Got lost for the first time.

I dropped my trailer in Smyrna, DE then picked up a load of towelettes from Dover and got the heck out of there. It was to the P&G in Neely's Landing. I was happy about that b/c I'd been there already. I love not having to look for new places in this big truck.

I actually got turned around for the first time on my way to pick up the load in Dover. I got the directions mixed up and ended up making a wrong turn. Once I realized I was going the wrong way I pulled off on the shoulder and got it straight. Getting lost was one of the reasons I didn't make it very long the first time I tried driving OTR. I used to panic when I would get lost... I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest. I think that the local driving experience when I quit Prime made a lot of difference. I didnt panic... I just pulled over, figured it out, and got back on track.

I'm at the St. Louis OC now. I delivered to P&G in Neelys Landing this morning, then I bobtailed up here to pick up a trailer that I took to Conagra in Alton, IL. I was supposed to take it to Morris, IL, but I only had enough hours to get loaded and get back here. I only pick up 1:45 tomorrow so it looks like I'll be stuck here until Thursday. I'm scheduled to be home in Louisiana Friday, but we'll see how that goes.

I ended up with 2727 miles for last week. Still not what I wanted, but I won't complain. And I'm still bugging Jessica to get me out of this peterbilt and into a frieghtliner. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Back in my truck

I got my truck back this morning I'm sad to say. After running in the freightliner for a week it saddens me to be driving this peterbilt again.
I've been getting ok miles this week. After I delivered in Jackson, MO the other day, I picked up right across the street from P&G. I took that to Associated in OKC. I thought I had made a $65.00 mistake there. The load assignment said that it wasn't a hand unload. When I took my paperwork in the lady pointed this guy out to me that I needed to talk to about getting unloaded. I went to the lumper and he looked over my paperwork and told me it would be $65.00 to unload. I say great and they get started. I hadn't had to use a lumper yet so I wasn't exactly sure how the process worked at SNI. So, I go in and call Jessica to find out and she explains that I need to call in first, and she'll contact customer service (I think) and get me the comcheck number. Well, she calls them and finds out that they won't authorize payment for a lumper here. By the time I get off the phone with her, the green light on the wall is flashing telling me that I'm unloaded. So I whip out $65.00 out of my wallet and pay the guys. Luckily for me she pleaded my case of ignorance to someone and got it authorized.
I'm glad I got put with Jessica. She's been lots of help so far and she's great to work with.
After I finished in OKC I got a load assignment to pick up in Jenks, OK (just outside of Tulsa) and deliver to McDonough, GA. This would be my load through W Memphis to pick up my truck.
So I dropped this evening to McDonough. Before I had gotten there I got a load assignment to pick up a loaded trailer from the same place I delivered (Kimberly Clark) and take it up to Delaware somewhere. I'm not real excited about this b/c I was hoping to get lucky and stay out of the northeast, but I knew it would come sooner or later... I was just hoping for later.
So I picked up and drove until my 11 was up. Now I'm at a Pilot in Duncan, SC. Me and Janette just got out of the shower and she's heating up some campbells chunky soup in the lunchbox over we bought today. This load will give me a little over 2700 miles for this week. I'll drop it first thing Sunday morning and hopefully I'll get one more load that can deliver Monday before the cutoff. I'd love to break 3000 miles.

In my 3rd truck

The load I was supposed to pick up at GP Sunday morning wasn't ready when I got there, then it wasn't ready three hours later when I checked back. Now, this load was supposed to be ready before midnight on Saturday, but here it is 09:00 Sunday morning and nothing. I got off that one and on one going from GP to Meridian, MS. I shot over to Meridian and dropped that trailer then bobtailed 139 miles to Brookhaven, MS where I slept for the night at a truckstop 2 miles away from my shipper.

That brings me to this morning. I picked up a loaded trailer of cheps that goes to Jackson, MO. I need to get back to W Memphis so I can get this loaner truck back to the guy who needs it tomorrow. My part was supposed to arrive this morning and be fixed shortly after. When I got to the OC at 13:00 and checked in with the shop, they told me the part hasn't showed up by Peterbilt says it will be there the next morning. So, I drop that trailer and turn in the keys to my loaner. I hate to see it go... it's so much nicer than my truck.

I went in and to talk to my DBL and let him know the situation with my truck. I was kinda bummed because I figured I'd be stuck in a hotel for the night while I waited for my truck. But, he came through for me and found me another loaner. So I took off towards Jackson. I'm sitting at a truckstop about 15 miles south of my cosignee's exit. My appt was for 18:35 tomorrow night, but I got Jessica to bump it up to 09:00. The average duration for this stop is 07:30. I sure hope it doesn't take them that long... seems ridiculous to me.


Well, a big reason I post here is to display my actual miles and compare them to what my goals are. Here is how it's gone so far...

Week 1: I got my truck on a Friday and left. I was only able to get in 2 short trips before the cutoff Monday at 17:00.
896 pd miles

Week 2: My first full truck. This is kinda where I expected to be at this point... actually a little more than I expected. But, I'll be shooting for more. I can't wait till I'm not having any truck problems and can stay away from the OC.
2709 pd miles

So far so good, but I'll be trying to improve.

At home

It's been a few days since I've been on so let me catch up. I took that load to Laredo and sat for about 13 hours waiting for another one. Finally I got a Nestle load going to De Kalb, IL. They routed me through W Memphis so I could have my truck looked at.

Thurday when I got to W Memphis and someone from the shop came out to look at my truck he saw that the gear box was leaking. He'd said the guy who had the truck before me was supposed to go get it fixed, but apparently never did. At first he told me that it could take two weeks for the part to come in, but after making a phone call he said it would be there Monday.

I went in and talked to whoever is under my DBL, Jessica (I don't know everybody's abbreviations yet) and she got me a loaner. I was bummed b/c I thought it would be a piece, but it turns out it's nice, clean truck that's almost new. So I'll enjoy the next few days out.

They sent me on a load to Georgia Pacific in Zachary, LA. I left early this morning and dropped the trailer. I drove about 40 minutes home to drop off a lot of the stuff we took with us. We overpacked a lot and it's been very tight in the truck this week.

I'm laying in my bed right now... I'm picking up a loaded trailer from Georgia Pacific in the morning and taking it back up to W Memphis. It's going up to Maine, but I have to have this truck back to the yard for the guy it belongs to for Monday.

Jessica is supposed to be looking into getting me out of this Peterbilt and into a Freightliner. I sure hope she does.

Well so far so good. I'm enjoying being back out here so far. I haven't gotten lost yet so I'm very happy. My load out of Lima ended up being loaded last night so I went and grabbed the trailer and took it about 15 miles away and weighed it. I was 350 lbs over on the tandems. I went back to holes and everything was fine. It's so much easier to slide the tandems since I have Janette here to help me.

I stayed at that TA last night and we took showers. Had to pay $10 b/c we didn't get fuel but it was well worth it.

We got up this morning and and knocked out the short trip to London, KY. I need to look into the short haul pay. I know it exists, but don't know how it works.

I was pre-assigned a load by the time I got to the Wal-Mart DC in London. I'm getting loaded tomorrow am in Berea, KY and heading to Laredo, TX. It's 1294 paid miles... not too bad. I wish I could get loads like that non-stop. From my trip planning I think I should be in Laredo 10/17 around 14:30. We'll see how good I am at trip planning though.

I need to have my truck looked at when I get a chance. I'm assuming it needs power steering fluid b/c when I'm backing it takes all of my energy to turn the wheel and it's making a loud noise. By the time I get backed in my arms are worn out.

We're about to hit the sack now... Janette owes me a massage from our bowling bet last week. It's time to collect.

I didn't post last night when I stopped b/c I was pissed off. I got Streets & Trips w/ GPS for my laptop. Well for anybody else who has it, you know that the GPS sensor goes on the side of the laptop in a USB port. I had my computer sitting on my bunk and when I sat down next do it I pressed down on it with my hand and snapped it off. I'm going to try to return it, but I don't know if they'll take it.

The rest of the day went ok. I arrived at my shipper in Southaven, MS right on time for my appointment at 11:00. They had me loaded and I was pulling out at 14:30. I ended up stopping for the night at a Pilot in Pendleton, KY. Left this morning right when my 10 was over and made it to P&G at 13:30 central to drop my trailer.

I already had another load sent to me when I got there. I'm supposed to pick up a loaded trailer at the same location to go to London, KY. It's only 279 paid miles, but I thought I'd have time to get it there tonight.

Turns out it's not scheduled to be loaded until tomorrow at 05:00. The lady there told me that it might be ready around 19:00 eastern to have dispatch call and check. So, I'm sitting at the flying j 10 miles down the street waiting. I'm listing to the LSU/Kentucky game. LSU is up by 6 right now... keeping my fingers crossed.

Getting my truck

I got up this morning and went to the West Memphis OC to be told that truck was in the shop waiting on a part to come in and the computer said it would take two days. Great!!! I'm so ready to get rolling that I can't stand it. Well I did a little detective work and found out that it was a cab extender and that they could have it that day. So it was out of the shop by 1700 and I got put on a load. I have to be in Southhaven, MS tomorrow at 1100 to pick up and I'm headed up to Lima, OH. 617 paid miles and the load is due anytime on 10/14. Avg duration of load time is 05:30. We'll see how it goes.

As for the truck... it's a 2005 Peterbilt with a little over 481,000. Seems like a lot of miles, but the truck drives pretty well. Hopefully it holds up for a while. Had to get a new mattress in it and it's going to require lots of cleaning. My girlfriend did a good bit of it tonight, but there's a lot left to do.

We're in a hotel for tonight and looking forward to getting started tomorrow. I'll report back tomorrow.

Orientation

Day 1 (Saturday)
We left home at 0530 Saturday morning to head for Dallas in the rental car Schneider set up for me. We ended up at the hotel around 1230. It took forever to get the car unloaded... I brought everything that I could think of that I'd need in the truck because once I get a truck I want to be able to go out and not have to go back by the house anytime soon. After we got unloaded I took the rental car to the airport to drop it off per my instructions from SNI. From there a cab picked me up and took me to the OC for my pre-hire physical. To be honest, this was the part that worried me about orientation. I was never in great shape, but I did play lots of sports when I was a little younger. Now I'm in the worst shape I've ever been in. I get out of breath easily so I was scared that my heartrate would get too high. But, I never came real close to hitting my limit. And after seeing some of the people that were able to pass I realize that I never had anything to worry about. After the physical I was told to be back in the same room at 0700 the next day so I went back to the hotel to call it a night.

Day 2 (Sunday)
I was the classroom at 0700 and the whole day wasn't very eventful. We were told that we'd be there until Wednesday sometime. Then, we'd be assigned driver #'s and trucks and hit the road. At this point I can't even really remember what all we went over in this first day of class. We were thrown a lot of info and all of it didn't stick. I remember talking about logging, qualcomm, safety... all the regular stuff.

Day 3 (Monday)
We did a few hours in the classroom and then all went out for driving tests. I was pretty nervous about this also. I got hired on as an experienced driver, but it's been since 2003 that I was an OTR driver. I drove tractor/trailers on and off for a while after... mostly daycabs. So it had been a while since I was behind the wheel of one of these big boys. I was also worried because I hadn't looked over the whole list of items to check for a pre-trip since I got my CDL in '03. But I was worried about nothing. It all came back to me when I got behind the wheel and we weren't even questioned about pre-trips. Good to go.

Day 4 (Tuesday)
Today was a lot more class. Went over macro 18's and trip planning a lot. I believe we took a Haz Mat test that day also. We heard a lot more of the same stuff.

Day 5 (Wednesday)
It was a shorter day today. We went over the benefits that are available for company drivers. My instructor convinced me to take advantage of the 401k plan. Seems like a pretty good deal and you only have to stay 3 years to be vested. We went over to the simulators which was pretty fun. I'd been looking forward to that the whole time. You do a simulation of a jacknife and blowing a steer. I did really well on those so the guy controlling it raised the ice level to the maximum and kept turning the wind on and off. Then, he put me in a jacknife so that it was impossible to keep on the road. I went into a wall and flipped over. He told me that was my parting gift. After that, we went back to class to finish up some paperwork and get assigned driver #'s and trucks. Finally we got our free boots and that was that.

We were told in the beginning that we may be assigned a truck that was located elsewhere. I was hoping and praying that mine would be in Dallas so I could get rolling asap, but it turns out that mine is in West Memphis, AR. So my instructor set me up with another rental car and I'm headed that way. As a matter of fact, I'm writing this as we're en route. We just passed a big brown sign that says "Birthplace of Bill Clinton" on I-30 by exit 30. My girlfriend is driving so I'd have a chance to sit down and write this. I believe I'm going to take a nap so I'll be ok in case I get lucky and get a load early tomorrow.

I'm expecting us to arrive in West Memphis at around 0100 so we're going to get a room and rest. I'm actually glad I get to pick my truck up there so I'll have a chance to meet my DBL. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get a truck that's in halfway decent shape. I'll report how it goes back here.

Here's where we are now

I went over this some in the description of this blog, but here's my story.



In late 2003 I decided to go to Prime to be trained as a driver and get my CDL. I made it through the training easily and even finished a couple months early. Passing all the tests and learning how to drive was easy, but I wasn't prepared for the OTR trucker lifestyle. I had no idea what I was getting myself into and my whole career with Prime only lasted approximately 6 months.



Well, I went on to work for a few different local companies after that. I tried hauling water from oil tanks in the Texas panhandle, but that wasn't for me. All that did was make me realize that whatever driving job I have, I wanted it to be driving on pavement. I ended up getting a job in Amarillo, TX doing a linehaul going to the same place every night and switching trailers with a driver from Dallas. This was more like what I was looking for. Eventually though, I started getting homesick (I am from Louisiana) so when I found out that the company I was working for in Amarillo was opening an office in Baton Rouge I jumped all over it.



So, even though it wasn't set to open for about 4 months, I took off back home. I drove at a temp job hauling bread for that time. The opening of the new office got held up because of hurricane Katrina, but it finally opened and I was suprised when they asked me to take the hub manager position. After considering it for a little while I decided to accept. After all, they told me that if I didn't like it I could always go back to being a driver.



We got the office going, but I wasn't too excited about the manager job. It payed less that being a driver and was much more stressful. I let the head guys in Houston know to find someone for the job and I kept things going until they got the new guy in. I drove a straight truck for this company for about another 14 months before I decided to to something I'd be wanting to do for a few years, but never had the guts.



I got my real estate license and left my salaried job for a commission only job that I had no experience in. It may sound like a disaster waiting to happen, but it actually turned out to be a good thing. I picked it up quickly and got pretty good at my job. I was having as much success (if not more) than some of the people that had been at that office for years.



Don't get me wrong... I wasn't lighting the world on fire, but I was doing okay. I wasn't making quite as much money as I did at my last driving job, but I was on my way... and I loved what I was doing.



Well, here I was in September after starting selling real estate in March and I just keep getting this urge to go back on the road and drive. I ignored it for a while, but kept finding myself thinking about it. I'm not exactly sure of the reason... real estate has been my dream job for years and I was finally doing it, and loved it. But, something inside me wanted to go drive again. As much as I like running my own real estate business, I really miss knowing that I have a paycheck coming every week.

So here I am now...about to hit the road again. I believe I'll have a much better chance to make it this time. The first time I went OTR I had absolutely no idea of what I was getting myself into. I had this whole grand picture of what life as a driver would be like, but I was way off. I'm much more prepared now for life on the road, and I'm really looking forward to it.

The blog has a few purposes.
1. When I first went to PD.com I told everybody that I wanted to average 3000 miles a week, so I'm going to post my miles weekly to keep track. I realize that I won't be coming right out of the gate and hit that mark, but that's what I'm working for.

2. I enjoyed reading so many other people's blogs that I wanted to make my own for other new people to see what it's like for a new guy.

3. To keep me occupied during down time.


I really doubt anybody will even read this so it's more for me to keep track of how I'm doing on my mileage goals and to give me something to do.

This post is getting long enough so I'm going to start another one about my orientation.