Comments By DeJuan J.

I applied for a company before starting my current company has been calling me lately but I haven't had a chance to let them know I went else where. However my manager called me while I was on the road yesterday and asked me if I planned on leaving to go with that company? He said he saw my name come up on something but it was strange because I hadn't talked with them. My question is if I some day decide to leave my company will know before I get a chance to put in a notice it seems like? Isn't that kind of personal?

Well on the bright side, at least you were home for the holiday. I started Prime July 8th and was very forth coming about being home thanksgiving because my daughter was coming from collage. It was the first thing I talked to my FM about when I met him. Well I was in Florida (my home state) 5 days before the holiday and they dispatched me to Cincinnati. I knew it was gonna be tight getting there and back but was assured there was a load on the backside getting me back on Wednesday. Guess what? My return delivery to Florida delivered on thanksgiving day at 15:00. By the time I got home it was 22:00. So much for caring about me being home like I asked about months in advance...... it's gonna happen out here. Get comfortable with it. It's company first, driver....somewhere farther down the list.

Ah man I would've hated that!!

Trucktographer got caught up in Labor Day scheduling and it caused about a week delay in him starting with his trainer after orientation. One day delay getting into the cycle can cause problems. The holidays are one reason I'm waiting to start Swift academy until after New Years.

You have a valid point David.

After four weeks over the road with a trainer who had an automatic truck I was told by my manager that he wanted me to spend an extra week at my home terminal running local routes in a manual truck with a trainer before I went on my own. Well last week I was at home because of the holidays and no trainers available, well tomorrow I'm suppose to go out with my trainer but my manager forgot to set it up last week and now he's on vacation and the guy next in charge has no idea what to do with me so now I have to wait at home a whole extra week to just to go with a trainer for another week. This is so unorganized and frustrating. The over my home terminal said the company should've never ever allowed me to go out with a trainer who had an automatic for four weeks. Samething I said but everyone else thought I was a dumb newbie for saying it. Smh

Congrats!

Congrats!!!

Dejuan, you are so right about that - I literally used to have to get up and leave because I'd want to call em out for lying so crazily. Now, I just smile and realize this is just part of the crazy truck driver culture. I don't have to be like most drivers, and I guess it's too obvious that I'm not - I was at the "Spaceway" truck stop in Mississippi last week eating in their restaurant and the waitress asked me what my name was. I told her, but thought it a little odd that she would be asking me my name. Then she says "you live around here don't you? I recognize you from eating in here before." When I told her no, but I have been in here several times - I'm a driver. She was shocked - she must have said "I never would have taken you for a driver" at least four times in the next five minutes of our conversation.

I get a kick out of some of the tall tales that get told in those T.V. lounges and at the counters in the truck stop cafes.

Haha yeah man I hear people say crap like they went down a 30% grade with 78,000lbs going 80mph with no jakes with no problem!

I'm getting ready to go solo next week and I'm trying to gather a list of things I'll need, I have pretty much everything except the list of lies I need to tell to hold a convo with the other truckers in the drivers lounge at the truck stops!lol how do those guys come up eith those outlandish stories?

Almost every time I hook up to a trailer I go underneath to verify that it is securely attached and locked in place. So many things can happen that will make you think the trailer is secured to the truck but it just aint. Sometimes the locking jaw is only partially locked, sometimes the kingpin has slipped over the locking jaw. Both of these things have happend to me before and I was able to avoid a disaster by few taking a few seconds to get underneath the trailer to make sure things were safe.

Well just today I went and dropped a trailer, and I mean I pulled out and the whole trailer made a loud Boom sound as it slammed into the ground right there in the distribution center that I work out of. "Almost every time" just was not enough. It was early in the morning and still dark out. Temperature was below freezing. I was tired and decided to skip that little step this time. I had backed up to the trailer like I always did. I heard the big satisfying clank and even gave the trailer a big tug test. That thing should have been locked.

I pull out and soon as I turn I get a bad feeling, the trailer starts slipping off the truck and I hear the crash. Luckily there were not a whole lot of people around yet to see this. So I get out, unattach the air lines and start cranking that trailer up in low gear as fast as possible.

The trailer was loaded with about 35k pounds and it took over ten minutes to get that thing high enough to slip back under the fifth wheel. By the end of it I was so exhausted that I felt sick for a few hours after that. I do not think I ever worked so frantically ever since I got my cdl, I was just praying nobody saw this happen.

When I finally got done and heading out the gate guard just gave me this look and started shaking his head. Said that if we were not friends and all he would have posted this on youtube. Apparently he had a perfect view of the whole thing on his camera network. He promised not to keep it a secret.

I got lucky, my load was not fragile so nothing was broke, and now no matter how sure I am I will be double checking every time in the future.

When you did the tug test did you get out and look at the space in between the 5th wheel and apron?

Congrats buddy!

Thanks