Just a few answers about Millis

First of all.....BARITONE..... I finally signed up on this E-lektronik box thing!!! This is amazing!!!! I also must give kudos to Baritone,Bear63, Spanky, and to all the others who keep journals about your experiences on the road!!! The job you all are doing right now is ten times harder than when I started!!! My respect and admiration to you all!!!

Hello all, I'm really here to answer a few questions that I have seen while going through all these threads, not to kiss their butts to get a FREE MEAL or anything like that!!!!!!!!!!!LOL
Just so that everyone knows, I am a 20+ year employee at Millis....been here since Sept 1990. and started in the trucking biz in 1982....dang that's a long time!! I've seen good stuff and bad stuff but over all,this has been a kick butt career and time spent with Millis has been the best of all. As with ANY company out there...past, present and future...they ALL have had, are having or going to have their good days and bad days, just like you guys have on the road...(please refer to some of the threads/posts).

First and maybe foremost for the Newbies....if you are coming on board with Millis......YES there are things you MUST be able to do in order to graduate from the schools.1)Backing and driving are a gimme but doing it safely is most important.2) Reading a map and understanding it, yep gotta do it. Students ask me all the time..well what about GPS...one of the greatest inventions since butt powder, however there are none of them 100% 3) Log books, that's pretty much a gimme as well. People talk about e-logs, ya' still have to know how to do a log book in case the e-log breaks...yes it happens and it's in the regs now!!! 4) A darn good attitude and a willingness to learn!!!
All the instructors at Millis, Myself(Greg) Bill and Ed will bend over backwards to get a person through the class as long as the attitude is good, but remember, it's really up to YOU.
This all goes back to the man that taught me. He told me that there are individuals that are naturals at this job, there are people that can be taught and there are some folks that it just won't work for no matter how hard they try. That ladies and gentlemen has held true for the entire time I have been doing this job.

About the people that say Millis is in trouble...let me just say this...HOG-FREAKIN-WASH!! There is ALWAYS going to be ups and downs in this biz and folks are going to always say such things. Don't let these few things deter any of you from what you can see/read from many happy employees. Drivers come and go at ANY trucking company...(go ahead check it out I dare you)...looking for a greener pasture with better this or that. Very few find it although some do, it's only a very few. Drivers who leave a company..any company..USUALLY/STATISTICALLY are having a bad week/month, are in a pi$$ing contest with their dispatcher or are just in general miserable people. IMHO and ya'll know how those are!! If you have a somewhat go with the flow attitude....truckin' may very well be for you!!

As far as new trucks.....yes there will be new ones at some point. Why don't we have them NOW???...dudes and dudettes...have you been keeping up with the economic times....they suck if you haven't noticed. We've had cut-backs (just like most other companies), heck, they even closed my school for almost a year!!! Hey but check this out....they did everything they could to let me keep my job!!!!! How's that for a kick ##### company? They could have said, Greg, we're closing the school and you are no longer needed. They could have given me the option to go back on the road, which would've sucked for me because It would take me a long time to get back into the swing of things so to speak. I had to do things that I really didn't like much but in this day and age (especially at my age) jobs are hard to come by...check out all the unemployed construction workers for goodness sake and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I've been rambling on so long I forgot what else I was going to answer so I will leave ya'll with this....Millis has been very good to me. I have seen good and bad, I have not always agreed with their business decisions, I don't always agree with some of the changes they make, but I have also seen them keep this business going full force even in times of struggle.
I'm a lifer unless other circumstances change that!!

Hope to hear from ya'll and if there are any questions that I may be able to help with or answer for you,PLEASE don't hesitate to ask!!!
See Ya'
G

 

gilleyaffliction21,Quit sweatin it!!! That's probably the worst thing you can do!!!

To answer your questions, most of the students that I train have absolutely no experience with trucking other than watching Smokey and the Bandit!! I am use to that and I will make this transition as painless and fun as possible.

Unfortunately I have in the past had to dismiss students from class (the part of my job that I really hate) mostly because they can't back at all and have no concept of backing principals. A student must be able to do the five maneuvers at least for the most part. If one has the concept and can half way do it, then chances are they will only get better with time. However if a student cant hit the big side of a barn point blank with a bb gun then they're probably not going to get it at all.

As far as backing/shifting after hrs...sorry but absolutely NOT!!! Things can go wrong before you know it and the truck will get tied up in a knot then everyone would be out of a job!!!

Quit stressing over it and plan on coming to class to learn something fun. Relaxing is very important while learning all of this.
I look forward to meeting you in April!!

rubberducky62...thanks for the flowers as they say!! If you are ever in c-ville, please drop by for a meet and greet.