Profile For Yuuyo Y.

Oh yes, I'm alone; oh yes I messed up today.

So I left Houston, went to scale on 59, got good weights and headed towards my destination.

Once there, I was a bit confused but the people helped me and I pulled through to drop. But one trailer was crooked and I was as well. Another driver told me some good words and it was fine. But when I left the trailer, it started twisting even more towards another one! There were only inches between it.

I got a stern talking to from someone at the plant who told me what to do, how to do it better etc.

Then I left to go pick up a relay in Shreveport. Oh hey, I missed the entrance. Oh hey, I pressed reroute. Oh hey, I didn't listen to my common sense and went through a neighbourhood. Oh hey, that stop sign went down.

The police I met were very very nice and understanding in this yard. They helped me back it in, and there was no damage to trailer and little to the pole. I used my second run of "good-luck" meeting nice, understanding officers.

I don't know if I'm cut out for this. I knew it was hard, but it's damn hard. I don't have faith in my backing abilities to go to truck stops without easy pull throughs. I didn't eat yesterday, and there was an Arby's where I scaled but I just left. I knew where to eat because this is the same route my trainer had gone through.

I know I can't avoid backings all the time. It just is what it is.

Also here's where I got stuck.

Thanks for that explanation G-skill. Hopefully my weights are right. This is the same shipment I did with my trainer to the same place and I put it in the hole she did.

My day frankly went terrible, but it's probably average headache to you guys. Start of the day, I headed to HEB at 07:30. Lots of traffic on 610 and 290, accident blocked my exit.

Got there at 09:10. Got lost, got sent to wrong building, got the right building and the bill. I found a pull through to drop my trailer. When I got to my pick up, that thing was so damn low.

At 43,500 lbs I spent a good 45 minutes straining to get it high enough to couple. I'm already tired as hell, but whatever. Then I am to head to the OC to fuel. Okay, but we got a heavy rain warning in this area. I was going to scale but went to fuel instead. Now, when I got there I missed the truck entrance.

Left turn hoping to find a turn around. It's a dead end at a rail yard. They deal with 20 foot trailers. A 53 has no business being here. It's still raining and muddy. One of the guys there thank god was a truck driver and helped do the complicated maneouvers obstructed by poles and signs and ditches to get me pointed out. It took 90 minutes.

I got to the OC, fueled, and spent ages finding a parking spot. I'm still netvous with backing, but I got it there. Now that all took eight hours. My 14 would be up if I tried to make it tonight, so I shut down to collect myself and organise the truck.

Took a shower, did the post trip. Tomorrow I have to scale and oh my god if it's over 80,000 I don't know what.

I guess I just feel under confident about everything at this point.

Summary of today:

Get truck Pre trip the truck - It's spotless. And by that I mean it's free of clean spots. The manual shifter is even twisted at a 30 degree angle, but the only issue I found was low power steering fluid which was easy to find. Move into truck - I didnt know I could move my car onto the lot so in this heat it took an hour. Also the previous driver got a ticket from DOT. Only had trailer defects. Meet dispatcher

Go find an empty trailer.

Ok so I did this and did my trip plan, but forgot to pre trip the trailer. No worries right? Well it started rainig hard and the lot got muddy as hell, and I ended up pre tripping it in the mud an hour later. Whoops half ripped off mudflap and NO WORKING BRAKE LIGHT. I did find that in Louisiana the kingpin restriction is at 41 feet. Also this load is 43,500 lbs. Great.

Go find another empty. Took two tries but I got one. Then coupling was a pain because the landing gear is such a princess to work with on this one. But it was done.

And now it's so late the dispatcher has gone home. Well, I planned to go to the nearby OC for the night to fuel and rest. I have four days on this load so I'm not worried. Oops, the navigation broke on the MCP200 so I'm not trusting myself to get lost with google maps car directions.

Another driver helped me reset the MCP so all is finally good. Then I just decided that I'm going to stay here for the night and start at 07:00 to the HEB, then fuel at the other OC, then go to Louisiana.

It's been a rough day of nothing, and my body is sore too.

Tomorrow I have to call at 08:15 and then know what to do from there.

Oh my god, I have no clue about how I'm going to do anything on my own.

What was interesting, Old school, was that the last in class test we did seems like a test of something else in hind sight. I heard one person, whom I didn't notice, walked away from the school or argued with the instructor somewhere and was let go yesterday.

He made basically everyone in the classroom confused and frustrated all while never answering any questions and basically being a hardass like usual the entire time. Making us sit in that state for a good two hours. After the two hours were up, guess what? "Okay just do this this and this and you're done."

I really think they were trying to see if we could handle being upset to all hell without walking off instead of you know, what the literal test was over.

If you go there, try to get Octavia or Jack to be your instructor on the range and streets because they're really good.

And bring Pablo some doughnuts in the morning.

Unfortunately, Schneider has stopped using HCC for their training. I suppose I could pay for it myself and Schneider could reimburse me.

Thanks for the help.

Yeah, that's where I went last month. It was $3500, 6 weeks, Schneider does reimburse, and all manual. The first two weeks were boring as hell if you had your permit already though.

As some of you know, I've been waiting for Schneider to give me the go-ahead to start school at a local community college about 10 minutes from my house.

Schneider HQ called today to say it's a no-go because after completing the school it takes 6-8 weeks to get in to DPS for the road test. I have to say I can believe it since Houston is a MAJOR transportation hub. They offered to send me to Minnesota for a faster turn-a-round. I'd have to pay for meals and personals and they don't pay during training.

Did a web search and there are plenty of small towns within 150 miles of here that would be easy to get in for the test, but that's probably not an option.

Any suggestions someone can throw at me? Other local companies would have the same problem.

Houston Community College Northeast does DPS testing at the school.

Frankly I am amazed at how much space opens up infront going say 5 mph less for 30 seconds then going back to the same speed.

At 30 seconds (55 vs 60) that's an extra 220 feet. And how much extra time at 60 does it take to make that up at the end? A whole FOUR SECONDS LOST.

Well I passed the training. There have been three notable times where I felt given up. Not that I was giving up, but that "Well I can't do this so what's going to happen when they release me. I'm not quitting, I'm waiting until they let me go."

But soon after all of those it got immediately better.

Too bad the 8/2 split is against policy at Schneider they say.

Having to be out here for 11 hours with a sore ass throat (at least I dont have those muscle shivers and weakness or else I'd not leave the bed) is something else. Feeling normal feels good. Remember that for when you feel normal.

Don't worry about it if you're not a user. You've got hair somewhere. They will take it from wherever you have it.

Here at Schneider they specifically said no pubic

I wonder who tried

So last week was an adventure to say the least. The first issue we had was picking up a trailer from a terminal - when we tried going out the gate, it turns out it was scheduled for maintenance.

But the trainer knew a drop yard on the way to the shipper where we got an empty from. Then we went to the shipper, drop and hooked, and I had to head down to Austin.

The next day we started in San Antonio (There are two students in the truck.) We picked up at an HEB yard that was dusty as hell, and she had me back the empty and pick up the paper. I drove from San Antonio to Houston, around 99 then a few miles up on 69.

We ended at the paper plant near Nachitoches LA. But oh no, we can't drop and hook nor drop and bobtail out becaude they have too many trailers. So we got a 30 minute live unload at the paper plant, and had to get a hotel nearby in Nachitoches not Alexandria. Since this wasn't planned we had to wait until nearly 01:00 to get our room.

The next day we did another drop and hook in Alexandria and headed back to Dallas.

From there we went to West Memphis AK for a relay, and the next day was almost spent not moving. Two live loads. One in Memphis and one in northern MS. Man, finding the shipper in Memphis was a bit of a challenge it was so hidden.

We ended up stopping at West Memphis because our hours worked better starting from the next morning.

I drove the next morning from Texarkana to Desoto, and the Dallas traffic on 635 was something else. Two accidents on both sides with people doing stupid weaving and other crap right next to a big ass truck.

When we got to the walmart distribution centre, I could pull straight through to drop but she had me back it with a 45 anyways.

On Sunday I woke up with a sore throat and mucus, and by the evening I was out with cold shakes and sweating everywhere. This morning I hardly felt better, but had to go to class anyways. I almost didn't go, but the shakes and muscle weakness had gone away so I had to deal with my throat this whole day.

The only interesting things I can remember on the road were me stalling the 77k gross truck at a light up an incline. 2nd gear was too high. Oh and Tx-34 around Dallas to I-30 really sucks. Stoplights at the bottom of hills and only one lane and all these curves bleh.

I thought I did the same throughout the week, but she said I was doing better eah day - which I didn't feel.

I don't have any complains so far, just that we habe a final skills test soon and whenever I think about it, it feels like I don't know how to even drive the truck anymore.

One thing an instructor taught me about clutch travel was to get to 5th gear and let the truck idle speed. Then press in the clutch and slowly raise it until it started to move again. When you let off after this point you know how much to clutch.

It ended up being about one or two inches in the trucks, and my shifting got better.

From what Old school has said, I think Jeremy had confused venting about your frustrations with being a terminal rat type of person.

Like if you complain about anything you're one of those people who quit and never make it, so Jeremy never did and let it go to him quitting.

Manual transmission becoming an endorsement sounds like signs of being a near full auto industry.

I am a hopeful future driver too. I was diagnosed a few years ago with sleep apnea too. After I started using the Machine I felt a million times better, more energy, and was able to stop chugging energy drinks all day to stay awake. Its not only a life saver it can be a life changer.

Why do people feel bummed about something that helps them actually sleep better?

My first 4+ hour live load! Still waiting. Kind of have to pee. I'm hungry.