First Day Solo!!

Last Monday my supervisor had come to sign off on me passing my mandatory 12 weeks of training, as corporate was now requiring longer duration of training for drivers who just obtained CDL , due to the difficulty of local foodservice. He had told me that everything looked great which made me feel awesome! Training was definitely a real pain, as I went out with 4 different drivers. Despite passing my training I still had another driver with me because he's on light duty and has weight restrictions. Today is my first day out on my own and I feel pretty damn proud of myself. One of our drivers wasn't able to make it in today, so they sent me out to "UnholyChaos"'s neck of the woods, Ottumwa Iowa. It was only 9 stops, 9k in the box but at least I stayed on schedule. Also don't feel as stressed being alone, and didn't grind gears!

It is definitely a good feeling. Knowing that you just drove and successfully unloaded your first trailer full of everything all by yourself.

Wish I could still get that feeling.

so they sent me out to "UnholyChaos"'s neck of the woods, Ottumwa Iowa.

Awesome! Where at in Ottumwa did you deliver? I don't drive my truck through most of the town unless bobtailing home so I'm kinda curious.

Riverside family restaurant, 3 Mexican restaurants, and the BBQ joint in the mall. I've only ran that route 1 other time, usually I'm kept in des Moines.

Riverside family restaurant, 3 Mexican restaurants, and the BBQ joint in the mall. I've only ran that route 1 other time, usually I'm kept in des Moines.

Riverside is where i park at when I'm on hometime, I know that place can be hell as it's a very popular restaurant and one of the very limited truck parking locations in town.

Bubba Q's is a great bbq joint if you got time. Unsure if that lot is legal to park in long term though.

Unsure which Mexican restaurants you mean. We have a few decent ones, but we tend to frequent potros garcia and el rancho the most.

I assume you have to hand unload everything? How would that work at riverside? It's congested there enough as it is!

Unfortunately everything is hand unload and wheel it in. riverside take the fuel lane(diesel) closest to building and go through their side door. We deliver to tequila (think that's what it was called, kinda rough looking white building on the outside in downtown area) potros and el rancho. Unfortunately bubba Q's isn't open by the time I left. When I was still in training we had made it to Fairfield by 11 but they put those stops on a different truck now. I had 1 stop in Altoona (des Moines), 1 in Oskaloosa, 5 in Ottumwa, 1 in Albia, then back to Oskaloosa for final stop. I really hope I can get that route for good. Real beautiful scenery, pretty laid back route. Perfect way to start a Monday. If I'm able to get on it maybe we'll run into each other.

Riverside family restaurant, 3 Mexican restaurants, and the BBQ joint in the mall. I've only ran that route 1 other time, usually I'm kept in des Moines.

Riverside is where i park at when I'm on hometime, I know that place can be hell as it's a very popular restaurant and one of the very limited truck parking locations in town.

Bubba Q's is a great bbq joint if you got time. Unsure if that lot is legal to park in long term though.

Unsure which Mexican restaurants you mean. We have a few decent ones, but we tend to frequent potros garcia and el rancho the most.

I assume you have to hand unload everything? How would that work at riverside? It's congested there enough as it is!