My Journey as a Truck Driver

Sit in hotel in Greeley for Super Bowl Sunday. I'm hopeful to get road test and just get into my own truck, but am informed that's not going to happen. The requirements to finish training has been pretty much a moving target, frustrating. I was told by recruiter to expect 5 weeks, but can be shorter based on skill. At orientation I hear 6-8 weeks for first time. Training Manager says 15,000 miles. I ask if that's set in stone, he also says there are exceptions. After 2nd day, First Trainer says I'm better than her last trainee after 8 weeks, and I'll be solo by 3 weeks or so. By this point I have over 13,000 miles, so figure that's close enough. Apparently not.

I call Training Manager at 8am, expecting to meet. He basically tells me to sit tight, then sends me a text about 15 minutes later saying Young Gun says I'm not ready and that I'm going out with another trainer for another week, that I have to have 15,000 miles - no exceptions . . . and he doesn't want to meet face to face. I'm pissed . . . I have weekly evaluations from Young Gun, where he says I'm ready, so I don't know what conversations have been going on behind my back . . . and I'm pissed that I'm in Greeley and Young Gun is back on the road. I call trainer #3, who sounds like a good guy, older and more mature, but he says to expect another 3 weeks at least. Now I'm even more pissed. I'm sitting there trying to decide what I want to do. I call Roehl and tell them that if they fly me from Denver to Wisconsin, I'm theirs. Recruiter can't give me a straight answer. In the meantime another JBS driver encourages me to email the president of JBS and several others encourage me to hang in until I go solo, and make a decision then. I send the "president" an email, and he responds immediately telling me he wants to meet the next morning. Makes me feel a lot better about things.

Tuesday, meet with the "president" of JBS. Turns out he's only the director of safety and training. Basically a complete waste of time. I expect to discuss the previous month's activities, their mentor program, etc. Really I sit there while he tells me their justifications for not allowing me to go solo, assures me that trainer #3 is the real deal, and basically have to sit and listen to him pontificate about how I was ridiculous for thinking I could be solo after 13,000 plus miles and 31 days, and that it was my fault I was on trainer #3, so of course things would be delayed. I'm stewing a bit, but determined to stick it out until I'm solo at least. Who knows if any other company is going to be any better . . . Just need to jump through hoops I guess until get my first year under belt. I am disappointed though, I drank the JBS kool-aid.

Meet trainer #3. Early 60's, 20 years/3 million miles. Much better, his truck is pretty dirty, but that's the least of my concerns at this point. Head to delivery in New York.

Wednesday, now I know what a professional driver/trainer is like. Very nice.

Thursday, lose my New York City virginity. Drive over George Washington Bridge, deliver a load to Hunts Point Meat Market in Bronx. Pretty intense, but not as bad as I expected it to be. Roads a little confusing, tollways pretty tight. Don't understand all the bridge signs on "Truck Route" that says its way under height, several signs that say 12'6", 11'5", etc . . . but were clearly 13-14 feet. No issues fortunately. GPS is completely worthless fyi, just need to follow truck route signs.

Friday, deadhead to Quakertown, PA. Pick up load headed to ATL.

Saturday, sitting at Pilot/Flying J right on border of North/South Carolina on I-85, watching a really bad movie in driver lounge.

to be continued.

 

Hey Pete, yeah, I thought the panhandle area very cool. I love open range areas, would love to have a ranch some day . . . which you'll understand is a little funny if we ever meet.

The only thing I ever asked for is a replacement for Big Red. Even then, I said I'd stay with her if that was best. I had expressed several safety concerns to Training Manager early on, and he didn't seem overly concerned, so I figured there wasn't much to do. He did ask me if I wanted another trainer after week 2 with Young Gun, but I told him I didn't want to risk getting someone that was the worst combination of first two. If the other JBS Trainer hadn't raised a ruckus himself, don't think anything would've happened. As it stands, I probably would've been better off just riding out status quo.

 

McDonough, GA, > Gainesville, GA (chicken) > Ankeney, IA; > Marshalltown, IA (pork) > Zeeland, MI; Corunna, MI (pickles) > Greeley, CO . . . > Hyrum, UT.

Sunday: Delivered load to McDonough, en route to Gainesville, pull into a Walmart parking lot at night. "Old Man" (he kind've looks like Ernest Hemingway . . . "Old Man and the Sea") likes to park in Walmarts . . . I'm starting to like it too actually. Walmart seems to attract other places to eat, etc., so it works out well.

Monday: Picked up load in Gainesville. Left town on similar route as last time I was here, only this time I'm driving. Last time "Young Gun" drove a route that was not truck legal. We were on much the same roads, but only saw 1 sign that said wasn't legal vs 6-7 before. All in all though, I think if you're headed north to Tennessee, you're probably better off taking longer freeway route.

Tuesday: Arrive in Ankeny about 6pm for a 4 am Wed. delivery. Receiver is right next to a lot of restaurants (again, Walmart is right there), so I get a chance to eat Olive Garden. I'm assuming that I should be routed back to Greeley at this point in order to take final road evaluation and get my own truck, however we're routed to Michigan . . . wrong way. I'm pissed. Sleep at Walmart again.

Wednesday: Pick up load in Marshalltown, deliver to Sara Lee in Zeeland. Pretty confusing navigation in Zeeland. Can't always trust that GPS knows best. Start drive to Corunna, shipper is dirt lot and starting to rain/snow a bit, so pull into rest area to sleep.

Thursday: Pick up load of pickles headed to Walmart/Cheyenne, WY for Sunday delivery. Haven't heard a word about returning to Greeley for my final eval. "Old Man" is assuming that he's going to need to pick up a new trainee since supposedly JBS started 8 new students last week, and 16 this week. Trainer Manager says if we can get to Greeley by mid-day I can get final road test, then fly to my truck. Greeley has no trucks available. I wonder if that's why I've been delayed so much??? Greeley is about 60 miles south of Cheyenne, so "Old Man" and I decide to team drive straight to Greeley, then he can pick up new trainee and deliver pickles Sat/Sun. Drove 10:48, 692 miles = 64.07 mph . . . not bad for driving at or below speed limit and governed at 65 mph. Only averaged 6.0 mpg though, must had some wind.

Friday: Get to Greeley about 10am. I'm pretty tired, but pretty much as soon as we pull in, I'm told to do final road test. Doing it with Orientation Trainer, not Trainer Manager, so not sure if that's good or bad. I'm driving a '10 Pete 387, 10 speed though. Start out with pre-trip inspection, drop/hook and backing. Do fine, he has some tweak comments, but nothing major. I look at trailer tandem settings to see how much turning radius I'd need. Was not quite Cali, but probably 41'sh so shouldn't be too bad. Road test though does not go as well as I'd liked. Even though I learned on a 10 speed, last 6 weeks have been driving an 8-speed, took me a bit to get the shifting, had a really hard time finding 4th - I was pushing over too far. Part of the problem was that I've been floating gears for the past 3-4 weeks, but when I get in a jam I still double-clutch. I was planning on just DC'ing the test, but got out of the habit and kept mixing it up. Basically the test was a lot of tight right turns. The first one I had problems with, I couldn't set up as much as I'd like because he did not want me touching the left lane border. Had to wait at light, then traffic in turn lane barely allowed me enough room - even still I brushed the curb, but I couldn't find 4th gear and ended up stopped mid-intersection until I could get back into 2nd. The very next turn was a stoplight right, into a city 2 lane where you need both lanes, and part of the shoulder frankly, to complete the turn, I'm pretty sure I brushed the curb there as well, and had problems with 4th again. We did some more left/right turns, but much more room, so no problems, and I'm finally getting used to shifter. Adjusted to why I was missing 4th, and settle on just floating the whole time. I downshift as much as possible so he knows I can. After about 20 minutes, we pull into a truck stop, where he buys some burritos, and he talks to me about calming down. I was still thinking about those 2 intersections, wondering if that was going to fail me. After the truck stop, we go back and do those same intersections. I get past the first intersection ok, but the second again was problematic. Light was green when I arrived, but I was in 6th gear and didn't want to risk missing the stop line while downshifting, so I stopped. Next green I had no openings in traffic to turn. There was a car far enough away that I could've done a redlight turn, but I was worried that if I missed 4th again, it'd be problems, so I waited. Had to wait 3 more greens before traffic allowed me to go. Traffic backed up behind me was not pleased, so feeling pressure there, plus wasn't sure what tester was thinking . . . but didn't know what else to do, no way I could make the turn without running over curb unless both lanes were cleared. Finally we get back to terminal. Tester has me back into a hole and tells me that as long as I don't hit anything, I've passed! I had plenty of room, but I probably took 3 times longer than normal, taking no chances I stopped 5 times and GOAL'ed, and picked up a paper plate that had blown into the hole! I passed.

Saturday: My truck is in Hyrum, UT terminal, so I hitch a ride with another driver taking a load there. Arrive about 5:30 am, I had to drive the last 90 minutes because of HoS. Its freezing . . . and security has no idea where my truck is. I walk the entire terminal, finally I find someone about 6:30 in shop . . . I find my truck.

A beautiful '12 Kenworth T700.

She has about 64,000 miles . . . figure about 6 months old, still smells new. I think I'm going to name her Kendra.

Haven't slept much the past 48 hours, but so excited doesn't really matter. My first payload is a relay from Hyrum headed to Walmart/Gas City, IN. Supposed to leave mid-day Saturday, but relay driver is delayed 24 hours. Couldn't care less, I need the sleep anyway, and will take the layover pay.

I'm offered a hotel for night, but decline, me and Kendra are gonna get cozy.