about the backing "accident," but I tack that up to a learning experience. I learned that sometimes it is better to stop early, and wait until morning to drive through Chicago.

Dave

I think I had my first blowout. I didn't know it until I stopped for fuel. No tread on one of the tires. It is as if the tread separated from the tire. Also no air in the tire.

Dave

It is as if the tread separated from the tire

That's common in the summer if you're running re-tread tires. They basically strip the tread off of old tires and glue a new tread onto the steel belt. That's a simplified version of it, but that's basically what a re-tread or a re-cap tire is. So it's not uncommon in the summer heat for those caps to come off. It can happen any time of the year, but it's more common in summer.

One time I had about 150 miles to go to make a delivery and I stopped in a rest area for a moment. Before I got back in I noticed one of the treads had come off a trailer tire but miraculously it was still holding air. It was nothing but the steel belt on the surface where the tread should be.

Well heck, I wasn't gonna be late for the delivery over one trailer tire so I drove it like that and made the delivery. When I got there, I showed the dock workers the tire and we were all amazed. Not only was it still holding air, but the steel belt had been polished by the road and was shiny as a new nickel!!! None of us had ever seen anything like it. I went to the truck stop a few miles up the road and got it fixed after that. The mechanics at the shop said they've seen that a number of times, but that was a first for me. Looked like I had a solid steel tread with rubber sidewalls.

We hate recaps...seems like when they come off, they either take half your wiring, or your air lines. And thats not even thinking about when they fly out, they may hit a 4 wheeler. In NV, we met a dump truck pulling a trailer, and he thru a cap. We watched it go way up in the air, and were sure it was gonna come thru the windshield....it missed and landed between the lanes....scarey deal, tho. We were pulling a company trailer and I had a cap come off, and get hung up between the rear duels.....a driver hollared at me on the cb...it was about 3am, and I guess I was leaving a smoke screen. We pulled into a truck stop, hooked a chain to the "gator", then to a pole, and drove away,pulling the gator out of the duels...but it could have taken out both of those tires, had I not been told about it. I truly hate recaps.