CRST Malone L/P from the beginning

I'm going to try and document my whole Malone experience from the beginning.

So I first talked with a recruiter after doing some research on my own. One thing I learned is there is a good bit of discontinuity with information. Some info you get is outdated, you won't really get a handle on your costs until orientation. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First you will get an application in your e-mail which you need to print and e-mail or fax back. Unfortunately the application is in PDF format and cannot be filled out electronically. I suggested making the form with boxes you can fill information in and then e-mail it back. You can also fax in your documents like medical card and long form, drivers license, proof of past employment, etc. But bring this stuff with you as I needed to provide all of it again at orientation. Don't let paperwork hold you up by forgetting something.

After your application is submitted and they check your MVR you can choose a date for orientation. They do L/P orientation every monday. If you need the securement training you go to either the Birmingham, AL terminal or the one in Davenport, IA. I chose the latter because it was closer. They will then contact you thursday or friday to give you your bus ticket confirmation number and the number for the hotel. Now I have to say I have never rode a bus more than a hundred miles or so and never will again. Anyway I arrived yesterday and they put me up in the Clarion which is much better than I expected given some of the other hotels companies use. Nice rooms, restaurant in the hotel with free breakfast buffet with actual hot food rather than cereal and doughnuts. nice indoor swimming pool and game room. My only problem was I am a smoker and CRST doubles up the rooms so they only pay for non smoking rooms. I asked to pay for my own single smoking room and found out CRST will pay half, and the room is only $60/night with fees so I pay $30/night and for me for 4 night having a smoking room to myself was worth $30/night. Breakfast starts at 6am and the shuttle leaves at 6:45.

The class for orientation is small, 2 o/o's leasing on, one guy driving for a fleet owner leased on, and 2 L/P guys including myself. You go through the standard paperwork which suprisingly wasn't much. Watched a couple outdated movies (that guy is wearing a pager and using a pay phone) and take a very easy log test. They finish up at 3pm which honestly to me seems early. I would rather stay until 6 or 7 pm and only spend 3 days at orientation instead of 4.

I imagine tomorrow is more paperwork and movies and company policies. I will keep you posted and answer any questions I can.

 

Orientation pay? Lol. No, there isn't any orientation pay. Actually I'm just happy they will take a driver with no flatbed experience and train me in load securement and tarping. I don't expect to get paid for that. Remember Malone is all o/o or L/o, no company drivers. This provides the added benefit that all drivers are more or less on equal footing, no fighting for loads against lower paid company drivers. Everyone gets paid the same % of the load so you have to build a reputation as a go to guy that can get loads delivered on time and are worth whatever rate you ask for (within reason), then you get agents contacting YOU when they see your truck will be available in their area.

The paperwork provided says we will be getting '08-'09 freightshaker columbias with 500,000-600,000 mi but that info packet was dated april of last year so there may be more choices this year. Avg mpg was listed at 6-6.5 mpg but any driver worth his salt knows the biggest factor with MPG is the driver. These trucks are old CRST EXPEDITED trucks, meaning used for jit loads by drivers that didn't buy their own fuel meaning they were drove hammer down with no real concern for fuel mileage. I on the other hand will be using every trick I know to maximize my fuel mileage in turn maximizing my net profits.

We are guaranteed trucks in decent condition. Occasionally we are sent to pick up an abandoned truck which may have trash or another drivers stuff in it. CRST will pay to have the truck cleaned out and any necessary repairs made. If the truck is thoroughly trashed we would report it and they would decide if it was salvagable or if they want to just send us to pick up another truck.

Since these trucks are old expedited trucks, which are run by teams and don't sit much they do not have APUs. Also since the truck is a LP no modifications to the truck may be made until we have it paid off and title signed over. They will install a power inverter at one of their company shops, we provide the inverter and I believe we pay to have it installed. I have a power generator I strap onto my catwalk for power.

The hotel has a decent restaurant in it and there is delivery close by. Walking distance depends on how far you want to walk lol.

 

I use a 2k watt gasoline generator I got from tractor supply. I mainly run my microwave with it but also used it to power a tv and console game system during layovers. Once I get a decent power inverter I may leave the genny at home as there is some grey area about having a gasoline powered accessory with a gravity feed tank. I see a lot of trucks with them, but getting that one dot inspector in a bad mood...though I guess if you only put in a cup of fuel or so and ran it dry every time you used it you might be ok.

 

OK, I stand corrected about orientation pay. The recruiter never mentioned it. I got an express code today for $50 and get another for $100 after finishing orientation.

Past employment for me was a little trickier as I was self employed for 3 years. I had to provide tax returns and 2 references who were not family that could attest to the fact I did what I said I did those 3 years. For any normal job just have the job information it name, address and phone number if possible. Pay stubs or tax returns would work as well. The application says past 3 years but they will want 10 years even if you weren't a commercial driver that long.

Today we learned the companies maintenance policies. Nothing overwhelming there. Then we watched videos on load securement and tarping. Once again you are going to get conflicting information here because their books are a bit outdated. For instance when loading shotgun coils the book says to use 1 or 2 horsehoes on each side depending on the coil weight plus one around the top, but I guess regardless of the weight you are to x 2 chains plus 2 horseshoes and 1 over the top. This means even with a 10k lb coil you have to use 5 chains per coil. since we only get 10 chains even though you can haul more than two 10k coils we only have chains for 2. If you don't know load securement that might not make sense, but it will when they are done with you. If you pay attention you can learn a lot. I was the only one there with no securement experience so I got a lot of attention from everyone which was great.

Then we learned tarping. What I basically got out of it is there is really no one right way to do it, but there is definitely a wrong way. It will really just take practice and experience to learn to secure the tarps so they don't blow loose or allow the load to get wet. I learned how to use coil racks, friction mats and dunnage, how to make a bump stop or false bulkhead. And we have a very amusing discussion on the merits of snap binders vs ratchet binders.

Tomorrow the head of the safety dept is coming up from birmingham for contractor appreciation day so that should be interesting.

 

They only do L/P in Birmingham, AL or Davenport, IA I believe...though that may only be if you need load securement training.