Watkins Shepard 30 day training as experienced by Warpdrvr

Znine is correct about the trip envelopes. It is basically your "timecard" if you will. That's how they pay you. Your miles, the stuff you pay out of pocket, and extras like helping unload and stuff like that. Put all your paperwork (logs, bills of lading, receipts, etc) in it and get it to a terminal....

Yesterday we did hazmat training in the morning, and after lunch we got a Qualcomm lesson and one of the safety girls came in and talked about accident procedures, and after that the benefits girl came by and told us about the health care and such...by then it was time to get out of there....on a side note, I was asked by the safety director if I could run him to the airport early the next morning...of course I said yes.

I think it's now down to our last drive, the downhill part, and then a couple of more things and I think we're done.....I'll let you all know how it goes!

 

Too bad you didn't make it out this way...last weekend it was like a frat party or something there were so many drivers here...all very cool people. I'll PM you my truck number once they assign it...maybe tomorrow. I think I'll have to get to Helena or Vancouver to pick it up....they have one closer to my home in Modesto, but it's an automatic and I don't really want one since I want to keep driving stick to get it down.

Today, we did routing stuff, it took most of the day actually. In between, we got a shop/maintenance brief, talked to the "tire guy" and had a visit from the Human Resources lady. Lastly, we did some log exercises. All in all, a fairly kick back day.

That means we get to do the downhill drive tomorrow....and hopefully get our trucks!

 

I thought there would be a lot of driving as well, but they expect you to be able to drive when you get here, they just do 1 check ride to make sure you can and hiway type stuff, 1 check ride on city operations (pretty nerve wracking!), and the last one is the downhill ops and final check ride. If you pass all that, and do well in class....you're in!

Thanks for the words of advice, I'm taking all of it I can get from other drivers. I also have a good list of numbers started so I have people I can call on for assistance.

You bet I'm packed.....well, mostly! There is a driver here that may be going my way tomorrow some time. He was supposed to leave tonite, but got a couple of miles down the road and the turbo oil line the shop fixed came off again....we shall see!

Hopefully the next time I am able to post, I'm on my way to being a trucker with a truck and a destination...

 

Well, it's done....I have a job and a truck number now! We finished the orientation by doing the downhill ops (really, what's the big deal?), and a last, long lesson on winter season driving and all the extra crap that goes with it... In between we filled out our payroll stuff, signed our life away, got our fuel cards, and a goodie box with some needed stuff for our trucks.

I want to thank Lynchmob and Soon2btrucking for all their help, encouragement, and friendship thru this process. I also want to thank my recruiter (who I know reads this), and my instructors (both the CDL school and Mark, who also reads this, and Kelby at WS. Without all their input and butt kicking, I wouldn't be here today with the key to a big red truck in my hand.

On the subject of the aforementioned big red truck, I did end up with an automatic, but on the plus side, I also have an APU! By chance, the truck belonged to one of the best friends of a driver I know and he said it's a nice truck and has been taken care of....After I get used to having the APU, I may not want to give it back....but it's all good!!!

 

Thanks Darin. Just noticed you are here in Missoula....I'm sure you are familiar with WS, over here on the west end on Broadway, just past the airport. I would think you've looked at them for employment. If you haven't done so, call and speak with a recruiter (I recommend asking for Roxy, she's awesome). They have the orientations every 10 days and it would be nice for you since they have a fairly large terminal here with plenty of parking for personal vehicles while on the road. I hope to see a thread started by you soon on your experiences with employment. Good luck! See you out there soon