YRC Driver training - Roadsidedown's journey

Called the Teamsters and left a msg. Hopefully they can get me caught up in my status with benefits and seniority. I started 9/21, worked dock several weeks, did four weeks of CDL training, a couple of weeks to pass drive test, then a week to get hooked up with a trainer, and three weeks with route training.

 

Yes that is true. I did not sign a contract and there have been no deductions to pay back. The lead instructor said IF they charged for training it would be $5,500. But they don’t. Probably due to federal funding or something. Within the constrains of preparing for the DMV tests I thought it was pretty good. I would have liked another week of road driving but we got more 1 on 1 time than many do. Very decent people.

The one month driving a real route with multiple trainers on their own route is very good. They won’t sign off on you until they believe you will be safe as possible at that level.

Really learning the P&D or line haul responsibilities and how to handle things that come up is invaluable. Plus they really mentor on driving skills, awareness, anticipating etc.

 

END OF WEEK 3 (Nominally 4) P&D TRAINING
The previous week which should have been Week 3 was a total bust. Snow, lack of two seat tractors, and having to take a day off for car title and dead battery meant zero training drives.

This week started out kind of rough with my first on road use of floating the gears. By week's end the trainer was complimenting me on my shifting so that was great to hear. Still doing the 5am-6pm grind. Trainer says when solo my hours will likely be more like 7am-3:30pm or slightly more until I get some experience to do longer routes or take on extra runs like the volume trailers to distribution centers before my route. I am exhausted driving most of the 12-13 hrs every day and getting 5-6 hrs sleep at night. It will be a welcome step back to work under 10 hrs for a while. Worked on watching those mirrors while turning, backing into docks, making wide turns, and general road awareness. Made good improvements, and Friday was a near perfect day. Lots of compliments on keeping a safe following distance, appropriate speed, etc.

If I can drive next week as well as I finished this one I should be ready to go solo by late next week or early the following one. So looking forward to that. Since one of the three trainers was a no show to help out, the other two are kind of burned out for now and need a break as well. They have incredible patience helping us crawl through the paces on the deliveries and pick ups learning the routes, the idiosyncrasies of customers (who wants us to unload, who has forklifts and will go in the trailer and who won't, who is never there but allows us to use a forklift, which dock is meant for us to use, etc.). Plus all the driving skills that need to improve and refine. They are really great drivers and much appreciate their help getting started.

The office crap at YRC is painful. Understaffed and no process control at all. I still do not have an ID badge after 3.5 months. Checked in again with admin last week and yet again my photo was not forwarded to the right person so my sign up papers died. They took another photo and promised it would be ready next week. Having trouble getting info about my medical and other benefits. Teamsters just referred me back to the unhelpful administration third party. I did finally get a Blue Cross medical card in the mail but only for myself and I had signed up for Kaiser Permanente. And I did get a letter about my retirement but again I am registered as single with no beneficiaries although I filled out the forms for my wife's info and as a beneficiary. Apparently NONE of the papers I filled out and signed on 9/21/2021 went through and they just defaulted me on everything. Very frustrating that not only did my paperwork die multiple times in their "process" (LOL!!!), but no one in the paper chain bothered to call or email me to confirm or get more info. Talked to one of my route trainers and he says my time off amounts should be available on my Oracle pay slip site but of course it shows nothing for time off available or used. Yet another admin detail to trace down. I am on the road from 6am-6pm so it is very difficult to talk to anyone that works 9am-4pm. My trainers are trying to help out, without them nothing would get done at all. So far I am just concentrating on graduating from the P&D training successfully and being approved to drive solo. But I really need to get the health benefits squared away this month for my wife's treatments. The good thing is it means once I am driving I will not be hassled by much office bother.

This is the first week since I started that I have actually considered switching to another company. The driving and co-workers are great, the equipment is old but well maintained and I could be real happy here. But the office black hole and total lack of support is frustrating. I am going to stick with it a while longer but if we get into February and my insurance and ID are not squared away I might start applying to other places. This should be incredibly simple and straightforward and yet it is taking months to determine there is a problem, to convince others a problem exists, and to get any assistance to correct the problem and make sure it is followed through to the CONCLUSION. They have a very complicated process with many handoffs and if any person in the long chain is absent or makes a mistake the entire packet stops dead and no one ever checks on it, ever, never. After all the time and effort YRC has invested in me to get the Class A and be route trained it would be tragic to have to go somewhere else to drive, but the office seems to not care a whit whether things get done or not. Only if you stand there and watch them DO IT will something get done. Payroll is the exception, my pay has been accurate and timely from the start. The company is making contribution for my medical benefits and into my retirement account (seems to be about $400/month so that is very generous), but everything else about them is a hot mess.

For a company that emphasizes its great benefits to attract drivers, I am not impressed, in fact sorely disappointed at this time. If it gets fixed then in the long run those benefits could be very meaningful. A trainer figures we make about $39/hr including the value of the benefits with a base wage of $24/hr. But man, having to wait months for coverage, having a broken admin process with virtually no assistance, and admins all working banker hours is not impressive to a new hire. Another odd thing is YRC seems to have no concept of leave without pay. All the hourly jobs I've done before are fine with that. You need time off for appts. or family and don't have enough vacation then take the days without pay. But at YRC supposedly you are "allowed" only one unexcused absence per month. We only get five sick days per year and five days vacation and two personal days, none of which roll over to the next year. And of course you don't get those right away and they have different annual change dates. This is about the same policy as $13/hr general labor jobs except with no provision for leave without pay which can add a lot of flexibility at zero cost to the employer.

I respect YRC a lot for no tuition CDL training, excellent quality trainers, pay during training with all travel expenses covered, safe equipment and excellent regard for safety, and very decent co-workers. It is all the more a crying shame their office is so broken when processing simple sign on papers or assisting with any benefit changes. Many managers and supervisors have left and not been replaced. There still is no city dock supervisor to make sure trailers are loaded and ready in the morning and that freight does not languish on the dock. Some drivers will come in earlier to do that themselves and others just drive what is ready and loaded even if it is just four stops. I suppose it could be a lot worse. With all the good they have all they need is to fix the paperwork completion and fill the dock supervisor slots to make it really superior. I'll re-assess in February and hopefully by then all this is behind me. If someone asked me if I recommend YRC for training and a start, I would say YES with the caveat only if they are not depending on any benefits other than the paycheck for the first 4 months. And also to check with other drivers going through their program to see if they might have a better experience. My experience demonstrates things can go off the rails easily and you may spend a lot of precious off duty hours trying to push paperwork through the office worm hole.

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to WEEK 4 of P&D driving training and will do my best to make every day as flawless as possible and improve on my backing more and more.