Out of school now waiting on finisher.

So Truck Dynasty was not all I had hoped for but I did get my CDL. Now I have finished orientation with CFI. My assigned finisher or driver trainer has been assigned. Training told us we will get detention pay while waiting for the trucks coming in. In my case I am hired but waiting until next Thursday. He seems like a nice guy.

My finisher is a family man and a grandfather too. I am still older but he has 1.2 million miles behind him. I am sure for the 25 days I drive with him I will be able to learn a lot.

The crazy part is all day for 3 days they talk about "Captain of the Ship" like there is support and trust. I think some believe in this, however when I asked if I could use a truck to practice backing in the yard the answer was NO.

Time will tell if these are just words or not. I do like many aspects of the company. The training so far is ok. I will make $300 waiting for a truck. All I want is to drive but it is taking so long.

More updates as time goes on. Hopefully soon I will be rolling some miles.

 

That is the funny part. I live 45 minutes from the Joplin Terminal so I am getting $75 a day to stay home. At 58 it is hard to see such waste but so close to the panic of covid I understand few want a stranger in their truck every month.

 

Got to work with a company trainer today learning CFI way of backing and stuff. At first they were hesitant but then they kicked the local school off the yard and gave me an exclusive 2 hour shot. Seeing how they prefer it done using the mirrors and trucks they own is greatly different. No more grinding the tires into the ground on full right or full left turns. Smoother and more accurate.

It was a bit of a language barrier at first because he was speaking to an experienced trucker and I was still stuck on school terms. Getting out of the school mode made backing so much easier. He even insisted I do a blind side backing, not that it will be my first choice. If you use the mirrors like he explained it was not much different then an alley 90 backing. Then he insisted I do a backup uturn parking. We started with a trailer to my left 6 feet away. I backed out and hooked it to the left in reverse parking on the opposite side of the same trailer. Crazy but it was kind of easy. Again this is not something I am looking to do often, but he did say some of the locations will require something close to it.

I am getting more comfortable with the company daily. I loved the Kenworth truck but will need a lot of time to smooth out the low speed throttle. Kinda like popping the clutch learning a 10 speed. Time will smooth it out. A big thanks to Enrique at Joplin CFI. He made me comfortable and gave me a world of confidence so I will not look bad my first 10,000 miles. I might just look like a blue hair at Walmart but I am OK with that for now.

Finisher may get here sooner so until I get my first load I will be quiet. Be safe. Ask Questions. Never give up.

 

I have almost 5000 miles now with my finisher. We cannot return until 25 days have past which is fine with me. The hardest part is living in 100 sqft with another large man. To fix this we both bought some camping chairs and right now I am sitting between the truck and trailer, key in pocket, typing away in the shade.

Too many folks I have met and talked with that do not like the pay or miles also have too many personal reasons why they are waiting on a cherry load. We took whatever came across the board and as a result we have had some great loads. There is so much to learn about the Peoplenet software and HOS rules or managing HOS to get the most mileage. The driving part is easy.

Other than the basics of doing most of the driving if not all nothing has changed. I am surprised how many student drivers do not do as much driving and backing as they can. I am averaging 10.25 hours a day. With traffic delays and load unloads mileage varies from 300-640 a day.Holding the wheel and staying in the lines is the easiest part.

Have fun and stay positive. Things can only get better, right?