Ride Along With G-town Diary

My first taste of trucking started Saturday afternoon, talked to G on phone around noon to hammer out the details of ride along. A little while after our call ended I got a text from him with an optional homework assignment. Was asked to look up the stores on google maps and come up with a docking strategy as if I were a trainee. I was happy to give it a shot. Was hard to judge the actual available space from satellite view but I did pretty well

Sunday, met at Walmart DC 7030 at 6:30am. WOW!! Place is huge. Trailers neatly lined up along building as well as around perimeter. Trucks lined up in their own areas. lot jockeys moving trailers, trucks dropping and hooking, coming and going. Place is like a bee hive, really amazing to see for the 1st time. We went to truck and went over pre-trip Insp. of engine compartment, tires/rims/hubs, springs, ETC.. Entered truck, went over all the gauges, buttons, switches and in cab pre-trip procedures. G explained the BOL and what numbers were needed off of it for the macro. Then we went over basic functions of macro and e-log while entering the daily information. Now we’re off to find the trailer, we find it and and go over the hooking procedure including checking height and 5th wheel operation, hook up, attach air and power lines and pre-trip trailer

Time to hit the road!! Pull up to scale and check axle weights, Good to go as is. Check out at guard shack and away we go. While on the road throughout the day, G explained everything involved in the driving of the truck. What he’s checking in mirrors, following distance jake brake settings and happily answered all my my questions, I had many!!!

1st stop! We pulled up and GOALed the area, then we went over the docking approaches for each door. Docked and went inside store, went over supervising the unload, G handed off invoice, collected stickers from pallet labels as they were coming off truck and placed them on paper work, got signature and headed back to truck. Round 2 of macro walkthrough and back on road. 2nd stop was a repeat of 1st with only difference being the tandems needed to be moved 2holes for ride back due to empty trailer so we went through that procedure

Upon return to DC we checked in at guard shack, found spot for trailer, went through the unhooking procedure, post trip and end of day macro

It was a great experience, G is a great guy, we hit it off well and had a great day. Very happy to have made a new friend and I can’t thank him enough for this opportunity. Going out for a day and seeing the job 1st hand has squashed the fear of the unknown. Before today I was pretty sure I wanted to get into this, now I know I want to pursue this career.

Thank you again G, for the millionth time

Sounds like a great experience! You got to see the right way of doing things. Hopefully you take that knowledge along with you as you get started in your career.

Any photos of this experience?

That's awesome! I'm glad to hear it was a positive experience

RealDeihl and Rob It was more then positive, it was awesome. It was great to have a pre-training experience like that. I am so much more comfortable about going to company training now, I feel it will help me absorb the training more clearly, possibly quicker and definitely deeper. I’m a do it right or don’t bother kind of person so I will definitely take everything I learned yesterday into training and my career

PackRat Sorry, No pics, I didn’t even think about that. I was so focused on learning, the only time I took my phone out was to text my wife during the 30 min break. Yesterday we ran a dry, G invited me to take another run with him so he can show me a reefer if our schedules line up. If so, I will get some pics and post em

Hey sorry guys...it never crossed my mind to snap pics. Weather wasn’t exactly conducive for decent photographs; steady rain, raw, and just enough wind to “enhance” the experience.

Delco Dave and I definitely hit it off; he asked very good, purposeful questions and clearly has a grounded set of expectations. He seems to have an abundance of common sense and a level head. Two things that are vitally important, but very difficult to teach.

Although there were only two stops, there was enough variety and some surprise curve balls for him to see the reality of a day’s work in trucking.

I enjoyed the day and appreciated the opportunity to confirm his decision. We’ll definitely plan a day to run a consolidated FDD reefer dispatch.

Delco Dave, and G-Town,

Loved this diary. I remember going out on the road with my dad (O/O for almost ten years). He's been gone since 2016 and I miss him so much, he was my best friend. My brother was an O/O also for a few years until he became disabled. I learned so much about the "Real" daily life of a long-haul trucker from my many trips with both of them.

By the way, both my dad and my brother would tell anyone to NOT be an Owner/Operator and definitely NOT be a Lease/Operator. The simple fact is, according to them, company drivers make just as much money but without the added stress and headaches and with more driver support and resources. (That was just a freebie LOL)

You are very wise to pair up with a good, experienced driver to get some real-world experience, before taking the plunge. Not everyone can do that, for a variety of reasons, but for those who can, I would highly recommend it. I'm flattered that you'll be following my training diary and I will definitely be following along with you as well.

SHOUT OUT to G-Town.....It shows a lot of character and dedication to your industry that you (and others like you, I'm sure) are willing to give of your time and energy, and share your home-on-wheels with a virtual stranger to help them get a leg-up on this career path. You, sir, are the reason I've always told my wife and kids that if you brake down in the middle of nowhere and can't find a cop, flag down a trucker over anybody else. They are professionals, accountable to the law more so than any other drivers on the road, and knowledgeable enough to know what to do, besides the fact many of them have families back at home themselves. I salute you, G-Town, and hope to see you out there on the road one of these days.

Happy New Year to you Both