Small Victory

[MikeJ]

So my brother is moving out tomorrow and I'm pulling this trailer down to Cincinnati tomorrow. Well we had to move the cars around the driveway and I drove this trailer around the block. That's my truck that I drive everyday (my personal car) and I set up and ally docked this trailer into my driveway with one shot (I was a tad surprised, but I just went and did it ha-ha). I know it's just a little guy, but those little guy trailers react fast and can be kind of tricky to back up, however I just went slow took my time and the trailer went right in. I used what I have learned the past 4 weeks driving big trucks around and it helped a lot and was good practice for driving the big trucks. So by god I think I might have actually made some progress a little bit at time it's all I can do. I'm not a fast backer I kind of just go for quality not speed so much I guess. I know that's like a total new guy thing to say, but I figure hey at the end of the day the result is the same.

I think sometimes I tend to want to try and do to much. Like today I loaded my wheeler down at a stop weigh to heavy and the load on it got away from me. Now I saw it coming and was able to kind of control the fall, nothing broke or anything like that, but the guy I was working with, kind of smiled and said "Hey man don't kill your self." I said all red in the face " I'm trying to do to much."

He said "I saw it coming I knew it wasn't going to work ha-ha."

Any how I did kind of learn a little bit backing up this little trailer. It actually confirmed something in my mind. Oh well like Alanis Morissette said back in the mid 1990's "You live you learn."

The first year is the worst which is why a lot of places want a year or two of experience. It's going to take me probably 6 months to start feeling comfortable. I take my turns in the truck wide. The guy I was with today said "You drive like a grandpa." Ha-ha. I laughed and said "I don't really drive my personal car all that aggressively I am certainly not going to speed around in a big truck." On the highway 55-60 that's pretty good speed for me, I suppose if I was out on 71 in the country I would wind it up to 65 or whatever, but that's fast enough.

I know I know some probably feel that's slow, but I like to manage my space in front of me you never know when there might be a chair or some stupid thing in the road and you have to stop or slow down real quick. I don't like to tail gate, I don't even do it in my personal car, I certainly won't do it in a big truck. You can't stop a big truck on a dime.

 

[TedWard]

Short trailers turn a lot faster than longer ones. I like it when I hit it on the first try, but I normally pull up so much you could call me Huggies®.

Alanis rocks and I have her second album and I plan on listening to it someday when I'm done with her first.

I had another one of those pita docks again today, I haven't been to the place in several years, and I remember giving up a few times if cars were parked in that lot, just drag it up the steps. I got there today, and cars were parked in my way, but I nailed it after like three pull ups. Experience will help, hang in there!

I do that a lot, I'll get out of my truck and realize I could have parked closer, then I think how long will it take me to climb back into the truck and back some more vs how long it will take me to walk ten more steps for three or four trips. If it takes me ten minutes to wiggle that trailer into a dock, and it will only cost me five to pull the ramp and drag up the stairs? I choose the harder work/longer walk/more time at home almost every time.

Knowing the stops will save a lot of time.

So... Is that a Ford?

 

[MikeJ]

It is, it's my 2000 Ford F-150 Lariet. I just had the air conditioning compressor on it replaced. It blows nice cold air now. Truck has almost 200,000 miles on it. I think it has like 186,000 on the clock right now. I bought it used, and it's been a good truck for me. I had it repainted after I bought it and I've had some regular maintenance done to it, but it rides nice and smooth accelerates good and cruses down the highway just fine. It's got air conditioning, power windows, power locks, 5 disc changer, beat up leather seats that are still pretty comfy, I have seat covers over them. In general though it runs good and I like it.

 

[MikeJ]

In 2008 I pulled a trailer like this one from Chicago to Columbus and I got creamed on trying to back the darn thing. Well fast forwards a few years and I figured you know what I want to try backing this thing again and I got it on the first shot down the drive way, was not expecting that though. I thought for sure somewhere there would be a pull up or two, but no I got it. Surprised my self, I guess it happens.

I'm like you, ehh easier just to wheel the load with the two wheeler why push the envelope sometimes. Like yesterday we had to back up a hill and eventually the guy I was working with said "Ehh that's good enough, we have an electronic pallet jack , we can lug the load up that way.

 

[TedWard]

I have a 2010 Dodge Ram. 60,000 on it now, hope I can drive it for 20 years, thinking lately about getting a more fuel efficient daily thingy, you know, like a chopper.

Here's my dock today:

Okay, the white arrows are the docks. The right white arrow has no dock leveler, and there is no dock plate, I have to back to the left white arrow. Sometimes, however, there is a truck parked in that right dock that I have to work around.

I have to blind side around those two HVAC fan thingys.

The yellow arrow points to the fire lane where there are always vehicles parked.

The red circle is the storm drain, and that part of the lot is two or three feet (seems like) lower than the rest of the pavement.

Now, my first stop takes the right half of my trailer, so all the weight is on the left side of my trailer, and when I blindside around and go towards that drain, brother my trailer is leaning something scary, and I'm traveling about ten miles per decade. I'm still so nervous.

Then it takes me several pull ups to move the trailer over, sometimes it's a 48', sometimes shorter. The longer the trailer, the less room I have to inch it over, there are pillars under that blue canopy I have to avoid.

Funny though, I have no problem pulling out, maybe because I've had to throw so many cases against the right wall of the trailer, that it doesn't lean so much.

 

[MikeJ]

I have a 2010 Dodge Ram. 60,000 on it now, hope I can drive it for 20 years, thinking lately about getting a more fuel efficient daily thingy, you know, like a chopper.

Here's my dock today:

Okay, the white arrows are the docks. The right white arrow has no dock leveler, and there is no dock plate, I have to back to the left white arrow. Sometimes, however, there is a truck parked in that right dock that I have to work around.

I have to blind side around those two HVAC fan thingys.

The yellow arrow points to the fire lane where there are always vehicles parked.

The red circle is the storm drain, and that part of the lot is two or three feet (seems like) lower than the rest of the pavement.

Now, my first stop takes the right half of my trailer, so all the weight is on the left side of my trailer, and when I blindside around and go towards that drain, brother my trailer is leaning something scary, and I'm traveling about ten miles per decade. I'm still so nervous.

Then it takes me several pull ups to move the trailer over, sometimes it's a 48', sometimes shorter. The longer the trailer, the less room I have to inch it over, there are pillars under that blue canopy I have to avoid.

Funny though, I have no problem pulling out, maybe because I've had to throw so many cases against the right wall of the trailer, that it doesn't lean so much.

That's a tough dock right there. All in days work.

 

[TedWard]

Well, the guy is usually waiting for me, and he whistles real loud if he thinks if I'm gonna hit something.

 

[Banker]

So my brother is moving out tomorrow and I'm pulling this trailer down to Cincinnati tomorrow. Well we had to move the cars around the driveway and I drove this trailer around the block. That's my truck that I drive everyday (my personal car) and I set up and ally docked this trailer into my driveway with one shot (I was a tad surprised, but I just went and did it ha-ha). I know it's just a little guy, but those little guy trailers react fast and can be kind of tricky to back up, however I just went slow took my time and the trailer went right in. I used what I have learned the past 4 weeks driving big trucks around and it helped a lot and was good practice for driving the big trucks. So by god I think I might have actually made some progress a little bit at time it's all I can do. I'm not a fast backer I kind of just go for quality not speed so much I guess. I know that's like a total new guy thing to say, but I figure hey at the end of the day the result is the same.

I think sometimes I tend to want to try and do to much. Like today I loaded my wheeler down at a stop weigh to heavy and the load on it got away from me. Now I saw it coming and was able to kind of control the fall, nothing broke or anything like that, but the guy I was working with, kind of smiled and said "Hey man don't kill your self." I said all red in the face " I'm trying to do to much."

He said "I saw it coming I knew it wasn't going to work ha-ha."

Any how I did kind of learn a little bit backing up this little trailer. It actually confirmed something in my mind. Oh well like Alanis Morissette said back in the mid 1990's "You live you learn."

The first year is the worst which is why a lot of places want a year or two of experience. It's going to take me probably 6 months to start feeling comfortable. I take my turns in the truck wide. The guy I was with today said "You drive like a grandpa." Ha-ha. I laughed and said "I don't really drive my personal car all that aggressively I am certainly not going to speed around in a big truck." On the highway 55-60 that's pretty good speed for me, I suppose if I was out on 71 in the country I would wind it up to 65 or whatever, but that's fast enough.

I know I know some probably feel that's slow, but I like to manage my space in front of me you never know when there might be a chair or some stupid thing in the road and you have to stop or slow down real quick. I don't like to tail gate, I don't even do it in my personal car, I certainly won't do it in a big truck. You can't stop a big truck on a dime.

I'm enjoying following your progression thru your new career in trucking. It is great to see people excited about their job. Some days I think about retirement and other days I hope i never have to retire, after nearly 27 years of trucking, I still love what I do. The backing will come with time and one day you will blindside just to show that you can. Keep up the great posts and stay safe. The best thing you have going for you to acquire the best paying driving jobs, is a good work record and a clean driving record.

 

[MikeJ]

I'm enjoying following your progression thru your new career in trucking. It is great to see people excited about their job. Some days I think about retirement and other days I hope i never have to retire, after nearly 27 years of trucking, I still love what I do. The backing will come with time and one day you will blindside just to show that you can. Keep up the great posts and stay safe. The best thing you have going for you to acquire the best paying driving jobs, is a good work record and a clean driving record.

Hi Banker,
How long have you been following?

I started posting on here in early January when i decided enough was enough and I wanted to be a food service truck driver like MBM or Sysco or GFS. So I went to truck driving school on the weekend every weekend from January-April I got my Passenger Bus Endorsement (Always wanted to drive big motor coaches too, had dabbled a little bit in the limousine and private chauffeuring industry and absolutely loved it, it can be a lot of fun sometimes and has always paid me pretty well.) and my Class A CDL.

Then I started applying for jobs I applied to work at US Xpress because I had a reference from a team driver there and applied to work teams at US Xpress I also I applied to work at a Beer distributor. Well right about the time I was ready to go to US Xpress the beer distributor called and I took that job with them instead.
I like the job working for the beer distributor (I would rather do food it's what I really wanted to do, but that wasn't going to happen, right off the rip, so I took the job with beer distributor.) Driving side loaders and delivering beer was never really a dream of mine, but it's a start. The past week has been hard for me I got my ass pretty well kicked early on last week and whatever, but eventually all bad things must come to an end and I'll slowly get it. I might have to invest in some additional training on my own in my free time from a disinterested third party (pay some farmer or owner operator with a junk truck that they don't really use to much to let me just drive it up and down a dirt road and up and down shift until I get that down.) Don't get me wrong I can up and down shift, but sometimes I confuse my self because I don't know how to float gears and am afraid to try so I am out there "double clutching" and I need some time by my self to kind of just figure it out on my own. Like I looked into working at Crete and actually I would give Crete a shot if it comes down to that, and there training is about 8 weeks and around week 6 or 8 they kind of set you up in like a team configuration with the driver so you get used to being in the truck on your own. At least that's what they say. I've had this job working as a CDL helper where I help the driver and also drive the beer trucks for 4 weeks now and just finished my fourth week and I've run a lot of different equipment in that time. I've pulled 14 bay side load trailers, 16 bay side loaders, 18 bay side loaders, 28 foot pup trailers, 35 or something like that foot trailers and even 48 and 53 foot trailers not to often with the bigger trailers and trucks though that was just some shuttle stuff from one place to another. I've worked lift gates and even got to drive electronic pallet jacks which took some getting used to. Those pallet jacks them selves can be tricky.

The one food company I wanted to work for wasn't really hiring when I applied, however they have since updated there postings and they are hiring again right now. They have a lot of Class A and Class B trucks I kind of always wanted to be a food service driver still do, but I can throw beer for a little while. My biggest concern besides driving ability is my lower back sometimes hurts me when I have to bend over at a 90 degree angle like it's to much strain on it and I don't want to break my back doing this, obviously it's not a problem right now, and it's only bad when I have to really bend over to pick up cases of stuff, but I worry about it a little.

The thing about beer is our stops can be very dense we don't always do a lot of driving. The beer trucks maneuver pretty good though, you can turn them on a dime.

I know food does a little more driving. I worked at a restaurant and the one guy who used to deliver to us they had a pretty good system the company he worked for they got paid by mile and by case they unloaded. They would drive all over had way more miles driving food then we do with beer because every gas station, restaurant, bar tavern, golf course, convenient store we all stop at. I mean I have been at stops where we literally have done 3 stops and haven't moved the truck at all. The one day we had a drive through beverage store and literally the eagles club we had to deliver to was right across the street. The driver I was working with said "It's not even worth moving the truck, he said I load up the wheeler and just wheel it across the street, it's easier and faster that way." Which is what we did I loaded up the wheeler wheeled the load across the street ran back to the truck, took another load across the street and it was done.

Actually though going out on the delivery routes can be a lot of fun at times and I really like that, which is why I got into doing beer or food and then later on charter bus. Bus I know has it's pro's and cons, what doesn't? One of my class mates from truck driving school is a charter bus driver has been doing it for 27 years had to upgrade to a Class A because sometimes the buses he runs have to pull trailers, but he really enjoyed the bus business a lot he knew a great deal about the charter bus business is a real nice guy and one of the coolest people I've ever met and he taught me a lot about how they do things in the bus world. He said in the charter bus world you get really good at going to New York City, Toronto, Chicago, Boston and Washington DC. He said he's been to all those places multiple times.

He told me a couple weeks ago he's been doing nothing but running to Washington DC from late April clear to early June like were in now, every week. Washington DC and back. The one thing I like about doing food or beer is you get your excersize and that's kind of nice. Although I kind of thought maybe OTR regional might be okay get to go out on the road a little bit make it home every week. I looked into working some of Schneider's dedicated accounts the pay is not great, for a new guy like me, but I guess it's all relative, I live at home and have no children, no girl friend or any thing like that either so I guess doing a little bit of OTR work for me even if it's an out and back kind of thing where you go out stay over night and come back and do it again a couple times a week really wouldn't be that bad. Like Schneider had Poly One dedicated not far from where I live available because Polyone has a plant about 15 miles from my house and I would really be strongly tempted the next time it comes up depending on what happens at the beer company to put my hat in the ring for that account. While I am a new driver I've bumped a couple of docks and have had some seasoning driving beer trucks, obviously Schneider is different then the beer truck company, and I would still have to go through all of Schneider's training and go out with a trainer which is fine to polish me, up but I can't say I am a total virgin any more either which would make things a little easier for the trainer and for me as well. So will see what happens here at the beer company. When I first started at the beer company they had me at a drop lot and it was great then they moved me back to headquarters.

Any how thanks for posting and keeping up with me.

 

[Banker]

I've seen several of your posts about your new venture. I would stick with the beer company since it would be a great way to get driving experience and not have to be away from home. After you get a year or two of driving experience, if you still want something else, your track record should get you in the door. In my opinion, unless you wanted to be away from home all week or several weeks at a time, I wouldn't go the truckload route. Most of the good jobs look at a local beer driver as someone who has got much experience getting in tight spots. Then you could look at some of the better paying jobs which are usually LTL, private fleets, food service or carhaul. If you deliver Elyria, make sure the Ramada Inn has a couple cold Buds on hand, as I call that home once a week or so.

 

[MikeJ]

I've seen several of your posts about your new venture. I would stick with the beer company since it would be a great way to get driving experience and not have to be away from home. After you get a year or two of driving experience, if you still want something else, your track record should get you in the door. In my opinion, unless you wanted to be away from home all week or several weeks at a time, I wouldn't go the truckload route. Most of the good jobs look at a local beer driver as someone who has got much experience getting in tight spots. Then you could look at some of the better paying jobs which are usually LTL, private fleets, food service or carhaul. If you deliver Elyria, make sure the Ramada Inn has a couple cold Buds on hand, as I call that home once a week or so.

Your familiar with the world famous Elyria Ramada Inn on route 57 near Midway Mall?

 

[Banker]

Your familiar with the world famous Elyria Ramada Inn on route 57 near Midway Mall?

I had no idea it was world famous! I stay there for the easy truck parking and the good food and drink. Thankfully I am happily married AKA "old and boring" and rarely stay up past 10, so I guess I miss all the real partying. The Little girl that works the bar is very nice though.

 

[MikeJ]

It was really world famous when it was the Holiday Inn, people from all around knew the world famous Elyria Holiday Inn. They one day it became the Ramada Inn. I guess Holiday Inn could not handle its world famous status.