It's official, going with Crete - orientation Monday 8/6/12 @ Ottawa, IL

Pretty excited. It's almost surreal, I always daydreamed about driving the big rigs when we'd go on trips when I was a kid, now I'm making it happen.

Anyone know what I should expect in orientation? I know the basic routine "on paper" but someone with personal experience weighing in would be a big help.

Thanks guys!

 

I'm hiring in as a student just out of truck driving school, so I'll be training for 8 weeks before I get to the last half of orientation and truck assignment.

The long training period plus the requirement for 3yrs OTR experience to be a trainer is one of the reasons I chose Crete, plus the fact that I've heard basically nothing but good about them as a company. I wish their rider program was more like Schneider's, but you can't have everything... .34/mi vs. .28/mi more than makes up for that one tiny shortcoming.

 

Day one is done. Just me and one other, since this terminal is tiny. Company drug screen (urine only, I was surprised they didn't take hair, which I have a lot of), a little paperwork, then I jumped in the company Cad...I mean Impala and the other guy followed in his rental which we drove up to Rockford to return, got back and went to pre-work physical screen, which we both passed.

Consisted of:
Lifting 25, 50 and 75lbs two times each to a 42" high shelf.
Lifting 13lbs to a 61" high shelf two times.
Various horizontal and vertical push and pulls, with 139lbs the highest force to be exerted out of all of them. (I had 200lbs more than required on that particular one. LOL.)
Static had grip at 64lbs force. (Had 175 there)
Crouch for one minute
Climb up onto and down off a flat surface raised 29.5 inches with hands flat on top up and down.

Came back, from that, some benefits were explained, after which we jumped in the company car and went back to the hotel. All in all, not nearly as intense as I expected the first day to be.

Tomorrow is more paperwork, DOT physical and road-test, after that we wait for the company drug screen to come back, then it's off with a trainer.

 

Aaaaaaaaand hired!