Bonehead Mistakes In My First Week Solo OTR

Here are a few things I managed to accomplish in just one week on my own, in case anyone else needed a confidence boost:

1. Started to take off with a freshly hooked trailer with the landing gear still down. Obviously didn't get more than about 10 feet before I could feel and hear problems.

2. Upon realizing said mistake, in a flustered state, left tractor in gear and brake not set, started to climb out to raise the gear, tractor started rolling with me standing on the steps.

3. Picking up a load in a CA border town. Blindly followed GPS, ignoring sign that said "last USA exit" ended up stuck in the line to enter Mexico. Had to sheepishly explain myself to CBP and received an overly embarrassing flashing lights escort to get turned back around.

4. In city traffic in the LA suburbs, forgot the cardinal rule of not proceeding thru an intersection until you can fit, thereby spending a light cycle with my 53 foot trailer blocking 6 lanes of traffic. You can imagine the vitriol hurled in my direction.

All that said, I'm having a blast, starting to get my sea legs I think in week 2.

Slow yourself. Better to take 30 extra seconds than damage equipment or property.

When I was new at this, it seemed everything was moving so slow that I had to move faster when I could. WRONG! This is a slow moving business (in many ways) and as I adjusted to it, my job became easier.

Good luck in week two.

But you didn't hit anything. That's a win.

But you didn't hit anything. That's a win.

THIS is the most important thing

Here are a few things I managed to accomplish in just one week on my own, in case anyone else needed a confidence boost:

1. Started to take off with a freshly hooked trailer with the landing gear still down. Obviously didn't get more than about 10 feet before I could feel and hear problems.

2. Upon realizing said mistake, in a flustered state, left tractor in gear and brake not set, started to climb out to raise the gear, tractor started rolling with me standing on the steps.

3. Picking up a load in a CA border town. Blindly followed GPS, ignoring sign that said "last USA exit" ended up stuck in the line to enter Mexico. Had to sheepishly explain myself to CBP and received an overly embarrassing flashing lights escort to get turned back around.

4. In city traffic in the LA suburbs, forgot the cardinal rule of not proceeding thru an intersection until you can fit, thereby spending a light cycle with my 53 foot trailer blocking 6 lanes of traffic. You can imagine the vitriol hurled in my direction.

All that said, I'm having a blast, starting to get my sea legs I think in week 2.

Man that’s crazy…I never made mistakes when I was new! /s

You’ll get the hang of it soon enough. Like Turtle said you didn’t hit anything and a day with no accidents and no tickets is a good day.

Just a couple little tips about those first two things. To this day I still say out loud and point: “lines, landing gear, fifth wheel” during every drop and every hookup. I don’t get back in the cab until I’ve pointed and said each one even if I’m sure I already got everything.

As far as not setting the brakes, that one is just one you’ll have to remember but you hit the nail on the head when you pointed out your flustered state. Letting yourself get frantic or flustered can seriously set back even an experienced driver. I was recently training an experienced driver (just over a year experience) at my current job on a manual transmission (she had no restriction but hadn’t driven manual since school). She drives very well and has a good head on her shoulders but there were a couple times she freaked out because she missed a gear and all her training and experience just went out the window for a minute and I even had to grab the wheel once because she got distracted by shifting and started swerving into another lane. Point is, it happens to the best of us but the key is to maintain your composure.

Also, funny story time.. I forgot to set my brakes several months ago while unloading—literally first time I’ve ever done this as far as I can remember. I “parked” it and it didn’t move when I let off the brakes and got out. After checking in and connecting my hoses I turned on my blower to start unloading and my truck wouldn’t hold the rpm I usually unload at. I usually turn on the PTO and then use the cruise control buttons to set the rpm at 800 but it wouldn’t go up above idle so I went ahead and just started unloading at idle. Anyways I get about halfway unloaded and I’m standing next to the trailer watching my gauges and the whole truck starts to roll backward. I’ve never jumped into that truck so fast lol.. scared the crap out of me 😂 So now I make extra sure my brakes are pulled lol.

Another story…I’ve never dropped a trailer until about a year and a half ago. As far as I remember I wasn’t distracted but I was hauling flatbed and did things out of order. When you do a flatbed drop and hook to pick up a preloaded trailer at a customer alot of times you have to drop some of your gear with the trailer. I would typically drop my trailer and then drop the gear on the trailer but in this case I did it out of order and dropped the gear and forgot to finish my unhooking process which included doing my “lines, landing gear, fifth wheel” point and say. Thankfully the trailer was empty and I pulled out slowly. It did drop to the ground but it happened slowly enough it didn’t damage anything. A couple other drivers saw me but besides that no one ever knew about it. Still embarrassing! 🤣

When I think back on some of the bonehead things I have done, it amazes me. Your "trip to Mexico" made me laugh; I somehow got into the line of traffic waiting to board the QE2 cruise ship when I was supposed to be at the shipyards. La-la-la . . . When I make a mistake, I reflect and ask myself "okay, what did I learn from this?", and move on from there.

It’s kind of like the basketball saying: “No blood, no foul”. Lol

We all make mistakes when new and can count ourselves lucky when they don’t result in major harm.

I thought most trucks had the safety feature that sounds the horn when the brakes aren’t set and the door is opened. My Frightliner has it and it’s been a great, although embarrassing, safety reminder.

To a certain extent driving solo is at first like learning to swim in the middle of the ocean, sink or swim. Steve gave great basic advice to just slow down until experience is gained and then maybe the pace can be increased in certain areas. My guess is that many million mile safe drivers still do things at a slow pace just because they have so much experience, if that makes any sense.

Sometimes when driving through a major metropolitan area, I actually prefer it when traffic slows to 30 mph or so and I have more time to make decisions and follow my navigation.

It’s kind of like the basketball saying: “No blood, no foul”. Lol

We all make mistakes when new and can count ourselves lucky when they don’t result in major harm.

I thought most trucks had the safety feature that sounds the horn when the brakes aren’t set and the door is opened. My Frightliner has it and it’s been a great, although embarrassing, safety reminder.

To a certain extent driving solo is at first like learning to swim in the middle of the ocean, sink or swim. Steve gave great basic advice to just slow down until experience is gained and then maybe the pace can be increased in certain areas. My guess is that many million mile safe drivers still do things at a slow pace just because they have so much experience, if that makes any sense.

Sometimes when driving through a major metropolitan area, I actually prefer it when traffic slows to 30 mph or so and I have more time to make decisions and follow my navigation.

I know Volvos don't have that feature. It scared the snot out of me the first time I opened up my door without the brakes set in my Freightliner. My seatbelt was caught and I wasn't taking my foot off the brake, so I was thinking just open the door right quick then shut it.

I might be the only one here to admit this but I find the LA situation a bit funny and I have to give you a huge ^5 for it. I’m sure you were called everything but a son of god but given how LA motorists behave around big trucks, they kinda deserve it lol. Don’t be too hard on yourself, simple mistakes and as was mentioned, you didn’t hit anything.

Here are a few things I managed to accomplish in just one week on my own, in case anyone else needed a confidence boost:

1. Started to take off with a freshly hooked trailer with the landing gear still down. Obviously didn't get more than about 10 feet before I could feel and hear problems.

2. Upon realizing said mistake, in a flustered state, left tractor in gear and brake not set, started to climb out to raise the gear, tractor started rolling with me standing on the steps.

3. Picking up a load in a CA border town. Blindly followed GPS, ignoring sign that said "last USA exit" ended up stuck in the line to enter Mexico. Had to sheepishly explain myself to CBP and received an overly embarrassing flashing lights escort to get turned back around.

4. In city traffic in the LA suburbs, forgot the cardinal rule of not proceeding thru an intersection until you can fit, thereby spending a light cycle with my 53 foot trailer blocking 6 lanes of traffic. You can imagine the vitriol hurled in my direction.

All that said, I'm having a blast, starting to get my sea legs I think in week 2.

Almost ending up in Mexico was the funniest part, for me. It actually reminds me of when I took a road trip with a couple of friends to Tijuana back in '98. In those days, some of the highways and roads from the US side went straight into Mexico without a border crossing checkpoint. (Talking about no checkpoint going into Mexico.) I can't remember what highway I was on, but I remember my friends wondering when we would be reaching the border. We went around an elevated highway curve and then we started seeing signs in Spanish.

Imagine if you could accidentally find yourself in Mexico without a checkpoint to stop you. Those would have been really tough conversations with border patrol, and your company.