Comments By Jeremy C.

if you do have to travel when windy with a light trailer, slide your tandems back as far as you can....

Something else I never heard before!

I'm telling ya, you veteran truckers are a freakin gold mine of info! 😀

Check every stop on Google maps, satellite view. Make sure you know how to get in. Run directions on Google maps. Look at the route from the highway. Compare to GPS. Make sure GPS is taking you to the right address. In the case of the exit, go to the next one where you can get off and back on in the other direction. Use all tools you have available.

Yes, sir. I also need to compare them with my written notes. Trip planning is starting rank much higher on my priority list than what my trainer has shown me.

We newbs are in for some edjumication in the coming months, aren't we Jeremy?

Brother, that's an understatement!

See, I want to learn everything - just dont want to learn any of it the hard way. If only I could figure out the formula for that...

This for sure. As Clint Eastwood said in Heartbreak Ridge: "You improvise, overcome, and adapt." That is what you're 1st year in truckin is about. 😁

I wish I felt that confident right now. Your examples got me here. And you're one of the few experienced drivers I've met in real life who isn't arrogant or complacent about the job. So, I'm hoping to have your attitude after I pass the one-year mark.

(Is it arrogant to just proclaim that I'll see the one-year mark? I hope not, because that's nothing but stubborn determination making that claim.)

Jeremy my advice to you is don’t sweat the Small Stuff. You know yourself, true, but I also know that if you apply all kinds of added pressure; you run the risk of burn-out.

Even keel Brother. Even keel.

I know perfection is far beyond my reach, but I really do want to be as safe and effective as possible. One is for the safety factor and the other is because (far as I can tell) those are the traits that decide your future in this career.

To me, it seems like you are trying to "measure up," to Gtown, Old school, and the other vets. Stop! The only person you need to measure up to, is yourself.

Yes, I certainly look up to these folks and many others here but I'm not even in the same league, much less able to measure up.

I dunno, I just have it in my head that I want to be better than some of the people I've met in real life lately. I just can't believe how arrogant or complacent some people get after a year or two of driving experience. I dont ever want to be like them!

Don't beat yourself up, because something out of your control sent you on a scenic detour. You adapted, and overcame. You won! You just went into extra innings. 😊

Not beating myself up as much as being utterly unsatisfied with my performance after reviewing my choices. I could have done this trip a lot better. Better preparation will help me to really win the next time Senor Murphy rears his ugly head! 😎

From what I've read (and I'm just a rookie dragging a dry wagon) flatbed can involve a bit more of, er, let's say a hands-on experience. Setting up your trailer, supervising the load, securing the load, and tarping the load (maybe multiple times from various angles.) A little bit extra to do... And probably some out of the way delivery points.

Some companies pay their drivers for tarp-time, other drivers are just creative with their hours. One thing for certain, flat bedders are a different category of truckers.

Something you didn't ask about is tankers. And probably a good thing you didn't ask because if you think flatbeds aren't for rookies, tankers REALLY aren't for rookies! 😎

...yet heavy enough for wind or other bad weather.

Now there's something I hadn't considered before. Rolling across Kansas on 54 with maybe 20,000 pounds was an interesting day! Probably would have been a bit different in the weight range of 70-80k.

So far, it sounds like...

1. Better trip planning.

2. Call local police as a last resort.

3. Pull over instead of taking the exit.

4. Consult Google maps and Satellite views.

5. Continue to use GPS for what it works for and ignore the rest.

6. Don't get stuck in North Jersey (which should proly be at the top of the list!)

I've only had one other situation (so far) when I got jacked up due to construction and sort of "circled" a block in Kansas City. My first reaction was, Uh-oh! I'm lost! And my second reaction was, Just find the interstate because things make sense there and you've got options. I eventually found an entrance back onto the interstate, and then found a new route to the shipper from a few exits away.

I only mention Kansas City because up until now it just seemed like childish noob fear wanting to cling to the interstate. And frankly it's been quite a point of embarrassment for me that up until now I hoped nobody would ever know about. But I feel a little better about it now after being told to stay there if I can safely use it to re-evaluate the situatuon.

Next time an exit I need is closed I'm gonna drift on by and find a safe place to regroup.

And, G-Town, if it seems like I'm being tough on myself about this, it's because I am. I know rookies make mistakes, heck I'm not even out of training yet (starting week 6 now, which is yet another thing I hope my asleep at the wheel employer realizes soon.)

But 1, this is similar to a conversation we were just having in another thread so trip planning should have been fresh in my mind.

And 2, the sooner the little things become second nature, the more I can focus not screwing up the big things.

I don't mean to sound like I know better than you or anyone else. But this job is still a big, scary responsiblity to me because of size and weight issues, so I'm just trying to get as right as I can as soon as I can. Hope that makes sense - written words aren't always my friends. Just seems like the safer and better I get the more comfortable I'll be behind the wheel.

* FOREHEAD SMACK!!! *

Another ball drop... I didn't look at the state DOT website before heading over there last night. Seemed like a short trip, 50 miles or so. Instantly went complacent. Bad idea. If I looked ahead, I probably could've avoided a lot of BS to begin with.

And there's my answer. Apparently it's time and bad experiences that teach the lessons out here. 🙄

Calling the state police for non-emergency assistance never occurred to me. In school, we were told if we wound up facing a low-bridge or some other unforeseeable obstacle to call the local police instead of trying to back out of it. But never really considered calling for navigational help.

How about that closed exit? Was I wrong to take the East exit since the West was closed off? Should I have taken the next exit? Pulled over on the side of the highway instead of leaving it?

This isn't the first time a closed exit has changed my plans - just the worst episode so far. Construction season has had a few surprises for me so far, but nothing I couldn't recover from yet. Though, last night was the most interesting to date.

No problem. Recently was sitting next to a guy at a truck stop, he was complaining about having 5 days to do a 4 day load. It's all money to me.

LoL! Yeah, but there was no money in this run.

And 5 days for a 4 day run? Sounds like a sit-down dinner, a shower, laundry, and still a day early! I don't understand some of the complaints like that. But I guess some drivers will complain if the weather is great and the highway is empty! 😁

So, late yesterday we get a message to go drop our empty trailer. Actually, I'll just quote what I wrote in another post...

We got dinged yesterday to take our empty and drop it (that's weird because there's supposed to be a company policy against dropping empties on weekends, but whatever, I do what I'm told.)

Supposed to take it to a Fed Ex lot for some reason. We drive two hours to get there and security tells us they're closed on weekends and there's no way he's letting us in, much less letting us leave a trailer there.

Okay, back to the DM to find out who's getting coal this Christmas... Shift DM says he doesn't know anything about it, that was from an afternoon DM, and there's nothing he can do.

So, find another truck stop. Almost 3 hours wasted and now day 2 of empty and sitting.

Tried to call the phone number we were given with our directions, but keep getting voicemail. So, we just headed over to the drop.

I needed to get off an exit that had an East*road and a West*road. The West*road exit (exit b) lane was blocked by orange barrels and closed. So, I thought just hop off on the East direction of it and get turned around somewhere. But, oh no! The East and West versions of this street are on opposite sides of the highway and don't actually connect to each other. Don't find this out until I get turned around.

Pull over in an empty lot for an out of business store and start dabbling with the GPS. The destination looks right, directions still match what's written, except for the last few streets (get to that in a second.) So, my written directions are no good right now. I try to follow the GPS to an alternate route to get back on track. 20 minutes later i realize the GPS has taken me in a circle twice (the second time because I thought maybe I missed a turn or something.)

Crap! That's not gonna work. So, I pull out my phone and look at Google maps... There's a main street, four lanes, with a highway number, just a few blocks north of me that seems to go in the direction I want. It also leads back to the highway I was just on before getting detoured. Seems safe enough!

I go up there and start heading West. Now the GPS is playing nice, again. It gets us over the original highway and we cut over again to the West version of the road I wanted.

Back to the written directions, which work fine for about ten minutes and then we find we are facing a one-way street with Do Not Enter signs facing us on the other side of the intersection. My trainer double checks the route we just took, and we followed the directions exactly. (Something from Brett's book comes to mind, something about companies getting directions from stupid or disgruntled drivers.)

Well, the GPS has a route showing the destination just 2.6 miles away... Very tempting, and lacking any other input we just try it. (Why not, we're already screwed.)

And the GPS gets us there, but it does so via two weight-restricted roads. It tells us to turn and then yells at us all the way down the road about a truck weight violation. There are no posted signs about weight, it's an industrial area, and the Fed Ex lot (full of trucks and trailers) is on one of those roads!

So, we get there and (like it says above) we leave there, having arrived for no reason at all.

We find a Pilot a few minutes away, head there, and try to forget any of it even happened.

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Was I wrong to take the East exit thinking I could just get turned around?

What's with the GPS circles?

Where do you turn when the company has given bad directions and nobody is at the arrival point?

If the GPS says weight-restriction (and routes you that way anyway), but there are no posted signs, which do you believe?

How many times did I screw up and what would YOU have done?

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Yes, I have a trainer, but... Let's just assume I was on my own during this episode. I might as well have been.