FCC--Fremont Contract Carriers

That happens occasionally with Peterbilt's too. Most of the time I see it when trying to start it without letting it run through it's complete startup routine. Or with Peterbilt's and Kenworth's, they will occasionally have no dash lights. Only fix for the dash lights is to shut it down for a few minutes and try again. Last Freightliner I had, would have issues with occasionally trying to go into 10th from neutral. And would just flash. Only solution the shop had would be to shutoff the battery disconnect for 2 minutes and try again.

By the way, were you LTL or LTD?

 

Has anyone been to CWC Nashville? I guess it’s an overflow warehouse for Goodlettsville. There are driveways to the North and South of the building for different tenants. The directions don’t specify which to use. I asked my DM and got puzzled silence, so I was hoping someone had been there before.

 

that’s the first thing breakdown asked me. I always let the gauges sweep and do its thing before trying to start it.

And as far as Magnum? I was LTD. Main reason why i left had nothing to do with the company. I moved and they kept on having to deadhead me hundreds of miles home since i lived in the boonies compared to their regular lanes. That and general reefer bs

I’ll regularly have a 150-200 mile drive home with FCC but that’s a lot better than 4-500 or even more

 

To use one of my favorite expressions some days you’re the pigeon, some days you’re the statue. I wound up running the Cheap Heavy Lare-ison load from from New Jersey to Kansas but by the time they decided rescheduling the delivery appointment was the best option I had burned my split so I had to PC out of the chipper to the nearest safe haven (a service plaza on the NJ turnpike and then run my clock out Saturday to get to a place to reset. By the time it was said and done I was a day late. The plan was to sneak through and drop and hook even though it was supposed to be a live unload (it’s a regular customer of ours that we normally d&h at). After I went to bed CS scheduled a delivery appointment so when I got up I saw that now I was going to be 6-7 hours early so I had an attack of nerves and waited a few hours so I could roll in about 2 hours early and have parking options if they told me to go away.
So I started late delivered it at 6 AM instead of 1:30 AM, then bopped over and did the Lawrence to Fremont shuffle and rolled in to Fremont just after 2. Which meant I was dependent on Night shift to PM the truck. They finished a bit after 6. The time wasn’t entirely wasted I grabbed a shower and did my laundry. Once I had the truck back PCed over to Menards and Wal-Mart to restock. Basically I got all the housekeeping done I wasn’t able to do on my reset. But by the time I was back split breaking would have been counterproductive since I was nearly 6 hours in, so I racked out and then ran to CB early in the morning.
Got here and after a bit of hunting found my wagon. Noticed it didn’t have a service sticker or a normal annual inspection sticker (there was a handwritten annual sticker on the nose). So I called to see if dispatch could see what the service situation was and found out it was Red tagged. So I hung out until the guys got in. Fortunately the reason it’s red tagged is just that it is extremely overdue for service. I have time on this load and it would just be asinine to drag the trailer 700 plus miles away where it has needs so I’m waiting for them to service the trailer. But it sure would have been nice if it had been gotten while it was sitting here yesterday.

 

I'm supposed to deliver there also never been there must be new

 

Well another unfortunate event happened. My whole truck now reeks of rubbing alcohol. Apparently at some point the bottle fell over where i store it and knocked the cap open. Will probably go down the highway with the windows rolled down for awhile

I’m having terrible luck recently

 

Ok, got the skinny on it now. Training = $200/day to learn while keeping the seat warm. After that 49 cpm + quarterly bonus of 6 cpm with a 1 cpm increase yearly. If I make more than I did working inside a rotten old manufacturing plant, I’m tickled to death!

 

Well, it was four and a half hours by the time the service was done so they had me relay the load in Mount Vernon, Illinois. Heading to HD in Topeka.

 

My first Truck here (KW) had a personality trait that sometimes just driving down the road I’d just loose power. Absolutely nothing. Just coasting. Sometimes all the dash lights would come on but not each time. Started the very first trip off the yard when I started.

So I eventually learned that I just needed to pull over. Turn her off for a brief moment. And she would turn over and be fine for weeks.

In the beginning they would check computer programs and updates and reboot but no way they could find it unless it was happening.

So ya, just had to live with her personality and give her a bit of calm TLC now and then.

 

When do you start?

How long is your training expected to be? I know we have a few trainees come through but never heard the program. Are you fresh out of a CDL School or just low on years of experience so they are running you through a training session for a bit?