Starting 18 Day Orientation In Atlanta Next Week

by home they mean a sni approved secured yard somewhere found by you near home,

 

no, but the recruiter isnt the one who approves what locations are allowed. that would be worked out with your DBL. You will at first have a 0-90 day dbl. Like your training dbl , if you will. Make that one of the first things you ask them. Then have the same convo when you are passed over to your regular board dbl.

 

I went through orientation in Green Bay in Feb, so had more cold weather stuff.

For orientation...I'd recommend a week's worth of clothes, packed as efficiently as possible. I got all of mine in the backpack I use on my bike when we road trip. Laundry stuff, like those Tide pods - compact, don't take up much room. I can't say that I always look like a "professional", but you won't catch me interacting with customers wearing shorts or sneakers, or looking like I haven't showered anytime in the recent past. Boots, jeans, clean shirt, sometimes a ball cap. (Try not to look like a slob, I mean. There are enough truck drivers who do that already. Jerks.)
Your hygeine stuff, whatever you feel you can't live without. Shampoo, soap, deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb or brush, and plenty of any meds you take on a regular basis. Someone makes a 3-in-1 shampoo/conditioner/body wash that the men in my house like. I don't remember who, though.
Phone AND charger, with a dc adapter.
I took my Red Wing boots, and they were okay. I went ahead & got a pair of theirs, though...steel toes in GB in Feb inhaled with great force.
I would also recommend a sleeping bag and your pillow. Not all TEs have extra linens. It was too hot in the truck for me to sleep IN mine, but it made a much more comfortable sleeping surface than the thin mattress in the bunk.

For tools, when you get your truck...at minimum, a hammer, pair of locking pliers (like Vise Grips), and a pair of dikes/side cutters/whatever you call them. Sometimes seals are wire or cable. I also have a small Gerber tool, and have been fine with those four things so far. And sweet talk the shop at your OC into spare bulbs, valve stem caps, and glad hand grommets

And welcome to the Punkin Patch!!

 

instead of a hammer I would suggest a 3-4 lb sledge for thumper. Works better and no claw to catch your clothing. (oops) I would ad a fairly large blade flat head screwdriver. Helps to remove the lights in the trailers yoe can replace. Newer trailer are coming with lights that are riveted in , but we have enough older ones in the fleet that the screwdriver works great on.

Dont go cheap on the side cuts. trust me. I also picked up a small set of bolt cutters. You will run across bolt seals.

Along with whatever spare bubls yo can get out of a shop, ask for a basic set of fuses. Never know when they will come in handy. I had none when my tractor blew the trailer brake light fuse. THAT fuse box is located on the firewall nearest the hood latch drivers side.

 

Nice list.

I like a sledgehammer too for beating on the dolly cranks. SNI replaces perfectly good, lightweight crank handles with ratchet handles that were designed and produced by Satan himself. It's always pouring rain, the legs haven't been greased in 6 months and you're trying to crank up the legs on that 44k lb trailer that someone dropped a good 6 inches too high and then the ratchet pawl flips the wrong direction by accident with the force of a feather. You try to flip it back however in the 4.6 second time it was flipped to the other side, the detent ball has now welded itself in that position for all of eternity and you can't flip the pawl the other way. At this point, the recommended method is to reach for your sledge hammer, LOSE YOUR TEMPER AND BEAT THE **** OUT OF THIS ****** ****ING PIECE OF **** *** NO GOOD USELESS *** **** handle until you get it to flip the other way. Bonus points if you do this at night time and can get sparks to fly. I have destroyed the base of 2 4D maglites on these things and cracked the wooden handle of a sledgehammer once. Finally got one with a synthetic handle of some kind from Menards and it has held up well. Now it probably didn't help that I was going ballistic on these things out of sheer seething hatred for them. Also, the final backup plan when all else fails and even the sledgehammer won't move the pawl and its frozen in the middle so it makes no contact with the cog at all, is to take the finger of your glove (without your finger in it of course) and wedge it in between the cog and the pawl so it pawl "sucks" the finger of the glove in and then keep cranking until it sucks so much of the glove in that it locks everything tightly together so you can rotate the crank. It will most likely destroy your glove but what else are you gonna do.

Yes... went off on a slight tangent there... so... oh yeah a half decent pair of wire strippers isn't a bad idea either. That and some electrical tape will get your lights going until you can get to the shop to have the harness replaced.

 

Somebody's bored....... Lol

 

Just a little LOL

Sitting at Carlisle with no loads in sight to get me home...