rdsknsfan,

Thanks for the tips, I already have a licence but no OTR so I am not sure if I am doing the refresher course or the full school...I will find out on Monday...

Its great to hear that you are doing great and that all the people are nice, that will make it all the easier to deal with...And I am glad that there is only a few students in a class, the trainers are teaching everyone good and that you are getting alot of practice, thats what it takes to get good at anything is a good teacher and lots of practice...

medina should be great in May- I was there in january thru the bitter cold.... The accomadations at the Apple Orchard Inn were livable, however, the food was good- was easy to gain weight there, especially on the sunday brunches-...
if he has the 2 week course, he'll be fine- i couldnt imagine doing the school any longer

i went through if feb.

when I was home last time, I was driving to get my load in batavia, and I saw "Uncle Paul" loading the recruits back into a nice 670 volvo that central must have shot up there for training.

12 people in orientation, I think I was the only one who made it this far.

K

How many different places does Central offer orientation?

One should be aware of this if and when he goes to a Central orientation or any other orientation. Lots of orientation classes spread out over the country will give one a false notion of a company's turnover. He may go to an orientation in one city and see maybe 5 people. This doesn't mean it's a good company. 500 miles away the company could be starting an orientation at the same time with over 200 sausages in it.

__________________
--Paved Dudley--

Yeah I drive a Swift truck
And that means one thing
It means she's slow
It's a typical company truck
It's just all show and no go

I'm gettin' passed by Yella
And even Overnite
I'm gettin' passed by ever' body in sight
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight

No, my hometown's nowhere in sight
And if you think I'm pissed off
You're right
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight


Love pissing off those trucking company insiders.

I think there is like 6 places in the US. Orientation wasn't that bad, and there wasn't "standing room only" in it. The guys running the school and orientation seemed to know their stuff, but holy cow some of the in-house movies made me want to kill myself. All the Central people know about the people holding hands and walking up and down the hallway video....



They didn't try to cover up that they used to be Dick Simon and that Jerry owned us, they flat out told us who they were.

How come so few made it through orientation and where do they hold orientation..at the school or in GA?..

Miracle Man here..

You new drivers could take a lesson from Earth Brown.. he's getting this thing kicked off right.. Im going back in after being out for nine years, but may possibly get some credit for previous experience with CRS.. Trucking is not an easy job... its all about communication.. taking a crappy load from time to time.. taking care of your equipment.. learning to work your logs and above all (specially with a reefer) being on time and not pissing off customers.. don't sweat their attitudes.. smile.. eat sh*t and get the job done.. its a rare thing indeed to be hopping to first class equipment right out of the gate.. Ive driven junk that I literally had to chain the axle to the frame to get home and blew flaming carbon out of the stacks.. My short five years covered probaly a dozen companies and many different types of trailers.. I wont tell my whole story here.. but if you are new to this there are things you dont want to do.. if you fail a drug test without a legit scrip your just a dumb ###.. that will get you black balled from this industry and can get you sent to prison if you kill someone.. and NEVER abandon a truck.. Ive left one in the Joplin scales (after telling my boss to stick it) for being asked to "sneak" an out of service, overweight load after the scales closed.. don't have to tell you what happened to the idiot that picked up the truck and ran the load.. its all about attitude.. just pay your dues and you will be able to write you own ticket.. hopin to run across ya there Earth Brown.. I was supposed to take my road test this Thurs.. my cousin lives in Batavia and is an OO, but is stuck in Wyoming with some serious motor problems.. Im hoping to do a little time as a company driver and get in to their lease program, which is probably one of the best in the business.. happy trails all.. keep that shiny side up..

does anyone know how to disable the icon system on the Volvo 670?

To disable it will have to be done with a computer at a dealer which will run you around $100 or so but don't let them find out or you'll lose your job for tampering. My truck had it disabled when I got it for some reason and I'm not saying nothing to them about fixing it. I do know a way to keep it running if you have the cummins motor in yours. Turn the cruise on then when the icon blinks, wait 10 seconds then turn the cruise on and off real quick and it should stay running. You wont get into trouble this way but you can kiss the idle bonus goodbye they just started paying.

__________________
We'll have peace when the Arabs learn to love their children more than they hate us-- Author unknown

Heh, that penny per mile if you make it under 25% seems pretty nice, until you figure out that on a bad day of driving, you'll hit 25% just going through a city. It's that or my TAS system is honked (which it is).

Icon = Cummins
TAS = Volvo engines.

If you are lucky, you can make an extra $30 a week if you get it below 25%