My Celadon Experience

Figured I would start a thread to document my experience with Celadon. So here it goes. I went to the Quality Drivers school here in Indy to get my CDL. I guess I got suckered in by their "3 week program" to be a professional driver. Welp, I soon realized when I got there, I wouldn't be able to be done in 3 weeks because there were SO many people there.. as documented in other threads on here about the QD School and its student/instructor ratio. I decided to stick it out due to the fact I knew I really wanted my CDL and the fact I hate having my mind set on something and not getting it done. So fast forward, after my 6th week there I test out. Boom. I feel like the man. Next is orientation, drug test, road test and then out with a trainer right? NO. My driver advocate did not update my phone # in the system and I get terminated 3 weeks later due to "lack of contact". I blew my top. I made sure to write down my new contact info and pressed him to update it then and there only to get a "I will change it for you". So I have to take another physical.. drug test and get put back into their system as an active employee. So I thought I would be good money, but due to my own negligence I let my CPAP compliance drop below 70% so 2 weeks later of daily usage I'm DOT compliant. Get assigned a new driver advocate and I think there will be a short wait for a trainer...NOPE. Received a call Wednesday to come to the terminal and bring my stuff. Talk to the advocate only to get the response.."Oh I think I jumped the gun.." REALLY. But yesterday I get the call I'm good to go. So today I met up with my trainer, very cool guy with a lot of experience. So the truck is Lone Star with 55k.. 13 speed behind a Cummins I believe. 1st load is going to Cleveland but not until Monday morning. He let me drive from the terminal to my house which was cool because I never drove a 13 speed and I never floated gears before.. so we leave out tomorrow morning and before someone brings it up, yes I read about Celadon and the gas skimming they were doing.. SMH. Only thing I care about now is keeping a positive attitude while getting the much needed 1 year of experience under my belt.. I will try to update as I progress thru my 10k training miles..

 

Thanks fellas jbatmick & jrdude5

 

Well first day in the books. Left the terminal in Indy.. drove to OH for a drop & hook. That gave me a chance to get some backing practice in because it was a tight spot. Took me about 15 mins to get er done. Trainer said he was impressed so that felt good. In Cleveland now for a load that goes down to Atlanta tomorrow so that is gonna be fun because I have read about the traffic down there. Ugh. Really liking this 13 speed . Few more days I'll be shifting like a super trucker Lol. Trainer is awesome, tells me how it is.. keeps the truck clean & reminds me how much money I'm gonna make him haha can't be mad at that. In the sleeper.. cpap machine about to take me to lala land.

 

Well.. been running hard since the last update . I'm at just over 2300 miles in. Down in Panama City getting loaded up for a run to Minnesota. Downshifting is coming along .. I'm not getting as frustrated as I was at first Lol which is a good thing. Ill try to update every couple of days or so.

 

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Well Up to 5300 Miles now which means the truck goes into team mode. Last night was quite the experience.. drove on I68, which made me almost crap my pants ! Lol. A lot of Big hills.. 5% grades going down for MILES but I kept calm & downshifted as needed to maintain my speed. A nice test my trainer warned me about as we decided to take a route w/o tolls going back west from Barrington, NJ. Driving thru the Appalachian Mountains is serious trucking to say the least. West Virginia. 3 words Hills Hills Hills. Haha. But this is all part of the job right! Finally headed south to Texas with a load of Freightliner axles. It will be good to be in some warm weather. This time next I should be done with my training miles .. hopefully. My trainer is awesome can't stress that enough how lucky I am. S.W. Sweet.. good luck on your journey as well. Quality Drivers school is definitely what you make of it. Have fun.