Orientation 6/24/13

Well, I thought I would bobtail home. Doesn't Melton need the trailer?

 

I see. At Swift I always left it at the Denver terminal and drove home. Well, the HOA guys would probably call homeland security if I parked an 18 wheeler in front of my drive. I guess I'll be parking at the truck stop.

 

Well, day 4, the final day, is now behind me. It's official. I am now officially a Melton flatbed driver. Man, what a brutal day. It started out with several drivers complaining that items were stolen from there rooms by house keeping. Then we lost a driver who decided to take advantage of Melton's offer to bus him back home and keep it off his DAC. Today my eyes were opened to the realities of the flatbed world in ways they never were at Swift. I learned that Flatbed is the 3rd most dangerous job in America behind Alaskan crab fishing and logging. That means it's safer to be a fireman, policeman, stunt man, demolitions expert, test pilot, or frontline infantry man than it is to be a flatbedder.

They showed videos of all these gruesome accidents. I also found out how easy it is to go bankrupt. If a load potbellies and becomes wider than the trailer because of improper strapping and the DOT catches it Melton will charge me $7,000 dollars to have it reloaded. If my truck runs out of DEF Melton charges me $7,000 dollars to have it towed. So many different types of loads. So many ways to screw up big time ... eesh. Yea, I'm a little skittish about my first load tomorrow. They give us the phone number of a designated mentor to call. I'll be calling him a lot. He gets paid extra for it after all. I guess it's all about just not screwing up.

They gave me a 2012 Kenworth 660. It's nice. Very clean, apu, inverter, new mattresses, etc. I have to say though. In comparison to my last Cascadia it's smaller on the inside. Much narrower in the front. Not as much cabinet space. I guess it's adequate for a solo driver. I'd hate to team in it though.

Tomorrow will be a big day. I have a feeling it will take me 6 months to a year to get comfortable and quick with all this, but barring any catastrophes I think I'll make it. For all the dangers I'm still excited to be doing what I love.

Well, the purpose of this thread was to describe my experience during orientation, and I think I've done that. I don't intend to go on monologing about the life of RayT70, so unless there are any questions this will be my last post. I hope I've helped those who are considering Melton, cheers.