Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

I'm looking at a local company, but also considering Abilene. I have about 3 years experience, but not all of it is recent experience. I'm wondering if they would put me in refresher training and if so, how long might I have to run with a trainer?

 

Refresher training can last just thru orientation up to a few weeks. It all depends on your driving skill and comfort on the QC. I started on phase 3 (refresher). After the test drive with Bill, he wanted to issue me a truck that day. I asked to run with a trainer to, 1) make sure my stamina behind the wheel was up to par, and, 2) learn the QC/eLogs. My 9 months experience was 8 years old when I hired on. They put me with another driver, not a trainer (I discovered later) to run a west coast and back. If the driver felt I was ready, Bill would have issued me a truck upon return to Richmond. Our return run from California got canceled, and messed things up. Another run from Cali to Wisconsin, then to West Memphis to grab a trailer to make a swap with a team in route to the east. That fell through when one of the team had a family medical emergency come up, so we ended up taking that load to Cali, too. Then a Cali to north Texas run. Then to far south Texas to pick up a truck from a service dealer, which I was assigned. Then off I went.

So, my week run turned into a 2 week run to solo out. But, I went back to school to brush up on driving the big trucks before I reentered the field. So, I was ready except for not ever having to use these inaccurate and non factual eLogs before. Didn't take long to get a basic understanding of how they work (when they work).

Abilene is a good outfit. They have their issues. But, once you have a working understanding of the issues, it's not that bad.

Hope my experience here helps you and somewhat answered your question.

 

I just completed a year here.
And I think it was a wise investment.

Not always happy but I think we are fair.
It's a good company with good people.

And wise to do your homework first!!!

 

Awe... That was so nice of them... {sniff sniff}

 

Ya, RC is our little ray of sunshine ...

 

Awesome... I'm a meme now!!!

 

I saw an Abilene Tank the other day.

No clue what it's for... Guess I best go grab my Tanker endorsement just in case.

 

Tankers aren't bad, I did food grade tankers for a while. The 45 ft trailers were nice, however a lot of the places I went to really tested your close quarters skills though. Winter was always fun too when you had a load of chocolate or cocoa butter or cooking oil that would solidify at the outlet and you had to poke a hole in the stuff then hurry up and try to close the valve before you spilled 7000 gallons of stuff everywhere. The whiskey and tequila loads were nice too being you could collect the drip into a bucket with a lid until they caught on to it and started to watch us unload, lol! The surge is always fun too if you missed a gear, smacked my face a couple times on the steering wheel from that, been pushed through stoplights and intersections before too. Always pissed the scale guys off too when I got pulled in being the surge would make me roll off and on the scales.
Did oilfield tank too for a bit here in wv, was interesting going up and down 18% grades and switch backs. Really sucked if you had to stop half way up an 18% though and start again hoping you didn't roll backwards into a ditch or another truck.
Been following this thread quite a bit now and like it. Hope to come back out maybe next year after I finish my bachelors degree, promised my mom Id finish it before going trucking again being she wanted to see me graduate before she goes to see Jesus. Stay safe out there!

 

I'll take a bucket of tequila please!!!

What are you getting your degree in?

 

What are miles like per week for OTR? I feel I can run, but I also wonder about my stamina for running long.