Hello everyone. I am currently set to start training with Stevens at a local community college in my area on October 3rd. In the meantime, I'm in the process of attaining my permit and haz-mat endorsement. While I'm impressed with what I've been reading up and seeing from Stevens, I know that no company comes without it's flaws. I'm concerned with the amount of home time I may/may not receive while at Stevens. I live in the Houston area and have seen maybe a hand full of Stevens trucks on the road, aside from the student drivers at the school. What kid of home time do many of you see on average? I now that this is the world of trucking, and I'm aware that lack of home time is a part of the business, but my fiance, while supportive, is definitely taking it a bit hard. I plan on staying with Stevens for at least a year in order to fulfill my contract obligation, and may stay longer pending perception of the company. Also, what are the qualifications for dedicated/local fleets with Stevens? I apologize for the rant, but any answers would be greatly appreciated.
Stevens Transport aviary
Discussion in 'Stevens' started by Smokr, Dec 13, 2009.
- Thread Status:
- Not open for further replies.
Page 270 of 961
-
-
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
-
Finally got all my permit tests done today. Glad to finally get them out of the way. Gawd, waiting in line at DPS is a serious test of patience.
To get a Texas CDL permit, you only need to pass a test on Chapter 14. The other chapters required for Class A CDL license are: Combination, Pre-Trip, Air Brakes, and General Knowledge.
Your first trip to DMP will be on Wednesday around 2-3pm and you will go the same time every week day until you pass all 5 tests. You're given 8 days to complete the 5 tests. If you do not complete the tests in 8 days, you will get held back an additional week. The DMP closes at 5pm except Thursday where they are open to 7pm. Depending the size of your class, they could offer a "night class" that runs from 2pm-11pm. Night students go to DPS from 9am?-12pm?. Im not sure on the exact times but I know that the night class students are having an easier time completing multiple tests on a single visit
I struggled on Wednesday and Thursday getting a multiple test done due to DPS having computer issues but here is a tip if you're interested in completing more than one test in a single visit: Be the first one on the shuttle and the first one into DPS. Once you get your ticket, walk to the back of line and get another ticket. The other Steven's students in line behind you will give you plenty of time between tests but you will not have to wait for any others that come into DPS after the students. Hope that I've explained this well enough to understand but the time waiting can leave you not being able to take two tests in one day.
It is very beneficial to any student who already have their tests done or already have their CDL. While students are waiting in line at DPS for 2-3 hrs, you could be up on the hill in the trucks.
Nothing personal, but I'll be out with a trainer buy the time you get here...
Shiftylots Thanks this. -
When I was on OTR, I got home for four or five days every five or six weeks, except for the time I wanted to stay out longer and that was three months out, then five days home.
You have to remind your DM that you are two weeks from hometime on Mon, Wed and Fri, then everyday when you are one week from hometime. Do it nicely, make a game of it, be cool and polite. These guys have anything up to a hundred trucks/drivers to deal with, how can you expect them to remember who goes home when? Don't expect them to. It's up to you to let them know ahead of time so they can keep an eye out for loads going your way home. Every other day for a week, then everyday for a week. You might still not get home. But then remind them twice a day until they get you home.
The only real requirement for dedicated/local is a record that the dedicated/local DM will like when he looks at it. When one of them needs someone, they put out the word and the guys with someone on their OTR fleet from the area will put your name in. Or the dedicated/local DM will look through the list of drivers who's home is in the region and then look at your record.
Other than that, there isn't any requirements. I was less than a year with Stevens when my current DM hit me up to join his fleet while I was on the yard trading trucks. He asked me to stop by the dispatch office and talk to him in person, we got along, I was interested, asked for a day to consider it, accepted next day. When I asked why he picked me, he said I was from the middle of his region, I had a good record so far, and good comments from trainers and teachers. He liked how I looked when we talked, liked the questions I asked, and we got along, so he made the offer official.
Hope that answers it for ya.
Today I'm stuck doing a reset in a rest area on the interstate. Ran out of hours thanks to Compliance. I asked if the EOBR was right, she said it wasn't, that I had a full day. So I rolled. Mom calls five hours later asking me what the BLANK I'm doing. I explained what one of her ladies told me that morning, she talked to her, came back to me and told me to park it.
Long story short, I'm stuck here until I get hours back after midnight.
UGH
As for the guy asking what my opinion is about these Elogs, THEY STINK!
It's programmed to say you have full 11hours and 14hours when you have ZERO hours on your seventy. You heard me right. You can run out your 70 hour week, but after a ten hour break it will say you have a full 11 and 14. Stupid. I didn't think it was right, but the guy filling in for my DM this morning said it was right, so I called Compliance and she agreed with the dispatcher, so I believed them and the EOBR instead of believing in myself.
If you do a 8/2 split, it will have you in violation until after you do a full 10 hour break.
Your daily totals are always midnight to midnight, not actually your working day. So your graph will say you have eleven hours to drive at 12:01am even if you've been driving for ten hours already. Dumb. Though you shouldn't be looking at your recap for that info anyway, it's still dumb that it can't tell the difference after midnight.
Unless you shut off your engine, it will count all the time at a drop/pick or even a live load as driving. Insane. When you pull in, you have to go to "On Duty" from "Driving" manually on it, then shut off your engine before you leave. If you don't shut down, it turns that time from going "On Duty" from "Driving" as "Driving" anyway. Insanely stupid. I'm told it should update and stop doing that. It still does it as of Friday night. I did a drop/pick in 31 minutes, didn't shut off on purpose to see if it updated or whatever. It didn't. It showed me as "On Duty" for four minutes, the rest as driving.
It is touch-screen, which works okay. The problem is the long delay between touching the screen or pushing a button. Sometimes you can count up to twenty-something before it reacts, and sometimes it never reacts even though it made the 'click' noise when you touched the screen or pushed a button.
Sometimes it remembers that you pushed that button, and when you push it again, it does it twice. I mean, WTF?
Then it will shut down and reboot even when you're putting in something. It just goes blank and you have to wait several minutes before it's ready. And I mean, several minutes. Not two or three. It boots slower than Windows95 on a Pentium/90. If that doesn't mean anything to you, how about . . . you can smoke a cigarette before it's ready.
Oh, and you can't read anything on it if you're moving, which isn't a big deal, but the voice system blows chunks. If your DM uses contractions and short-hand, you're going to have fun listening to it choke it's way through a message.
And the voice system cuts your speakers off, so if you are listening to your radio, every time there is any message received you'll know it, even if your turn the voice off it still turns off your radio speakers to make no noise instead.
It's smooth and slick, so it won't stay anywhere you put it. It slides around like an ice cube on a hot skillet. You have to keep it in a basket, box or strapped down like a mad monster.
You have to enter your usual service calls, PLUS one called "Load" and each PTI on your truck and another for your trailer. Daily. UGH
So since it runs so slow, when you push a button you have to wait. And changing forms takes SO LONG you get impatient even if you're a patient person like I am.
Basically it takes two or three times longer to do what you need to do on it at each stop if you are on paper logs. And at the end of your day you get to do your daily messages, all four of them, taking more time, about ten to fifteen minutes, if it doesn't reboot on you.
Then you get to "Approve" all your log entries. Yup, putting them in and having to take so long to do so isn't enough. Now you get to go through them and make sure they're right before you hit approve button.
Oh, and if you want or need to change an entry, you can't just change an "On Duty" section from nothing to "FUELING", you have to change it to some other line, like OFF or SLEEPER BERTH first, then change it to "On Duty" and "FUELING". Or the same if you want to show when you did a PTI.
IN SHORT
Insanely badly programmed
Incredibly slow
Takes far more time than filling out paper logs
Adds more things to do every day with every load
Random reboots even if you're using it
Crappy voice system
Terrible response time to buttons and touch screen
Slippery and moves around unless you drive a couple of six inch drywall screws through it into the dashboard
THUMBS DOWNcdot04 Thanks this. -
-
-
-
-
-
-
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
Page 270 of 961
- Thread Status:
- Not open for further replies.