What to pack for your first trip out

You will have less room than you think and you will be gone longer than you think. A sleeper is roughly the floor space of a small bathroom, and you are going to live in it for three or four weeks at a stretch with no trip home to swap things out.

Pack for two weeks of clothes and one month of everything else. Bring soft bags, not hard suitcases, because soft bags collapse when they are empty and a suitcase never does.

Documents, and nothing gets loaded without them

These ride on your person or in the cab, every trip, no exceptions:

• Your CDL.
• Your DOT medical examiner's certificate. Carry it even if your state has moved to electronic submission — a roadside inspector or a guard shack will ask and "it's in the system" is a bad answer at 2 a.m. If yours is close to expiring, deal with it before you leave; here is what the physical covers and how long a card lasts.
• Any endorsement paperwork, if you have endorsements.
• A second form of photo ID, kept somewhere separate from your wallet.
• Your Social Security card and a copy of your birth certificate for onboarding. Put them in a sealed envelope and do not carry them loose.
• Proof of your TWIC card if you have one, and a passport or passport card if the company runs into Canada or Mexico.
• Bank account and routing numbers, written down, for direct deposit.
• A small notebook and two pens. You will write down load numbers, door numbers, and gate codes constantly, and your phone will die at the worst possible moment.

If you are running paper logs at any point, you keep the current log and the previous seven days with you. The rules on what you have to show and when are on FMCSA's summary of the hours-of-service regulations, and it is worth reading once before you are asked about it by someone in a uniform. Our hours of service guide covers the parts that trip up new drivers.

Clothes

Two weeks of underwear and socks. Socks matter more than you expect — buy good ones and bring more than you think, because wet feet in a yard in January ruins a day. Five or six shirts, two pairs of work pants, one pair you would wear into an office in case you have to go to a terminal or a doctor.

Boots that are comfortable to stand in for hours and have real grip. Steel toe if the company or the shippers you serve require it, and some do. A second pair of shoes so the first pair can dry.

Weather is the thing new drivers underestimate. You will leave Jacksonville in shorts and be in Wyoming in a week. Bring a warm coat, a knit hat, work gloves, and rain gear, even in August. A cheap rain jacket in the door pocket has saved a lot of miserable tarping and hooking.

Do not bring a month of clothes. Bring two weeks and do laundry — nearly every large truck stop has machines, and one load a week costs a few dollars and takes an hour you were going to spend on a reset anyway.

Sleeping and washing

Bring your own bedding. Truck mattresses are thin. A mattress topper is the single most common thing experienced drivers say they wish they had bought in week one instead of month six. Bring a real pillow, a sleeping bag or comforter rated colder than you expect, and two sets of sheets sized to the bunk — measure it or ask before you buy, because bunks are not standard.

A blackout curtain or a good set of window covers, because you will sleep during the day more than you expect and truck stops are lit like stadiums. Earplugs or something to make noise, because reefers run all night and so do idling trucks.

For washing: a shower bag with everything in one place so you can walk in and out of a shower room without leaving anything behind. Shower shoes. A towel of your own even though truck stops provide them. Most large chains give a shower credit when you fuel, which is why fueling at your company's network matters to your daily comfort as well as to their fuel card.

Food, which is where your money goes

Truck stop food is expensive and will quietly eat a large share of a new driver's paycheck. A twelve-volt cooler and a small twelve-volt cooking appliance pay for themselves within a month or two if you actually use them. Bring a plate, a bowl, a mug, a knife, a spoon, a fork, and a way to wash them — a small tub and dish soap.

Keep shelf-stable food on board for the night you park somewhere with nothing open: canned soup, tuna, peanut butter, oatmeal, rice packets. A case of water so you are not buying bottles at two dollars each.

Eating badly in a truck is not a small problem. It compounds with sitting for eleven hours and sleeping irregularly, and it is the mechanism by which a lot of drivers fail a DOT physical two years in. Staying healthy on the road is a real part of keeping the career, not a wellness aside.

Tools and truck things

Most of this is cheap and all of it is annoying to need at a dock and not have:

• A flashlight and a headlamp, plus batteries.
• A tire thumper or a gauge, because you are checking those every pre-trip. The pre-trip inspection guide covers what an inspector expects you to have looked at.
• Gloves, a pair for grease and a pair for cold.
• A quarter-inch socket set, adjustable wrench, pliers, screwdrivers, electrical tape, zip ties, bungees.
• A window scraper and a can of windshield de-icer. Yes, even from Florida.
• Reflective triangles if the truck does not have them, and know where they are before you need them.
• A high-visibility vest. Many shippers will not let you out of the cab without one.
• Extra fuses and a spare glad hand seal.
• Chargers for everything, an inverter if the truck does not have one, and a long phone cable.

If you are pulling flatbed, that list grows — straps, chains, binders, tarps, a tarping ladder — but a flatbed carrier normally issues the securement gear. Ask before you buy.

What not to bring

Anything valuable you would grieve. Trucks get broken into. Anything illegal in any state you might cross, including things that are legal in Florida and not legal in Texas — a CDL is a federal privilege and a possession charge can end it. Too many clothes. A hard suitcase. A large television. Weapons, unless you have read your company's written policy and the law of every state on your route, which is harder than it sounds.

Before you leave the yard

Pack a "first 48 hours" bag that stays in the front of the bunk: toothbrush, one change of clothes, phone charger, snacks, your documents. Your first two days will be chaotic, and digging through three duffel bags in a dark sleeper at a truck stop in Georgia is how things get lost.

Then read what the first 90 days actually feel like, because packing is the easy part and nobody warns you about the rest of it. If you are not out there yet and you are still working out how to get the license, you can start an application with us in Jacksonville and ask these questions in person at the yard.