First Week Solo

I've just finished up my first week of driving.  I've driven my butt off and am taking my first 34 hour reset.  Luckily, the delivery window for my current load is a few days wide, so I can take my reset and still deliver on-time.  My route took me through Kentucky near a friend's house, so I'll be able to get some much-needed time out of the truck and it'll be good so see a familiar face.

I've driven from North Carolina to Michigan to Georgia to Kentucky to Indiana and right now I'm in Kentucky on my way to Mississippi.  Sometime soon, I'm hoping to get a load going to the northwest. That's where the company headquarters are and the truck I'm in is going to be sold (and I have no idea which truck I'll be in next) whenever I can get it there. 

It's been a really good week.  The low point was at the end of my first day.  I was pulling into a Walmart parking lot and I hit a post (you know those 3' high yellow posts that protect the light poles?  I hit one of those).  It bent my tandem release arm into one of my tires.  So not only did I have to report an incident on my first day, I had to wait around the next morning until someone could come and change out the damaged tire. 

I haven't managed to get home yet (because we're trying to get this truck to the northwest as soon as possible).  I don't want to take hometime, but I would like to go by my house to pick up a few things (my 12v cooler and CB radio amongst others) for the truck.  I live near an interstate, so I'm hoping I can get a load going through that area sometime in the next few weeks.

Things I've learned:

Rest stops are much quieter (and less-crowded) than truck stops at night. Unless I specifically need a shower or laundry, I will always try to plan so that I can end my day at a rest stop. After dark, truck stops get full and it's difficult (and sometimes impossible) to find an open space. Also, if you're a newbie like me, there might be an open space.... but you and your primitive parking skills will never be able to get your truck into it. Much easier to get there earlier in the day (to beat the rush) or skip the truck stop altogether.  Keep in mind that fewer people at a rest stop means that if there's an emergency, there aren't as many people around to help. 

Also, if you wait until night time to take a shower, you'll have a long wait. If you stop at a truck stop in the middle of the day, there's lots of open parking and often no wait at all for the shower. So much easier.

Take along more than a week's worth of clothing. I've been on the road for a week and (and to three of our terminals after I left Conover) and this truck stop that I'm at now is the first place that I could do laundry. If I had a few more changes of clothes, it wouldn't have been such a pain. Again, plan ahead.

Oh, and a bit of advice: if you can't find your underarm deodorant, never EVER think "oh, I'll just use this spray dry shampoo... it's practically the same thing!" because you will chemically burn your armpits.

Learn from my mistakes, people. They're hilarious!

Hired!

I've just completed my two weeks of orientation at a new company.  I'll be leaving on my first trip tomorrow, taking a load from North Carolina to Michigan.  I'm supposed to switch trucks in Michigan and then take the new truck to a different terminal. I have no idea how long it will take them to put me in my permanent truck.

I've really enjoyed the last two weeks.  My recruiter was honest (no surprises) and the trainers here have been really great.  I'll be pulling a van trailer, but this company has a flatbed division I can apply to after I have six months of OTR experience.  I still want to do flatbed, but I have to survive my first six months on the road first.

Day One

Day One

We started out with just a lot of paperwork this morning. Normal stuff, making sure everyone's file is in order, direct deposit, etc. Then we started watching some of the training videos.

Around noon, they took us to the truck stop to cash our T-checks and have lunch. After that, we had our physical lifting test: lifting to waist height, to an overhead shelf, carrying the weight, etc. for weights from 10 to 60 pounds.  Lots of reps with the lower weights (15 reps of 10#) and fewer as it got heavier.  Had to lift 50# three times and then carry a 60# crate about 40 feet.  Nothing extremely difficult, but they do watch your heart rate with a monitor the whole time to see that you can not only perform the tasks, but do so in a safe heart rate range.  The really attractive physical therapist guy didn't do my heart rate any favors, I can tell you that ;o)

And then we had our drug test. By the time we were done with all of that, we had time to watch one more training video at the terminal before the day was over.

I brought all of my books back to the hotel with me with me because I want to get ahead on the reading (because I'm a nerd)... and also because I don't watch television and don't have a car here, so there's not a lot to do in the evening. I was still tired today from traveling all weekend, so I'm going to bed early.

Travel Day

After 29 hours of travel (Greyhound, unfortunately) I am arrived at my new company's orientation.  Or at least I'm checked into the hotel and the first day of orientation is tomorrow.

Smoking rooms were all that was available... which is kinda gross, to be honest. They've promised to move me to a non-smoking (aka breathing) room if one opens up. There's some kind of convention in town this week and the hotel is booked up.

So tired!  You can never really sleep on a bus... especially since every two or three hours, they make you disembark and hang out in some random bus station for 30 minutes or an hour. 

Picked up a salad from a restaurant across the street from the hotel.  A few gallons of water from the gas station and I'm good to go.  After a nice hot shower and a full night's sleep, I'll be right as rain.

Goodnight!

Disappointing

Sunday

Arrived in Des Moines for orientation. I'm the only female student, so I have a hotel room to myself. The hotel has two parts, one section that's open to the public (nicer rooms) and the part where the trucking students stay (not as nice, no fridge or microwave).

I get to stay in one of the nice rooms all by myself (unless/until another female student arrives. none scheduled). I went ahead an unpacked... so I can be all organized and stuff.

The first day is a lot of paperwork and a physical assessment (among other things, lifting a tarp that weighs 85 pounds up onto my shoulder from the floor).

This is a company with high standards. Most trucking companies allow you to have a DUI (or even several) so long as they're at least 3 years old. The company I'm with now only allows one and even then, only if you were 23 or younger when you got it and if TEN years have elapsed. If you've gotten a DUI age 24 or over, you're disqualified for life for working for this company.

Other trucking companies are more lenient on past misdemeanors and felonies as long as they're 3 or 5 years old. This company is more stringent and if you've ever been convicted of a sex crime or drug charge, you can't work here. Ever.

I like that.

The company invites 40 to 60 people for orientation (most are student drivers, some are experienced drivers who need flatbed training before they can work for this company) and only 15 or so make it through. Most fail for hiding something in their medical or criminal histories... or they fail the physical test (tarp!) The company runs a local/state (wherever you live) background check before they invite you to orientation. They run a full federal background check after you arrive.

Monday

I'm being sent home from day one of orientation.

Last Friday, I had a phone conversation with my recruiter.  I had been reading up on the orientation proceedings for this company and had reservations about part of the "essential job functions" test.  Among other things, we have to lift a tarp onto our shoulder from the ground, put it on the trailer, hoist ourselves onto the trailer from the side and then lift the tarp again, this time onto a coil.  I had read that some flatbedding tarps weigh well over a hundred pounds.  I asked the recruiter if we had to lift one of those tarps for the test (the orientation part of the website shows pictures of the test, but doesn't tell you how much the tarp weighs) because I was sure I'd never be able to lift something that heavy.  She told me that we would only be required to lift the 65 or 85 pound tarp and nothing heavier than that.

It really eased my mind.  The heavy tarp lifting was the only thing I had been worried about.

The first thing we did for the "essential job functions" test was to lift the tarp.  The 120 pound tarp.  The very tarp my recruiter told me that no one had to deal with in orientation.  That tarp.

I could not lift the 120 pound tarp at first. I did eventually lift the 120 pound tarp up to waist height, but could not for the life of me get it onto my shoulder.  It had taken me a minute or two of struggle to get the thing more than a foot off the ground. 







They have a physical therapist show you how to lift the tarp and then he analyzes how well (with proper form and control) you do it.  Once he realized that I was never going to get the 120 pound tarp up onto my shoulder, he pulled me aside and told me I could perform the test with the 85 pound tarp and then the company would decide whether that was good enough.



I managed to lift the 85 pound tarp onto my shoulder (so tired after struggling with the heavier one), onto the trailer and then on top of the coil. Afterward, we put the tarps away and did two more of the "essential job functions" tasks.  One of them was climbing a ladder onto a shipping container that was on a flatbed trailer.  We had to step off onto the trailer, walk to the edge of the container and hang our toes off the edge, stand there for a few seconds until the physical therapist gave us a thumbs-up and then climb back down.  Testing to see if we were afraid of heights.

Then we went to lunch.

I was called into the training head guy's office and told that they were sending me home.  I glanced at the paper on the desk (that the physical therapist had been taking notes on) and all it said next to my name was "TARP".  Nothing about being able to perform the test with the 85 pound tarp.  I didn't say anything to him about the false information (flat-out lie, if you will) the recruiter had told me about the tarps.  I told him where I needed a bus ticket to and then left.  I calmly walked back to the classroom and gathered up my stuff.  Made sure to wish another guy who had graduated from the same CDL school (a week after me) luck, since he was staying on.

They also sent home two of the guys who had trouble (but ultimately managed to lift and carry the 120 pound tarp). At least I'll have people to talk to on the way home since we're all heading back east.

So I'm going home. Will try to arrange orientation at another company for Monday.

They drove us to the hotel so we could grab our stuff and check out.... and we've been sitting in the lobby for an hour waiting for the guy to come back and drive us to the bus station. The company provides a bus ticket home if you get dismissed from orientation.

If we make it there in the next hour (and if there are seats) we can catch the 3:30 bus. If not, we'll be sitting at the bus station until 11:15... because that's the next bus going east. 

Tuesday

We did make the 3:30 bus out of Des Moines.  We finally gave up on the company guy who was supposed to take us to the hotel to pack up and check out (which he did) and then just wandered off to do stuff and said he'd be back "later".  We took the hotel shuttle to the bus station and hoped that our reservations would be in the computer somewhere.  They were.

Greyhound took what should have been an 8.5 hr bus ride and turned it into a 19 hr mess. Broke down on the side of the highway (bus driver ignored check engine light and instead of calling for service when we were stopped for dinner at the Iowa 80 "World's Biggest Truck Stop"... he tried to push it and we broke down and had to pull into a closed truck scale about five miles down the highway.

Nearly 4 hours of sitting (bus off, no lights) waiting for another bus. The other bus should have been there after 3 hours, but they missed the turn into the scale and it took them almost an hour to loop back around and find us.

So we missed the connection in Chicago and had to sit (on the floor... not enough seats) for seven hours in the Chicago terminal waiting for the next bus out. The next bus was leaving at 7:50am... but the driver had scheduled off and the company forgot... so there wasn't a bus. They got a replacement there (when they said it might be two more hours I literally started sobbing hysterically. It was Tuesday morning and I'd only had 3 hours of sleep since Saturday night... and I was just done) in about 45 minutes. I got home around 11am and got the biggest hug from my roommate.

Then we picked up some ice cream on the way home. After a shower, clean pyjamas and some ice cream, I almost felt human.

The nap was epic.



Wednesday

Still very upset about the flat-out lie the recruiter told me.  Why lie about that and have me go to orientation if it's a task she'd know that I would fail?  What's the point?  It wasted three days of my time (the orientation day itself and the day of travel each way) and the company's time and money (for the two bus tickets).  I wrote her an email (asking her why she had told me no one had to lift the 120 pound tarp) and left a voicemail.  It's been more than a day since and she hasn't responded to either.



I know that recruiters exaggerate their companies to make them sound appealing... but I'm still surprised at her tactics.  She has been recruiting for this company for 17 years so there is no reason for her not to know exactly what orientation entails.  If she had been new to recruiting for the company, I could see it as an honest mistake because perhaps she'd been misinformed.  She knew better.

Oh, and as an added bonus: my tuition reimbursement benefits are now null and void.  Only the very first company you work for does tuition reimbursement (if they offer it at all).  Having spent half of a day at this company's orientation means that no other company will reimburse my tuition. That's $6000 over the next few years that I am not going to be paid.  That really sucks.



I'm going to be writing letters to some of the upper-management of the company about this.  I'm just waiting for my temper to cool so I can write the letters without using inappropriate language.  I wish I had had the tarp conversation with the recruiter via email (instead of on the phone) because then I'd have written proof of her dishonesty.

I already have orientation scheduled with another company for Monday (and I'll have to start out with a box/van trailer, but can move to the flatbed division after I have experience). Not looking forward to the 28 hour Greyhound trip to get there though.




I'll be pulling a dry van (normal box-type) trailer.  This new company has a flatbed division that I can apply to once I have more experience, so that's still an option.  I've asked around and there is no other flatbed company that I can find that makes you lift such a heavy tarp.  Every other company realizes that it makes more sense to have the forklift driver lift the tarp on to the load for you (then you spread and secure the tarp).  Less physical exertion from the driver and they are less likely to sustain a back injury from unnecessary heavy lifting.




All I can do is hope that this next company is a better fit for me (and that my recruiter was honest when answering my questions).

Good things are on the horizon. I just have to keep on truckin'!