I have had people ask me why I haven't posted about my new job. To tell you the truth, I have been too tired. When I do get home from work I want to do only one of two things, sleep or spend time with a special someone. I have laundry piling up all over the place, my house is DIRTY, my DVR is full to the brim, mail/bills are mounting high on my desk, food is rotting in the fridge.....get the point. Last
thing I do is turn on the computer. However, it has been an adventure.
Before I can tell you some of my experiences there are some things that need to teach my non trucker savvy friends. First, I drive for a company that mostly transports freight via pups....or doubles.....or wiggle wagons. They look like this:
In the middle of the two trailers is what is called a dolly....or jiff.....or jifflox. They are extremely heavy and weigh several hundred pounds. Here are a few pictures of what it looks like.
When I get to work, the first thing that I do after getting my bills for my load is to find a jiff. I pick up my tractor and go find a dolly. I have to attach it to the tractor as such:
This requires me to back the tractor up to the dolly, get out and manually move and attach the dolly. Did I mention that they are several hundred pounds and very difficult to steer and move around. Now, the next part is a bit tricky. I have to back up the dolly to the trailer that is going to be my rear trailer, the lightest one. The problem is that the wheel base is so short between the back axel of the tractor and the axel on the jiff. Therefore, it turns on a dime and is very quick to jack knife making it "fun" to back it up in line with the king pin on the front underneath side of the trailer.
Next, I go and hook up my heaviest loaded trailer to my tractor's fifth wheel. Once that is done I back that trailer up inline with the jiffy and back trailer, make sure it's in line, hook the jiff to back of the front trailer that is already connected to the tractor, get back into the tractor and back every thing together till the jiff's fifth wheel locks onto the king pin of the back trailer. Then, lastly, hook all the air brakes and stuff together.
Here's some videos for you showing how much "fun" it is:
Hooking Up Doubles (Doesn't show the hardest part of backing up the dolly to the back trailer, I wish it magically appeared already aligned)
How To Use A Dolly Converter:
Now, you've learned the basics.
When I started at Old Dominion I had to do four weeks training. I already blogged about some of my training. There were many mishaps....like coming to a full stop in an interchange going up a steep 360 degree ramp, hooking the trailers in the wrong order (lightest first, instead of heaviest.....causes back trailer to fishhook.), repeatedly stalling, grinding gears, knocking the gas hose out and flooding the fuel bay with liquid gold, being side swiped by a truck towing a camper and knocking my mirrors....having to try to fix my mirrors hanging out the window while maintaining speed while in four lane traffic and having to cut people off while making another quick highway change. I'm sure there were plenty more stories to tell. However, my favorite would be on one of my last Saturdays.
That morning I was particularly tired. The night before I had a "fight" or long winded discussion when I got off work the previous night. By the time I returned home, it was close to 2 in the morning. That was a long and emotionally tiring day. The next morning at work, I hooked up the dolly and went to find my back trailer. I found the one I was looking for and whipped the tractor and dolly around to begin lining it up for the hook up. I stopped the tractor and started to shift to reverse.
Shane, my trainer, spoke up, "Sonya, how much sleep did you get last night?"
"Not much, why?"
Shane gave out a little laugh, "cause look at what you about to do. You're on the wrong side of the trailer."
I stared back at my mirrors. "Oh shit," I let out in a low exasperated puff. I had the dolly all prepared to shimmy right up to the wrong end where the doors were. There's definitely not a king pin to hook the fifth wheel of the dolly there.
I have had quite a few mishaps. I know that my guardian angel has been working overtime since I have started working. Here's a few tales of things that have happened.
I left out Sunday night to head out for a Gainesville, Florida turn. (A turn means I go somewhere and meet another driver at a halfway point, swap trailers and come back to Atlanta the same shift. A bag run means that I drive to a destination and have to spend the night in a hotel and come back to Atlanta the next day or go to another destination the next day.) I couldn't find my trailers. I was riding up and down the lot looking. These two team drivers stopped me and asked if I was lost. Turns out, the dispatcher already had my trailers hooked up for me in the front. There went a good 30 minutes. :) Same trip, I ran over two medians and my fuel card wasn't working.
I have dropped two trailers on two different occasions. No, not like dropping them as in dropping off trailers....I mean dropping them as forgetting to put down the legs and I pull out from underneath the trailers and KABOOM....they drop to the ground. Luckily, on both occasions they were empty trailers. I've learned to ignore all conversation until I put down the legs. :)
I have been ran over by a converter dolly which ran down hill at me. It took three of us to push it back up to the trailer. Luckily, I wasn't at a terminal by myself.
I have missed the king pin pushing the dolly into my back trailer and had it jump the fifth wheel.... again, I was lucky that it was an empty trailer so I could crank the trailer up high by myself and not have to go tell on myself.
I have had tons of adventures. I don't think I have gone on a trip, yet, that I didn't have things go wrong or me mess up. It is a stressful job, a tiresome job... but, I am thankful I have a job. I need to keep this blog better updated because some of the stories are hilarious if I remember to blog about them....now all the details of all my screw ups are all mushed together.
Anyways, I barely get on the computer when I am home. Too tired and want to spend my time doing other productive things. I'll try to keep this more updated. :)
thing I do is turn on the computer. However, it has been an adventure.
Before I can tell you some of my experiences there are some things that need to teach my non trucker savvy friends. First, I drive for a company that mostly transports freight via pups....or doubles.....or wiggle wagons. They look like this:
In the middle of the two trailers is what is called a dolly....or jiff.....or jifflox. They are extremely heavy and weigh several hundred pounds. Here are a few pictures of what it looks like.
When I get to work, the first thing that I do after getting my bills for my load is to find a jiff. I pick up my tractor and go find a dolly. I have to attach it to the tractor as such:
This requires me to back the tractor up to the dolly, get out and manually move and attach the dolly. Did I mention that they are several hundred pounds and very difficult to steer and move around. Now, the next part is a bit tricky. I have to back up the dolly to the trailer that is going to be my rear trailer, the lightest one. The problem is that the wheel base is so short between the back axel of the tractor and the axel on the jiff. Therefore, it turns on a dime and is very quick to jack knife making it "fun" to back it up in line with the king pin on the front underneath side of the trailer.
Next, I go and hook up my heaviest loaded trailer to my tractor's fifth wheel. Once that is done I back that trailer up inline with the jiffy and back trailer, make sure it's in line, hook the jiff to back of the front trailer that is already connected to the tractor, get back into the tractor and back every thing together till the jiff's fifth wheel locks onto the king pin of the back trailer. Then, lastly, hook all the air brakes and stuff together.
Here's some videos for you showing how much "fun" it is:
Hooking Up Doubles (Doesn't show the hardest part of backing up the dolly to the back trailer, I wish it magically appeared already aligned)
How To Use A Dolly Converter:
Now, you've learned the basics.
When I started at Old Dominion I had to do four weeks training. I already blogged about some of my training. There were many mishaps....like coming to a full stop in an interchange going up a steep 360 degree ramp, hooking the trailers in the wrong order (lightest first, instead of heaviest.....causes back trailer to fishhook.), repeatedly stalling, grinding gears, knocking the gas hose out and flooding the fuel bay with liquid gold, being side swiped by a truck towing a camper and knocking my mirrors....having to try to fix my mirrors hanging out the window while maintaining speed while in four lane traffic and having to cut people off while making another quick highway change. I'm sure there were plenty more stories to tell. However, my favorite would be on one of my last Saturdays.
That morning I was particularly tired. The night before I had a "fight" or long winded discussion when I got off work the previous night. By the time I returned home, it was close to 2 in the morning. That was a long and emotionally tiring day. The next morning at work, I hooked up the dolly and went to find my back trailer. I found the one I was looking for and whipped the tractor and dolly around to begin lining it up for the hook up. I stopped the tractor and started to shift to reverse.
Shane, my trainer, spoke up, "Sonya, how much sleep did you get last night?"
"Not much, why?"
Shane gave out a little laugh, "cause look at what you about to do. You're on the wrong side of the trailer."
I stared back at my mirrors. "Oh shit," I let out in a low exasperated puff. I had the dolly all prepared to shimmy right up to the wrong end where the doors were. There's definitely not a king pin to hook the fifth wheel of the dolly there.
I have had quite a few mishaps. I know that my guardian angel has been working overtime since I have started working. Here's a few tales of things that have happened.
I left out Sunday night to head out for a Gainesville, Florida turn. (A turn means I go somewhere and meet another driver at a halfway point, swap trailers and come back to Atlanta the same shift. A bag run means that I drive to a destination and have to spend the night in a hotel and come back to Atlanta the next day or go to another destination the next day.) I couldn't find my trailers. I was riding up and down the lot looking. These two team drivers stopped me and asked if I was lost. Turns out, the dispatcher already had my trailers hooked up for me in the front. There went a good 30 minutes. :) Same trip, I ran over two medians and my fuel card wasn't working.
I have dropped two trailers on two different occasions. No, not like dropping them as in dropping off trailers....I mean dropping them as forgetting to put down the legs and I pull out from underneath the trailers and KABOOM....they drop to the ground. Luckily, on both occasions they were empty trailers. I've learned to ignore all conversation until I put down the legs. :)
I have been ran over by a converter dolly which ran down hill at me. It took three of us to push it back up to the trailer. Luckily, I wasn't at a terminal by myself.
I have missed the king pin pushing the dolly into my back trailer and had it jump the fifth wheel.... again, I was lucky that it was an empty trailer so I could crank the trailer up high by myself and not have to go tell on myself.
I have had tons of adventures. I don't think I have gone on a trip, yet, that I didn't have things go wrong or me mess up. It is a stressful job, a tiresome job... but, I am thankful I have a job. I need to keep this blog better updated because some of the stories are hilarious if I remember to blog about them....now all the details of all my screw ups are all mushed together.
Anyways, I barely get on the computer when I am home. Too tired and want to spend my time doing other productive things. I'll try to keep this more updated. :)
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