Profile For Big Scott

With most companies, as long as you have safe and secure place to park your truck, they can send you there for home time. Maine would be harder to get to them New Orleans.

There are plenty of companies who offer sponsored training.

Do you want to try dry van, refer, flatbed or tanker?

Just start looking and studying the High Road CDL Training Program.

Also look at our diaries section to see some current training stories. As far as hearing aids that won't be a problem.

Unfortunately we had a driver recently terminated after a similar mishap.

The store he was at required you to park under the gas fuel island to reach the fuel drops, and then pull all the way through to turn and depart the store.

Unfortunately he rushed his his right turn and hit the bollard protecting the fuel pumps with the trailer axle at just over 20mph. The trailers frame was bent, and will likely never be roadworthy again.

Always watch your mirrors and be aware of where your trailer is tracking. And more importantly don't rush!

Always know where your truck and trailer are and are going. Also, go slow when moving in tight quarters. In Charlotte last week there was a local fuel truck driver who went off the road at the exit for the refineries. It was wet out and he obviously was going too fast.

Yikes!!

Yup. Now they're looking for a day shift person. One day shift guy took that night shift spot.

Truck driver trainers are not trained to teach. Every trainer will have a different way of showing you what they know. Don't let this get to you. Like was said before, ask questions if you don't understand something. While on your trainers truck, be clean and tidy. Also, take a shower every chance you can. If you don't know how to get a shower ask your trainer to show you.

When your on your own, get an Atlas, a CB and a good trucker's GPS. If you want to use an app for GPS, I have use and recommend the Hammer app. I like that I can easily save locations, set the type of truck and the hazmat level. No matter what GPS you use remember they are very fallible. Know your route. Also Google maps is for cars only, DO NOT USE IT.

GOAL any time you are not 110% sure where your truck and trailer are or they are going. Never be afraid to GOAL. When backing take your time and go slow. You will never be good enough not to GOAL.

Try not to let things get under your skin. Communicate with dispatch. There are so many things to affect your travel time that are out of your control. Accidents can close a road down. Construction will slow you down. You will mostly be able to keep a regular schedule, until you can't. Learn how to manage your clock. Learn the legalities of your logs and how to manage them. That is done electronically. Learn how to use your ELD and send messages to dispatch and how to read messages. Sleep when you can.

Pay attention. Check your mirrors, know where your stepping when getting out of your truck or the trailer. It very easy to step down into a hole. You don't want to twist an ankle. Keep a safe following distance, if someone cuts you off, slow down to increase following distance.

Best of luck to you.

Absolutely true. There was a guy at my company who didn't stop at a RR crossing. The locomotive hit his second trailer. The fireball was spectacular. He didn't fired until he did the exact same thing a second time. Don't just own your mistakes, learn from them. Don't do the same stupid thing twice. By the way that video is part of our safety training.

As the title said it was super preventable. Some back story. This guy, X we'll call him, drove our straight fuel truck 5 days a week. We go the the same places all the time. This happened in daylight. He was leaving a railyard and had a very tight turn to make. On the left of the turn are huge concrete blocks, on the right is a guardrail. He cut it to close on the left and broke the drive shaft, axle and a wheel. Turns out he was going 28 MPH when he should have been at a crawl.

This is a seasoned driver and that was a turn made regularly.

I am not allowed to post pics, but the truck is out of commission for awhile.

The moral of the story is slow down and pay attention.

Putting 100% faith in any GPS is a sure way to end up in trouble. Know and verify your route as best as you can before heading out.

Most companies with pet policies won't let you bring your sidekick on until you upgrade. There are many companies who offer training, most will require potentially hitting all states. Knight and Swift have good training programs, I don't know their pet policy. CFI, Prime, TMC, Maverick and many more offer training. Get in where you fit in, stay there for at least one year, then figure out from there.

Great to see you. I'm glad you're doing well.

Congratulations! Best wishes for your new endeavor.