Comments By Jeremy C.

Here's a question for ya....

Nope! Actually gonna start another thread on it. But certainly want your input, G-Town!

Thanks a lot. This is really useful. I've been lurking this board for a few weeks, and the friendliness and support from you all is really something. I appreciate your welcomes. These are exciting times . . .

Yeah, this site is awesome. Now just wait til G-Town or Old School bounce some boot leather off your backside for some thing you said or did. Then you'll know you've officially joined the club!

And hopefully soon you'll be welcoming people and sharing your road experiences with them. That's the code, us newbies gotta stick together! 👍

One thing I’d like to add: I just passed my permit with doubles / tankers / hazmat endorsements.

I am now doing some at home prep before I return to my school next week to do the Pre-Trip work. The resources on this site are friggin incredible as to the Pre-Trip. The videos and photo guides make me I actually feel like I am getting it without ever having looked at many of those parts on a real truck before. The pretrip materials dovetail very well conceptually with the CDL testing material I have been learning intensely last week for the permit. The photos and well-curated YouTube videos (esp because how many there are many out there), are what really makes the difference in getting this all to stick. The official DMV handbook is okay but not nearly as digestible. Cannot believe this is a free service. Thanks so much!

Yeah, there are some pretty kick-ass resources here, right? I used most of the stuff here (tools and advice) to get through school and pass my exams.

Dont forget the High Road CDL Training Program if you haven't gotten there already. Another great tool!

And also, Brett's book: Becoming A Truck Driver: The Raw Truth About Truck Driving (Which is also free on this site.)

Keep up the great work! 👍

Nice salvage and a nice line-up to get back to the Ponderosa! Hope the next few days are as easy and relaxing as this weekend has been.

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.

Sorry to dump all that on a post about good news. Just had to vent somewhere.

Hey brother, I hope your easy days stay easy and you get home safe! 👍

My first load delivered to a Walmart distribution center in San Antonio. I pulled in and had to wait on a guy backing into what seemed like the only available spot, and he had to set up in a way the looked like he was jackknifing the rig to get it in. No pressure or anything! I found one and tried to get it in for something like an hour and a half. Finally a yard guy came along and seemed to take pity on me, and told me to drop it at the end of a row for him to take. That day felt like the first day of basic training at infantry school, where it's all screaming and pushups and holding everything you own over your head until your arms get numb, except it's a truck and I couldn't figure out the pivots and mechanics of that maneuver.

Since then I've pulled mostly doubles, but I did pull a tridem axle flatbed for a while and that thing can be a beast when you need to back it up with a load on it. If the pavement isn't pretty smooth and level, your trailer could react in undesirable ways and make a backing maneuver kind of frustrating if you don't have the luxury for a straight-in back.

Yikes! I feel like on every back I currently attempt. 😲

I thought about the doubles and triples endorsement when I first went for my CDL, but having no actual training with the things I passed on that idea.

Do you find turning or backing with doubles more interesting than a 53 footer?

Noob question in 4... 3... 2... 1...

What is the 16 hour rule?

(Ironically, I'm reading this 16 hours after it was posted.)

That really is the key Jeremy. Set-up. If you get the setup right, any back can be "easy" or "smooth". You get that setup wrong and your gonna spend an hour trying to fix it. Knowing how to properly setup each individual back will come with time.

Ahhhhhh... Time. That thing that seems to take forever, lol. I don't seem to get as many opportunities as I'd like to practice right now on the trainers truck (ironic, huh?) but when me and my buddy finally team up in our own truck, we plan to practice whenever we can find the time and space.

Those were great. Especially the mirror view on the last one. Had to zoom in on my tablet, but could at least see the rear view. Can't wait until I can just smoothly do it like that.

Docked last night with open space to my left, but a trailer on the next dock to my right. Had to GOAL about 5 times before I was lined up where I wanted to be. Then probably 7 or 8 pullups to get seated squarely. Only my second real dock attempt. And it was pretty awkward.

The description for the dock setup was great. And looked great. Sometimes I can find that perfect angle when trying sneak into a parking spot, but most times I still need to wiggle around a little bit before I get a decent line-up like that.

Funny thing is, I can picture the mechanics of the whole thing. I can even accurately describe the setup and execution fairly well. But in no way does my mental picture ever translate to my execution.

A few weeks back I nailed a blind side 45 into a parking space at a truck stop with only 2 goals and 1 pull-up. Was a great day! But I'm still pretty jerky on the brakes during any back.

Thank you for the videos, and the time spent uploading them, etc. Look forward to more!

Better late than never...hopefully we’ll have some fun with this.

These two videos were shot last Saturday, essentially 4th of July Weekend. Please realize that the camera was mounted on a pedestal facing the road. At no time did I compromise safety or hold the device while the truck was in motion.

The first video was taken entering the side road entrance headed to the store and navigating through a small, less than impressive Jersey Circle. Can’t wait to hear the “yawn” from Rainy when she sees this JV circle.

Click the link, unite sound if you want to hear my “Hollywood” narration skills (LOL)

Flemington Side Road Access & Jersey Circle

Second video shows accessing the dock through the Parking lot and then setting up by using the upside down question mark approach so that the tandems end up right inline with the dock. Not perfect video, but at least some fun...there is a second set I’ll post that is more descriptive and hopefully more helpful taken at the second Saturday stop...

Flemington Store Entry and Setup

I appreciate you putting these up for all to see, G-Town. Thank you!

I'm too wiped tonight to do much but hit the rack. Nothing like that 1am live unload and we'll call ya when it's done. I parked the tractor in a nice, dark, quiet corner. Called wifey cause I promised I would. And 15 minutes later crawled in the bunk to catch a quick nap. Wouldn't ya know that was the quickest unload of 20 tons in trucking history? They called about five minutes after I crawled on the bunk. Go figure!

I'm sure everyone needed to know about that, which is another clue its bed time. Can't wait to catch those videos tomorrow. Again, thank you for making and sharing them. That's a little bit of work to do all that. Much appreciated!

I agree with most things. There's one thing I forgot to mention and one I completely dropped the ball with...

One, we get written directions on the QC, along with a "fuel solution" for suggested fuel stops. First I write down the pay#, the miles, shipper, pick up date/time, consgnee, drop off date/time, and other relevant data o may need. And on back of that paper, I write down the written directions that planning sends us. I didn't mention written directions because its just routine information that I really couldn't do anything else without - I just assumed everyone did it the same way. Both of my trainers showed me essentially the same way to write this info down in case the QC died. Maybe it's just a company trend of doing it this way.

But where I really dropped the ball was the advice about calling the places I'm headed... Worse, I've read it at least twice, from Brett's Book and from an article he wrote, Rookie Drivers: Time Management Tips And Mileage Goals.

I read both of those and thought to myself, now that's some damn good advice. Yet, it still doesn't occur to me put that wisdom into use. That's really sad on my part. Having great information and putting that information to use are clearly two different things. One means you can read and one means you can think!

But once again I stand by having a full toolbox - including GPS. It's not the ultimate tool, but it has helped a few times lately very nicely.

As for electronics being able to fail, etc. Well, I'm a big believer in that.

That's a little notebook called Write-in-the-Rain. It's pretty waterproof. And it sits in my wallet with phone numbers, addresses, and other important info from my phone - written down just in case something happens to my phone.

Not trying to be a smartass with that. Just wanted to point out that I believe electronic things can fail and I believe in writing things down. 😀

As for not using the advice about calling places... Yeah, I simply have no excuse. That was just poor performance on my part. And I will remedy that soon!

State DOT website, Storm Radar (National Weather Service) app on Android, and Waze traffic app on Android. These are what I use now as a newbie.

When winter comes back around, in most large cities the local TV news channels will often have a running list of school closures for snow or weather, etc. The running lists often include suburbs and other smaller cities surrounding the large city. So, if you scroll through a list for about 5 seconds, you may or may not see the name of a city or town you are delivering to or through. But if you do, it may merit further investigation.