Comments By Joseph L.

You did well. The most important thing for any driver to remember, is when things are Rocky, maintain your cool, take a deep breath and think things through to figure out how to deal with the situation.

Best advice ever. It can't be said enough.

Could not agree more.

You did well. The most important thing for any driver to remember, is when things are Rocky, maintain your cool, take a deep breath and think things through to figure out how to deal with the situation.

I once had to attempt to get under a blocked in trailer and I hooked it from the SIDE, pulled it over a bit, unhooked then got in front of the trailer to hook up properly. I couldn't just swing it around from that jackknife hook because I had my satellite dome poking out in the way and would have risked clipping and damaging it.

Thank you. The most important thing for me was to go slow and get out and look. Baby steps. Oh yes staying relax really helped.

So how did it feel to be doing this solo compared to teaming? Mind you did have an uncomfortable team partner to be with. And even though you had challenges, you stuck to your guns and did it anyway. Congratulations!

You persevered through a tough situation and got 'er done. So maybe you can convince CRST to keep you solo, who knows? Just food for thought.

To be honest I don't see myself staying with CRST after my contract ends. I have had four nearly five weeks of unwanted down time. My first co driver was a basket case, my second within an hour of meeting them told me that they were going to to another company probably in a few weeks. My first choice is to finish my contract with CRST I don't hold them responsible for the flakey co drivers. But I have a family to support, bills to pay. I am actually enjoying being solo more and more.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. It sounds like you’ve already overcome challenges other drivers would’ve never attempted.

Congratulations!

I had no choice. I have bills to pay and I had over stay my welcome at home, it was messing with the schedule my wife has for our daughter. It was a bit scary doing it by myself the first time but I actually enjoyed it

Back in October we picked up a little a load in the Chicago area to be delivered to somewhere in Tennessee. Our DM and shipper made it clear that the load had to be there by a specific time something like 9pm on a Friday evening. 8pm we arrive. Place is ghost town. I speak with security he tells me where some of the warehouse worker's are. I go meet with a supervisor he checks my paperwork and said man you are the early. I said we can come back in an hour. He said hour??? Heck we weren't sure expecting you till Monday, to be honest it would have been better if you could delivered on Tuesday. He told me where I could drop the load. Later we learned the delivery time and date had changed but we were never informed

My trainer had one on his truck. work fairly well. a few times it malfunction once it took us a rather scary ride on this two lane high way through the country, I thought we were in serious trouble until I came around this bend and saw several other trucks on the same route. Overall though it worked fine I am thinking about getting one

Early this week I was rolling through Texas I think it was Tuesday must have been around 6pm I passed one of those rest areas for trucker's normally the place look like it could park close to 80 trucks maybe a hundred. There had to been less than twenty. I passed by it thinking Where are all the driver's?? As I got into Oklahoma truck stops were empty too then it hit me it was Thanksgiving week

It was all good!

Sorry I can only share a photo with you guys.

Maybe if the casino I went to would have served old school's roast it wouldn't have been so bad.

Okay okay I know what you're thinking wait aren't you a company driver for CRST and don't they use teams , the answer is yes and no. CRST has three divisions Expedited, regional and dedicated. As for as I know regional and dedicated are generally solo while Expedited is generally teams. However in very extreme circumstances even drivers with the Expedited division can find themselves driving solo. So I was on unwanted home time. Things had gone south with first co driver pretty much to the point I was ready to strangle him. We decided to part company and it seems like he parted ways with the company I will post about that experience later. So I am at home in Las Vegas waiting for a co driver when I learned that I probably won't get another co driver for another week. I am not happy, the wife is very unhappy. I sat down went over all the down time I had since getting hired and found out that since August I had nearly four weeks of not driving. Four weeks of not earning money. I went from unhappy to tick off. I waited for 24 hours and called my DM. I told them that if this was how things were going to be then I would need to persue other options. I was very polite and respectful and explained that this wasn't my first choice. The DM told me he would call me back A few hours later my phone rang and he asked how would I feel about doing a solo run? There was a load going from California to Pennsylvania but the shipper had no available trailers and the only one they could locate just happened to be in Las Vegas. So I said yes empty trailer from Vegas to L.A should be simple. Yeah So I get to where this empty trailer is and right away I realized that I was going to have problems. I was convinced that someone had use a crane to lower the bleeping trailer to where it was parked. Not only is there that problem but directly in front of the trailer is a parking area with a one car directly in front of where I need to couple and pull forward to turn out. So first I had to work on getting the trailer to right height so the king pin and 5th wheel would couple correctly. After dealing with that it was time to get out of there. So I got out the truck and walked around figuring out how I would need to pull forward , backup and turn to get out of this tight spot. So over the next forty five minutes I creep forward slowly turn and back up every time I pull forward, back up, turn I get out of the truck and walk around. Finally I get the truck and trailer turn so I can pull out. The next challenge was getting out of Las Vegas which took about another hour with traffic. Finally I am on the road going to California. I stopped in Barstow California for a bathroom break and to recheck the area I was going to. I wanted to be prepared for problems and oh boy there would be problems. So I finally reach the shippers. After checking in I am told to drive around this building and park by the fence. So I enter the yard and even though I had looked at this place using Google maps, it didn't show just how congested this place was. Someone hadn't park trailers there, they had come in and built them and left them in the worst areas possible. The first challenge was getting around the building. I realized that if I didn't want to to hit the building I needed to go around I was going to have to the Left as far as I could, I know that I am going to make contact with this trailer that looks like it has been there for years considering it didn't have tandems and was on the ground it probably had been. So I squeeze slowly by I can see my trailer brush up against the other trailer barely touching it. After I get by i get out to check for damages to my trailer and the other, none. Okay so I continue forward looking for a place to park. I find one but it's not desirable so I continue forward. I come to a dead end and the only way out is to turn around. To accomplish that I am going to have once again do a series of pull ups, back ups and turns to the driver side to get out of this area fifteen minutes I work at this. Finally I get out of this area go back to this other area turn around and get back to the only available spot for my trailer. I am going to have to back between these two trailers that aren't exactly parked straight. This will be my first time actually doing this by myself. Every other time I was with my trainer or co driver. But now I am on my own. I get out look (G.O.A.L-Get Out and look.). Trying to figure out out how I am going to do this. I realized that I am going to slowly be backing and turning at snail speeds to get the trailer into position. For the next thirty minutes maybe closer to an hour I work at this. Just like in Las Vegas I constantly get out and look. Finally I get the trailer park praise God Now it's time to go to receiving and find out when the load will be ready. I learned that it won't be ready till later in the afternoon, it's 2:30 am. I would end up setting for almost two days.

Okay hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving pretty much sucked. So around midnight Thanksgiving morning me and my co driver are at shippers dropping off an empty trailer picking up a load going south to Florida (I am in Pennsylvania). We had problems with the locking jaws on the 5th wheel not locking around the king pin and after having the shippers mechanicans look at it speaking with CRST maintenance and a driver manager we all decided that we couldn't haul a load safely. So our load got sent to someone else and we were told to head for the nearest terminal to have the 5th wheel inspected. Being as it was Thanksgiving chances of getting anything done were slim to none. So we found found a truck stop to park at. We got up around 7am grabbed showers, coffee and headed to the terminal which in Pennsylvania is basically a relay station for CRST with a drivers lounge it's not bad. It's got a showers and a laundry area vending machines and it's in walking distance of restaurants and shopping. No one is here. So my co driver wants to go to some casino for the buffet. So we go drop $30 for this Thanksgiving buffet my co driver loved it I on the other hand was When it came to the food. The turkey was dry, the ham was tasteless and there was no prime rib. For $30 there should have been prime rib. So we go back to the truck stop which only had about five other trucks parked there. I decided to go back to sleep while my co driver went inside. He comes back an hour later and said he has to get to Texas family emergency. Three hours later after dealing with Greyhound he's headed to the terminal. We drove close as we could get being as the area where the bus terminal is located is truck friendly even Bobtailing too many low clearance areas. So not only did the load fall through, I had a horrible Thanksgiving meal and before the day was out I was a solo driver. I have actually been sitting long enough that my 70 hour drive clock has reset