Newbie Diary

Sheesh, it's been a while.

Since my last update, I started with Roehl, Did Evolution I, II, and allegedly next week I'll do my Close-Quarters Training and exit Evolution III.

And, people... I have some notes I'd like to share.

Evolution I is 10-12 Days. I happened to get a trainer in the 7/7 program, So I only had him for 7 days, then his other half for 6. Then, I got to go home for a bit.

First Off, "Bruce" is... almost a stereotype. Gruff, Drill-Seargeant-esqe. and From Wisconsin. I'm bad at everything. But, Bruce points out, he's had trainees that sucked at everything more that ended up fine. There is no way, during that week, for me to understand how much I'd learned. We go from Gary, down to Atlanta for a few days, and do Shag work. Then back up to Minneapolis, then to Marshfield. Where he goes away, and I stay at a hotel for the night, For "John" and I to head out in the morning.

John and I head out to Pueblo, Colorado. I like John, We're about the same age, and whereas he's not really into computers, he at least knows what one is. Bruce thought they were the Antichrist, and downfall of civilization.

John and I, pick up an Oversized Load in Colorado, bound for Marshfield. four large, 12' diameter Fiberglass Tanks.

Roehl's Flatbedders aren't equipped properly to legally do O.D. loads at night-time. We're given flags, OD Banners, and some Beacon lights on the tractor. So, we're daylight-only from Colorado to mid-Wisconsin.

as you may remember, earlier in this thread, I have a small problem with staying in my lane. I'm not just "on" the white line, my outside tires are generally over it, unless there's something there, then, magically, they go where they're supposed too. You know what will fix that? 12' diameter tanks. and construction zones that say "You can't be here, if you're over 12' wide" Well, I'm not *over* 12' wide, I *am* 12' wide. and I have to follow my permits, or the DOT will find ways to handicap my children.

The only problem I encounter is, in Wisconsin, I'm pulled over by a state trooper who wants me to let the powers that be know that we have no business hauling anything that wide, if we don't have mirror extenders on the truck. She would have given me a ticket, but the Fax'd copy of our OD permit was so nasty she couldn't read it to prove that I needed Extenders on the Truck.

Road signs are funny things. they are used to impart information to the motoring public. But, if you don't tell the motoring public what the signs mean, they really aren't imparting any information, are they?

"Blasting Area" Shouldn't that read: "Road Closed?" Are they telling me not to jump out of my skin, when there happens to be an explosion next to me? I think I will, signs or not, thank you very much.
Nope, "Blasting Area" means "Turn off everything that broadcasts RF frequencies" Cell phones, the CB, Don't know what I'm supposed to do about the qualcomm... I learned that from the book that came with my cell phone.

Road Signs are meant to impart information, there should be some consideration into imparting information in a timely manner, don't you think?

I'm driving through a town called "Crystal Falls" in NE Wisconsin, into the U.P. It's a town, so I'm not suprised by the Call for "SPEED LIMIT 45 MPH"
No sweat, that's 9th Gear. Then I get the sign with the truck going down a 45 degree slope. OK.. I like 6th gear for this, I'm awfully heavy at this point. as I'm going down the hill, at 40-45 mph, they give me a new sign. "SPEED LIMIT 25 MPH" Oh... are you kidding me? You couldn't have done that earlier?
I'm on the brakes, I've got the jake's goin' I can get it to 25-30 mph. cause I really don't wanna try to downshift But I'm doin' it! I'm getting it done! then I get "BTW, there's a 90 degree right turn coming up, you should really be doing 15 mph when you get there." Well, poop. thankfully, it leveled out a bit before that, so I could get slow enough.

I went though Crystal falls 3 times, before I noticed on my atlas, that it's not a truck route. I'm an idiot.

W-I-S-C-O-N-S-I-N = 9 Letters.
D-E-E-R-X-I-N-G = 8 Letters.

Seriously, the State would save a ton of money in Signage just by changing it's name to "DeerXing" make the highway signs do double-duty, "You're on DeerXing 13" Why not just change the Big Welcome sign into the state to say "Welcome to Wisconsin, Deer Xing Next: Statewide" They're freaking EVERYWHERE. All roads in Wisconsin lead to two things, Deer, and Casinos. and, singularly, a casino run by Deer. and let me tell you, those suckers cheat. beyond that, I don't wanna talk about it.

Attention Minnesota:
Interstates are Marked with a Big Blue Shield lookin' thing with the number in it. Got it? You didn't have to copy that for your state, and county roads as well. I don't want to have to get close enough to read the freakin' SHAPE of the Blue Background. Interstate= Shield, State= Square/Rectangle, County= Pentagon. PENTAGON?!?!? I'm pretty sure I was at the intersection of 10, and 10 at one point, I almost had to pull over to let my brain explode.

Kansas, and Nebraska:
I never would have thought that Indiana was crowded. Hit one of these states, and if you turn off of the interstate, you are immediately placed in the middle-of-freaking-nowhere.

during Evo II, we parked for the night at.. I think it was something along the lines of "Salina" but, they were under what Hoosiers would call a "Tornado Warning- HIDE YOUR FAMILY, DON'T MAKE EYE-CONTACT WITH IT, AND IT SHOULD LEAVE YOU ALONE, LET US ALL PRAY!" People in Kansas, call it "Tuesday" I'm a Thunderstorm-kinda guy. So, I was looking forward to seeing the storm, I figure, hang out on the flatbed till I feel threatened, then into the truck, and watch the show. There's a lot of wind with Tornadoes. and truck stops are pretty much make of Dirt, and gravel. So... when the wind starts throwing stuff around it mainly grabs the Dirt, and the gravel. So, I went blind. Well, storms aren't any fun to watch if you can't see. So I went inside. the following morning, at the-crack-of-the-middle-of-the-night, my trainer gets us going through well, we're just at "Thunderstorm" level now.

as I sit in the jumpseat, I get to see a bolt of lightning strike a tree in the distance, and the tree flare up on fire for a few moments, before being doused by the rain. I didn't hear any thunder with it, I thought that odd. But it was a really neat thing to see. then my mind changes gears, and I start thinking about the truck getting struck by lightning. carrying a load of steel pipe... pretty much fiberglass tractor... steel stack, though.. but lots of insulating rubber... hmmm.. I think I'm gonna go with "Gee, I hope we don't get struck by lightning."

My trainer then begins following a Gas Tanker.

Blink... blink...

Well, There's something I'd never thought I'd have to worry about.

Well, more later.. tired of typing for a while...

 

Well, Evo III is over with, after a mere 4 calendar weeks, which really isn't that long, when you're a 7/4 7/3 driver.

My evoIII dispatcher was... well, I really didn't get to know him that well. He pretty much ignored me after my first week. I don't call dispatch on my cell phone, I'm not interested in wasting minutes on hold waiting for him to think about talking to me.

But, he was running my butt off. and not in a good way, either. I accused him of having a lumber-tarp fetish in week two.

Week one was pretty much "Lumber tarp this, take it over there, and drop it tomorrow morning, then mosey over here, lumber tarp that, and take it over there, drop it the morning of the day after, Lumber tarp This, take it over there, un-tarp it, let them play with it, and have them put it back on the truck, and re-tarp it, to take it 30 minutes away, to untarp it."

I also get to have this conversation with my Evo III dispatcher:
"Yeah, it's 1 o'clock now.. I'm two hours away from the receiver, so I'm gonna need the time moved back from 2pm to 3pm."

"I can only push it back to 2:30, they leave then, you're just gonna have to make it."

"Unless you've got some "Roehl-Only" road that will bypass Chicago that you haven't told me about, what we're going to do is find out what happens when I show up at 3. I'm not just makin' up numbers over here, you know."

I show up at 3:05, they wave me in, and unload me. They don't leave till 4.

He pretty much stopped talking to me after that. (We're supposed to check in daily, call him whenever our duty status changes, things like that...) Not me.. I just get assignments and go. But, before that...

"Ok, we need to cover load securement on this load... have you secured the load?"
"Yeah.. I've got 4 Eye-up coils, and I've got 16 straps on them."
"Sixteen?! that may be a bit excessive."
"It's "Excessive" when I get to where I'm going with no problems, It's "Redundancy" if I have problems, and don't dump the coils, and it's still "Inadequate" if they fall off the truck."

Near the end of Evo III, I happen across a Roehl Driver-Trainer, that is Trainee-less. Now, I'm not sure how much credibility his account should be given, but I'll share it, nonetheless.

I mention that I'm in Evo III, and gettin' run like a dog, and he tells me that's what they do in Evo III. It's... Worse Case Scenario-type loads. They'll give you loads that can't be done in the time alotted, legally. and they're watching to see if you're going to be late, or run illegal. If you go illegal, they call you on it, smack your knuckles and say "BAD DRIVER! That's not how we do things here, you should have been late!"

I get to do Roehl's famed "Close-Quarters Training" Head to Marshfield.

I find the guy who I'm supposed to do CQT with, and I ask, as we head out, if I'm allowed to do this with a split-tandem flatbed, or if I'm going to need another trailer. He has no idea, and has to ask someone, turns out, I can. so off we go...

The CQT lot is a small field, maybe 70' by 140'. surrounded by large concrete blocks, and van trailers.
"Ok, this is what you're going to do, you're going to pull in here, and back it up over here between these 8.5' paint marks, then you're gonna go over there, and back it between those 8.5' paint marks, then you're gonna turn your whole rig around, and back it up between those two trailers, then you're gonne pull out of the lot, turn around as you like outside the lot, come back in, and do a pull-through between the two trailers, like it was a truck-stop. If you come within 6 inches of a wall or trailer, I'm going to stop you, and that gets marks as a "Hit." Any questions?"

"Ugh... OK.. how many pull-ups do I get?"

"As many as you want"

/pause

"problem?"

"huh? Oh.. no.. I was just wondering if I'm going to finish this thing with the same number of tires I started with."

I don't want to say it's "Easy" This thing is designed to make you think about what you're doing, and doing it slow, and correcting, and re-correcting. But if you go into it with any anxiety, it could eat you in there. But if you go in with "I got nothin' but time" it's fine. I have to get out a lot, on the first two, mainly to walk around the front of the truck, and eyeball my blind side.

I get through it, he gets back in the truck to tell me how I did, I lost points for my Get Out and Look, on the first two, because I didn't look behind the trailer, because a person, or a car could have gotten back there when I wasn't able to see.

"So... I was supposed to go and look behind the trailer to make sure an imaginary car or person didn't run over here, crossing 50 yards of dirt, like a supersonic ninja, and decide that, behind my trailer, was the ideal place for a picnic?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"We're just gonna sit here untill you admit that that is silly."

"Consider it done"

and I also lost 4 points, because I never honk when backing.

So, I passed my Close-Quarters Test,

and my Close-Quarters Training was : "Look out for invisible, picnicing Ninjas, and honk when you're going to back up."