Start school in the morning - Ridge Career Center

You wil do well Katey. No doubt about it!

 

Day 4 started out with the night drive. The instructor brought the rig by the hotel so we headed straight out from there at 4am. The "captain" took the first leg. The "old dog" went second and "Wulfman75" drove third. We all drove the same route which was a tight one. We went thru downtown Noesho and had several tight left-hand and right-hand turns. Everyone did pretty well. Wulfman75 brought it back to the school where we had breakfast. Then we took the rig over to the obstacle course and we all got a dry run. Then the "captain" and I made our tested runs thru the course and we both did ok. Wulfman didn't get to make his run yet. We had a meeting scheduled with a Con-way fleet manager so he'll do his run on the obstacle course Friday. The meeting with the fleet manager went well. She gave us a pretty good idea of how alot of things are gonna work if we get hired. Then we had lunch and that was it for today. Rain set in about mid-morning.

 

Day 5 was a bittersweet day. Our friend and fellow TTR member Katey earned her CDL today at Crowder College. Well done Katey! And unfortunately our friend and fellow TTR member Wulfman75, didn't advance out of "boot camp". He's a terrific guy and with a little refinement will make some company a good driver. I have no doubt he'll make it work. The "captain" and I did survive boot camp and are set to attend the final day of orientation on Monday.
This morning started out with the final road drive/test. It was a drizzly morning. I drove first and I had a pretty solid run. The familiarity I had with 9-speeds and 13-speeds from my training at RCC paid dividends this week as I felt real comfortable driving the 13-speed T2000 all week. The "captain" ran second and he had a pretty good run. No major gigs. Wulfman75 went last and continued to have some struggles with this truck. I wish they would have had a 10-speed he could've tested on which is what he trained on back in Georgia. His unfamiliarity with the H-pattern really kept him off-balance this week. When we got back to the school we did the pre-trip inspection and we all did well on that. Wulfman75 had to do the obstacle course on a wet track from the rain we had which made it tough. He also did his 45* back and dropped it right in there. After lunch Wulfman75 took another road test with a second instructor and apparantly it was determined that he wasn't gonna advance. The "captain" and I were then the only two that got to experience the Famous Skid Pad. We each made several runs on varying different exercises and we did quite well. The only time we'll probably ever enjoy seeing our trailer swinging out to the right in our mirror. Wulfman75 will climb aboard the Grey Dog and head for home in the morning and the "captain" and I will be doing a 48-hour Reset at the Booneslick Lodge.

 

Day 8. The day started out with the "captain" and I meeting with a new instructor that we were with all day. We spent a couple hours in class being taught the Smith System of Defensive Driving. Then we were issued some items that you only recieve as an employee so I reckon we're officially Hired! After lunch we went out with the instructor in a van and got a couple drives each employing the Smith System on the streets of Joplin. The instructor critiqued our first drive and graded our second drive. All went well. That was it for today. Tuesday we've got a morning class on qualcom and after that who knows.

 

Day 9. The "captain" and I sat thru an E-Log class this morning with several veteran drivers that were being switched to E-Log. Took about 3.5 hours. Then we ate lunch and waited for a Safety officer to go over the final details before being assigned a Finisher (Con-way's name for trainer/mentor).
The "captain" got lucky and drew a Finisher that was without a student and on home time. So they're hooking up # 7am tomorrow and heading on out. I wasn't so fortunate. I drew a Finisher that has a trainee on his truck that has already completed his required 7500 miles BUT they were in OKC and picking up a load going to HOUSTON! I'm sure the trainee on the truck wants to get back to Joplin and I wanna get the heck out of Dodge! Looks like I won't be heading out until Thursday or Friday. That's it for now.

 

I pm'd him a little while ago. I'll let ya'll know what's going on with him when I know, if he doesn't beat me to it.