Well, I have a new truck. Well, not new exactly, but new to me. It is a 2007 Volvo with about 200k miles on it. Now I know what you're thinking, 200k is a lot of miles, but remember most drivers do well over 100k in a year, and these things have warranties for 1 million miles, so 200k really isn't that many miles. In some ways it's better than getting a brand new truck because new trucks take about 80k miles to really break in, or so I've heard, and also new trucks tend to have a fair amount of problems with them, so it takes a while to get all the bugs worked out, so I'm happy with my truck. It is clean(well, on the inside at least), no dents or other apparent damage, and it is mine (well sort of...technically Swift still owns it, but I'll still consider it mine).
I've also completed my first solo load. See, they didn't have a truck for me in Lewiston at my terminal, but they found a truck in need of a new owner, the only problem was that it was in Great Fall, MT. So, they bussed me up there (with a 17 hour layover in Butte), and then I got a load going from there down to Usk, WA, which is just North of Spokane. My first load weighed about 45,000 pounds, bringing my grand weight that my truck hauled up to 78,000 pounds (the max legal weight I can haul is 80,000, so I was just about maxed out). I was hauling used Newspaper from a recycling plant to a pulp factory where I guess they actually recycle the newspaper. After that I bobtailed home (which means that I drove just the tractor with no trailer). I got home Friday and will be leaving again Monday morning to go...well, to go wherever the wind blows me.
P.S. The number in the title is my truck number, so if you see a Swift volvo with that number (located on the fender), then you'll know it's me, and you'll probably want to get away quickly, I am a new driver still.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Irrelevant Observations
I know, I didn't update last week. I hope I didn't ruin the week for anyone.
There hasn't been much to report over the past couple of weeks. I only have one week left, so next time I post here I should have my very own truck, so that is quite exciting.
So I figured I would wrap up my observations for the past 6 weeks, observations that I haven't made yet. Over the past 6 weeks I have seen several beautiful sunrises, a few stunning sunsets (I'm usually asleep by the time the sun is setting, so I mainly see the sunrises). I've seen buffalo. I say a bald eagle up close in South Dakota. He was on the shoulder of the free way (alive) and as I approached he took off and so he was parallel with the cab of the truck for a few moments before I passed him.
In my first couple of posts I mentioned how I learned things about the people of the states I passed through simply by staying on the freeway, well I learned something about Illinois recently. Well, the clues were there, but it just recently dawned on me. The people of Illinois are obviously heartless jerks. I say this because up and down all of their freeways they have signs informing us “Hit a worker $10,000 fine 14 years in jail” so I have to assume before those signs went up the people of Illinois would be driving along going 65 MPH, sees a worker in the road up ahead and figures that he can't be bothered to slow down or move over, so he just hits him and moves on. Thus the state figured it had to put up those signs to give the people a reason to slow down or move over, since obviously the idea of hitting a guy going 65 MPH wasn't deterrent enough. Also, for some reason the people of Illinois seem to really like paying tolls, since most of the roads you have to pay to get on, and then after a while you have to pay again for the privilege of staying on the road, then a few miles more you once again have to pay for the privilege.
One last observation I've made is that compared to most other states (well, at least the ones I've been to) Washington state rest areas suck, every state but Montana has considerably nicer rest areas than we do. On the other hand, or interstates seem to be in much better shape than most of those other states, so I guess it's a fair trade off.
There hasn't been much to report over the past couple of weeks. I only have one week left, so next time I post here I should have my very own truck, so that is quite exciting.
So I figured I would wrap up my observations for the past 6 weeks, observations that I haven't made yet. Over the past 6 weeks I have seen several beautiful sunrises, a few stunning sunsets (I'm usually asleep by the time the sun is setting, so I mainly see the sunrises). I've seen buffalo. I say a bald eagle up close in South Dakota. He was on the shoulder of the free way (alive) and as I approached he took off and so he was parallel with the cab of the truck for a few moments before I passed him.
In my first couple of posts I mentioned how I learned things about the people of the states I passed through simply by staying on the freeway, well I learned something about Illinois recently. Well, the clues were there, but it just recently dawned on me. The people of Illinois are obviously heartless jerks. I say this because up and down all of their freeways they have signs informing us “Hit a worker $10,000 fine 14 years in jail” so I have to assume before those signs went up the people of Illinois would be driving along going 65 MPH, sees a worker in the road up ahead and figures that he can't be bothered to slow down or move over, so he just hits him and moves on. Thus the state figured it had to put up those signs to give the people a reason to slow down or move over, since obviously the idea of hitting a guy going 65 MPH wasn't deterrent enough. Also, for some reason the people of Illinois seem to really like paying tolls, since most of the roads you have to pay to get on, and then after a while you have to pay again for the privilege of staying on the road, then a few miles more you once again have to pay for the privilege.
One last observation I've made is that compared to most other states (well, at least the ones I've been to) Washington state rest areas suck, every state but Montana has considerably nicer rest areas than we do. On the other hand, or interstates seem to be in much better shape than most of those other states, so I guess it's a fair trade off.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Never-ending Winter
This past week almost made me think that winter was over. Almost the entire trip was relatively warm (it was mostly in the 'teens to mid 30's) and we didn't get any snow or ice....until we hit Montana coming home on Saturday. Oh well, maybe winter is almost over then.
The week was fairly uneventful, although I did break my old record for miles driven in a day. Last week I topped off at 616, but this past week I did 619 miles. May not seem like much of an increase, but at least I did a little better.
It's been 4 weeks that I have been out now, and in that time I have learned lots of things and gained a lot of confidence in driving these things. I have of course learned better how to drive the thing, but my favorite things I have learned are new phrases from other truck drivers. My two favorite are “Uglier than a one-eyed opossum”, used to refer to someone who is extremely ugly. The other phrase is “Slicker than greased owl shit”, used to describe road conditions that were slippery.
One other thing that I have learned is how to drive in a car around semi-trucks, and I feel it is my duty to pass on this information along to you. First of all I want to dispel a myth. If you are on either side of a truck, we can see you. I know you are told that we have blind spots along the sides, but we don't. We tell you that because we don't want you next to us, and so that when we turn on our turn signals you panic and give us space because you think we can't see you. Which is my first piece of advice, don't hang out on the side of a truck if at all possible. I know if there is heavy traffic it can't be helped, but most other times it can be. This is for you safety, because it can sometimes be difficult to keep that trailer exactly in our lane, especially in wind (even if it is wind that you don't feel in your car). As for the turn signal, if you see it on, please give us room, either move ahead of us (quickly) or back off. Trucks are generally not swerving in and out of traffic, so if we have our turn signal on it is usually for a good reason, so help us out. Also, to help us out, if you see one of us merging on the freeway, and you are able to, kindly move over to the next lane, or if appropriate speed up. We need a lot of room to merge, and it will take us a while to get up to speed, so give us some space. While I am mentioning speed, when it is off the freeway, driving in towns and such, just keep in mind, we are slow. We speed up slow (I have to go up 5 gears just to get to 25 MPH) and we stop slow, so just be patient. If you are stuck behind a truck and he takes off from a light slowly, he's not doing it to piss you off, he's doing it because of gravity, so just chill out. I could go on, but I think you probably get the idea.
Love you all, and only 3 weeks left until I'm on my own!
The week was fairly uneventful, although I did break my old record for miles driven in a day. Last week I topped off at 616, but this past week I did 619 miles. May not seem like much of an increase, but at least I did a little better.
It's been 4 weeks that I have been out now, and in that time I have learned lots of things and gained a lot of confidence in driving these things. I have of course learned better how to drive the thing, but my favorite things I have learned are new phrases from other truck drivers. My two favorite are “Uglier than a one-eyed opossum”, used to refer to someone who is extremely ugly. The other phrase is “Slicker than greased owl shit”, used to describe road conditions that were slippery.
One other thing that I have learned is how to drive in a car around semi-trucks, and I feel it is my duty to pass on this information along to you. First of all I want to dispel a myth. If you are on either side of a truck, we can see you. I know you are told that we have blind spots along the sides, but we don't. We tell you that because we don't want you next to us, and so that when we turn on our turn signals you panic and give us space because you think we can't see you. Which is my first piece of advice, don't hang out on the side of a truck if at all possible. I know if there is heavy traffic it can't be helped, but most other times it can be. This is for you safety, because it can sometimes be difficult to keep that trailer exactly in our lane, especially in wind (even if it is wind that you don't feel in your car). As for the turn signal, if you see it on, please give us room, either move ahead of us (quickly) or back off. Trucks are generally not swerving in and out of traffic, so if we have our turn signal on it is usually for a good reason, so help us out. Also, to help us out, if you see one of us merging on the freeway, and you are able to, kindly move over to the next lane, or if appropriate speed up. We need a lot of room to merge, and it will take us a while to get up to speed, so give us some space. While I am mentioning speed, when it is off the freeway, driving in towns and such, just keep in mind, we are slow. We speed up slow (I have to go up 5 gears just to get to 25 MPH) and we stop slow, so just be patient. If you are stuck behind a truck and he takes off from a light slowly, he's not doing it to piss you off, he's doing it because of gravity, so just chill out. I could go on, but I think you probably get the idea.
Love you all, and only 3 weeks left until I'm on my own!
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