PGT 2018

I started at Roehl Transport in 2011 and drove there for 2 years. Then I went to Melton Truck Lines but I didn't much care for it. I went to P&S Transportation, then to a 100 truck company to run dedicated called Mast Trucking out of Ohio. When we lost the dedicated account I went and leased a truck for 6 months because I wanted to get a little bit of a different experience. After a profitable 6 months, I wanted to take the next step and get into coil hauling so I went to Valley Transportation in Ashland, OH. After a few very short months I was offered a local driving position back at Mast so I took it. It was a good job, but the pay was a little short, insurance was a little high, and it was third shift. And I decided it was time to get back on track. So I put a couple of applications out and heard back from a few different carriers. I was offered a local position out of Toledo hauling coils. And I was offered a coil hauling position at PGT in their tri-axle division. And since heavy haul is the direction I've been wanting to move in, I decided that was the job to take.

So I committed on Thursday and quit my job. Friday morning I drove the 70 miles to Akron and took my pre-employment drug test. Sunday morning I got up and drove the 4 hours to Blairsville, PA to start my new journey. Today is Monday March 19th 2018 and we just finished the first day of orientation. It was just like every other orientation I've been in, with the exception of Mast (where I was the only one the first time, and the second time my orientation was 34 minutes long), and was a long and very boring day. But the people are nice, knowledgeable, and seem to care about the job they're doing. After leaving the hotel at 8am, we drove right down the street to the terminal. We signed some papers on the tablets, listened to some people talk, some went and did their drug tests, we road tested, did some computer based training, listened to some more people talk, then had lunch, then listened to some more people talk before taking a brief tour and leaving for the day. We'll see if anything happens tomorrow.

 

good deal, stay safe........

 

Today, Tuesday March 20th, we had different department heads coming in and talking more, as a lot of us know is typically how an orientation goes. We did smith system, then 4 of us, the guys who have some flatbed experience, went out and did some load securement training so they could see where we are. I secured a suicide coil and a shotgun coil, both whole and simulated slitted coils, and secured some flat steel. I was corrected at a few points, but it was all small differences in company policy from the way other companies may want it done, as is very normal. Then we went back to the classroom, and finished listening to the in class section of load securement training with the rest of the guys. Lunch was good. Wraps and french fries from the restaurant next door to the hotel. Dinner was at the same restaurant. Back in the hotel now. Time to relax and think about going to bed.

 

Today started off just like the last two days. Breakfast in the hotel, out the door by 7:45, at the yard by 7:50, orientation starts at 8am. We did review on load securement rules in the classroom and took the written tests for each section. Then we met with former professional baseball player and our current corporate chaplain, Sid Bream. Then we had lunch. Another good lunch. Today it was some kind of sandwhich with I guess it was salami and something else and French fries from the restaurant next door to the hotel. After lunch we did something, I don't remember what exactly. Then we went outside for more load securement training. I secured a shotgun coil, and broke down the slitted shotgun coil from yesterday for the rest of the class to learn on.

After I was done breaking it down I was pulled aside by the instructor and told that he just received a phone call about me and they wanted to know how I was progressing. He told them that I'm every bit as good as him and that I'm good to go, so they had me report back to the office, told me to check out of the hotel, and I'd be getting a ride back to Monroe, Ohio with the safety manager for the terminal that I'll be working out of to get my truck. I went and gathered up my stuff, checked out of the hotel, came and got my bag of freebies from the ladies in the training department, got a few pictures taken and we hit the road. We came as far as Cranberry, PA to the hotel and he dropped me off so he could go home for the night and we will head out in the morning.

It was a really good day, it didn't end how I was expecting it to, but that's a good thing. I was kind of under the impression I'd be in orientation for at least another two days, but I'm super excited to start this new journey and get the type of experience that I've been wanting. Overall, my orientation experience was excellent. The hotel accommodations were nice, although it was the first orientation I'd been to where I had a roommate, luckily he was cool. All of the guys in orientation were cool, and if any of them should happen upon this at some point I wish you guys all the best. The staff at the training center were all very nice, informative, and you could tell they care a great deal about the job they do. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

 

Thursday March 22, 2018. So I woke up this morning and was picked up by the safety manager and we started the 4 and a half hour drive to Monroe, Ohio. We stopped at Culvers for lunch, which was pretty good. After all the times passing them I was happy to finally have the opportunity to stop at one. Then went to the yard. Got my truck and trailer assigned. I got a 2014 prostar with 350k miles and a mac trailer with a merlot vango sliding tarp. I had to inventory the trailer, turns out I'm missing a lot of equipment and the guy who manages our equipment at this yard wasn't here today so I'll have to deal with that tomorrow. Then I'll get my permits for my load Sunday and head home. Supposed to be picking up 2 coils on Sunday weighing 79,550 pounds going up to the Gary, IN area. I'll be shadowing another driver next week in case I run into any issues with working my trailer, paperwork, permits, routing, or elog stuff. I played around with the third axle a little bit today, seems pretty simple. Excited to get started. Have more stuff to do around the truck before I meet up with the guy tonight to get some information so I'll update again tomorrow or Sunday. Have a good weekend.

 

Very Nice! Well written and Good Luck on your New
Journey!

 

Good luck! Thanks for a well written detailed thread. It should help others.

 

Met up with the guy I'm going to be shadowing next week. He's a nice guy with a lot of experience. I hope to learn a lot from him. He told me that there are only 20 trucks in my division, which makes me feel very honored to have been chosen, especially with having no heavy haul experience. He ran through the elog with me, scanning in paperwork using the app, gave me a brief but detailed run down on our division and some company policies to be mindful of, and he explained our permits and gave me some good advice. He told me to be very careful with my Kentucky annual permit because it costs $1,250 and the company would be a pretty upset if I lost it or otherwise damaged it.

I woke up this morning, grabbed my equipment, my permits for my load sunday, and hit the road for the 3 hour drive home. There was an accident on I-70 just west of Columbus that I was held up in for 2 hours. When I stopped for a restroom break at the first rest area coming out of Columbus on I-71 north I received new messages on the QUALCOMM with my second load for Monday afternoon delivering Tuesday morning. It's two more coils totaling 75600 pounds going from the Gary, IN area to Louisville, Kentucky and will pay me just about 350 dollars. The gentleman I'm shadowing told me there's money to be made here and I think he's probably right. I'm at home now, have my daughter this weekend. I have to go through some stuff and load the truck so I'm ready for the road. Very much looking forward to heading out Sunday. I know one things for sure. As soon as I get some money that I can actually spend this truck and trailer is going to the wash

 

Going to be short tonight. It's Sunday March 25th. I left the house this morning and drove the 3 hours back down to Monroe. Then we headed over to Middletown and got loaded. I picked up two coils weighing 39,860 and 39,690. It took about 3 hours to get loaded, secured, and get paperwork. Then we double checked permits, sent messages, and set our lift axles at the correct psi. We pulled into the port of Indiana 20 minutes before 9 with 7am appointments for Monday morning. It was a long day at 486 miles but we made it here safe and sound. The truck handles fine at that kind of weight a lot better than I expected it to. Even when accelerating. But climbing hills we were losing a bit of speed but didn't once drop below 50, which was surprising. I didn't know what to expect having never pulled overweight loads before. It went well. I'm beat. Going to organize the truck a bit then go to bed. But first to get out of these dang steel toed boots.