Truck Driving Jobs

driverboy · Joined: 19 Sep 2006 Posts: 72

Reading Steveo's 1/2 mile of backing in reverse debacle had me wondering there has to be some horrendous stories out there of lost hours from cruddy directions, let's hear some, here is mine:

Offloaded a load of 2nd tomatoes in New York City to some cut rate restaurant supplier that was designed to hold stake trucks not 75 foot long OTR packages and ask the offloader the best way to get the heck out of there and onto the bridge to leave the city as quick as possible, my 1st mistake.

Get out of there with a Volvo 770/Great Dane Reefer, big combo, and following this guy's directions things are starting to get tighter and tighter in downtown New York streets. Thinking it could get ugly I spot a Fed Ex delivery driver dropping off some packages from a local delivery truck and hit him up for verification on my receiver's directions. He confirms the same route so I go with it, if anyone should know the best route to get onto the highway it should be a FedEx local delivery worker, 2nd mistake.

I continue for about 12-15 blocks and now the street is narrowed down to 1 lane each way, parked cars parallel on either side in front of shops and bistros, true Seinfeld style. Thinking a left or right is just about out of the question I come to a sign that says the highway is still ahead so I soldier on, missing parked cars on 1 side by inches and moving cars on the either side by the same. Come to a light and see the on-ramp to get on the highway just past the intersection. Problem is the entire intersection is under construction. Right or left only and lanes blocked off to the right or left with plywood "walls" for the construction project. I am screwed with a capitol S. Can not go forward, and a left or right would be tight in a pickup truck, 75 feet of truck and trailer would literally remove part of the buildings on either corner on an attempt. The only way out of this is in reverse, some 15 blocks behind me in bumper to bumper New York City gridlock traffic on both sides, nice.

I look up and see old apartment buildings built above the store fronts/patio restaurants and see clotheslines strung across the street 10 floors up, just like in the movies except I wasn't quite in the mood to explore, I am in the most serious jam I have been in yet with a big truck. Keep in mind at this point I had my CDL for about 4 months.

I could go on for chapters about the next 4 hours sitting at that intersection but I'll try and keep in under an novel. I called the cops, they said that was not important enough to warrant sending a car out. I literally ran after several police cars I saw but they whisked by the side street I would have wanted to get on but could not from the construction. Behind me is at least a 100 angry New Yorkers in their cars calling me every name in the book, cars are honking for 15 city blocks behind me and cars are starting to bolt around my truck and cut off oncoming traffic. Once 1 slipped up beside me, a dozen would follow them and have oncoming traffic at a stop, now both sides yelling at me, at one point I went back to the spacious sleeper of the Volvo 770 and splashed some cold water on my face from the optional sink as well as to avoid getting shot. The only way out was in reverse, and as far as the eye could see was nothing but cars honking, 16 weeks into getting my license, nice.

I needed an escort of some sort to part the traffic to back out of the mess but amazingly every cop I went up roared away. At 1 point a accosted what looked like a cop in a coffee shop (just like Seinfeld's restaurant on the corner) and told him I needed help. I visually showed him leaving the shop the mess I was in and he responded that he was a Port Authority Officer and had no resources or contact with NYPD to help me out. Asked him to call in and verify the severity of the situation to NYPD to jump the 911 backlog and get someone over here, at this point I have been there for over 90 minutes, maybe 2 hours. I had locked the truck up, and walked back to see how many blocks in reverse I had to go to good or blind this thing off the main road into a side street and turn around the other way. With no major intersection only small residential side streets close-by that would no way make the cut of 75 feet I had to reverse back around 10 of the blocks, only a few from where the FedEx guy had forgot to mention the construction 50 feet from the on-ramp.

I thought about paying someone to set the pick and push the cars back with their 4 wheeler off my trailer and reverse behind him but it was futile without some authority of some sort leading the charge, thinking flashing lights would help of some sort, heck I would have picked some up and tried to get someone to impersonate an officer, this was getting nuts.

Around the 2.5 hour mark, a guy comes up to the truck and asks if he can be of help, he is an off duty NYFD (fire department) in some type of managerial position, his Nissan Pathfinder has a light bar on it, ahh yes my savior has arrived. This guy pulled out the badge, set the pick behind my trailer and drove back what was at least a 100 cars (took 15 minutes for the procession to turn off or reverse back enough for me to even move). Hand out his window flashing the badge, Ace Ventura Pet Detective style, lights blazin and creeping along on the solid line, with opposing traffic whizzing by still tossing me 4 letter words I back the truck up about 10 blocks, parked cars on the passenger side 4-6 inches off my trailer and just being able to see a few inches of this guy's pathfinder right on the line to monitor if I am safe to keep in reverse out my good side mirror. Some 30 minutes or so later we make it to my turn-around intersection and my NYFD friend shuts down the entire intersection with his truck/lights/badge, walks to each lead car and tells them what is going on, also forcing the side road I am backing into to go back 10 cars lengths and wait until I am turned around before moving forward.

Things are looking good but the next problem was I needed swing room to avoid whacking the parked cars on my pass side, the tractor would have took them all out on the good side swing, they are inches off the tractor. I need to go back into the intersection, pull back up and center into the roadway to allow room for the tractor to swing wide to make what is still an extremely tight good side, parked cars on both sides of the side street as well. Total head count watching at this point was well in excess of a 100, heck the shop owners were out to take in all the action, charming.

With my NYFD friend holding off the 4 intersections I now push another 20 or 30 cars in reverse from the oncoming lane to give me the room to good side. I remember looking up at the buildings above me and now notice dozens are enjoying the impromptu sideshow out their windows, thank god they were out of earshot as I don't think they were commenting on driving expertise. Around this timeline I am having severe reservations about doing this for a living.

With the NYFD friend hand signaling me back into the good side turn around I hogged both lanes on the side street and once backed up completely into the side street had decent clearance, it was a 2 lane side street. Mid turn however, I was under a foot off parked cars on my good side and my new best friend said about the same on the other side.

We chat for a minute after I am ready to pull out and try a forward gear for the first time in 4 hours and he escorts back to the safe way of getting back to the highway avoiding the construction, which both the delivery and FedEx guys had told me to take. Thinking back my GPS would have said to do the same, there was no posted warnings off the upcoming construction, none.

NYFD friend follows me onto the highway gives me a thumbsup and shoots off the next exit to resume his life and my story ends. I am 4 hours behind, I drive a few hundred miles out of the area and get to wide open roads and hit the 1st truck stop and go to bed for 10 hours, I was wiped in every sense of the word. Put on a DVD, I think season 2 Miami Vice reruns and never even made the theme song, I was done.

Wish I would have taken the guys # I would have for sure sent him one helluva a fruit basket. Great guy, and surely some heartache from his end as this was in 2004, after 9/11 when surely dozens of his coworkers or staff were killed, I wonder if the random act of kindness was a reflection of what his last few years had been like, who knows.

My O/O calls and asks what the heck is going on why am I so far behind, not wanting to freak him out I said I am having a bad day, your not getting the details. The truck is empty, nothing was rejected, and nothing is damaged, the rest is a moot point. Call you in the morning and we will dial in the next spin out (multiple drivers same truck)when I wake up, whenever that may be.

Hmmm this got a little wordy, I laughed writing it, and I actually laughed at the time and still do when things get tense. Never forget some guy dancing with is headphones on at a street pole at the corner looking over and helling "Dude, your f***ed". I yelled back, "Yeah I am, enjoy the show."

And that's my debacle of my trucking career, and yours?

wot i life · Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 6:57 am Post subject:

London, Rome , Paris, Milan.....Any day, every day. I expect its most probably the same in N/Y, L/A etc.... :lol:

bulldog2036 · Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Posts: 568

Went the wrong way down Exchange St. near the Fort Worth Stockyards, thought I was going to rip down all those banners (if you've ever been there you know) that they have strung across the road....needless to say the people on the street thought I was a dumb azz...felt like one. :lol:

BanditsCousin · Joined: 05 Jun 2004 Posts: 3109 Location: Chicago, IL

Too many bedbugging stories, too many residential deliveries :)

I did the 1/2 mile in reverse through a residential one time, man, did that suck!

Dejanh · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 12:26 pm Post subject:

Reminds me of a time i got lost in Philly with 45,600 load of paper rolls with Werner during my first month as a driver....

I cried.... :oops: Literally

repete · Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 204

1st week on my own and only my 3rd load. I got lost in Boston and ended up on a brick paved street :shock: I drove all over and couldn't find the *^&$ place. I called dispatch (weekend) no help, called the reciever " no one here can give direction" now I'm real late and pull over @ closed Ice cream stand and pull out my map for the 100th time. I hear a knock and there's a guy standing there and "asks are ya lost" :roll:YA THINK! turns out he works at the warehouse and if I can wait a 1/2 hr I can follow him :D :D OH-YEAH life is good! When I pulled up to the gate I explained to the young guard why I was late he said ok just park but we don't know when you'll get a dock. No problem I shut down did my log and found out I was over my drive time by about about 1hr. :roll: sat there for 28 hr till I bumped the dock! :evil:
I pay more attention to street signs and directions now!!

I'M GLAD I CAN'T TOP THAT NYC STORY! :D

ToxicWaste · Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:16 am Post subject:

18 years old delivering building materials to a custom home in the mountains right outside of Scottsdale. Pulled in but had to back out around a curve that was on the other side of a 35 foot gorge. Trailer wheels made it around the curve but the truck stops and the drives start spinning. I say oh :dung: and open the drivers door to see I'm looking down that gorge and the left side drives are off the side spinning. Thank God for diff lock!!!

vavega · Joined: 26 Feb 2006 Posts: 281 Location: new jersey

dejanh's comment brought this back.........

i was chosen to be the substitute yard jockey at goldman paper in philly when the regular guy took a week's vacation. :? the friday before i spent an hour with him going over everything i had to do. i'd been there many times before so i knew most of it, all but where to put excess trailers. they had a drop lot back off westmoreland st, a 2 level jobbie with a ramp of sorts going to the upper level which backed up against a 2 story brick garage. most times you could drive straight up the ramp swing around and back it up no problem. but to get the last 2 in there he tells me you have to back it in off the street and go back up the ramp to the building. we did one together and it wasn't bad. come wednesday of my week alone i start to run out of room and reached the point i had to use those last 2 spots. i start to back in off the street and a car decided he didn't want to wait, ran up on the sidewalk, passing me on my side :shock: bumps down near the tractor, shoots me the finger, yells something and keeps on going. after the initial scare, i laugh and thought this is cake, all i need to do is go right up the hill striaght and i got it. but remember this is a paper load and as dejanh says heavy. i get half way up the hill and the truck stops. thinking i didn't give it enough gas i let off the brake pedal and roll downhill to do it again. then all i hear is loud booms! wth!???? thinking i dropped it, i look back real quick and see trailer. whew! what made the noise? getting out i go back to see.......all the tires are flat! when i went up the hill the shoes embedded themselves in the chunked up asphalt, tearing of off completely and that's what stopped me. once i let off the brake i rolled over them popping all the trailer tires. :roll: :oops: :shock:

then on my last trailer that friday, the forklift driver leaves the plate on and loads a roll right to the tail with part of it on the plate. the problem with that is once you pull the trailer away from the dock the roll with actually start to slide out a bit. they were doing shift change when i went out to move it, so getting a guy to pick it up while i popped the plate was out of the question and i didn't want to wait the half hour for 2nd shift. so thinking that if i pulled it slow, it might not move. sure enough that didn't work. the last roll was sticking out oh say a 1/4 inch. so genius here gets the bright idea that if she pushes on the left side door hard enough the roll will slide in and she can go home. yeah, right... like you're strong enough to push a 400lb roll of paper!?? but it sounded good at the time! so i grab the door and using both hands slam on it with all i got. the bar hits the frame, the door handle comes flying up and smacks me in the upper lip. stunned i stand there thinking i'm ok, i check teeth with tongue.....yeah i got all them, nothing hurts. then i start to get woozy. the schneider driver sitting in the truck next to me starts to yell. sorry schnieder, and a belated thank you for helping me, you were gone when i came back from the hospital i start to go down. one of the mechanics puts me on their shop golf cart and runs me down the sidewalk to the hospital on the next block. i ended up with 15 stiches, a week of the recover and never haivng to jockey again. :D

ibamars · Joined: 13 Oct 2005 Posts: 294 Location: New York

I used to play in a band... Well during our third set our other guitar player walked off stage because he thought his girl was messing around. He was right, but it was a mess because I had to finish the night by myself on stage.

LOL. hope you got the joke

Jackrabbit379 · Joined: 22 Oct 2005 Posts: 4738 Location: Wichita Falls,Tx

ibamars wrote: I used to play in a band... Well during our third set our other guitar player walked off stage because he thought his girl was messing around. He was right, but it was a mess because I had to finish the night by myself on stage.

LOL. hope you got the joke

Oh man. He woulda been laid out :P

Scout · Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 1:10 pm Post subject:

So far, nothing like the NY story.

Cleveland, I was delivering 6500 pound coils of copper rod to a wire maker. I was warned, and shown pics of the dock. Always up for a challenge I took the load. Once I arrived, I found out just how hard it would be. I had to pull into a narrow alley and then back into the dock. It was a tight fit, it took 30 minutes to get in and when I was done I was jackknifed up against the building on the other side of the alley. Maybe another 30 minutes later I was empty. I had to pull forward the same way I got in, back out onto the street, the blindside back onto a side street so I could get turned around. That took another 40 minutes.

Early in my driving career I had a load of insulation. My second stop required a blindside back off the street and down a curvy drive to a parking lot, (construction) all the while 4 wheelers are driving around me trying to get out.

silvan · Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 5:55 pm Post subject:

None of mine top that NYC story, but I have three memorable ones.

First, it was my very first solo trip. I had driven the same route with a trainer, but driving for yourself is a world of difference. That was the night I learned to READ SIGNS. Directions said to take 29 south, so I came upon 29 south, and got off. Went about a block before I realized I wasn't in Kansas. Nothing looked right. (Because I was on 29 business.) So I decided to turn around by going around the block.

Turn right. Turn right. Turn right. Cul-de-sac. :dung:

So I had to blindside out of this residential neighborhood with parked cars everywhere at 2:00 in the morning, at a point in my career when I could still only barely hit a dock straight, let alone blindside out of a tight mess like that. I must have climbed out of that truck a thousand times that night.

Next story. Bad directions in the Hillbilly made no sense, so I pulled into a Burger King or something and called the guy. Turn here, follow this road to the end, turn right, yadda blah.

So I followed the road to the end of the yellow lines, but it wasn't actually the end of the road. It went through. So I wasn't sure what to do, and I went through too, onto the part with no lines. Made it around about five hairpin curves when some guy in a house comes running at me pinwheeling his arms frantically.

"DRIVER! STOPPPP!!! You're trying to get to [thusandsuch] aren't you? That guy can't give directions. The last guy made it around that next turn there, and it took three cranes to get his truck out of the ravine. Back up."

So I had to back a couple three miles of twisty kiss your ass country road with fourwheelers flying all around me, but nothing like that NYC misadventure I don't imagine.

Third one, directions said to take highway such and thus. Check. Turn left on Someroad at a McDonald's and a supermarket (Giant maybe?). McDonald's, check. Supermarket, check. Left, check. Now turn left on 7th street.

So I'm going up there, and the streets all have names, not numbers, but this is PA, so who the hell knows. In two blocks, I might be in three different towns. So I keep going, looking for 7th street. Nope. Nope. Nope.

I come to a very hard choice. The road dead ends ahead, but the turn to the right or the left is insanely tight, with a telephone pole on either corner, and cars parked up either side of the street right to the edge of the intersection. I look up ahead, and spy a cul-de-sac. Cool. I had a 45' trailer and single-axle cabover, and I could turn around in a car-sized cul-de-sac when pressed.

So I eased off the pavement and up the little cobblestone street to the cul-de-sac. But it wasn't a cul-de-sac, it was a damn gravel loop through a CEMETERY!

Uh oh. :shock:

So I put it in reverse to back back down the hill and through that intersection. Went back a few feet. POINK! POINK! KA-PLOINK! THUNK!

Various cables dangling in the road. I got under them going up because of the slope of my air shield, but then my air shield tore them off on the way backwards. Everything will be OK as long as I don't announce my presence to all the neighbors who were just watching TV, and who are now listening to static. (But on the bright side, they can't call the cops either. ;) )

So I continued backing back, and I could see tons of cross traffic on all the side streets, so I decided to try that turn from hell. I forget what all I did on that turn, but after some ridiculous effort, I managed to get around that horrible corner without trading paint. I think I did scrape a telephone pole or two, but I didn't knock anything over, or do any noticeable damage to the trailer.

Worked my way back to that big parking lot, and went in to call the boss to tell him what just happened.

"Was the street posted no trucks?"

"No. But I bet it will be tomorrow!"

"Get the hell out of there. Those lines were supposed to be 15' off the ground, and they weren't. Roll."

So I'm walking back to my truck from the pay phone (cell phone was years away), and this little old Yankee man in a pickup drives up to me.

"Hey. You tore down my @#%@#% cable TV."

"Yes sir. I sure did. I just got off the phone with the police. I reported the incident, and I'm going to wait here for law enforcement to arrive, and levy any applicable fines. Have a great day sir, and I apologize for any inconvenience."

He drove off. My customer got there with their sixwheeler to pick up their one lousy piece. I unloaded that, and got the hell out of dodge.

I never did find that store. Every time I had to go there, I made them meet me in that parking lot. They bitched about it, but they always did it.

Shawnee · Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 246 Location: Canada

I can't top that NYC story, I would have sat there and cried if that was me. I know how those people are in NYC, But it is good to know that no matter where you go there are some good people out there.

The first time I ever went to Chicago, I was trying to get to this place to pick up a load and I called the company to get the directions. I was on my way there when I realized that the street that I was supossed to turn on was at such an angle that I could not make the turn. No problem I thought, I'll just go around the block. Big mistake.

I came up on a low bridge, I turned down another street, another low bridge. Every street I turned down I hit a low bridge, finally I came to yet another bridge, I was stuck, it was a busy street, cars were honking, I couldn't back up or do anything. I tried to flag down a cop, no luck.

A man who happened to be outside in his yard saw what was going on and came over with his two teenaged boys. He offered to help me back out of there, he and the boys stopped the traffic so I could back up and back down a side street to turn around. When I finally got turned around he motioned for me to pull over to the side. He asked me where I was going and I told him. He said he would take me there, he and the boys went to the house and got there car and I followed them.

Everytime we came to a street to turn down the boys would get out and run down to make sure I was able to fit down the street, several times the boys got out of the car to hold back the traffic so I could get down the street, even though cars were honking at them. Finally after a couple of hours I made it to the place to pick up my load, I was so grateful, I couldn't thank these people enough, I offered to give the boys some money for their time but they wouldn't take it. It is good to know that there are good people out there who is willing to take the time to help out a lost driver.

silvan · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:28 pm Post subject:

Shawnee wrote: No problem I thought, I'll just go around the block. Big mistake. Yup. One thing I've learned over the years is to park the truck and go scout things out on foot. People think I'm nuts when I walk around the nice square block, or walk allllll the way around some strip mall to find 20 acres of room back there, but it has paid huge dividends over the years. Quote: It is good to know that there are good people out there who is willing to take the time to help out a lost driver. Nice story!

flood · Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Posts: 514 Location: tennesse

my first trip out solo to NJ (little town down by I295) had sat-com directions called reciver and got the same directions word for word so off i go and the directions were great couldn't have been better, at each turn thay would say trun left or right with the street name and at the turn was a truck route sign, great
UNTIL i come to this turn and the directions say veer left...? it's a 5 way corner and their is the truck route sign great then i see the sign "road closed" :dung: not only is it closed their is NO ROAD... :shock: like no blacktop dirt dug about 2ft deep. so now what the he$$ do i do :?: all the other roads have NO TRUCK signs. looks like i will have to pull thru back down one and cut a hard left and drive back out to get to a phone (didn't have a cell at the time)
just as i start i see the detour sign "veer right" will ok if thats the detour so off i go as soon as i get down this street i know something is way wrong... little houses little street cars parked people cutting grass stop and just stare up as i go by this is just the wrong place to be so i'm going to go around the block to get the he$$ out of dodge.
i make the first left and as i'm going i see the shadow of wires wiggling (pole on left side to houses on right. :shock: make the next right and the next right just as i come to the last right i need to make to get out i see the main road about 6 blocks ahead so i go straight well i get 200 ft up the road and this guy stops his pu and ask if i'm looking for XYZ company i told him i was (realy nice guy) he tells me if i back up to the corner and make a left go to the stop sign turn right the driveway will be the first on the left...... great and he tells me he will go beck and stop traffic so i can backup (way great) so i do,
thanked him and just as i start to turn left up slids the COP :dung: :dung: :dung:
i get out and he looks at me and asked "did you just ripout some ones phone line..." :mrgreen: so i being honest said "not that i know of" (i realy didn't see no wires fall) and as we are looking at my trailer and the little green bushes ware my lites should be (did i mention all the branches sliding up over the cab..) this guy run's up yelling about how i just ripped his cable off his house :dung: so i in my most professional voice said sir if i did i'm very sorry you'll need to call your cable company and have then come out and fix it
just then the cop looks at me and said you know this is not a truck route..? so ever so nice i said yes officer i know that BUT the truck route is closed and the deture sign pointed up here as soon as i get in here i could see this was someplace that i should not be so i was just trying to turn around and get out... and as to the wires even though this is not a truck route the wires still need to clear my truck after all a moving company truck can come in here and thay are just as high as i am.
he looks at me and asked if i knew ware i was going and i told he that this nice gentlemen told he how to get to the reciver. he asked if i could get out without tearing anything out so i looked down the street and said sure so he tells me to get the HE## out of their and when i leave don't come back this way when you leave just turn right and go to the main road
the truck route that was closed made a big U around the neighborhood..

i'll never forget looking up at the trailer and seening the bushes ware my lites should be

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