US Xpress in Dallas

Your recruiter will tell you that they send you home with a load from orientation so you can set your truck up. Of all of the things I was told, this was the only thing not true. Once you get in your truck, you send a time off request to your FM, who will then start to figure out when they will get you home. Consensus is that it will take one to two weeks before you get home. Also, your Fleet Manager is a human being, there are good ones and .....well... not so good ones. Just figure you have to prove you can be trusted. Don't refuse any load and treat them with respect, they hold your ability to make a living in their hands.

 

Well I guess I'll see what happens. I've expected from day one not to hold my breath on anything and just go with the flow. No expectations, no lost hopes. Thanks Craig. Be safe.

 

Thanks Anna for the info. You and Craig have helped to answer preliminaries. Sorry about the snow and the mechanical failures... but I guess that's trucking. Did you guys get a general consensus on what trucks they had available in Dallas? You all take care and be safe.

 

As a company driver, it was mostly Freighliner Cascadia's on the line, I think there are still some Columbia's also. I think the Volvo's are mostly retired (there are tons of them there) and the Pete's are mostly for Lease Operators.

 

Cascadias... That's good to hear. Those are nice rides. I wouldn't be disappointed one bit to get one of those. As much as I like the 387s, I don't care to lease.

 

Well, sorry for the delay everyone. Last week through orientation up until now has been very busy, so I'll try to update the best I can. Craig, Musicgal, and others have provided some accurate info, so I will not go in to detail about things already discussed. Please bear with me as this will be lengthy.

First of all, I would recommend when applying for USX, your recruiter will give you the soonest dates available you can go to orientation. In my case, I emailed my completed application back to her on a Thursday night, and she called me the very next morning informing me I could go to orientation the very next Monday or the following Wednesday. That was a surprise. I decided to wait a week to to go, and I wish I would've waited another week on top of that... because they were still doing my background while in orientation, and instead of getting hired on Wednesday afternoon at the end of class, it was Thursday evening at 5pm. So I would suggest you wait a week or two to go to orientation so they can have time to get your background done, and communicate with your recruiter every day to see how things are going and ask if there is anything you can do to help expedite matters. There were a lot in my class of 15 that were very upset for having to wait. Be sure you account for everything that happened in your employment in the last five years... that's how far they go back, even though you have to provide 10 years history. IMPORTANT NOTE: Even if you've had 100 jobs, be honest. We were all told in orientation not to hide anything. If you account for all your jobs and are honest they will work with you, but not if you hide something or make your job history look better. 3 guys in my class got sent home because of this, and they had to pay their own way.

Class itself was good. Dodd (first name) is a very nice guy, and pretty knowledgeable about the company. He'll laugh and joke around with you too, just appreciates structure, and asks to keep the talking to a minimum. He has no problem answering questions, and desires that you get everything you can out of orientation.

You will eat Subway for lunch each day, with one choice of a sub, salad, or pizza. Breakfast is provided by the Ramada Inn that you stay at. Nice breakfast... It's a "super" continental breakfast... bagels, cereal, waffles, coffee, juice, with some eggs, sausage or bacon, biscuits, and gravy.

So now where I'm at... I left the Friday morning following orientation with another guy, and a female student who was waiting on her trainer, by rental car (very nice 2011 Nissan Altima). The female student is waiting on her trainer to be recertified and will probably be on his truck in a few days. We dropped her off on our way to Little Rock so the guy I was with could recover a truck at the Peterbilt dealer. He got the truck, which was pretty nasty, and they routed him to Olive Branch Miss. to get repairs, and they told him they would clean it up and detail it for him... not a bad deal at all for a 2010 Pete 387! I went on toward Wichita Kansas, stopping at a very nice motel (Sleep Inn and Suites, provided by USX) in Ft. Smith Ark. Got to Wichita, found the 2009 Pete 387 I was to recover at the Pete dealer, put my stuff in it, returned the rental car, got a ride back to the dealer, and discovered how swamped weekend dispatch can get. After 6 hours, I was finally told I could move to a truck stop. The pete dealer closed at noon, so I'm at the truck stop waiting for Monday morning to either go back to pete dealer or to a service center.

Now, I've not said all that to discourage anyone. Sometimes this is just part of trucking. I've not met or talked to my FM yet, so I'm sure that things will be better come Monday. I've met a lot of good drivers who enjoy working here. It's all about attitude and working the problem, or dealing with what situation you're in. So take care everyone and I'll pop in to update again soon.

 

So glad you are moving forward. Great update. I am not sure how much of a difference waiting for orientation would make. I suspect they do a preliminary look for missing information but they do not dig deep until you actually show up at orientation. We had a number of drivers who were scheduled but did not show up. Bring employment documentation with you and prep your past employers for the call from USX.

 

My wife, Anne, will be in Olive Branch tonight with her trainer.

 

Tell her to look for Steven from Wichita Falls Texas. He's about 51, with mustache. Heck of a nice guy. Glad things are going well for you and Anne. I'm still in Wichita KS waiting any minute now to be moved to Dallas. You all take care.... Until next time...