Old guy new to trucking

Nature’s splendor and highways of history 

I really love rivers. I’ve always been an ocean and beach lover, too, but really love rivers. In the areas I travel regularly I see so many beautiful river crossings that always make me wish I could explore, or at least stop and gaze.

Rivers had so much to do with the history of exploration and settlement of the U.S. and before. Primary ones that stand out in the eastern half of the country include the, Mississippi and it’s primary source, the Missouri, which begins well to the northwest, the mighty Ohio, and the many rivers that determined the location of so many eastern cities.

A little geography lesson for those not familiar with Eastern topography may help explain why so many cities are where they are. The fall line is the point or area where upland elevations descend abruptly to the lowland. In the east and southeast it is the farthest navigable point upstream from the ocean or the Chesapeake Bay. This determined the original points of development of trading centers that became cities. Some of these cities and their rivers include Trenton on the Delaware, Philadelphia on the Schuylkill, Baltimore on the Patapsco, Washington on the Potomac, Richmond on the James, and Augusta on the Savanah. These rivers are tidal below the fall line. Above the fall line and upland toward their source they are narrower, curving, and in many ways more scenic. Okay – class dismissed 😁.

In the past few weeks I have crossed a few notable boundary rivers, as well. I had never seen the Arkansas River. A pretty crossing on the interstate. I crossed the Mississippi at Memphis, which is an impressive sight. Also crossed the Missouri several times on that trip.

I 64 crosses the Big Sandy as it forms the WV – KY border. It is a pretty view. The Ohio at Louisville is a nice view. The confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela at the point of  Pittsburgh to form the Ohio is majestic. The Susquehanna, which is by far the largest tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, is beautiful at many crossing points. The Kanawha is really pretty, although terribly polluted. It is only 97 miles long from its source where the Gauley splits into the New and Kanawha to where it flows into the Ohio. It creates a beautiful river city view as it passes through Huntington and Charleston along I 64.

The most beautiful river views I see regularly are of the New River. The I 64 crossing in the New River Gorge in WV is my favorite. The New River is one of the few in the U.S. that flows north and is geologically the oldest river in North America and second oldest in the world with only the Nile being older (I know I said class dismissed, this was just a tidbit).

A beautiful small river that I have just gotten to know since trucking is the Jackson, which flows along and under a stretch of I 64 near Clifton Forge, VA. I’m looking forward to visiting that area I September.

Happy Trails!

Continuing To Learn The Ins and Outs of Trucking

It’s been a while since I posted. About 20,000 miles of been a while. 😀 My experience since switching carriers has been mixed but mostly good, but with some significant negatives, as well. 

So first the good – I’m with a quality company run by quality people. My driver manager has been with the company 20+ years and worn a lot of hats. I don’t think there is anything about the business he doesn’t know. The VP of Ops is the person I first met in the company when I was in CDL school. His door is always open and good guy to go to for advice. A former driver, so simpatico.

I’ve had a lot of good routes and seen parts of the country I’ve never seen, other than from the air. Just this week I have been in VA, KY, IN,IL, MO, IO, NE, WV, AND NC. I’ve never driven through so much flat land or seen so much corn.

Since I’m still a relative newbie I continue to learn constantly. Working with schedules and deliveries has become second nature. I’m much better at all backing maneuvers than when I started, particularly with backing to docks with tight turning spaces. The normal workflow is easy enough to master.

The not so good centers around my carrier’s route structure and some other aspects of their business model. The first is that the vast majority of our business is live load and unload. Word to the wise if you are new – find out how much of a prospective employer’s business is drop and hook. I didn’t know to ask this when I first signed on. One of my regular shippers is a quick load – about 30 minutes. Average is about two hours on each end. That eats a ton of clock and you usually (most carriers) don’t get paid detention time until over two hours. My worst was five hours, which cost me an extra night out. 

Another negative, which is really a two edged sword, is brokered freight. I don’t know how much of this is a result of freight just being slow right now and how much is my carrier’s norm. One edge is that brokered freight is always live load. If you want to change a delivery or pickup appointment it usually means our guy has to go through the original broker rather than the shipper or receiver directly. Big time sink and frequently unsuccessful. I have gotten around this some by calling the shipper or receiver directly, but often can’t even get a human on the phone, if I can even find a number. All in all this is a BIG negative versus hauling for your own customers. In fairness, given the current lull in freight, brokered business beats no business, but our backhaul deal is the biggest negative of my carrier for me. Example: I arrived to today’s receiver just past midnight last night. Was able to back to the single dock and sleep there, close enough to open doors and back to the dock at 0600 without coming out of sleeper birth mode. Unload took just over five hours! At least I slept a good part of it and got detention pay past the two hour mark. BUT I STILL DON’T HAVE A BACKHAUL. This is what will cause me to leave if there isn’t a drastic improvement.

So if you are looking for your first gig or looking to change, dig beyond driver reviews online. Find out everything you can about a carrier’s route structure with emphasis on backhaul, especially if home time is a priority.

So that’s the latest from the road for me. Lots of beauty out the windshield. Keep trucking and cherish every day.

Snakebit

Since I last posted things in general have been great since I changed carriers. The people here are great, I’ve had good routes, and I really like working here. Having said that, man have I had a string of bad luck. 

It started on a trip to Wisconsin. I got to my first destination and spent the night at their lot. I was first up for unloading and got out ahead of schedule for a pickup just twenty minutes away. I got to the address and it was a steel fabricator located off a narrow street. There was no way to turn right into the plant, which was the only entrance. I parked and went in to ask how to find a way in. The plant manager directed me to go to the end of the street and turn left at the T, then left at the light, down three blocks and left again, then straight in. No problem, right? I got to the end of the street five or six blocks down only to find that the T was a residential corner with cars parked on all sides. There was no possible way to make the turn and way to far to back out.  A resident came out and moved his car and tried helping me but there was just no way. I finally ended up knocking on doors to find folks to move cars and finally made a still very tight turn and on to the plant. The guy said that’s the way everyone goes around but I find that hard to believe. I loaded up and headed for Hagerstown. To make matters worse this was Wednesday morning, I made it to Hagerstown Thursday morning and the delivery appointment was Friday afternoon at Amazon and no luck moving it up.

So I was at Love’s getting ready to hit the shower and kill 24 hours when dispatch called and said there was a change of plans. Take the load to a drop yard in Baltimore, pick up an empty, and bring it back to our home lot. On the way I called our training manager for some coaching on when it is legit to use the time extension to 16 hours because it was going to be close on the clock and I was going to be headed south on I 95 through Baltimore and D.C. where finding a place to overnight is always tough. I thought I had a plan.

Not so fast. On the way I got a call from our new dispatcher. New plan. Drop the full trailer as planned and bobtail to Upper Marlboro to pick up a load at Nordstrom and bring it home. So I got there and shipping says the pickup number is not theirs. We found the load on the receiving side but they have no paperwork. So an hour later they let me take the load. I can’t get anyone on the phone and I’m headed home with no manifest and I’m going to run out of clock. I found out the next day that we have blank manifests for such situations but didn’t know it then.

I got to the state line on US 301, noted the full rest area to hopefully make the clock extension legit, and proceeded. I hit the weigh station on the VA side sweating bullets because of not having a manifest AND being over 14 hours and it took FOREVER for the light at the scale to turn green. Whew! Got home safe and sound. One more night on the road than planned.

Next week started with a load first to High Point and unloaded the first half then on to Charlotte to unload the rest. Back to High Point to pick up a loaded trailer at a drop lot to take to  Hendersonville. I would have had time to get it, make it to the destination and spend the night. Only the trailer was parked in a soft spot and the gear was six inches deep in the ground. A wrecker was needed to get it out and I had to spend the night there. So the trip to Hendersonville ate up most of three hours that would have been covered the day before. After a quick unload I got a load to pick up in the Charlotte area and deliver in Mechanicsville. Great! Should be home to sleep in my own bed. I got my dock assignment. This shipper required unhooking and placing a trailer jack, which was a new wrinkle to me. This was a very light load so I expected it to be quick. TWO HOURS later the light turned green and the guy came out to tell me I was good to go. I hooked up, pulled out, closed the doors, and went to the office to get my paperwork. “You pulled out??! Did you have a green light??” Yes, and your guy told me I was good to go. “That wasn’t safe! We aren’t finished loading.” So I pulled back to the dock and it took another thirty minutes to load one more pallet and then go get my paperwork. Over three hours in all, so I spent the night at a rest area north of Durham out of clock. Another extra night on the road.

So the next week I took a load to Trenton, SC. Spent the night just short of the destination and was right on time for an 0800 unload. It took over three hours. I got a load to pick up in Anderson, SC. Garmin give me bad directions and there was a detour that sent me to a road I could not turn onto, but got to the pickup okay. Because of the long unload to start the day I had to take my 10 hour far short of where I would have wanted. The drive the next day up I 77 at dawn was beautiful. I 81 all the way to Harrisburg is not an easy drive but still beautiful country. 

The fun started when I got to Harrisburg. The delivery address was what appeared to be a storefront rather than a distributing company and no place to park. Did a long go around to get back there after passing it and a guy apparently living there said he just rented the place from that company and directed me to a store several blocks down, which was still not right. A guy there said the distributor I was looking for owned the building and his was their old Illini address, and gave me directions to their location.

I got there only to find a truck broken down at the dock. A wrecker got there fairly soon and I got unloaded and headed to Lancaster to pick up a load to take to Richmond. Between the time wasted in Harrisburg and some delay finding paperwork for the Lancaster load I knew I could not make the deliver destination but should be able to find a spot to overnight. 

There is not a single truck stop on that route between Lancaster and Baltimore and the only other parking area was full. I thought I was early enough that I could find a spot on I 95. No luck on the several spots between Baltimore and the DC beltway. Bad to worse – two lanes closed on the beltway for paving caused nearly an hour delay. Both rest areas between the beltway and Richmond were jammed full. I had no choice but to use a two hour extension and that was looking dicey. I made it to our yard north of Richmond at 2239, exactly one minute before the 16 hour mark.

So a lot of things I had read about or seen on You Tube about the stuff that you encounter as a first year driver happened in a three week span. I learned a lot and managed to roll with the punches wrung out but none the worse for wear. Did I mention wrung out??

I just took a long weekend for the holiday and waiting for a load assignment. Time to hit the road again.

What a difference a few weeks makes!

Everything I have read about what to do and not do in your first year in trucking advises to stay with your first job at least a year. Some folks apparently just don’t listen to good advice. As noted in my last post I jumped ship and last week started my new job. How many ways can I say, “Happy Camper”? 

I had two days orientation, got my truck, and headed out on my first route, round trip to Louisville. I had never been through the New River Gorge and wow is it beautiful. The WV Turnpike is not the easiest piece of road but well worth it. The drop and hook was uneventful and after an overnight at the drop lot I rolled well before sunrise for the return. The rainy frontal weather added some clouds so low that the highest hills provided a climb into them. Once clear of the gorge it was a breeze the rest of the way home.  

Monday and Tuesday this week was a run to Charlotte, over to a small town in the Sandhills of SC, and back home. Local stuff yesterday and leaving this afternoon for a repeat of the Louisville route.

The people at this company are just as welcoming and driver friendly as I expected from all references and intel. There is plenty of freight and every kind of route you might want. Driver managers ask what kind of runs you want and work to find them for you. A dedicated backhaul dispatcher finds what you need to get home. Work – life balance is not an empty euphemism here.

I was assigned a good truck. It has some miles but was detailed so that it looks like new and runs great. A fridge, inverter, and good mattress makes life on the road comfortable. If I sound like a recruiter, it’s because everything I hear from other drivers here confirms my initial experience.

Time to hit the road. Might be headed to KC Monday. 

The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly, and Big News

Things took an interesting turn this week. A quick recap of my short time driving since completing training: week one, stretching into week two, turned into an eight day stretch with the weekend stuck doing a 34 hour reset in SC. I took that in stride just figuring that happens with the ebb and flow of freight. The rest of week two started with a scheduled delivery in Columbia, SC and then a 4+ hour wait for a live load in Gaffney, SC, terminal drop in Richmond and then had my truck in the shop for 2 ½ days with not a single thing fixed, then a quick run to NC and a backload to deliver Saturday morning. Not great. I asked my driver manager about weekend layover and minimum pay for the week with no immediate reply. Hmmm…

So now week three: I was assured of being home Friday if I posted availability to go out Sunday, which I did. Nothing Sunday. Monday morning load assigned, available for immediate pickup. I arrived to find that it would not in fact be ready for 10-12 hours. I notified dispatch and was told that customer service would contact the customer (I don’t know what for). Apparently it was not until over two hours later that what I reported was confirmed AND THEN dispatch started looking for a load. Got one and picked up in South Hill and delivered in High Point, so only 220 miles for the day. No dispatch until next morning for a load to not pick up until 1500. I asked to wait for something better and was told I had to take it. I asked for customer service to inquire about earlier pickup but never get an answer. It was only when I got there and asked that I found out the shipper would have loved to ship early as it would have eased his afternoon but he never got a call. When I let my driver manager know I was told that she had contacted customer service but did not know beyond that and that I needed to not be so frustrated when things didn’t work out my way. This excellent management advice did not, of course, add to my frustration. Yeah, right.

I drove until I ran out of clock and took my ten hour in a rest area. I started next morning on the dot of first legal minute. Fog slowed things down and there was heavy traffic around Augusta even at 0630. I hear they had some golf thing going on 😉.

Now for the one really great part of the week and the kind of thing I knew I would love about this new life I have chosen. An absolutely beautiful moonset just one day shy of full moon. Then the drive down US 1 toward Macon was gorgeous. Fog in the low spots and ravines and miles of pecan orchards, which I had never seen before. 

I arrived at the consignee with only twenty minutes to spare. I asked out of curiosity if the load could have delivered the day before to find that it could have been, but late deliveries were always pushed to the next day (confirmed by a driver who told me he was less than five minutes late the day before and got pushed). 

Then on to a pickup near Atlanta with the joy of what is reportedly among the worst traffic in the whole country. I used to be there a lot twenty years ago so I wasn’t surprised how much worse it has gotten. So just 500 miles in two days when I could have done all but the last pickup in one if customer service could have bothered to make a few calls.

As my frustration had mounted during the week I contacted the carrier that was my first choice when I finished CDL school. The reason I did not go with them to begin with is that they lost two trainers and had a several month wait as a result. The recruiter was happy to hear from me and promised to see if my training at my current job would pass muster with their requirements.

So on to the end of the tale. I overnighted just north of Atlanta and rolled early for a nearly seven hour pull up I 85, then I 40 across to I 95 and north to near the VA line. Before I even finished the drop I had a load tendered going to Jax. I knew that not only could I not make it home Friday, there was a fair likelihood that I would get struck over the weekend again due to lack of northbound freight, just like the last time. Home time on weekends is a priority to me as it is to most drivers. Some weekends I might have gone with the plan, BUT, in the meantime I was told that, yes, I was credited layover pay for the weekend from the last Florida trip, but since I was receiving the minimum guarantee for that week it would be deducted. I tutored statistics in college so I’m pretty good at math, but I can’t get those numbers to jive! Oh, and no detention pay for the 4+ hour wait for that other load, reason unclear.

So with some steam already coming out of my ears I declined the Jax trip and waited for the call I knew was coming. It came, not from my driver manager but her boss, wanting an explanation. In the interim there was what might be divine intervention. I got confirmation from the other carrier that, yes, they would love for me to come on board. A call with the recruiter and head driver manager confirmed everything, including the routes and lanes that I am looking for and the commitment to home time that this company is known for.

The call with my current fleet manager was not so swell. I explained that I had made it clear to my driver manager that I have a regular commitment on Sunday mornings (I play in the ensemble at my church and, especially this Sunday, we will be making a joyful noise!) and that I am ok with being out until Saturday, but not Sunday. He said that was understood but there were no guarantees of that and they have a business to run. I told him that I understood that we were not going to have a meeting of the minds, that when people’s actions and words don’t match up I know I am in the wrong place and that I would have his truck back in Richmond within the hour.

I’m not happy with the way this ended but absolutely jazzed to be going to work where I am. I have purposely left the name of my employer out of my stories. I may be sharing that soon.

How’s that for a whirlwind week? So I’m off next week and starting my new gig 4/19. I’ll keep you posted!

This is day 7 of a very long first week on my own. Overall a really good week but with a few bad luck hits and the current one not over yet as I am in the second hour of waiting for a live load with no reasonable idea of how much longer to wait.

But to recap my rookie travels:

After completing my road test and getting my truck set up last Monday there was no load available until late Tuesday afternoon. It was a high security load so non-stop from just south of Richmond to our terminal in central NC. I got another load to pick up the next morning in Charlotte. I spent the night on an off-ramp very near the pickup. Other than the fact that the shipper pointed me to the wrong area of the lot and then had no idea where the load was it went fine. That was the first time sink of the week. That load went to just outside of Greenville, NC, and then on to New Bern. No drop spots were available on the whole huge yard and a yard jockey pointed me to a spot between two dock doors. It was tight and difficult with not enough turn radius. Picked up the load to go to near Tampa and spent another night on an off-ramp of I-95 near Dunn, NC. The run to Tampa took all my clock Thursday and I spent the night at the destination facility, doing an 8/2 split before rolling for Albany, GA to pick up a load to take to Publix in Jax. I spent that night at a Love’s with a hot meal and a long hot shower. 

I had never driven up I-75 through the western part of Florida before. Beautiful country. Weird billboards. One was for a Port-o-John company. That seems like a strange place to advertise such a product – “Hey, Marge, I hadn’t thought of it but we could use one of those in the backyard! Write down that phone number”. Another was for a wig retailer boasting over 1000 wigs. A third of the billboard was a photo of the owner; a man with close-cropped hair that didn’t look like it could be a wig. Not much about the products, but a big smile!

On the road as soon as my clock allowed to deliver in Jax. In and out at Publix in short order but then things headed downhill. The only load headed north wasn’t to deliver until Monday morning so I got to take my 34 hour reset at a Pilot in Bowman, SC. I slept 10 hours – about a record for me. Saw the first two electrical storms on the way north. Happy Spring!

Although spending the weekend on the road and in a truck stop is not my idea of fun, at least I passed the time all day Sunday without going nuts. It rained most of the day but got out for a good walk late in the afternoon. Between my iPad, a good book, online church and playing guitar (glad I brought it) the day went fairly quickly. At least I am on my own now. That would have been a lousy day if sharing the truck with my trainer (or anyone else except my sweetie).

So this morning I delivered the adult beverages in Columbia and headed here to Gafney, SC, where I have now been sitting for 3 hours waiting to be loaded. I am worried I will run out of 14 hour clock just short of home. It will probably come down to the rush hour traffic through Charlotte. Need a fuel stop, too.

So by the time I get home I will have logged almost 2700 miles and 6 loads for the 7 day period. Whew! It’s been a whirlwind.

Well, make it day 8. The load ended up taking over 4 hours and a wrong turn from the detour back to I-85 cost me more time. I ran out of clock and had to spend the night at the Virginia Welcome Center. Home first thing this morning. I put the truck in the shop to get a few things fixed. Just home now in late morning.

Welcome to trucking.

More next week.

Time to Fly Solo

I finished training last Friday and did my road test yesterday (3/20) – happy first day of Spring! I was issued my own ride. My truck is a 2022 Freightliner Cascadia. I spent the rest of the afternoon yesterday getting moved in, electronics set up and mounted the way I want and everything ready to go. Slept at home last night and now waiting for my first solo load. I am excited and looking forward to heading out of the gate!

More later.

Two Up and Down Weeks – Welcome to Trucking

The week started out Monday on a good note. We picked up a load from a nearby shipper and headed for a two location drop in PA. We didn’t start until evening but still hit heavy traffic in NOVA. Took our 10 hour in the parking lot of the first destination. This was the first time I had delivered to a retailer with no dock. They had a portable loading ramp. The lot was very tight and we had to get turned around the right way for it. We finished there and headed to the second drop. It was the same unloading situation but no big deal other than the cramped turnaround. We waited quite a while and still didn’t get a normal load. Dispatch sent us to a company facility to meet another driver who was out of clock and could not finish the trip to VA.

The trip through the town we were leaving in PA and to our meeting point in NJ was very difficult. Three lanes wide in city traffic at rush hour on a road I would not have chosen. 

At our meeting point I did get good backing practice as it was very tight and had to work from a non-standard setup. Learning every day. By the time we got out of there traffic wasn’t bad on I-95 all the way to Richmond. We had to T-Call the load (leave it at our terminal) because we ran out of clock. I did get to sleep at home, a bonus even though I only made it home at bedtime. Things went downhill from there. I got to the terminal the next morning when our mandatory 10 hours was up only to find out that the truck was past due for preventative maintenance and we weren’t going anywhere until it was done – and the shop was booked all day and the next. Dispatch intervened and they promised to “work us in”. That didn’t happen until about 1800 after I had headed home (another bonus, at least). The worse news was that a broken seal was discovered (about a five hour job) and the mechanic that did that would not return until 1100 the next day. We picked up our load the next morning and delivered to Tidewater. Another bad parking lot situation as the normal approach was blocked by a construction crane. Back to Richmond empty. Not a good week.

So we started late again the next Monday with a load of Clorox out of Maryland and long drive to NC. The next day the delivery at the consignee took almost three hours and really messed up our clock. So a very early morning pickup about an hour away and a good run to Carlisle, PA. The last part of the run was really tough with 20-25 knot crosswinds on I-81. This was another good learning experience having to anticipate greatly increased wind force when clearing a hill and hitting big wide open fields on the windward side. Easy drop and hook and the next load only one mile away. We took our 10 hour in a Cabella’s parking lot. Those same winds rocking the truck and howling made for a lousy sleep.

On to CT the next morning for a quick drop and headed to MA. We took the empty through winding back roads into the Berkshires and left it with a regular account that needed one. My trainer took over as I was out of drive clock, bobtailed back to Worcester and picked up another empty, making it to a Pilot with only minutes left on the clock.

We headed to Attleboro, MA the next morning. We saw a really bad wreck involving a semi on I-90 headed in the opposite direction. A box truck rear-ended the semi, apparently without even slowing. The impact was so great that it sheared the kingpin, driving the trailer forward hard enough to split it open. There wasn’t much left of the box truck cab. I don’t know the fate of the drivers.

We arrived at the shipper only to find that they had made a clerical error and shipped our load elsewhere. Fortunately they had another load to go to the same place, but had to load it. Another three hour time sink. As a result we couldn’t make it to Richmond, taking our 10 hour at the Chesapeake House service plaza in MD. Easy run to the destination south of Richmond the next morning, but no empty to pick up. We waited several hours to be dispatched, but no Jo, and called it a week. 

This week is the last of my training and I am due to test next week and get my own truck. I’ll keep you posted!

Turn the corner week – no pun intended

This was a very full week with a lot of learning and starting – just starting – to get somewhat comfortable with the truck in most situations. Several glitches and dealing with delays and apparently normal holdups. Also learning how to best manage clock time to figure out when best to stop for breaks, showers, and 10 hour breaks for sleep. Pulled my first all nighter in many years.

We got an evening start on Monday due to my trainer having to meet the technician to fix the Smartdrive camera. This is the system used to record front facing and driver facing video when triggered by an event like sudden stops, swerves, a collision, or other erratic moves. First load was cardboard from Richmond to Delaware. The trip up was uneventful, but the next pickup was Carlisle, PA, and the route took us a long way across curvy, hilly two lane state roads in hard rain at night. No fun. This was the all nighter. We did the pickup and turned in about daybreak.

We rolled Tuesday afternoon for Plainfield, CT and headed to MA for another load. We had a mechanical issue while at the customer location Wednesday morning. The company road service was impressive. The truck was there within an hour and had us out in under thirty minutes with a new set of air hoses. The late start and worst possible traffic through the Bronx put us back to Richmond for our drop around 21:00. No empty trailers so bobtailed (my first time) to the terminal. I got to sleep at home with just enough time to say goodbye to my better half Thursday morning and head out.

We had to bobtail to a customer location to pick up an empty trailer then pick up another cardboard load to head to NJ. At least keeping Amazon in cardboard so they can keep sending stuff to someone at my house – not saying who, but it’s not me nor the dog nor the cat. The trip to NJ was miserable. Traffic on I 95 from NoVa and around I 495 was stop and go at best. We escaped and went east across the Bay Bridge. Oh boy! Did I mention that high bridges creep me out to the big time? I’m talking sweating palms and high anxiety, and that’s in a car! I’ve jumped out of airplanes for fun but HATE high bridges. Glad to get over. Hopefully not again anytime soon.

Quick trip to the pick up in PA Friday morning for a scheduled 11:00 live load. Should have been looking good for home by late afternoon. Or not. It was a very difficult backup to a dock without enough room to straighten the tractor in front of the trailer. Getting square and up against the dock with the tractor at an angle was challenging even with coaching. Finally got out of there about 14:00, which would have put us right in the worst of it from north of Baltimore, around DC, and through NoVa. We opted to add miles to miss that. Headed west on PA Turnpike. That wouldn’t have been too bad we’re it not for winds 20 – 25 with gusts over 30. This was really challenging. Between the wind, bumpy surface, curves at full speed, and heavy traffic it was a tough couple of hours. From there, I 81 to I 66 to US 17 to I 95 and home was fairly easy going and I realized I was finally starting to relax and drive, even in continued heavy traffic. The intended late afternoon arrival became 21:00, but a solid trip from a learning perspective.

So another week as a trainee in the books. Nearly 1700 miles in the now dreaded northeast. I’m over half way through training now and it will be fine with me if I never drive north of the Mason – Dixon when I’m finished. On the plus side I really do think if you can drive up there you can handle driving anywhere. And with March just days away the odds are only getting better that I won’t face driving in winter weather until later this year when I will have a lot of miles under my belt.

More later.

So my first whole trip. My trainer had picked up a load on the way to pick me up Tuesday morning at the terminal and drove to just over CT line where we took our required 10 hour break. I took over from then on – York, PA to New Holland, PA – Amish country. Beautiful. Load of tobacco. First time backing to a dock to be loaded. Fairly easy going to there. Time to start drinking out of the fire hose.

We went back through York and I 83 to Baltimore and then I 95 through DC at rush hour and south to Nashville, NC. Went through about as bad as it gets traffic around Baltimore and the rest of Maryland due to several crashes. Dropped and picked up empty (that’s the usual routine, then the opposite at next pickup). Overnight there in NC. 460 miles and drove 10+ hours.

Wednesday morning we went to New Bern NC, picked up a load and headed north and spent the night in Martinsburg, WV. 499.6 miles, just missed my first 500 mile day.  It was very challenging driving US17 from Fredricksburg north at night. Heading downhill, with a load, into a turn, when I couldn’t see far enough to tell how sharp or gradual the turn was gave me a tough time. Headed to Shippensbug, PA in the morning, picked up another load in Carlisle, PA and home in the rain. So 1200 miles in three days.

Challenging. Lots to learn. It’s a lot harder to stay perfectly in your lane going downhill into a curve at 67 mph (governed speed) with 40,000 pounds pushing you faster and another semi only three feet away beside you than it was on two lane Route 10 at 45 mph in school!

One big thing CDL school did not teach at all is the backing maneuver that you do about 90% of the time. Not a slam, as DMV test requires three specific backing maneuvers, but not this one. In a yard or a truck stop to back between two other trucks or trailers, you are usually approaching right in front of the row of trucks perpendicular to them, pulling your cab just past the open spot, right turn until your tractor is 90 degrees, then left 45 degrees, then back toward the open box at that angle and hook into the spot. Completely different than offset but into the same width spot, only with hard objects on each side. Almost never enough space to set up able to see the truck or trailer on the blind side until you hook most of the way into the box. Takes several get-out-and-looks unless you have a spotter. Work in process.