Profile For David

Google “local trucking company in (city state)” that’s what I’ve done over the years. Indeed.com might yield some results as well.

Everyone mentioned pretty much everything, I'll add in, DON'T FORGET YOUR DOCUMENTS...

*D. Lic, *Medcard (short and long form), *Birth Certificate, *Social Security Card, *Blank check or a deposit slip from bank, *Last 10 yrs of job history (sometimes you'll have to go through your application while in orientation, and it helps to have this history written down already to make going through it easier..), Make sure to have Business Name, Address, Start and end dates (month and year) and Position held. I have a file saved in google called Job History, that gets updated when I end/start a new job

of all the tools Ive taken with me over the years, a nice set of wire strippers, crimps (i like the ones that you heat and it does the soldering and heat shrink all in one) have been the best thing ever, and a role of red and black wire. Doing a simple electrical repair can save you soooo much down time. Most of the loves/speedco shops are first come first serve and if you get in there while they are changing tires and brakes on a truck, it might be a few hours before they see you.. changing a light bulb, or fixing a break in a wire can save you and the company time. time is money on the road. speaking of lights, keep a spare bulb for each light of the truck if you can. sometimes if you hit up the shop at the yard, they'll give you a few to keep on hand, extra wiper blades is good too, and glad hand seals.. if you ever go south south Texas, or way south CA, you'll find trailers missing these little black rubbers all the time, id keep a handful or two on hand.

Definitely don't abandon the truck. It the heat of the moment, it might seem like a good idea especially when it comes to you not getting paid or you're getting the run around, but it can hurt you in the long run. I'd contact an labor attorney, fire off a few applications for a new employer, and document everything you can thats been sent via email, text or through whatever log system is in the truck. You can also record phone calls (as long as you a participant in the call, tho some states due require all party consent. just do a google search of your state and if they allow recording of phone calls)

Welcome back David!!

I have been on this site (2 accounts - one expired) since 2012 also. Agreed, it is a goldmine and without the resources and feedback to prepare mentally for what this job requires I don't think I'd have gotten too far without TT.

Yeah it is, glad to see someone from the dark age's is still around. lol Stay safe out there

11yrs ago today (or well yesterday Aug 11th 2012) I completed cdl training with Swift in Phoenix, AZ. I'm not sure when/where time went, but it doesn't feel like it's been 11yrs. I can still remember being the rookie (still am) on the forums here going through the amazing High Road Training program that Brett put together and honestly, really just wanted to thank you Brett, for what you've done. I don't think Id be where I am today in my career if it wasn't for this site and the amazing resource's. Here's to hoping I can pass the hazmat test in a few weeks after I complete that section of the High Road after all these years :D lol. Anyways, Thanks again, and those of you who are new to trucking or wanna get started, This site is a pile of gold.

David

Cord works great.. Doesnt break near as much as rubber bungees do. I had a good 300ft on the truck at one point, and then switching of companies i left it at home and haven't brought it back out yet.

Howdy folks,

it's been a bit. like 2yrs since my last post or visit ( i took the time and looked =D) quite a bit has happened in those two years. Heck even since starting my driving career back in 2012 when I started, has been quite interesting, but i digress.

roughly 2-1/2 years ago, i started back in to trucking after taking a year off for my mental health. Ended up at Melton Truck Lines as I felt like flatbed would be a good way to go (and it was). In those 2 years I really enjoyed my time there. Drove a 2018 KW T680 and got to experience my first Automatic. Wasn't a bad truck, and traffic wasnt so bad. Much easier then the 10spd manuals ive been use too. Ended up training for the last year I was there. Things kind of went sideways there tho at the start of 2019. Started feeling miles drop, sitting more and more.

About 6 months ago I switched to Kivi Brothers Trucking out of Duluth. Was put in a new 2019 W900L 72" Flat Top with a 13spd. That truck was a beast and drove like a tank. Really enjoyed driving it. Ended up taking a load from Red Bluff, CA to Fairbanks, AK in the old girl. Awesome experince too. CAN and AK are very beautiful and it's really interesting seeing the different cultures. Defenatly wasn't ready for the 20ish hours of sunlight.. Sun just barely set by midnight and then was right back up around 5/6am.... made sleeping interesting, even with a dark cab it just felt weird getting up at 10pm to use the bathroom and having sunlight..

I ended up switching from the KW to a Pete 567 Heritage edition. tons more room for a big guy like me. It's still a very sharp truck.

anyways, thats about all I got. Glad to see this place is still going strong.

P.s heres a few pics from Canada

The solution to this is quite easy..

Get backed in, pull your trailer brakes and then go into 1st gear, let out slowly on clutch until it starts to pull trailer, pull your truck brake and push clutch back in and go to neutral.. hope out and try pulling the pin... if you can't with all your might then GJ.. :)

Here's how I practiced gears......

This shows 2 different 10 speed trans... a standard and a super... for simplicity we will use the one on the left...

You can either toss this up on your screen or print it and pin it to wall.. now get you a plunger (yes bathroom plunger) and plop in next to you in while your in a chair... look at the pic and move the handle of the plunger like it's a gear stick.. this helped me learn 10 speed as I had driving my first 6 months in a 8 speed.

So by this time my wife and I are thinking we are about out of there. Darkness had already fallen and I know that it is I who will be first to drive. We'd been up since about 5:00 in the morning but I was wired at the idea of finally getting to drive and was ready to go. It was then that we find out we'll be waiting 3-4 hours on the paperwork and are told we'd better try and get some sleep.

At about 1:30am we awaken to the truck moving. The trainer had gotten the paperwork and was already headed for the gate. He stopped on the way out so we could all use the bathroom and asked if one of us was ready to drive, to which I quickly volunteered with one request...COFFEE! We checked out and headed to a truck stop down the street for some much needed caffeine and then I took over. Like the truck we took our road test in, this truck has a much tighter shifting pattern than our old Volvo at school but, with a little grinding here and there, I got us out of there and onto the freeway without issue.

With a weight of a little over 66,000 the first thing I noticed was that driving a loaded truck really didn't feel any different from driving the empty truck in school. Within the first hour I was shifting the truck nice and smooth and thoroughly getting a kick out of the whole experience. I got my first experience pulling some hills on I-10 heading for Arizona and quickly got the hang of it. By the hour and a half mark my wife had already gone back to sleep and the trainer was complimenting me on my ability to handle the truck. Needless to say this is nothing like CDL testing! Out here it's your ability to handle the truck safely that counts, not a bunch of nit-picky BS! Shortly thereafter he tells me that, if I'm comfortable, he's gonna grab some shut eye and that all I have to do is say his name and he'll wake up (He wasn't kidding. He jumps up instantly if you so much as say his name or if a message comes across the Qualcomm). He explains the procedures for the weigh station at the Arizona border and proceeds to go to bed. I find myself driving across the desert, thoroughly loving life for another 45 minutes before my wife joins me in the passenger seat. We watch the sunrise while trucking across the desert until finally reaching Phoenix in morning rush hour. By this time I'm thoroughly comfortable with the truck and handled the traffic of Phoenix like a pro, if I do say so myself. I make it to Eloy, Arizona with about 5 minutes left on my clock before my mandatory 30 minute break. As nobody had slept much at this point, my wife was to take over from here.

We get fuel in Eloy and both my wife and I practice a few 45˚ alley docks (we're required to do a certain number throughout our training and they must be at different locations each time). Then my wife takes us out. I stay up for about an hour as the trainer rides shotgun and wait untill I see her driving comfortably, and enjoying herself, before finally deciding to go to sleep. About 20 miles outside of Wilcox, Arizona I awake to my wife saying "What the hell just happened". Like the trainer I instantly wake up the moment something is amiss. The truck had completely died at 65mph and she had to coast to stop along side the freeway. The truck then restarted and we made it another 10 miles before it happened again. We got it started again and made it to the truck stop in Wilcox where our trainer called breakdown.

Needless to say we were told we could not drive the truck and they would be sending another team to get the load. Once the team arrived they'd be sending a tow truck to pick us up and take us to Freightliner in Tucson. As it turned out the other team ran out of hours and didn't make it to us untill 2:00am this morning. The tow truck arrived around 7:00am and, after getting hooked up, we had a nice ride in a pretty sweet Peterbilt back into Tucson. (Did I mention it's about 110˚ outside during all this? Thankfully the truck would idle fine.) So we spent the entire day chilling at Freightliner only to be told that we'd need to get a hotel and they'd get to us in the morning tomorrow.

So here we are. At a hotel and anxious as hell to get back out there. On the bright side we probably missed that storm coming up out of the Gulf but at this point we have no idea what the plan is going to be. Hoping the truck is fixed right away in the morning and we'll get another load from someplace local and continue on towards Tennessee.

Man, this sure brought back memories from when I was training.

Welcome to trucking... enjoy!