USX drivers...how's your day??

Yep, I give them as much info as I have. I also usually tell them XXXXXXXX is not the correct number so they don't give me that number again. I forgot to do that this time.

I'm looking forward to training even though I'm a little nervous about it. It's suddenly dawning on me that these people have never really driven a truck before. Once I live through my first student I should be fine though...LOL

 

Hey guys, been laying low for a while waiting for some things to go right so I didn't sound so negative all the time. I'm really a positive person, believe me.

Well finally things did go a little right and they got me to Markham to pick up my trainee, my girlfriend. I got in later and they had already given her a motel, so I hitched a ride over there and got to relax for the night.

We're out here trying to get her BTW time in but so far we've only made one short run which I drove part of because she was a little too tired to safely drive the rest of the way. I can understand that, because I was pretty tired too. We got up early to catch the 0730 shuttle but when we got dispatched later that morning our pick up time wasn't until 1800, so we had both been up quite a while before we even did anything, but we had a good PP for today so I figured she could do all the driving today.

Well as fate would have it, that blew up in our faces too, because by the time they found us and empty (sounds familiar, doesn't it) we ended up being just short of 2 hours late for our pick up and we are still sitting here live loading at almost 6 hours later. Hopefully we can get out of here before our 14's run out, we have about 5 left for the day. Another day of being up all day and getting nothing done. This load doesn't have to be in Topeka until Monday, so she can just drive us there tomorrow.

I will say she has improved greatly since the last time I rode with her. She is getting pretty smooth with the shifting and her backing is awesome. This was her first "real" backing job, a 45 set up with just 2 little pull ups and she laid it right on the line. I was very impressed.

The thing I'm not impressed with right now is that since the company started requiring 2 new guys to team for 8 weeks, team trucks are at a premium so we are shoehorned in this little Peterbilt until they find us something. They had located us a truck, but I refused it because they wanted us to leave my truck in Markham and then ride the bus all the way to El Paso to fetch their equipment. Um...no thanks.

 

oh oh, low on team trucks? thats not good...

 

That was the excuse that I got.

Sound to me like they need to get some more because of all the new "teams" they are creating with the new driver training requirements.

Even though we are a little cramped in this truck, I thought it was waaaaay better than riding the bus to El Paso.

 

riding a red pete beats riding a gray dog anyday!

 

I have to agree with that decision. I will never ride a greyhound again

 

hello everyone not a driver yet so i hope im not intruding, just reading alot of your posts and it sounds very exiting out there. i start my WIA funded training on mon and hope to be on the road 4-5 weeks later. really considering trying to get a job with USX jus wandering if im making the right decision or should i keep looking. any comments or opinions will be greatly appreciated. also just 2 questions, whats the layover pay, and do you get paid for the miles you drive back home for hometime?

 

Sounds like they made a big mistake buying all those Petes and Prostars. Then they didn't think it through when they changed the training policy. That's good old-fashioned corporate mentality at work.

 

Pretty much sounds like the same old USX Standard of the wrong people are still making the decisions on what to buy for new trucks, as well as the right hand is still not talking to the left either. Just sayin..............

 

AMEN to that! I was talking to a (yet another) person in the team training coordinating dept. (or whatever the heck they call it) on Friday and he said he was in that dept. when the decision was made to do this stupid team trainee thing and he didn't agree with it so he asked for a transfer. Now he's back there and said he is not happy about it at all and they should just leave us alone to go solo. I agree 1000%! I don't want to run team at all. I think we've pretty much all said the same thing about this stupid policy.

Still waiting for a PP to get me rolling again. Don't know if the freeform I sent earlier about needing something and not having a team partner was read or will even be acted on since I'm in a "team" truck. I hope I don't get something that has me rolling all night after being up all day. Still recuperating from the grey dog ride as well. I slept for 12 hours straight and feel like I need a few more. I hope I don't ever have to ride that thing again. I've ridden it more in the past 2 months than I ever have in my considerable lifetime! I think I'd rather stab myself in the eyeball!