Maverick .... from a wife's perspective

Welcome everyone to my new thread about my husband's adventures as a flatbed cowboy. My husband is from England which is why I call him Redcoat. He has spent his first year of trucking with Covenant and it was the year from hell. I have an old thread in this part of the forum chronicling his misadventures with Covenant. Look for a similar title. Finally, however, he has been able to make the switch to flatbedding and has hired on with Maverick.

Maverick's orientations always start on Sunday and that day is mostly filling out paperwork and taking care of benefits. Monday is the physical and agility test. These he passed and the only thing he wasn't able to do for the agility test was a sit-up from laying completely flat on his back. Tuesday was the road test and there were no errors on that -- all went well. He is impressed with their trucks compared to the ones Covenant has. Lots of amenities however they charge a fortune to install a converter -- $250 I think. I won't go over all the stuff that happens at orientation because it has been well covered by ybfjax in another thread. He is spot on.

One thing I have noticed is that in talking to Redcoat these last few days, there is a change to the timber of his voice. Before, when he was with Covenant, it had such a zombie-like sound to it but yesterday and today there is an undertone of excitement and liveliness. Dare I say it but it almost sounds as if he is actually enjoying himself.

The only problem we've run into so far is (yet again) the home time issue. He will definitely get more home time with Maverick BUT it will be home time in Mississippi. Maverick does not hire east of Charlotte, NC and I am in Raleigh. Redcoat's license is a Mississippi license as we use my mother's address for our mail. I travel for my work so trying to get Redcoat's home time where I am currently located at the time has always been a challenge. This is an issue we will try to deal with after he finishes his flatbed training.

Starting today, Redcoat is concentrating on learning load securement so he can quickly get with the program. He seems happier already which cheers my heart after such a rotten year driving for Covenant. Hopefully, this will start a new and better chapter in his trucking career. We shall see.

 

Thanks everyone for all the good wishes. Talked to Redcoat last night and he told me about his day. They learned how to secure a coil. First they watched a video, then they went out to the truck and partnered up to get the job done. The instructors put a couple pieces of tape forward and aft on the deck to represent the midpoint so two pairs could work on the same deck. Then he had them each do the job. Redcoat and his partner messed up in that they thought the coil had to be exactly at the midpoint but after they did it wrong, the instructor told them to move the coil back about 6-8 inches and when they did so the chains lined up exactly with that thingy they connect to. So they did it near perfect the second time.

Today they have to come to class with two questions. Redcoat is going to use one of my questions in that I was wondering what was the reason for letting them do it wrong the first time before telling them how to do it right? Just seemed like such a waste of time. The only thing I can think of is by having them work and sweat doing it the wrong way it imprints the right way more permanently in their brains. Other from that I can't see the logic in it.

Redcoat says there is maroon EVERYWHERE. The trucks, the inside of the trucks, the chair upholstery, the carpets, the door trim, and on and on.

He's made the observation that if there is some kind of electronic gadget that can be installed in the tractor, the safety people at Maverick have it done. Vorad, lane sensors, a "black box," and several other things that I've forgotten between last night and this morning. He says you can't fart in the truck without Maverick knowing how it smells. Then -- and I'm not sure of the time interval -- you get a printout mailed to your home with a summary of all the readings.

I'm guessing all the various warnings and automatic braking, etc. would take some getting used to and probably can be annoying in some instances but my personal opinion about all the safety and warning bits would be that redundancy in the name of safety is probably a good thing and I reckon the company probably gets a hefty break on their insurance rates.

Stay tuned.

 

Another day of learning various ways to tie down coils. I have learned what "shotgun" and "suicide" mean but Redcoat says it is no longer politically correct to describe the load that way. They now have to use "eyes to the front" and "eyes to the side."

RC had to make a trip to Walmart to buy some steel-toe boots since he did not own any. It is a bit of a problem for his feet trying to break them in but he is managing.

Other from that not much else to report on.