During the two hours spent awaiting the arrival of the tow truck, I once again questioned whether I was cut out for this. For all I knew, this would mark the end of my brief trucking career. I had, however, learned another hard lesson.
Archive of posts tagged hard lessons learned
Keeping Your Head Screwed On Straight In A Crisis
Posted by Rick Huffman on 24 May 2010, 3:50 am
I learned two things from a recent misadventure: first, that being safe out here requires being careful and being lucky and, second, that I needed to keep my head screwed on straight in a time of crisis. I had made the wrong initial decision, but I had gotten lucky—next time, I might not.
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Career Help, Tips, Advice, First Solo Months On The Road, Great Stories, Stories of the Road.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, driver responsibilities, First Solo Months On The Road, hard lessons learned, life on the road, Stories of the Road, truck driving stories, trucking accident
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Fighting Through The Challenges Of Life On The Road
Posted by Rick Huffman on 11 May 2010, 3:25 am
After loading up some drywall that had to be tarped on a rainy day in a muddy mess of a parking lot I began to question whether or not becoming a truck driving was a mistake.
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, Career Help, Tips, Advice, First Solo Months On The Road, Great Stories, Stories of the Road.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, driver responsibilities, First Solo Months On The Road, hard lessons learned, life on the road, Stories of the Road
2 Comments
Bad Directions, The Wrong Entrance, and A Coon Dog Cemetery
Posted by Rick Huffman on 22 April 2010, 5:10 am
The first delivery of my first full solo week was to Simpsonville, South Carolina. This one, thankfully, went very smoothly; the directions were accurate, it was easy to get to, and they had me unloaded quickly. This trend, however, would prove to be of the one-in-a-row variety and I came across some odd sitings!
Filed under Career Help, Tips, Advice, First Solo Months On The Road, Great Stories, Stories of the Road, truck driving lifestyle.
Tagged being a truck driver, driver responsibilities, First Solo Months On The Road, hard lessons learned, life on the road, Stories of the Road, truck driving lifestyle, truck driving stories
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A Humbling Adventure: My First Delivery Driving Solo
Posted by Rick Huffman on 15 April 2010, 4:48 am
After saying goodbye to my trainer, it was time to set out on my first solo run. And what an adventure it turned out to be!
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Career Help, Tips, Advice, First Solo Months On The Road, Great Stories, Stories of the Road.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, being a truck driver, driver responsibilities, hard lessons learned, Stories of the Road, truck driving lifestyle, truck driving stories
1 Comment
On The Road In Training With Ringo Part 2
Posted by Rick Huffman on 31 March 2010, 2:57 am
The first couple of weeks on the road driving flatbed were hard, because my body was not conditioned to this pace, this type of work, or these long hours. I lost most of the feeling in the tips of my fingers, and I had aches in places where I would have sworn I didn’t have muscles.
Filed under Becoming A Truck Driver, Great Stories, On The Road In Training, Stories of the Road, truck driving lifestyle.
Tagged Becoming A Truck Driver, driver responsibilities, hard lessons learned, life on the road, On The Road In Training, Stories of the Road, truck driver training, truck driving lifestyle, truck driving stories
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Truck Driving School Part IV – Taking The CDL Exam
Posted by Rick Huffman on 25 March 2010, 7:42 am
Finally, the time to take the road test arrived. We would go, in small groups, to the testing facility in Hartselle, Alabama over the next five days. I would test on the second day, and Alan would test on the fourth. Everyone was nervous, and most of us failed the first attempt.
My First Year as a Truck Driver
Posted by TruckerMike on 17 March 2010, 6:30 am
Wow, it’s hard to believe, but I’ve been at my current employer for 1 year as of today. I began Truck Driving School in January of 2009, completed that in February of 2009, and was hired on in March of 2009. This post will simply serve as some observations that I’ve made as my first year of a truck driver.
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Career Help, Tips, Advice, Current State of the Trucking Industry, truck driving lifestyle.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, being a truck driver, dealing with the boss, driver responsibilities, First year on the road, hard lessons learned, life on the road, Stories of the Road, truck driving lifestyle, truck driving stories
2 Comments
Not Much Help For The Drivers
Posted by Steve Rubens on 7 March 2010, 7:41 am
The Qualcomm system at most companies have directions to customers listed, but a lot of the time the directions are wrong. Unfortunately, even when dispatchers and customers know the directions are wrong nobody seems to care enough to do anything about it. Here’s an example of the mess it can cause.
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Cathy and Steve's Story, Great Stories, Stories of the Road.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, Bad directions, Cathy and Steve's Story, dealing with the boss, driver responsibilities, hard lessons learned, life on the road, Qualcomm directions, truck driving lifestyle
4 Comments
Which CDL Endorsements Should I Get?
Posted by Brett Aquila on 17 February 2010, 8:42 am
When you attend truck driving school, even a company sponsored CDL school, you’ll have to decide which endorsements to get when taking your CDL test. We’ll talk about which CDL endorsements are available, how you get these endorsements, what it takes to keep them, and why they are important.
Inside Trucking Part 3: Life On The Road
Posted by Rhonda on 20 January 2010, 3:00 pm
With all the fuel that drivers purchase, it’s wise to get the driver payback cards from the truck stops that offer them. Its free, and it’s a way of saying thank you to the professional driver. For each gallon of fuel purchased, you get 1 cent/point put on the card. You can use these points [...]
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Career Help, Tips, Advice, Great Stories, Stories of the Road, Women In Trucking, truck driving lifestyle.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, driver responsibilities, hard lessons learned, life on the road, Stories of the Road, truck driving lifestyle, truck driving stories, Women In Trucking
3 Comments
Truck Driving in Winter Weather
Posted by TruckerMike on 19 January 2010, 5:51 am
Before I became a truck driver, there was nothing better than a good snow storm in the winter. Sliding around in my 4-wheeler, sledding, snowball fights, snowmen, hearing the scrape of the snowplow as is passes by, and the beautiful sight it leaves. That was then, and this is now!
Randy’s Phase 1 CDL Training – Part 9 – He’s Done!
Posted by rbradyjohnsen on 6 January 2010, 9:01 am
I talked to Randy sooo much today. We discussed EVERYTHING about trucking, the school, our experience so far, every aspect of our future, and how we’ve both been sort of “cracking under the pressure” lately.
Randy’s Phase 1 Training – Part 8
Posted by rbradyjohnsen on 23 December 2009, 12:56 pm
I keep reading that the 2 most important factors for a successful marriage, especially in OTR trucking, are trust and communication…this week, we had neither one. I suppose the added stress of all this didn’t help, and we both had a major thinking/behavior relapse. This career truly does test a relationship, and any weakness that existed before WILL be magnified 1000 times.
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, Career Help, Tips, Advice, On The Road In Training, Rhonda & Randy's Story.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, getting your CDL, hard lessons learned, life on the road, On The Road In Training, Rhonda & Randy's Story, Stories of the Road, truck driver training
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Randy’s Phase 1 CDL Training – Part 3
Posted by rbradyjohnsen on 30 November 2009, 7:04 am
It’s been a few days for Randy on the road now and I think he’s getting a bit wacky 
He’s struggling with some things but doing quite well overall. Being apart this long is not getting any easier for us.
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, First Solo Months On The Road, On The Road In Training, Rhonda & Randy's Story.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, CDL training, getting your CDL, hard lessons learned, life on the road, On The Road In Training, Rhonda & Randy's Story, truck driver training
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