This morning I started work bright and early at 7:15am. Meaning I opened a truck. I made sure not to pick 24 this time, from past experiences. 32 seemed like a good number. I went with it.
I went through all the opening procedures (takes about 20 minutes) cleaning, sweeping, checking, double checking things, etc. etc. Filled out all my paperwork and finally went to drive the truck. As I put the truck into drive and pulled forward I heard a loud squeaking sound. It only lasted a second and I didn't think much of it. But as I went to drive around the VM lot, I realized it was happening each time I accelerated. I decided to tell the manager when I went to get my paperwork signed off. The last step of opening a truck is to get the leader to sign off the paperwork, then you drive on to the ride path.
I pulled up to the leaders and as I put my truck in park and explained what my truck was doing to the manager, a loud alarm went off. I looked around stupidly for a second thinking, "Is that my truck? Can't be... I checked the whole thing!" Turns out my aux brake light and alarm went off. Just like last time. Now the truth is (I swear it normally works like this... just not with me apparently) when that happens, most of the time a simple reset will fix it. So I turned to the manager since she was right there, asked if I could do a full reset, she said yes and I did.
And then I went to turn the truck back on. Nothing. Crank... Crank... Nothing. And that's when we decided this truck was no good because apparently the squeaking sound was from yesterday and it had a loose belt too. Lame.
So she had me pull around the lot, park the truck, shred the paperwork, and start from square one opening a different truck. And this time I didn't get to choose the truck.
Fortunately it wasn't 24 they gave me. That would have been hilarious though. But no, I was put on 12. I went through the paperwork to open 12, swept, did the evacuation ladder, everything. Then drove around the lot, yet again.
As I went to sign off the paperwork, I almost accidentally signed under the number 32 because that was the first truck I opened. I mentioned this near mistake to my leader as I signed under the number 12, and let her know we might want to double check the paperwork to make sure I filled it out for truck 12 and not 32. There are three different places on the paperwork where you verify what truck it is. I accidentally circled truck 32 in one of those places. So I had to pull back into the lot and refill out all of my paperwork from the beginning (fortunately I didn't have to actually do everything again, just the check sheet). But still. Super annoying. Finally, third time around, I was able to check out. Oi!
I'm thinking I'm just bad luck when it comes to opening trucks.
2 comments:
Question: does this job qualify you for a CDL? In this economy, having a CDL is like having a pot of gold. Trucking companies are always hiring good drivers with CDL's. It's worth asking about.
Awwww, maybe you should try some odd numbers for a change.
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