Comments By Eugene K.

Hi Wrangler!

I could never really sleep when the truck was moving, aside from dozing off for a few minutes until it hit a bump.

I drove all night Wednesday when we set out from upstate New York at 1900. When my trainer took over in Illinois, I tried to get some shut-eye but the adrenaline was pumping because I’m back at the terminal now waiting on my own truck.

Once I’m awake in the daytime, there’s no going back to sleep for me.

Morning folks! My apologies for my heavy dose of unnecessary of snarkiness last night. It didn’t help that I’d been awake for 36 hours after wrapping up my 30,000 miles of team training. I need to remember to sleep before going online!

Will keep my ancillary opinions to myself. I STILL wish everyone else would do the same, but hey, this is the Internet.... 🤷‍♂️

Packrat if you truly wish to know, a couple of weeks ago a member posted a savage and vitriolic screed condemning an entire community of whom one of my family is a member, and who barely survived a violent assault because they were targeted for being a member of this community.

This opinion had absolutely nothing to do with trucking whatsoever, and not only did the post and thread stand and continue without removal, but it became clear that the sentiment seems not only shared by the majority on the thread but even some of the moderators. This forum claims to be the most friendly and helpful trucking site on the Internet, and this example belies that claim.

Did I take it personally? Yes. You may ask what that has to do with this thread here, and my take is that if this forum allows vile opinions like that to stand without redaction, then I can certainly lampoon a bunch of morons for an unfounded and unqualified opinion.

To be honest the only reason I haven’t deleted my account is because I have had several prospective drivers reach out to me personally that my training diary has helped me immensely, so I owe it to those who come after me to receive the same level of help I received.

Nothing personal, but my patience is growing a bit thin with the community here.

I come here for trucking advice, but any time I read a single opinion on any other topic, I wonder why I bother.

Unfortunately I can never tell where any given thread will stray. Anyways, my training diary is almost done and I’ve gotten what I needed. I hope my experience helps many more to come just like I have.

I dunno, my BS in nutrition, MS in biochemistry, and post-baccalaureate premed coursework lead me to disagree with a lot of the hot takes here, but what do I know?

Due to the pandemic I’m just a truck driver like the rest of you now.

Meanwhile, I’m taking my 10% bodyfat and 455 deadlift PR down to get vaccinated at Prime on Tuesday.

Sure sucks to be such an unhealthy obese slave to the pharmaceutical industry! I’ll make sure to come back here for diet tips too. Gotta go, need to go “do my research” on YouTube !

Andrey that is rich! 😂

Fresh update ... it’s official!

As I’m writing this I’m at on offramp in Ohio on my way back to Springfield to start my solo week. I have my truck number assigned, and, barring any unforeseen maintenance issues, the truck will be mine once I’m solo OTR! (It has a higher issue number then my trainer’s 2020 freightliner, so I wonder if it’s brand new??)

Normally for the Wilson solo week, you check into the hotel your first night back and report to the training center via shuttle the next morning. Then you do a skills test including route planning, paper logs, coupling, backing, road test, and a refresher on pre-trip and 4-stage air brakes. Once that’s done, they issue your keys, and it’s time to move all your belongings into your new home!

Also typical is they assign solo week drivers on local delivery routes on our Kraft Foods account, either in Springfield MO or down in Dallas. However, having spoken to my fleet manager today, he says it’s not set in stone yet but there’s a good chance I’ll just be going right back out on the road like I have been, only by myself and in a probationary week. Though I’ll technically be on the guarantee pay scale, he says he’s never seen a new driver not earn well above the minimum. I could be in my own truck in as little as two days!

I have full confidence in my ability to perform every aspect of the job except for one: backing in between two trailers if it’s anything other than a straight back. My trainer and I did a practice maneuver at our loc 01 this afternoon and it was pretty terrible, so we just abandoned ship and I put it in the hole alongside one of the trailers instead of in between. There is literally NO difference between the two maneuvers. Whether it’s a 45 or a 90, it’s the exact same back. I just get freaked out that I’m going to hit the trailer on my blind side every time, even if I GOAL until the cows come home.

My trainer suggested it can’t hurt to ask my fleet manager for an extra day to practice backing between two trailers out on the pad before I go out solo. That’s not a bad idea, so I’m going to call him tomorrow.

Wish me luck! Next time I post I’ll be a solo driver!

Hey buddy:

You’re just not trying hard enough, or bothering to do even cursory research on availability.

Maybe the algorithm is different for me, but my social feeds alone are a plethora of resources from my vaccinated friends on exactly what they did step by step, including cross state lines without breaking any criteria.

There are now 3 states that offer it to everyone aged 16 or over, with more than 20 more doing the same by the end of April. Relax. Everyone who wants the vaccine will have the opportunity to get one within a few weeks or months, and those who take initiative and try a little harder can get one in a few days.

You hit a wall with only one avenue, when spending an hour on vaccine search engines and making a few calls could have gotten you appointments in six different states. And your first instinct is to call for a nationwide strike?

Good lord, what a petulant teenage response!

Hello everyone, and welcome Nathan! It’s been a while, so time for an update. We are down to the wire—just under 2,000 miles to go of my 30,000 before B seat phase (team driving) comes to an end. My fleet manager is planning to route me back into Springfield to start my solo week either at the end of this week or early next week.

My backing has considerably improved in a short time, but it’s still hit or miss. Some days I will one-shot fairly difficult maneuvers, and other days I will completely screw up really easy ones with tons of room. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason or pattern, either. It all just comes down to experience and slow improvement over time. PROGRESS IS NOT LINEAR. At the end of the day, no one awards “style points” for backing. All that matters is that you get it in there without hitting anything!

We have been running at a breakneck pace! In only 12 days, we have gone from Virginia to New York to Charlotte to Atlanta to Michigan to Miami to Denver to Cheyenne to Virginia and now up to New York again. Yes, you read that correctly! We have experienced quite a bit in that time, the most exciting of which was shutting down in Nebraska with an empty trailer in 25 mph sustained wind (we were dead-heading 400 miles to the pickup). Seeing your trailer sway from lane to lane behind you is never a reassuring sight.

One particular story I have to bring up and ask WHY shippers do this:

On Sunday we arrive an .... “unnamed” shipper in northeastern Saline County, Nebraska, for what should be a fairly easy drop and hook. There was some initial confusion about checking in at the plant vs the DC, but nothing out of the ordinary. Everything seems to be going just fine until I pick up the bills from the shipping clerk and notice that our gross is ..... 46500. Red flag right there. Right as I read it, the shipping clerk even takes pains to mention it to me, albeit casually. Our instruction is to cross the street to the plant, use their scales, get four tickets, and call back if we are in the clear to leave. It should be fairly obvious, however, that we were far from clear to leave—we were ridiculously overweight on the entire load ... almost 83,000 pounds!

So of course, we bring the scale tickets back to the shipping clerk, wait an hour to get a clear dock, and then sit for three hours getting reworked. Then we have to go scale it again, to make sure we are good to go. All told we spent six hours at the shipper, essentially doing their job for them and then waiting for them to correct their mistake. Now, to be clear, I’m not complaining about the delay. Delays are par for the course in this business, and I’ve sat through way worse than this (the longest was ten hours!), and I was prepared for them long before my training even started, thanks to truckingtruth.com.

What grinds my gears is this: they KNEW the load was overweight, more than 24 hours before we arrived, and had their proof printed right on the BOL. Yet they chose not to fix it themselves and needed the carrier to weigh it on their scales, on their property, printing tickets on their paper, before they would do anything to change it. My trainer tells me that experiences like this are fairly common, because shippers will often overload a trailer hoping that a lazy or tired driver will just leave without bothering to fix it. However, driving for Wilson, I’m only assuming the shipper should know we hold ourselves to a high standard and would never cut corners like this.

Pardon me, but isn’t this the “logistics” industry? I’m not quite sure what is logistical about needlessly delaying a load for almost an entire day, simply because they were too lazy to take two pallets off. AND THEY HAD IT ALL ON PAPER BEFORE WE GOT THERE!

The former manager in me is still amazed at the level of sheer incompetence displayed, and not only do I wonder how so many people in this industry keep their jobs, but one has to wonder how many costs are needlessly passed on to the consumer because of sheer laziness like this. All in all, the experience was more amusing than frustrating. We were well rested and had plenty of time on the load. It just boggles my mind that this is par for the course!

Enough out of me for now. Until next time!

Depends. Are you one of the protestors?

It is NOT normal for them to work properly lol.

I’ve been on two 2020s and a 2021 and all of them have worked incorrectly in their own special ways.