Laredo Texas Freight

The TV lounge at that TA is actually pretty nice. I think they even have loaner dvds at the checkout counter.

JJ

The pins would push in when I pressed on them then push back out as soon as I released them. I beat them with a hammer I rocked back and forth. Nothing was getting it to release and hold. Sorry I'm not sure how to word it as the pins would push in only if I was there holding them in. As soon as I let go the spring would push them back out.

As for the tandems I picked the trailer up and the tandems were in the second to last hole. So yes I was legal to drive, but two things here. 1. I had a 360 mile drive to get to the shipper , and I didn't really want to drive with the tandems all the way back like that since I never really had 2. It was a drop and hook , so I would have been dropping s trailer that would need to be repaired before the shipper could use it to load it. Thought that would be a bad thing to do.

As mentioned when I stopped fir the day I was 1085 miles away and had about 2 hours left on my clock. When I picked up the load I had maybe 3.5 hours left in the day. Me over 1100 miles to go in 31 hours.

I know I complain about the miles a lot. It's really just a place for me to vent a bit. I'm not a person that likes to be in deb. After being unemployed fir 5 months before TruckSmart by I got myself into what I consider a lot of debt ( roughly $5k). So I'm trying to pay it off as fast as possible. It's really eating at me to not be able to do it. I thought with me getting the 3k Miles's week that the recruiters say it would e easier. I also didn't plan fir the company to hijack a lot of my check fir equipment.

But it is what it is. I will make it through and I am learning everyday ways to push More and more. I average about 515 miles a day. That's a truck that can only go as fast as 62, and I rarely run that fast. But if I have to I do. I put down 640 miles the other day with only 11 minutes left on my drive clock.

Trailer tandem pins would not release I needed to get that fixed before I could roll and pick up this load

What if you would have picked up the load and then gotten the pins fixed? You might have been able to keep the original schedule.

Also, in my experience, there's no such thing as pins that won't move if you have a big enough hammer and you make sure the pins are centered properly in their holes. I always carried a three pound sledge and some WD 40 with me and there were times I had to beat on those pins to get em moving, but they always moved. By centered properly, I mean you have to make sure the tandems themselves are not jamming the pins either forward or rearward against the rail, and make sure the tandems aren't twisted from someone making a sharp turn where the pin on one side is jammed forward and the pin on the other side is jammed rearward.

Also, I haven't done the math, but after you were loaded were you not able to make the original appointment time legally?

See, all of this stuff will start to come together after a while. I know right now you think your lack of miles is purely the company's fault, but I can guarantee you it's not. Sometimes rookies step on their own toes when it comes to time management and other aspects of the job but don't realize it right away. Over time you'll get a lot more miles.

Eric, it really takes a little time to learn all the little tricks so that they can keep you moving good. I promise you, any experienced driver who found himself in your position would have put some locking pliers on that release handle and had those tandems moved, or else just moved the trailer as is and dropped it off.

You did a good thing, but often times the way I'll handle something like that is to figure out how to move the load and maybe call a terminal/shop that is in my route so that I can set it up for a quick repair while I'm running the load. That sort of repair doesn't take long, and if you work it right you can have it done while taking your ten at a terminal.

Managing your time efficiently for the maximum productivity is a challenge that just takes a while to learn. Once you begin to show a pattern of doing that, your managers will rely on you a lot more heavily. That is when the miles start getting piled on you. That's also when you gain a whole new set of problems. You quit wondering why you're not getting enough miles and start wondering "How do they expect me to get all this done? "