Beelman Truck Company Orientation

Well as some of you may remember, I was hired with Beelman truck company pulling a pneumatic tanker the beginning of July. After my road test and full app I was contacted the next day that my orientation started on the 29th of July. I figured I would throw this out there for anyone thinking about needing a dry bulk company around the midwest. You can check www.beelman.com if anyone needs to know their hiring area. It is 60 miles from any given terminal. Different terminals have different specializations so if you need to know just ask.

The day before orientation, they set me up with my drug screen and WorkSTEPs. Passed all that no problem and then it was off to orientation itself.

They put me in a Super 8 about 15 minutes from their East St Louis terminal, better known as Racehorse. Decent hotel, had all the accommodations such as microwave and refrigerator. You will hear multiple times over the course of orientation about all the different accounts they have with hotels, especially if you plan on being a day cab guy.

Day one of orientation is mostly the paperwork. Most of the guys in my class were a hoot to deal with and we all made the best of it. The safety guy giving our orientation knew a lot as he was a driver up until about a year ago. He was a dispatcher for this same company for a little while as well. We watched a few videos of what not to do in certain situations pertaining to the particular equipment we pull. I am sure there is a lot I am forgetting about the first day. But this is the official first day of employment. Exactly one year from today I will get my one weeks vacation. Something to look forward to. LOL

Day 2 starts off about the same. They will be introducing us to our PeopleNet units, as well as our fleet maintenance manager coming in for a few hours going over what they expect from us as drivers in maintaining and when to get our PM done. Over the first two days, I cannot count how many times I was told by multiple people NOT TO ROLL if you do not feel safe. Whether it is the weather, or a safety issue with your truck. I have multiple peoples names noted to call if dispatch gives me any grief on me not wanting to roll. All the trucks are 2014 and newer Petes and Macks. New trucks coming in daily as the rotate out the 14s and rotate in 16s. Anyone familiar knows that this is a mostly day cab and local company, but we do have our guys that run OTR. Me being in a tank, I will have the possibility of the longer runs, but for the most part I will be home daily. Day 2 brought good news as well, while we were at lunch at a restaurant called "The Shrine" on day 1, all the big wigs were in the conference room beside us in a meeting. On a side note, the owner was kind of enough to come out and introduce himself to all of us, putting a face to the name is good. Turns out the outcome of the meeting is very much in the drivers favor. Starting with my orientation class, we get $1000 sign on bonus paid over the course a year, starting with $250 after we are released from our trainers. There were also vacation improvements as well as some 401k and referral bonus changes. Training pay went from $12 an hour to $16 an hour, as well as a $100 boost in orientation pay. Day 2 included a trip to the shop and more talk about if our truck is deemed unsafe, to not roll and if we have any issues with getting it in the shop, to let our maintenance director know about it. Tomorrow includes a trip to Sainte Genevieve, MO for us tank guys, and the dump guys are in Racehorse for another day. About 4 in the afternoon, I am off to St Gen to stay in a hotel there.

Day 3 starts off going over our PeopleNet units with a head honcho from the St Gen terminal. He was able to explain it much better than the IT guys at the Racehorse terminal, but he also dealt with it daily as a driver himself. St Gen is mostly tank, so anyone around there can pretty well expect to get hired a tank guy unless you maybe pull some serious strings. After some more PeopleNet, it was outside to get a close up of the tanks we will be pulling. They are buying all new tanks at the moment, rotating out old Vantage tanks, and rotating in new Mac Tanks (very nice with auto lids and centralized valve locations instead of spread all over the tank). Then it was off to a place called Mississippi Lime (Chinatown if you hauled out of St Gen I'm sure this is exactly where you were), which happens to be one of their biggest tank customers. After a short safety video we got our access cards and we went on a tour. Its a big place with 40 or 50 different load out chutes. Definitely gonna be at trip to learn everywhere I will load. After our tour is was off to lunch and then they told me to go on home. I have my trainers info and will be starting with him Monday.

First load with trainer: Leave out at 4am to Joppa, IL, for a load of fly ash to Indy. So far, this is a top notch company with a focus on safety. Hopefully the inside is the same as the shiny shell they show, but I have talked to several drivers, and have not found anyone who drives for them that doesnt like them.

 

Should be getting my assigned truck in a day or so. Haven't had to stay out all week but I have the unloading process down so now I will go in to the following stage of training for a week then be on my own. 45 hours when we started today. Two days left to go. Made better on my hourly training pay than my trainer has made on load pay.

 

Well. First Sunday load tomorrow. Gonna be a 14 hour day. Pick up my assigned truck Monday morning. So far so good.

 

Gonna have a 2014 Peterbilt 579 daycab. Get to keep the trailer me and my trainer have been using all week as long as his has the hub back on it when we get back in today.

 

Sorry for the time it took to message you back Dane.