Recent Grad Looking To Hear From Stevens Drivers..... Need Info..

You will also get an entire day dedicated to it in ORII...

 

Cool. I was a little disapponted that we didn't learn more. I look forward to that.

 

As far as the trainer on the truck, thats a coin toss. On my first trainers truck we never once did a trip plan. My finish trainer made me do a trip plan for each load and we went over it together. But then again neither trainer would let me back the truck.

 

Hell Chuck... you're lucky then let you back IN the truck

 

I plan on asking tons of questions and making sure each item on my evaluation card has been covered. Just the type of person I am. If my trainer isn't training. I'm getting off. I'm not padding anyone's check in order to get substandard training.

 

In your OR2 class, they take you on an imaginary journey from Florida to Colorado to teach you trip planning. Its called Super Trip.

Lol!!!

 

Trip planning isn't too hard. I recommend you get the laminated truckers atlas as it is more durable and truck stop book that lists all t/s and truck parking places. Always have a plan A,B, and C. T/S get full quick, especially in the winter.

 

Kind of an old thread but wanted to weigh in again now that I have a little experience. ( I said a little )
Super Trip in OR2 was a good lesson but not near enough.

I spent the extra $ and bought a laminated map and Wet Erase markers.

Now when I trip plan I do two in different colors (primary and backup plan). draw the two routes out along the roads I am taking. Circle the cities or areas that I am going to take a break in, the drops, the distance between them and the hours it will take to get to each. I laminated a white piece of paper and can write out my load info and directions on it and hang it from the QC and have a quick reference. A little spit or wetnap cleans it all up for the next load.

Hope this helps someone.

 

A man after my own heart!
Night & Weekend Operations salutes you, sir!

 

waking up this thread again mainly to agree with all the excellent points made. worth making sure its still alive. if you get lucky, your trainer will go through it with you, but even if you dont, during dumb and dumber and grad fleet, you will be holding hands with operations making sure they and you know every step of whats coming.
my trainer, during our week 3 review going into week 4, told me to make sure i have a notebook handy because i will be trip planning every load from here on out. we will see about this. i like his way of doing his loads, mainly because i find a hard copy backup of anything posted on QC to be inherently invaluable because Jill breaks. he notes all the load info, fuel stops, trailer info, any repowers that take place, any oddities that occur, all additional incidentals in his notebook so he has, at a glance, all the information he needs to both review the load, and review against his settlement at the end of the day to make sure his pay is accurate.

yes, it is a little ocd, but i have observed at least twice where that information paid off in the past week alone.

the biggest mistake i have seen people make overall is blindly trusting stevens and jill to be accurate and correct in all things always. a driver who fails to use his or her most critical assets (brain, eyes, time) is a driver who is asking to be screwed without benefit of dinner.

i do have one minor complaint... because i am ocd and often referred to as the grammar police*... can someone please proofread the blast messages? k. thanks!

* i am lazy and did not make sure all the acronyms were capitalized, sentences correctly capitalized, proper syntax used, etc etc. blame the home time... im busy making pot roast, mashed potatoes, vegetables, rolls, and peach cobbler. I MISS COOKING!