All UPS drivers are a member of a kind of fraternity. Feeder drivers are no different. If you have a question about if a hookup looks good, or if a procedure is done properly, ask another driver, they will usually help a newbie without hesitation. My first week in feeders, I dropped a trailer on our break down pad, directly in front of the 2nd floor dispatch. Within seconds, 3 drivers pulled up next to me with trailers to block the view of dispatch and to help me get back under the trailer. I was really upset and frazzled, as you could imagine. Those guys didn't know me from Adam. They could have just drove by and shook their heads at the rookie. I payed it forward my entire feeder career, helping newbies whenever I could. Just ask, and help will be there.
And make no mistake, you WILL drop one.
My first year, I had a run to a small hub out in the country. They had one main spotter, and one of the first things he asked me was if I'd dropped a trailer yet. I said no sir, and I don't plan on it either. He laughed, and said, "Okay."
Later that summer, I got distracted and dropped one there, and when I did, it sounded like a thunder bolt. Shortly thereafter, I hear that spotter racing over towards me. He pulled up, with a grin from ear to ear and said, "Never gonna drop one, huh?"
It was embarrassing; humiliating, really, because of my big mouth and he was laughing hard at me, like he should, but he got out and helped me crank the legs down.
Strange as it may sound, the one way to prevent dropping a trailer is by, you guessed it, dropping a trailer. Cranking the handle in low gear, for what seems like 30 minutes, will go a long way from preventing you from doing it again. I did it in the middle of a hot, humid, Midwestern summer night. It was miserable. I haven't sweated that hard since my package car days.
And, by the way, the most common reason you forget to crank your legs down before you pull off, or forget to disconnect your lines before pull away from the trailer (I've done that too), is by getting distracted. A lot of times, if you are talking to another driver in the yard, or talking on the phone while you are breaking down OR hooking up, it is amazingly easy to forget something. If you are doing those things, double check things when you are done talking.
Everybody thinks they can do two things at once. Very few can.
This also has everything to do with what I was posting yesterday, about listening to your instincts. I can't tell you how many times I've started my tractor up, after breaking down, put it in drive, and my instincts start buzzing. And usually, I haven't disconnected the lines, or pulled the pin. It's really uncanny how it works like that. Listen to those instincts.
