Stevens Transport aviary

Well, here I am in Dallas for orientation. The flight in was uneventful. The shuttlle left the hotel this morning at 6. Made it to the yard 20 minutes later. No staff here yet so I guess we will have to wait until 8 for the start of orientation.

 

Stevens is a training company, and a tuff company to work for. I work here because it is where I started, have made it work for me, and I keep my options open, but at this time, there is no company that will hire me out of wyoming for the same or more than I make at Stevens. So why would I take a pay cut, to go to a company that I do not know the policies, and be the new guy getting the left overs?

 

After the instructor staff arrived this morning, things went smothly. There are about 30 of us in the orientation class. Initially, we filled out some paper work related to the DOT physical and whizz quiz that I will have to take in the morning.

On of the first things we were lectured on was U-turns. Stevens has a policy of zero tolerance on U-turns. If you do a U-turn while driving a Steven's truck you will be terminated no questions asked.

After the paperwork we were given instrucion on how to do a pre-trip and how to check the slack adjusters. We also had to demonstrated that we could climb into the back of a trailer and then exit it with no difficulty.

Once this was done we were served lunch which consisted of pizza ordered from a local pizza shop.

The afternoon session consisted of practicing up/down shifting on the track, an exercise designed to simulate pulling out of a truckstop, parallel parking, and alley backing.

Tommorow (Monday) is going to be a very long day. The shuttle leaves the hotel at 0530 and physical exams start at 0630. Once the classroom portion is completed we will be back on the track until 2200 to finish the skills evaluation.

I will try to do an update tommorow.

 

Thanks for the update! Keep us posted!

 

Apparently I must be way better than the best. I average between .48 and .52/mile profit.

 

I have enjoyed this thread. It wasnt the bash <insert company name here> that I have been seeing in other threads. It has been informative and mostly a positive experience.

I was terminated from my last job after a year. It was one of those we got a new boss and he has a point to prove. I was the low man on the totem pole so I got the axe. Previous to that job I worked at a newspaper for 20 years as a maintenance mechanic. I took a buy out there.

I have always been around trucks. I understand the being on the truckers lifestyle, etc. I enjoy driving and traveling. I am fine being alone.

I am drawing unemployment at the moment but seriously considering going to school and driving.

I realize that I wont make near the money as I was making, but I'm ok with that as well. As long as I can make $35,000 or so I should be fine.

What my thoughts were is to go OTR for a year or so to gain the experience and then come back and drive regional or local.

I am thinking that Stevens school then driving for them may be the way to go. That or another school and maybe KLLM. But Stevens is probablt the route I am looking at.

I have a couple of questions if you dont mind.

1) While out with a trainer, are you both sleeping at the same time or does one sleep while the other drives?

2) While in school, how many to a truck?

3) Will the termination from my previous employer hurt my chances of getting hired?

4) Is it realistic to drive OTR a year or two then go regional or local? We also have the Barnett Shale in my area. I know it's declined but I still see alot of trucks driving local.

Thanks for any answers or thoughts on this...

 

Who do you drive for? Are you a company driver or a Lease/Operator?

 

Today was a very long day. The shuttle left the hotel just after 0530 and took us to the yard.

At 0630 the drug screens/physicals started. This lasted the entire morning. Long and painfully boring. When this was completed I talked with someone who went over my original application with me. She wanted to know if I had any tickets/accidents, arrests, or pending court dates since I submitted my application. I had none of these so it was an easy interview.

Next was lunch.

After lunch the afternoon session consisted of presentations on the drug/alcohol abuse policy, sexual harassment, health benefits, and worker's compensation/on the job injuries.

This ended the classroom portion of the day and dinner was served.

Then it was off to the track for roadtests and backing exercises.

Just after 2200 the shuttle picked us up and took us back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.