soopageek

It shouldn't have any bearing on his training. I've had other students get into minor scrapes with trailers and trucks before and it didn't interfere with them getting their own trucks and becoming drivers. Accidents happen, and unless it's just a sign of gross negligence, the company is fairly understanding.

Heh, he's a light weight yet :P

Heh, yeah I haven't had a student try to take out an overpass yet. Though Genya got fired from Werner after getting his own truck. He was trying to perform a U-turn in a fire department lot and took out the overhang of the building's roof.

Whoops. Glad your truck (and insurance rates!) are okay.

That must be difficult for a new driver - having to gage distance and clearance and stuff. It's way different than driving a little car, yes?

It takes some getting used to that's for sure. Plus with a trailer, the way it turns behind you changes from load to load depending on where the tandems are set, so there's no real "getting used" to it in the respect. It can be different every time you get under a new load.

ouch! That sucks. Was the other driver upset?

Yes, but he calmed down rather quickly. I even shot the shit and talked shop a little with him by the end of it.

Ouch, bad Don, no cookie.

Was he driving Sally or a company truck?

We were in Sally. Sally's okay, though. It was our trailer that hit the other truck.

It wasn't an excuse for either party yeah, but I really do hate when people creep way past the stop bars at intersections. When I got good at figuring exactly my trailer's position, I liked to get within a foot of the front of the offenders. But that is stupid, so I just flip them off.

I usually do both if it's really egregious.



I was going to a joint in Johnstown, NY yesterday. NY 30A makes a left turn at a 'T' after you go over the river between Fultonville & Fonda, and the stop-line towards that left turn is set back .. I'd guess it's 30-40 feet from the intersection (there's a WallyWorld warehouse in Johnstown, so 30A gets really heavy truck traffic). Some douchebag had crept right up to the corner, and I had to take about 15 feet of curb to not hit him.

you talked to cops today? tell me they were buying candy!

Oh man. That sucks!

Truckers are govered by hours of service, no? How many hours can you work before you take a break? How many hours do you have to rest before getting back on the road?

It works likes this:

You can work 70 hours in an 8-day period.

When you begin your day, you have a 14-hour window within which you can drive 11 hours. Whichever of those time periods ends first, you're done driving for the day and must take a 10 hour break, and your 14 and 11 both reset.

There are a few other minor points to the hours of service, but that's the meat of it.