:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:
:bow::bow::bow::bow::bow::bow::bow::bow::bow:
:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

WHAT? And you call yourself a truck driver!:lol:

 

Snowman I so agree with you. I guess in terms of driving experience I am still very much a rookie! There is a lot I have never done. Although this last few months doing this crane load freight, I have had to LEARN to do some tough maneuvers out of necessity. When I was with Swift it was all about pull off the highway, maybe at most a mile or 2 down a descent road, and pull into a warehouse with a super large truck friendly lot, and back up to a nice dock with brightly painted lines to help you get straight, and signs everywhere telling you what to do, get loaded/unloaded and wash, rinse repeat. Doing what I have been doing now, I HAVE to go to almost finished construction sites, usually in residential areas, or downtown areas, often straight up places trucks just should never go, and never where designed for them. I learned more in the last few months then I ever have about driving ever before this. You want to talk about backing, how about on a construction site in the middle of the rockies, with an 8 foot wide gravel path up to the construction site, grades up to 25%, big boulders, soft dirt spots, trees, cliffs, drop offs, hair pin turns. You get to the actual site, and you have to get around cargo containers, construction equipment, construction materials, construction workers, most of it all moving all around you as you are maneuvering! How about a sky rise in a major city downtown, where the construction site takes up an entire city block, and all the construction work has to go on inside of a small fenced in area that is just the sidewalk, no wider then maybe 10 feet, with traffic non-stop on the road, pedestrians walking all around, and again construction equipment, workers, materials, etc. How about doing 3000 mile 6 stop load all at commercial properties, without spending more then about 250 miles of it on a major highway, mostly in the moutains, not to mention these properties you are delivering too are NOT warehouses or even major buildings, but small mom and pop stores often located in a small town with tight streets, so you spend 2500 miles driving on 2 lane roads in the mountains, going through tight towns, then having to manouver your truck so that you can unload to a building not much bigger if not smaller then your truck, that has nothing more then a few car spot parking lot. I have done all of those scenerios. Not that I am trying to boast or anything about myself, but these are tough driving conditions, any new rookie driver will look at ANY of my loads and think it was impossible or a complete nightmare, and honestly when I got started with it, I looked at it as a nightmare, espially when I hadn't driven a rig in nearly a year, to jump straight into doing these chalanging manouvers every day. But you LEARN. Quite honestly my backing now is damn good, atleast compared to what it was when I was at swift. When I was at swift I could barely back into a dock, let alone even trying to blind side it, hell now every day nearly I have to blind side, s curve, K turn, paralel, etc, all 90% of the time with traffic / construction equipment / workers / etc moving around all over. You LEARN to keep a mental traffic of EVERY little thing around you. You aren't going to learn that in a year doing general freight.

When I was with swift I used to look in amazement at the experienced drivers who could whip their trucks in and out of a spot in a matter of 5 seconds flat, all while chatting on the phone, eating a twinkie, and smoking a cigarette, thinking how the heck can they possibly do that. I even remember one walmart driver that backed up blind side into a tough spot in HIGH reverse. Often times I now find myself using high reverse when backing up sometimes (Not blind side though :P). Again not that I am some special person or something, but experience and skill comes with chalange and time, the more you have of the one, the more the other grows. I.E. The more chalange you have, the more skill you obtain in less time, VS the more time you have, the more skill you obtain without chalange. But you ALWAYS need both to grow.

Ok I feel like I am rambling on now.

 

Probably one of the best posts i have ever seen on here. That is all as true as it gets.

 

I've seen you back. YIKES. Just kidding bro......good luck with the job search.

 

I haven't even had time to READ all of this, and it seems all the "good" points have already been made and it has now become a comedy thread.

But, I do want to point out one thing. MANY here misread what Kevin said the barricade was for, and jumped on him immediately. I'm not saying he didn't deserve some or much of what he got.

But, as he said in his last post (I think it was,) the barricade was NOT a complete road closure barricade. It did NOT say "road closed." It said "closed to THRU traffic." That means that people with business ON THAT street/block/whatever.... are allowed entry. Even trucks making deliveries! [And ALL of you should KNOW that!]

However, before taking an 18wheeler into that "zone," it would have been prudent to make SURE you had business inside that zone, and then enlist help to make sure you could navigate the area, let alone the barricade.

Other than that, anyone who listens to the news lately SHOULD know that you don't call 911 for "this" type of situation. It's an EMERGENCY only line.... and a "stuck" truck is NOT an emergency.

Oh, and Kevin.... BEFORE moving the barricade.... you DID try double jacking the truck, right?

 

I'm surprised the cop didn't fine you for calling 911 for a non emergency. 911 is for emergencies only. It wastes a lot of time when people call my search and rescue distress line to let me know that my helicopter is really loud near their house or wanting to know what kind of safety equipment they need on their boat. There are non emergency lines to call for that information, use them.

The fact that you can't back up is not an emergency for police. I can guarantee the 911 operator sent the officer out there to harass you rather than assist you.

Ron

 

It is great to see someone post about what they don't know after several years in the business. Most want to tell what they do know and skip over the other things. Good post, Snowman7. There is always something new to learn no matter how long you have been in this business.

 

I have been in this business 17 years and I stand before you all today to admit that I.....I......I never learned how to quote just one line out of another persons post!!!!!!!! For years I have had to quote the whole darn thing just to reply to one line. I see Hobo and Rev and thousands upon thousands of other people do it while I sit alone, in the dark, ashamed.

 

When you hit the 'quote' button, you will see it says all you need to do is copy and paste the segments you want, and put it inside of that, or you can just use the quote tags and you can put whatever name you want in it, doesn't even have to be a username, you could put anything. the ;44779 just lets it know what post you are referencing the quote from and is not needed.