A Rookie Truck Driver's First Week

No idle override on my volvo either. But like I said, for me its not an issue unless its in the mid 80s and up when I'm trying to sleep and I need the bunk a/c. I'm betting Chickies idle has been disabled like mine has.

With many companies these days the. . "Oh you don't need an APU , you can just idle" doesn't work.

That said, this time of year when it's not real hot in many places, I'd just roll with it.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

They are routing me to a Thermoking shop right next to my pickup. If it was heat that was a problem I would be ok. But it's fairly warm in this region and it gets smoking hot in here even with the sleeper windows open.

But I have to make it somewhere first. My Treq unit is broken now... I have no signal. Dispatch already had me try restarting it a couple times to no avail. So they are trying to find a place nearby to look at it otherwise I will have to go straight to the terminal to have it replaced. I can't get or send any messages including all of my load information.

If they are wanting me to come straight to the terminal I am definitely not leaving today. That will take me straight thru the worst part of the storms. I already told my dispatcher that I was not comfortable driving in this type of weather (I will be bobtail) and she was completely ok with that.

My miles are already jacked because I won't have a trip done before tomorrow night. I have 940 on this check. But I did get breakdown pay which was around $96 a day so at least that's something.

I can't override my idle. I just talked to road assist and they said it's been disabled. It shouldn't take too long to fix the APU , road assist thinks it just needs to be reset after they serviced the truck. But my fridge and everything else still works just no a/c and its in the mid 80s.

I think this truck has gremlins...

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Well the biggest thing at this point is to just try to relax and maintain your sanity. This kind of stuff is par for the course. Breakdowns always seem to happen in 3's. You won't see a shop for six months and suddenly you'll be in the shop three times in two weeks. Then you won't see one again for months. It just always seems to go that way.

But as you're finding out quickly there are a lot of things in trucking that are simply beyond your control. Some people lose their minds over every little thing and run around in a constant state of agitation and anxiety. Others take almost everything in stride and have a smile on their face all the time. Early on in your career it would be a great idea to practice keeping your cool, going with the flow, and find ways to take advantage of the downtime in any way possible. Go jogging for a while. Read or write a book. Develop some hobbies like photography or hiking that you can jump into when given the chance.

I always wanted to run hard and make all the money I could but I quickly realized I'll go insane if I sweat the small stuff. I learned to accept that a lot of things are beyond my control so instead of getting stressed out I would find a way to turn the downtime into something fun. Before you know it you'll be running so hard you'll be begging for some downtime. So do all you can to make the best of it.

And whatever you do, don't try to drive through those storms. They won't be around long. Either go around em or let them pass if you get routed that way.

If your still going to Dodge go west to 287 then north across the pan handle. You will stay west of the storms.

Ardmore west to witch falls north west to childress then north to dodge city. About a 7 hour drive.

Well we made it out of Oklahoma with minimal problems. Got through OKC before the worst of it hit. We did get into one rather nasty patch. It came up out of nowhere! I thought one of three things was going to happen: 1 that lightning was going to strike the truck, 2 hail was going to smash the windshield or 3 that the wind was going to topple the truck.

So I slowed down to 40 mph while my husband prayed. Luckily I was only a couple of miles from a town so I pulled into the first spot that was big enough for the bobtail.

The skies cleared up very quickly and we actually caught a very pretty sunset! We are shut down in Dodge City just down the street from the Thermoking shop. Thankfully the temperature is fantastic and we are going to be able to sleep comfortably tonight. Heck we might have to get up and shut the sleeper window!

Tomorrow we have to get the APU fixed then run down to Holcomb to pick up our trailer. This load is going to Syracuse NY but I'm not sure how this is going to work because I have to be home on Monday. I guess we will see!

Bobtail:

"Bobtailing" means you are driving a tractor without a trailer attached.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Well the APU is fixed. They didn't even charge anything because it was just a loose battery connection. Completely painless and now I have heat again! It got soooo cold overnight! Now to get some more sleep. I'm picking up around 6 and driving overnight.

OOS:

When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Well the APU is fixed. They didn't even charge anything because it was just a loose battery connection. Completely painless and now I have heat again! It got soooo cold overnight! Now to get some more sleep. I'm picking up around 6 and driving overnight.

Glad you're finally on your way. Safe travels!

OOS:

When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

We finally made it to our pickup, no thanks to the gps. It kept trying to take us down dirt roads! But I figured it all out.

We get to our trailer and I hop out to do the trailer inspection. Crap! There are cracks in the trailer where insulation is showing. We were told in training to report this kind of stuff. So I took some pictures to send to road assist.

Apparently you can't take pictures on the property here. Whoops... The security came over and I had to delete the pictures in front of him. But he is writing up a report to submit to the shipper. And road assist told me to stop at a TA or petro to have the cracks taped up because it is a loaded trailer.

I'm about to get my first experience with balancing my load. The tandems have to be all the way back when you drop trailers here so I'm going to have to slide them. Hopefully I can just put it in the "meat hole" (7 holes from the front) and roll with it. They do have a scale on site so that helps.

This load is headed to Syracuse and I'm going to be doing overnights and running hard because it has to be there the 30 and I have to be back in Missouri on the 2nd. This ought to be fun!