Profile For TwoSides

Yea OS, I'm still surprised we haven't ran into each other yet. It would be a pleasure to meet a legend. I keep an eye out for you and Davy also, just not sure if Davy runs the East coast and Midwest. And Slick is my guy over there at Cressona lol, always an interesting conversation with him.

And I'm still with Knight because I don't want to rage quit lol. I understand trucking is frustrating at times and every company has its own set of problems. You know what I'm going through over there at Carlisle so you understand. I try to be understanding of the job the office folks have but it's really frustrating dealing with them.

Banks what's up man! Bad days starting out is an understatement lol. It was rough but it could have been worse. Things have calmed down since then and yes I have become more familiar with what it takes to be a professional truck driver. Learning and adapting everyday is a must.

I will also try to stay in touch more often. Stay safe out there drivers. Keep the rubber on the road!!

Howdy Old School!!! Turtle what's up man!! Yea it has been quite some time since I last posted. I really appreciated all the help from this site and I still use what you guys taught me out here on the road. I'm staying safe with no accidents or incidents.

Okay, so an update on my situation lol. I'm still with Knight and yes still skateboarding. A lot has happened and I don't know where to start.... Of course there have been many stressful days, times I wanted to quit on the spot. Seems like its been more bad days than good but I'm pushing through it. The only thing keeping me in good spirits are the friendships I have made at Knight with the other drivers.

Had my job threatened from my TM over "route suggestions" which are actually mandatory according to the TM, that meeting did not go well. A lot of back and forth with my DM, I can admit that sometimes I need to just stay quiet and not respond back to him. And im also taking into account that he has a stressful task with dealing with drivers and other things but his incompetence cannot be ignored any longer.

Waiting 2 or more hours for a backhaul after every single run. Problems at the Hydro plant in Cressona, "I do not Iike that place" problems with equipment, freight, 4 wheelers, dumb drivers on the road and my settlements. Yes!, my checks are still continually missing tarp pay, detention pay, layover and reimbursements to this day. But hey, that's trucking right?

Okay I know I'm whining but I had to get that off my chest lol. I did get my triple/doubles and tanker endorsements, studying for the hazmat now and should receive my twic card my next home time. Thinking about trying out tankers but I love flatbed, just hate the summer time and tarping most days lol.

All in all I'm good though and I can't thank this site enough from what I have learned.

Hey drivers, its been a while since i was on this site. Just came on to say hello. Hope everyone is safe, well, getting good miles and enjoying life! Keep the shiny side up!!

Great to read that you have stuck with it in flatbed for an entire year. That's a major accomplishment! Sean still your DM?

How did th hose two tires problem happen?

Thanks Pack. Yes Shawn is my DM. I remember when I first started and drivers were telling me bad things about him. I ignored them because I thought they were disgruntled drivers but now I see the truth.

I have no idea how the tires blew. Maybe I ran something over in the street?? I was on US-30 in Indiana carrying 40k. I heard two consecutive pops. The second being louder than the first

I have been driving for a year now and what is funny to me is that everytime I hop in my car to go home I still think its the truck. I have noticed on many occasions that I keep a healthy following distance. Something I have never done before. I also stay in the right lane on the turnpike and I reach for the jake break that isn't there when I slow down. All I end up doing is turning on my wipers which makes me laugh.

Well, it is now time to put this thread to rest. Thank you all for following my journey and for the support. I appreciate all of the advice I was given throughout the year. This site has been a major help to me. Again, thank you all!!!!

Ah, almost forgot about backing.... My backing has greatly improved. In the beginning I couldn't get in between two trucks and now I can't park straight unless I am parking between two trucks.... go figure....

Happy New Years everyone. Stay safe out there. Shiny side up!

Well the first year is now completed. It went by faster than I thought. A little late with the post because I was sick last week. Not sure if it was Covid because I never got tested but I felt horrible. Feeling much better now, just have a runny nose.

The end of the year didn't end in a good way. I got into a argument with my DM before the New Year because he gave me a backhaul on my scheduled hometime. I put in hometime for Dec. 29th, 2 weeks prior to that date. I was in Illinois on the 28th and when I completed my run he gave me a load assignment for a pick up on the 29th in WV. I refused to get it. The entire time of working here he always gave me a backhaul on the day I requested to be home. I never complained about it. I just did the backhaul and went home the following day. But since this was the holiday, I had plans with family and I told him no. I told him he never respects my hometime requests and his response was "because I never give a specific time I wanted to be home" He also said I only stay out for 2 weeks and my production is low. I lost my cool after he said that. The truth is, I stay out for 4-5 weeks. I was able to pass 100k miles before my year anniversary, I average 10k miles a month and I netted a little over 80k. I don't think those numbers are possible only staying out 2 weeks at a time, doing flatbed... I refused the load and he threatened to remove me from the flatbed division and said I wouldn't get paid if I came back empty. At the time it was fine with me because I will always pick family over this job. His threats were obviously bull**** because I got paid those empty miles and I'm still on the flatbed division. My DM is a condescending, arrogant, selfish A-hole. I can no longer work with him. This week I will be actively putting in applications to other companies. My time here is quickly coming to an end.

But on a brighter note.... This year was very interesting. I have learned a lot and there is still much more to learn. There have been good days and of course not so good days. There have been days I felt proud of what I was doing and days where I wanted to quit. But overall this experience has been good. Flatbed is a different kind of animal. I'm always dirty, my truck has to be cleaned everyday and the weather can make working unbearable. The rain and snow make the tarps 10 times heavier. The cold freezes the tarps and they are hard to fold. The wind will disrespect the progress you made when folding the tarps and the summer heat makes it feel like hell on earth. Can't ask for anything better haha.

I should have posted pictures while posting but I will do it now.

Big thanks to Chief Brody and others for introducing me to the fold technique. I can say with confidence that this is the one thing I have mastered...

Now onto my tarps. They are hit and miss some days but I have gotten a lot better as time went on. The taller loads still give me some problems with air pockets though.

This happened a few weeks ago. Scared the crap out of me

Sometimes I think if we aren't hearing from TwoSides11 then he's doing fine. I hope that's the case.

I appreciate the concern. All in all I am well. Of course I have those frustrating days but I try to push through. Happy New Years to you all

I have not been keeping up with this on a regular basis. Didn't realize a month went by since my last post. Time is definitely flying by out here. I'm staying busy and running hard. Possibly running too hard because I feel drained at the end of the day. I am running my 11 all the way down between 21 minutes and an hour each day. My days consist of loading, driving, eating, showering, sleeping and repeating. I'm so tired at the end of the day that I crash hard. Maybe I should change that routine.

But all is well for me out here. To date I have 102,405 miles for the year. I didn't think I would reach 100k before Dec 28th. It's a good feeling knowing I accomplished that. The last time I posted my smart drive score was through the roof and I have it at 2 right now. Feels good getting the safety bonus again haha. Right now I'm in VA finishing up a 5 stop run. I delivered to 3 stops today and have 2 more in Atkins tomorrow. This is on a Conestoga so it's not bad but to be honest I wouldn't mind if it was on a flatbed. The extra tarp pay would have looked nice on my settlement haha.

Not sure what else to add here as to not be repetitive. The days are all the same. I get loaded, drive, get unloaded, do a backhaul, if any then repeat the next day... Ah, I did go to a new place. Last week I went to Minnesota for the first time. That is the farthest West I have been. Did a back to back delivery to the same place in Blaine. Yesterday my DM called because he thought I got back to Cressona too fast. I had a 6 am appointment on Monday and was finished by 7am. I received an empty load assignment back to Cressona and arrived the next day, Tuesday around 1:30pm. When I put my empty call in he called and interrogated me haha. I was expecting a good job or something but no, he didn't believe I did that trip legally. I guess the only illegal thing I did was not go on duty while getting unloaded. I parked there the night before and didn't start my clock until I received my next assignment. Yes, I am aware thats a no no and I have to be on duty while working.

My first year is quickly approaching. In a few more days I will have completed my first full year solo. Its been fun, it has definitely been frustrating and its been interesting. Hopefully I will be on time for my last post for this thread in 6 days haha. Hope you all enjoy the holiday and stay safe out there on the road

Still out here making runs and going hard. It's a few days away from the official 11 month mark for me and I have learned a lot throughout these months. I still have much to learn but I'm feeling more comfortable in certain situations than my first months starting. I have 10,083 more miles to go for 100k. I want to reach 100k before my first year is up but with the holidays coming I don't think that will happen. Hopefully I will get there by the second week of January.

I have been going to new places the past couple weeks. My DM is mixing up runs to the South in GA, KY, and SC. I usually do runs in OH to WI. It's a nice change of scenery from the North Central Region and warmer this time of year. But driving in the Southern states has shot up my smart drive score smh. Atlanta, to put it nicely is a freaking mess! My drive score is at 55 right now down from 82. I didnt receive a safety bonus last month and it will be the same for this month, which sucks.... The DDM called me in the office to review some videos and I disagree with all of them. All of my violations are from 4 wheelers and truckers cutting me off and not resetting my following distance fast enough. It's clear as day in those videos that I am braking and slowing down but apparently not fast enough for their liking. Of course I expressed my opinion on the matter and asked how can I fix that. The only way I see is to slam on the brakes which is something I will not do. I try to predict what the other driver will do when they pass me but I'm not psychic... Drivers cut me off, I slow down, reestablish my following distance and keep trucking... I don't know what else to do....

Had a little hiccup last week. I got too ****y and missed the closing time of one of my stops. This happened on Thursday last week. I had a two stop run in Alliance, OH and in Salem. Alliance is where I had my first incident and got the steers stuck in a ditch leaving. Now that the ditch wasn't covered in 5 ft of snow I was able to see how deep it really was. All I can say is wow... But I got loaded Wed. evening for the open deliveries on Thursday. It was only 300 and something miles so I decided not to drive that night and wait until the morning. That was my first mistake. I had time on my clock so instead of relaxing, I should have driven. The second mistake was hitting the snooze button the next morning. The plan was to leave at 4 am but that snooze button is the devil. Ended up leaving around 7 am instead of 4. Then I got to the first stop and they took damn near 3 hours to unload me... My last stop closes at 3:30 and is only 30 min away but by the time I left my first stop it was 3:20... Obviously didn't make it to the last stop that day but the worse part of it all is they only receive M-TH.... I had to sit for 3 days in Ohio because of my screw up. Very very disappointed at how that turned out. I messed up my earnings for that week and the following week and I haaate sitting...

When I finally finished that run I came back to the terminal Monday because my Zonar was acting up and I needed it fixed. While I was there they decided to do a B service on my truck. Now that day was shot, it took them all day to complete that. When i finally got my truck back, my DM gave me a run going to Rochester, NY that was due Wed. I dont understand why he gave me that on a Monday but whatever. I stayed at the terminal that night and left to Cressona Tuesday afternoon-ish. Arrived at Cressona only to find out it wasn't ready. It was done getting loaded Wed around 4am so that's when I picked it up and started the drive. That was probably the easiest run I have done other than the Ohio runs and the scenery was beautiful, a lot of hills but beautiful. I took US-15, 99, 86 and 390 up.... I was able to complete that and return to Cressona the same day for my next load going to Richmond VA for a Friday appointment at 9 am. Got to Cressona late afternoon, early evening only to find out the load wouldn't be ready until Thursday between 9-11 am. It's going on 1pm and the load still isn't ready....

Now I'm annoyed. I'm annoyed that I have to wait everytime I come to Cressona and also this is the 3rd run in a row under 400 miles. Now I don't know if this is a punishment for my mistake last Thursday or if it's in my head. He knows the type of driver I am and to give me runs under 400 miles with a day in-between is not cool. I get assigned a 300 mile run on a Wednesday for a Friday delivery. That is not cool at all. There are runs in there going to Missouri, Indiana, Oklahoma, Illinois but he gives me these BS runs.... I been out here for 4 weeks now so I tell him after this Richmond run I'm going home. Maybe after I rest up and reset things will get better the following week...

Oh Old School if your reading this, hello to you to good sir haha. Tim gave me your message. I saw him today while I'm sitting here waiting at Cressona...

Now Friday and I'm on my way back to Cressona for my next load going to Northwood, OH and Montpellier that is due Monday. Earlier today I delivered those 3 missing pieces back to GA when I was done in Orlando. Everything has calmed down now haha and I had no issues dropping them off or the ride back up. I made it to Virginia on 81n exit 80 at this flying j. I will leave very early from here and plan to arrive in Cressona at 1pm at the latest. I want to get loaded and have some time to relax before driving again. I'm only going to Ohio so I will probably start driving Sunday morning.

The weather has drastically changed haha. It was 90 degrees in FL and I come back to 65 degree weather. The Florida heat was brutal having to untarp and retarp 5 stops. I remember saying in an earlier post that I would rather untarp and retarp a 5 stop run than deal with the Conestoga trailers Knight has..... well that was a lie haha. After actually doing it, I can say that I would rather struggle opening those Conestogas than going through the tarping at 5 stops haha. Be careful what you wish for... it might come true hahaha.