Turtle's Latest Diary Post, A Must Read.

Turtle posted this in the diary section. It jumped off the page and I thought everyone could benefit from his wisdom. Great job Turtle!

He wrote as follows:

03/19/2017 1902hrs Cleveland, OH

Yeah I know it's been a little bit since I last posted. I can't say its because I haven't had the time, since I did. Truth is I just got lazy I guess.

I survived my first week solo. The thrill of running my own show was counterbalanced by the fear of... well... running my own show.

One load in particular almost got me screwed up.

I was to pick up four metal coils, totalling 47k pounds. When I got there, the loader operator dude asked me how I wanted them loaded onto my trailer. I answered him as honestly as I could:

"Umm I'm not sure, this is my first time."

As embarrassing as it was to say that, it was the truth, and I sought his advice on what was standard. Now don't get me wrong, during training I did haul steel coils twice. But each time they were just put on our truck and we secured them. I don't recall ever being given the option of loading them suicide, shotgun, or eye to the sky. Didn't occur to me that we would have the option how they are loaded. I was basically just following my trainers lead.

Now it's on me. No room for error. I know how to secure coils, but I just didn't know which way would be best to load them.

So after I showed him my ignorance, he kinda smiled as if this wasn't the first time a newbie showed up to his warehouse. He showed great patience explaining the different ways he could load them, and what most drivers normally do.

In the end I got em loaded and secured like a pro, and learned a valuable lesson: Never be afraid to ask for help. You probably won't be the first to ask. When it comes to securing a load safely, I won't take chances.

After dropping off this load, I was sent home for home time. Spent a few well earned days at home relaxing and setting up my truck. I planned to ship out on Tuesday morning, but that big storm that hit the Northeast had other ideas. Once I figured out I couldn't get out ahead of the storm, I messaged my FM to request a couple extra days to sit it out. He said no problem, good call. It made me feel good to know he agreed with my desire for safety.

The load I'm on now was scheduled to deliver Friday, but delays at the shipper put me just enough behind that I couldn't make it by close of business Friday. Therefore I'm now babysitting this load until Monday. So now I'm just sitting at my 90, waiting till they open up tomorrow morning. I could have sat at our terminal , or a truck stop for the weekend. But by waiting here, I'll get in a 34, and be unloaded and dispatched on a new load before ever starting my clock.

Oh yeah, the best part of being on my own truck now? My wife is with me! We are finally living out our dream together. It's been a long road to get here. But the rewards are oh so sweet. I don't know what the future holds, but at the moment we're loving life. That's worth something.

Peace

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I am going to take every word of that to heart as I head into my career hopefully as a flatbedder! Thank you so much G-Town for sharing!

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I am going to take every word of that to heart as I head into my career hopefully as a flatbedder! Thank you so much G-Town for sharing!

Glad you liked it Victor. Thank Turtle though, I just copied and pasted. He did all the work and should get all the credit.

Aw shucks G, 'twernt nuthin but honesty, but thanks for the recognition

I had to sign in just to add to this. This is a common occurrence among not only flatbed rookies but rookie drivers in general. The 1st time I did a coil I was absolutely terrified. I didn't have the option of how I wanted it loaded, had to be suicide...yippie. I had to do the same thing, ask the loader to help me set up my cradle since I went blank and almost forgot my training lol. Here I am now almost a year in and if I'm not sure I ask someone for help. It's a lot less embarrassing to ask for help than to be 1 mile outside the gate with your load in a ditch or worse. Make it a habit of asking for help. There's no room for egos in this business, especially flatbed.

Ps. I prefer to load mine shotgun because they're easier for me to tarp, multiple coils I'd do suicide because they're easier to set up and secure. And of course you can only load em to the sky when they're on skids. Good stuff Mr Turtle