Comments By Keith A.

From what I understand most of the larger carriers are converting to automatics.

Most of the smaller companies are also. I left a company with 45 trucks, all automatics and the company I'm with now has 30 trucks...all automatics. Most of the Idaho companies are automatics. Now, if I were to change jobs, I'd go to Crete, even tho their trucks are governed at 62, but they have manuals :-D Well, I might have to think more on that...I prefer to drive faster ;-)

Laura

If you weren't in Idaho the USPS contractor I work for now is all manuals. :P (and basically all the trucks run up to 70)

This sounds like a practice problem across the board. If a year from now it still takes you two hours to back that would be inconceivably weird, but you've just started and have almost zero solo experience. I also think Davy's on to something, in conjunction with Bobcat and what you said: you're in your head. Unconciously overthinking, as much as that might be an oxymoron. Unless I've missed a thread somewhere, you haven't hit anything, and your Titanic moment was only a close call -- you didn't need a towtruck to get you out or anything, ja?

When it comes time, with all your management/training experience -- include that. You haven't hit anything. You just need time to get used to doing this on your own, without supervision and without resources to fall back on (where Davy's points are the strongest.)

You've struck me as nothing but capable with all of your posts. I think you just need time to get this figured out the Authentic Way, In The Real World.

If for some reason you can't get A-class work -- try looking at B-class companies. They may be willing to overlook more flaws than an A-class company might while you get some time between you and your accidents. I did that after picking up a careless driving ticket in 2016, drove a trash truck for almost two years after Knight let me go for that ticket. (I had acquired my CDL through a private school so they had no skin in my game.)

This may not be applicable without that certificate, so if it isn't disregard this, but it might work out for you.

Best of luck.

I was considering some other options, a few buddies have worked at Class B companies that they can get me on with, but most still require OTR experience.

I at first attended a private CDL school, but I couldnt get my CDL through them for at minimum 2ish months because covid. So, the recruiter from TMC called me and I got my CDL through them.. I appreciate the response. I've been looking at Indeed and Ziprecruiter the last few days.

It's definitely not a perfect solution -- whenever you go back A-class if this is the route you go, you'll have to go through the required training period with your company, but it keeps your CDL fresh and (at least this is how I found it) a lower stress, lower risk place to learn the decision process necessary to avoid stuff like being run off the road by other semis -- not laying any blame on you, just the learning curve is really steep and B-class softens it a little bit.

If for some reason you can't get A-class work -- try looking at B-class companies. They may be willing to overlook more flaws than an A-class company might while you get some time between you and your accidents. I did that after picking up a careless driving ticket in 2016, drove a trash truck for almost two years after Knight let me go for that ticket. (I had acquired my CDL through a private school so they had no skin in my game.)

This may not be applicable without that certificate, so if it isn't disregard this, but it might work out for you.

Best of luck.

Speaking of unavailability to drivers... I have my first dose scheduled this coming Thursday, and the second on April 22nd. (The irony of getting my first dose on April Fool's Day is not missed.)

Unfortunately, because I'm a truck driver, I had to run over three innocent civilians to get a slot... oh, wait, nope, I just kept refreshing a website every few days and making sure all of my information was entered correctly. :)

I've never actually looked closely but I'd figure there's a lagtime on the freight we haul and economic/manufacturing trends that would have led one to want to invest in a given company. Not impossible, maybe, but also not sure how you'd be able to stay on top of the timing necessary to actually take advantage of it.

That's awesome, thanks for the tips. I am in service work and frequently use directions. Just not in a huge truck where mistakes sometimes can't be reversed without many negative conseques. Plus I am driving in somewhat familiar terrain, and dont have to worry about turning around, low bridges, or missing a turn ect...lol

I like your like your technique...simple but very detailed. It has already helped me in that respect, plus given me some more important things to consider. I appreciate you taking the time to post the photos, and explaining why you do it this way...Makes a lot of sense

That's another advantage to this imo -- same as everything else really. You can note possible low bridges, weight restrictions, etc. on that sheet next to the relevant street or highway.

For general intents and purposes, any distance you travel across mixed terrain you can calculate around an average of 50-55mph. I don't know if it applies to all cities but I found in LA things tended to average about 30mph. Anytime you're in the mountains, cut your average speed in half (even if you're empty -- it's always better to over budget time.)

Are you going to be running Northeast regional, or the full 48?

Sorry if that was too much of an infodump -- let me know if you have any other questions. :)

This is the trip following my delivery at the Lowes store in Farmington, NM -- same principle applies in the upper right.

Finally: a standalone trip where I've got my order of things written down refined -- my trailer and seal numbers have moved to where they should be, underneath the BL#. "Knight Aurora" was just my shorthand for the Knight terminal in Denver. I spent almost a year as a local driver so there was less need to specify addresses of everywhere I went. When it was somewhere new like the Costco store you see on the bottom though, I went back to my old OTR method. (FA= follow around, RS=right side, LS=left side.)

Hopefully this is neat enough to understand -- on the left side is that company's assigned trip number (Knight), the shipper, their address, city/state, phone number, scheduled pickup, and any other numbers necessary for the pickup. By this point I was intimately familiar with Lowe's process, but when you're just starting out, any number that looks useful in whatever your company uses as load info, write it down.

Following that on the left side is the consignee/receiver, and all the same information (underneath is the seal, but after I'd gotten my act down that goes underneath BL (Bill of lading).

On the upper right are my directions from my previous consignee or origin location (in this case it would have been the Knight yard).

The bottom right location is the stuff most useful to you: that's a turn-by-turn/junction-by-junction order of every single street or highway to get to my consignee (including notes, where you can see I wrote possible alternatives I may need to use when making my final approach). I get all of the highways from the atlas, and then I pull those notes using google maps, but I am very strong proponent of writing all of this down for a variety of reasons: first is simple tech common sense. If your GPS unit breaks, you have a handy fallback. Second is this means you pay more attention to all of your turns. I treated it as a game to remember as much of my directions as possible without referring to my notebook. Third (never ideal, but happens), makes it feasible to grab the notebook and double check your interchange as you're approaching a highway junction without fiddling with any tablets or computer settings. The fourth (and the one that made my life SO much easier): it has ALL of your pickup/dropoff information there, so when you get to your customer and you go check in? You are always ready to go whether you're checking in at a warehouse or DOT wants any of your information. Makes you look real professional. :)