Orientation 02/29/12

Reminds me of my situation last year. I had got my drivers license changed over from that temp Indiana one I got at C1 to Georgia. It was only good for a short time (45 days I think). The post office screwed up and it was not in my PO box when I got home. I got to spartanburg about 10 PM and my temp expired at midnight. I was getting calls from safety about this for 2 weeks. I drove home in my POV on an expired license. I got another temp that next day and when I got home on my next home time my hard copy was there.

 

Old Rock N Roll, does USA run student drivers and trainers as teams or does the trainer actually train the student driver?

 

whats sad is i am only 4 hours from home Dallas and i been sittin here since 11pm last night empty. 78 hours logged in off duty,sleeper berth since Monday,33 hours logged driving since Monday for a total of 1233 miles since Monday not a good week

 

I have a delivery appt at 5AM monday in Macon Ga. I will only have about 1200 miles for the week.

 

As you can read in other threads... USA has two training Phases...

Phase 1 (last typically 5-7 days): Trainer sits in passenger seat while student drives. Trainer is supposed to go over safe driving procedures, go over what to look for while driving, Qualcomm, and things you will be tested on.

Phase 2: The Student and Trainer will be driving as a team. Whether or not dispatch runs you as a team is a whole other story haha!

 

It's been my experience that unassigned tractors fall into 3 categories. New unused tractors, tractors left after a driver either quit or was fired and tractors with chronic mechanical problems. The latter can drive a soul to drink. I recommend you try to get out of that tractor ASAP. Trust me, it's another Greyhound ride waiting on a place to happen. The tractor should be sent to a dealer and let them spec it out, but USA Truck won't spend the money. Instead they will pass it from shop to shop mechanic to mechanic. (where USA Truck is concerned I use that word mechanic VERY lightly!)

I told you in an earlier thread I hoped you got a runner, looks like you crapped out. Get with your FM ASAP about another tractor.

 

You'll probably have to run your own external antennae. Those built in antennaes aren't worth a crap.

 

Speaking of trainers, I have to mention this incident. I think either our trainer quality or our new hire quality is going down again. Saturday night I spent at Roanoke and witnessed a funny but worrisome spectacle. A guy pulled in to the terminal at full steam into the fuel lane and then shut down. A gaggle of us were outside smoking and talking. Everybody had to get out of his way he came in so quick. When he got out of his truck he had this look about him like he was going to poop on himself. We asked him what the problem was and he said he was frustrated because he said he had gone over his hours again and would have to talk to Safety. He explained that he was 10 minutes over his 14 and that it wasn't his fault because his GPS took him down a wrong roundabout route to the terminal. So I told him just back up his driving to the end of his 14 and knock off 5-8 miles. Well he told us he was brand new having just upgraded 2 weeks ago and he had already gotten in trouble for violating HOS. He said his GPS keeps sending him the wrong ways. I asked him why he didn't just use the atlas and plan his routes and he said he bought a truck GPS that his trainer recommended so that he wouldn't need an atlas. Wow. Well after we kinda listened to him ##### about his FM not routing him home yet and not giving him enough miles (at the same time mentioning picking up and delivering a few loads late) we blew him off and he got his feelings hurt. So then he tries to go park and after spending 15 minutes trying to 12&9 back into several open sPots unsuccessfully, he spends another 30 minutes trying to straight back in a spot right off the fuel islands which had at least 100 feet to pull forward and couldn't do that. It took two ground guides and him pulling all the way up to the pumps to finally get backed in because he couldn't keep the trailer straight and kept oversteering.

I've said it before and I'll say it again "What the heck are our trainers teaching these people?"