System Transport - Spokane, WA

I decided I'm going to post a diary of my experience as a brand new driver fresh out of school. They are large and based out of the PNW.

The company has a pretty darn good reputation, especially as a starter driver, which is why I wanted to work for them. The pay is average-high average, the training is reputed to be excellent.

Week 1:
Finished orientation Thursday. Lots of paperwork. No, MOUNDS of paperwork. Another physical (my DOT card is only two months old, whatever, I didn't have to pay for it. I'm in the flatbed division, so we had a strength test. I'm 51 years old (in June) and haven't done anything more strenuous than mow a lawn in years. I weigh 153 pounds and am scrawny. Lifting a loosely-rolled 90-lb. tarp to (for me) eye level twice kicked my butt, but I got it done. Actually lifted it three times, as I was huffing and puffing so loud after #2 that I didn't hear the guys tell me I was gtg. -I see lots of pushups and weightlifting in my immediate future.

Actually learned quite a lot in orientation. The training was good and very useful. Orientation guy is not the easiest to take. -He has a hair-trigger temper- But he doesn't hold a candle to my drill instructor 33 years ago. Water, duck, etc...

Got paid on Thursday for three days via a com-check. I'm waiting to cash mine til we fill up.

Met my trainer today. seems a nice guy. (Younger than my daughter but he's been at this for 6 years and training for 3) We get along fine, he's an Army vet (You have to settle sometimes -that's an inside joke, I was AF) We take the truck with an empty to a local yard, in a major city, through the middle of downtown, at 4pm on a Friday. I get to drive. (Like I said, he's Army, not big on brains

Anyway, I'm going like gangbusters. Got used to a 9-speed, this is a ten, so I start trying to hit fifth on the wrong side of the pattern, but I catch it, other than that, smooth sailing. No grinding, driving like a pro.

Then we hit the freeway exit and it's a tight corner with massive traffic on all sides. -Ya, I touched the curb. So much for thinking I knew WTF I was doing. But, no harm done, we go on. I have to move over a lane between two signals roughly 50 yards apart. A little pucker-factor there, but I get her done. Moving along we go up in heavy (bumper-to-bumper) traffic, but I maintain space, keep up with traffic, make my downshifts, etc. Then I notice Waaay behind me, some idiot cutting through traffic about 20 over, slow down, leave some room, and yep! He does exactly what I thought he would, pulls in front of me and hits the brakes. No prob, handle it like a pro. (Get ready, it's coming)...

A few blocks later we witness a triple-car pileup directly ahead. Not serious, but there goes my lane. Fortunately I was pretty far back, but then some genius looky-loo decides to take up the middle lane right next to the accident, park, put her 4-ways on and go have a chat with the (unhurt) people in the accident.

Without saying more, I will say that the looky-loo decided that moving her car would be a good thing, which was good, sine I had to make a sharp right about 70-feet past the pileup. Maneuvered fine, made the turn like a pro. (wait for it...) We're going up the new street, the customer yard is pretty close. It's getting clogged but I have a free right-hand lane. I check my mirrors, clear. I signal. I check my mirrors again, still clear. I start to make the lane change when my trainer screams "CAR!!!" straighten it out, foot off the accelerator, look in the mirror, and sure as Heck, there was a car there in my blind spot who decided to pass me on the right AFTER I put on my blinkers and waited. She stopped, but it scared the you-know-what out of me.

We get to the customer site, I park it so we can get our paperwork etc. I'm breathing hard, realizing I did everything I know how to do short of getting out and looking for a lane change and how bad that COULD have been. I explain this to my trainer.

"You did good!" He says. "Might wanna look at how you've adjusted those right convex mirrors." We hook up, some minor logistical hassles and we're done.

I feel good. I like my trainer lot, even though he's younger than my daughter. I'm paying real attention to my real screw-up. Scares me to death. I'll be even MORE cautious in future. Looking forward to Sunday. Talk about a baptism by FIRE!

I'm pretty ure if he thought I couldn't handle it, he'd have had me pull over. His comments were few, but very useful. So far, working for System Transport has been very good. More to come, stay tuned!

 

Another week working for the empire.

My trainer and I get along great. I am so grateful he's a fellow vet. (and a recent one). We speak the same language, have a lot of the same stories etc. When you're with a guy 24/7 who's young enough to be your son, it's very nice to have that commonality.

He's an excellent teacher too. He's worked with me on smoother shifting, floating gears, etc. We've also decided that he's not ever going to spot me backing other than a STOP signal, since I back pretty good and the signals are more confusing than helpful. (Army signals are NOT the same as USAF).

Drove about 800 miles, a lot of it in very busy Seattle traffic. Challenging, but fun. Had a few close calls, but I saw all of them coming,so no real scary stuff.

He's on a regional route (I want OTR) so I'm staying in a nice clean hotel every weekend on The Empire's dime. It also means that 600 miles is a long trip for him, and we get a LOT of load/unload. That's good actually, since it gives me a lot of practice on load securement and backing/parking at customer sites. Ran into one backing scenario where he took oer because it was insane. Other than that, he's encourged me to drive as much as i want to,which has basically been all the time.

Learning the quallcomm, which is a PITA compared to paper, but oh well. It ain't hard, it's just annoying and stupidly time consuming.

Heading out for Northern Alberta Monday AM with a heavy load (50K+pounds) for a comparatively long run. My daughter may meet us up there for lunch. (She married a Canadian boy). Generally, lots of fun, doing the job, settling into my new trade and learning a little every single day.

The current dispatcher seems to have some communication problems. Watching how my trainer handles these and it's a good education.

Some key things I've noticed are:
1.Don't dawdle.
2. Don't accept something stupid just because your dispatcher says.
3. Confirm EVERYTHING via email. We had a few miscommunications tht emails would have dealt with quick and easy that took a while to get settled via phone/qualcomm.

I'm not ready to be out on my own yet, but if you SENT me out on my own,it wouldn't be a disaster, which is a lot more than I could have said a week ago.

starting to get the feeling that 8 weeks may turn out to be a good deal less because I'll be ready for my own truck sooner.

Hope ya'll had as good a week as I did!

 

Another week driving for System Transport. I was sick as a dog all week from Sunday til we pulled back into the yard on Friday. Feverish, coughing up my liver all night, very little sleep. I toughed it out until Thursday Morning, but at that point all I could do was shiver in the passenger seat with a fever. Went to the doc the minute we got back into the yard Friday AM, turns out I had strep throat and a nasty sinus infection, courtesy (presumably) from my trainer's kid, who'd had strep the week before. Most miserable week I can remember. The truck isn't comfortable under the best of circumstances. As sick as I was, it was purely Hell. Anyway, taking the weekend off, popping anti-biotics and recovering in a hotel room til Monday. Hoping for a nice long run Monday.