Training Adventures with Sage in Cheyenne, WY

Well, I sat down with the Sanjel folks for an hour or so. My classmates didn't ask the right questions (think outside the box) and left without being interviewed . Not only are they hiring for Riverton (Mandatory relocation to Riverton, which I won't do), but they are also hiring for Williston (15 on, 6 off), which I was thinking of doing anyway for oilfield trucking. Plus the pay up there is much more then Riverton. Sure it might not be a lot of trucking, but you will get to drive and operate some interesting equipment, and learn some skills that will be valuable when they get the field rolling down here. They were some nice folks, who answered most of my questions.

There are also a few local companies looking for oilfield truckers, but they don't pay anywhere close to what they do up there. I'll try to get in touch with them anyway. Keeping all my avenues open

Oh and for class we started on driver hours and the "trip" from Cheyenne to Pocatello, Pocatello to Salt Lake, Salt Lake back to Cheyenne. It was "home-work"

Mine goes something like this:
Cheyenne to Evanston (5.5 hrs driving/not driving .5 hrs)
Evanston to Pocatello (3 hrs drive/3 hrs unload&load)
Pocatello to Ogden (2 hrs drive = 14 hours on duty/sleep 8hrs)
Ogden to Salt Lake (1 hr insp&fuel/45 min drive to drop/1 hour unload&load)
Salt Lake to Cheyenne (6.75 hrs driving/off-duty......)

LOL, it can be a little confusing, and I hope they go over it more...much more.

 

Have been watching a bunch of videos and taking tests. Tomorrow we get to practice chaining-up. Happy Joy Joy.

Also going to try to take a day trip this weekend out to Riverton to look over the different trucks Sanjel USA uses in the Oilfield to see if that is really what I want to do. It's not your typical trucking job, but I think that is kind of a good thing...it keeps you busy.

 

Did some more pre-trip inspections today in the morning. And watched more videos. The recruiter from Werner came in and gave his spiel.

Final written test is Wednesday, and my first drive is that night. Then I just have to come in when I'm scheduled to drive. Bad thing is that we have about 12 folks from prior classes that head to the port next week for their skills tests...again. I don't know how many of them are taking their 2nd/3rd/4th try at the port, but I hope they don't hold us up as far as drive time. We all have to do 11 four hour drives, they have three tractor/trailers, so you can do the math and try to figure out when they started...at about 4-6 folks per class.

 

More pre-trip stuff this morning, this time a full inspection inside and out with starting the truck and doing brake and tug tests. Then more videos and tests. I liked the securment video while nobody else did LOL. I guess having done that type of thing on flatbeds/lowboys, and on cargo aircraft made me look at it a different way then the others; the examples of right and wrong ways of securing stuff was interesting. People do some weird (crazy) stuff when securing items.

 

Oh, and during one of our breaks this morning we were standing out in the yard watching a student do some backing. Then I notice a tractor running down the road in front of the school...it had a huge branch sticking out of the front/top portion of his trailer. Looked like a huge Elk rack had been mounted up there LOL. I can't remember the name that was on the side of the rig, but somewhere is a tree missing a limb.

 

Yeah... they always come in and give their "spiel." Ya know how a Werner recruiter is lying? His lips are moving.

Be afraid. Run. You don't want to be anywhere near that bottom feeder outfit.