Roadmasters: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Yeah, I'm not sure whether or not the parallel park will be required in the future. Right now it isn't. The instructors made some mention about serpentine backing and the 45 degree. I honestly haven't looked to see what the changes will be.

The trucks are ten-speed volvo's. Honestly, they're not in horrible shape. They've also got a nine-speed freightliner donated by Werner. I've only seen that one pulled out once or twice. I've got no complaints at all about their equipment. The trucks seem to be reasonably maintained.

The trailers are all pretty old 45' and 48' boxes. I wouldn't expect any school to spend a whole lot of money on trailers, though. They function, heh.

Good luck to ya!

 

Yup. The two volvos and the werner truck have full size sleepers on them. They also have a few flat top freightliners and a couple of single axle trucks.


Well, I would've been done already except that I missed a couple of Sundays and we shut down once for a snow day, so I've got one weekend left. Basically I'm just killing time now. I'm actually ready to be done, lol. The more I drive around, the more I want to get out on the road and do some real driving.

Over the last month or month and a half I've had the opportunity to be exposed to several different driving instructors at the Tulsa Roadmaster school, and I've got to say that I'm pretty impressed by them. All of them have quite a bit of experience and very different methods of instruction. Some are a bit gruff while others are more relaxed, but all of them put a genuine effort into bringing the concept of safe driving to fruition. And that's kinda nice.

A couple of the instructors were chatting the other day about some things that I'd forgotten all about: The middle of the night knocks on your door by someone looking for money or offering "company"; The long waits for road-repair; The sometimes rude and hateful shippers and receivers; The strange characters who wander around the truckstops; The dangerous delivery locations (I actually delivered in Compton once, rofl); Obnoxious cops and state troopers who feel it's their job to be not only rude but spend extra time looking for something, anything, to write a citation about; Constant stop and go driving in the cities; Traffic jams; Horrible weather events (from blizzard-like conditions to supercells and tornados); and finally, driving until you're so tired that you hallucinate. I can honestly say that I'd forgotten about all of those things. Funny how that works. Usually you remember the bad things about a job, but I seem to only recall the good points about driving truck. Heh, even being reminded about the less than glamorous parts of trucking I still want to get back on the road.

So, I haven't tried to get any pre-hires yet. Kinda foolish, really. I just can't seem to make up my mind on whether or not to go OTR or try to get a local gig. I recall truck-rail as being the most enjoyable job I've ever done, so I'm kinda stuck trying to figure out if I honestly should find something similar around here. About the only thing nearby which might be close to that kind of schedule would be the oil field service companies that haul those little tankers out to the drill sites. Problem is that I don't have any experience with pneumatic pumps.

Ya know, I started off wanting to hook up with TMC and their line-haul division. I still like the sound of it, really. My question about TMC involves the economy. Construction is really slow right now, and TMC hauls alot of construction materials. What kind of pay would I end up with? I just don't know. Seems like they took a hard hit when the economy took a dump. No clue what kind of shape they're in or how well their drivers are doing.

Werner's southern regional division looks real good to me as well, but I just can't stomach spending at least 300 hours with a trainer. I don't mind going out with a trainer for a little bit just to make sure that I can do the job the way the company wants it done, but 300 driving hours with a trainer is a bit much for me...and the training pay is freakin' horrible. Not to mention that I had a bit of a bad experience with them when I switched over from Schneider. Doens't really mean that Werner is a bad company, just that I got the run-around with them. Still, their southern regional gig looks mighty good. I love running in the south. Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Lousiana, Arkansas, those are my favorite states, lol. I sure like the idea of staying away from California on the west and anything on the east coast. Fairly sure that the governments of those states have lost their pretty little minds. OH! And it seems like every time I see a Werner truck, it has an APU hanging off the side of it. That speaks volumes to me.

Swift. /sigh.
Well, to be honest I doubt that Swift is any worse than Schneider used to be. And I've got no real complaints about Schneider. Big company, lots of freight. Wish Swift had a southern regional division rather than just an Eastern or Western. If they did, I'd probably go with Swift simply because they are firmly established.

Stevens Transport. I've got no idea. Don't know anything about Stevens. I've got no clue about what it's like to run refer frieght. Their trucks look nice, though. But I need more than a nice looking tuck. I just don't know anything at all about Stevens.

Out of all the companies that recruit through Roadmaster, the only one that bothered sending a recruiter to the weekend class was Werner. Kinda interesting.

Anywho, that's where I'm at right now. Just trying to make a decision about which company to go to. I shouldn't have any problems getting on with any of these companies, just having a rough time boiling it down to one company that I'll stay with for a few years.

 

Thanks!

 

Whelp, all done as of last Sunday.

Put in some apps last night and this morning. Werner gave me a call just a little bit ago, so it looks like I'll be going with them for awhile. I like the idea of their Southern Regional gig. Sounds like what I've been looking for. Only thing that would be better would be that dedicated run with Schneider out of Muskogee. Georgia Pacific dedicated, I think. Only a half hour from my house, lol. Oh well, we'll see what happens with Werner. I've heard alot of horror stories, but I've also talked to several of their multi-year drivers that have no complaints.

I'm hesitant about the 300hours with a trainer. Don't really think I need that much, but I suppose it'll be worth it just to get back into trucking. Headed down to Dallas on Tuesday for orientation.

Kinda funny, put the app in for Werner this morning and got a call within about six hours. Now that's fast!