Freymiller Trucking New CDL Grad Training Journal

I am a recent CDL school graduate who decided to start his career with Freymiller Trucking in Oklahoma City Oklahoma. I spoke with a few different companies and probably wouldn't have ever come across Freymiller if it weren't for @Chinatown's suggestion. They fit almost all of the criteria I was looking for in a company and have been excellent as far as communication throughout this entire process of coming onboard.

I start orientation on Monday, 1/10/22. The process begins about a week before you're ready to go to orientation. Your recruiter confirms the date you'd like to go to orientation and then on that Wednesday when the trainer list comes out they make sure they can match you to a trainer before you go to orientation. If there isn't a trainer available they don't fly you out until there is one. That way you don't get stuck in purgatory like some of these other companies waiting for a trainer. They ask if you have an automatic restriction and if you don't whether you have an automatic or manual preference. They ask if you are a smoker or non-smoker, and then they ask if you have any dietary restrictions or requirements for your meals there at orientation. Then on Wednesday when the trainer list comes out they try to pair you with someone and set up your flight to Oklahoma City.

I applied a bit over a month before I was going to be heading to orientation. It was actually 32 days so they needed to re-run my application, I guess it's a DOT regulation or something. Because of that it took an extra day and all of the trainers were already paired with trainees. They talked someone else into coming back to the yard next week to pick me up for training so everything was good to go. The recruiter let me know I'd have my flight info within the next day and I did.

There was a slight issue with my flight that was originally scheduled. I couldn't work it out and brought it up to my recruiter and they were great about getting it changed to a closer airport (original one was hours away) and working around the ice storm that was rolling in. I'll update again after the first day or orientation.

Previous threads: CDL Training Journal - Suncoast Trucking Academy
CDL School student looking for recommendations for companies to apply to

Video:

 

Flights came in without issue, slight delay but in OKC safely. Airport shuttle picked me right up and it was about a 10 minute ride back to the hotel. The front desk gets you checked in immediately and goes over your breakfast options. Looks like a biscuits and gravy meal or pancakes and eggs and sausage, I didn’t look too closely, just wanted to get to the room. It’s a decent hotel, clean and spacious. No complaints. Nothing special but most importantly nothing to complain about. Catching the shuttle at 6:30am tomorrow morning for day one of orientation.

 

Orientation Day One Video:

Orientation Day One Recap: The shuttle was leaving at 6:30am and the orientation building is about 10 minutes away. Once we got there the COO gave us a 15 minute or so speech. Then we were off to our drug test, functional capacity test, and DOT physicals if you needed a new one. The drug test is urinalysis and mouth swab. The functional capacity test was just a basic agility test, nothing too difficult. After that we went back to the orientation classroom and started working on computer based training. Anyone who is becoming a company driver and isn't a new driver has to take a road test. I'm not sure what that consists of but just be aware you'll be doing that if you aren't a trainee. Trainee's do their road test after coming back from their 6-8 weeks of training. We also handled the new hire paperwork on a computer during this downtime.

We had lunch which was chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, and sawmill gravy. It was delicious and the portions were hearty. They also have a whole selection of snacks to eat throughout the day if you wish as well as sodas, iced teas, lemonade, and keurig coffee cups. There is crushed ice that they refill frequently so you can pour your drink in a glass with ice if you wish.

After lunch we continued the computer training and road tests until the road tests were done. Then we started the classroom training. We covered some info about maintenance schedules as well as how to operate the equipment like the APU, reefer, doing regens, coupling/uncoupling trailers etc. There was also some info on trip planning, company policies, and a few other things. It is very fast paced and probably a little difficult to retain all of the info, but the important info will stick. Hometime is a max of 4 days. I've seen that listed anywhere from 4-6 online, but in orientation they said it's a max of 4 days, 1 day for every 7 on the road. Certain areas can get hometime after every two weeks out and the rest of the country was after three weeks.

We got back to the hotel at about 5:45pm so a bit of a long day. I got a burger from the hotel restaurant, it was good, but also $15 for a burger and fries only. The shuttle runs to Walmart at 7pm every night, you just need to be in the hotel lobby. Homework is to finish the computer based trainings. Some people did them over the weekend. They send you your login info before you fly out. I would have knocked them out but I didn't know if we were supposed to. Once you finish the orientation CBTs you get to do the driver ones which you get paid for and need to do eventually anyways. I would recommend doing the computer training as soon as you can once they email you the login info. Tomorrow is classroom training and a bunch of guest speakers from different departments.

 

Day two video:

Day two recap: Started the day off with breakfast at orientation, then we wrapped up our classroom training stuff in the next few hours. We had classes on HOS, payroll/billing, Peoplenet, all sorts of stuff. David Freymiller came in to talk to us for a few minutes. A recurring theme here is that everybody loves the drivers and is glad you're here. They also know everything isn't going to be perfect and just ask that you bring it to their attention when something isn't right so they can make it right. I believe they are sincere about it.

After the power point training was done we got hands on experience with the Peoplenet tablets. That was cool since it was my first time messing around with one. Then we had lunch and after lunch we had a bunch of speakers all afternoon. First was the VP of safety, then we had operations talk to us, then HR came in and went over all of our benefits and helped us make selections. Then finally payroll came and talked to us about how to make sure we get paid on time etc. Then everyone except for the trainees were done for the day.

The trainees met with the training director and he went over some info about the training program as well as who our trainer and trainer's DM are and when we'd be going on their truck etc. The training program is about 7-8 weeks. Typically the trainer won't really be taking hometime during the program, but if they do you get a company paid hotel during their hometime and then when you finish training and get your truck they work with you on giving you the time you need on your first hometime after that since you've been out for 7-8 weeks. They said if you need 5 or 6 days or whatever they can accommodate that but obviously you won't be making money since you won't be running during that time. Once you come back from training you do your road test and get your truck and get dispatched towards your home.

 

Orientation Final Day Video:

Orientation Final Day recap: Today we were taken over to the yard. They dropped us off at the terminal and we hung out there for a bit in the driver's lounge until the instructor showed up. Then we were taken over to the trailer shop and they went over how to operate the reefer controls as well as clear codes and fix any minor things we might have to do on the road. They went over the trailer and how to operate anything on it like the auto-inflating/deflating tires etc and what damage to watch out for on the exterior and interior of the trailers.

Then we got our tour of the terminal and yard. We were taken through the offices to see where everyone's office is at in case we need to go there in the future. All leadership has an open door policy. We went through payroll, billing, and operations and then met with our Driver Managers. They gave us our fuel cards and if you're not a trainee they gave you the keys and inspection sheets for your truck. Everyone went to inspect their trucks and the trainees go with their trainer if the trainer is on the yard already.

Once you finish your truck inspection you take any issues to maintenance and meet up with your DM and get your first load. I went back to the hotel and I'll be rolling out with my trainer tomorrow morning.

@Chinatown as I'm writing this I realized I forgot to ask about the home purchase assistance. I do remember looking into it a while ago and found it on their website. I think it was for veterans and it was something like $1500 towards closing costs or something like that.

I'm going to try to keep this updated at least weekly. My main focus is obviously going to be on the training I'm getting. I'll be doing youtube videos on my channel, but I'll still try to come on here and at least put a quick writeup about stuff I've done or learned for the week while training as a new CDL holder.