Comments By Justin N.

No way that you could have broken the pallet up so the forklift could lift it?

I got the kind of job where I have to back up into crazy configurations a dozen times a day so I learned pretty quick.

You have all these formulas. Illustrations and setups that a football coach could fill an entire blackboard with. In theory it works when practicing in a perfect and controlled environment, but like you said that you are rarely ever able to do this at a truckstop. All this turning the steering wheel all the way this way and that way.

Pay attention to where the tires on your rear axle are at and what happens with them when you move. It slowly seeps in without you even trying. Keep the practice up. The amount you need to turn the wheel will get easier and easier to figure out just by looking at your tandems and what you need to do with them.

Ok. So, I went to my dollar stores. Looks like you just pull up along side the store and unload. I'm sure it can be harder in most cases.

My question is, it sounds like Schneider gave you extra training for that account. I know they want you to succeed. Was it not enough training?

Some stores will be easier than others to back up to. Most awkward backing job I ever had was a FD store down in Laredo Tx. I had to back the truck up on a slope so high and crooked that not only did it require the tandems to be slid all the way back to keep from scraping the ground with the bumper, but ended up with the forward set of trailer tires completely off the ground.

Just imagine what it was like unloading after that.

I even got a compliment from this scary tough sixty year old mexican looking super trucker guy on my backing job at another particularly frightening looking FD store. That is how intense it will be each day. There have been a few stores that I know I would never have been able to figure out back when I first started.

The family dollar deliveries definitely aint the best place to start out your career.

You got to really know what you are doing when it comes to backing and unloading. You better be young and full of stamina, especially with summer coming up. It gets hotter and hotter the farther back you go in that thing. Even when it is freezing outside you can still work up a big old sweat.

Then on top of that you have to drive to you next stop while exhausted.

I always move aside for the Family Dollar and Dollar General trucks when at a tuckstop, let them go in front of me when waiting to fuel up, just out of total respect for those folks.

This is Oklahoma City USA we are talking about right? Unless you are talking about some middle eastern terrorist country then you got nothing to worry about. Yes it is a big city but I cannot remember a single time ever feeling unsafe at any truckstop there. I stop in okc over night at least a couple times a month.

It is easier to get your trailer lined up to the dock with the doors closed.

Being a business they will be able to deduct all expenses(fuel, depreciation, wages) like they normally would, the exact same as if it was a paid load. The only difference is they will not be receiving any revenue.

There will be no special tax credit they receive for doing that.

I have horrible hearing in my left ear. The doctor even noticed a hole in it from a ruptured eardrum but passed my two physicals so far no problem at all.

Get a suicide knob

I know how you feel in not wanting to look like a whiner to the company. My first trainer a bit like that.

Maybe though if you become number five to walk out on him, the company will finally see a pattern with this guy and you will save a potential future student of his from going through what you are trying to endure.