Werner Orientation in Allentown PA 4/2011

August 24 2011





Hello RCA 2011 and the Group:


You wrote me this comment about my Postings so I am going to reply to It:

"I don't see how you can call driving while videotaping yourself not being distracted."

I think that doing Video is different than using pictures as an artistic medium because It does not require any particular attention to the focus of the camera. It would even be better I am sure if I had been using a Web camera for my Videos instead of a point and shoot Sony WSC W350 in the cup holder because they will record a "fish eye" perspective and they can clip onto things better.

The only actual time that You really need to touch a Video camera while You are on the roll is to switch it off and on. This may have looked to some people like a "fumble" but I had my camera mounted on a piece of velcro and if You try to switch on and off a camera mounted to a piece of velcro, those things occur. I'll try to change my POV over to a Web camera in the future.

I think that Videography while driving anything is not distracted driving if You are treating the camera and the internet that It is connected to like It's another person. I don't usually drive with a partner, so It's just my way of sharing my experiences.

People use cell phones with headsets attached to them regularly and I have had a trainer who used one frequently, and he had a lot of heated discussions with his wife on one. This is more of what I would consider to be distracted driving. I can't condone that kind of a thing but It happens quite a bit in the Transportation industry and It was legal at one time.

On the other hand, there are some Trucking companys that will install Amateur radio equipment in Commercial vehicles so I suppose that by doing this It would be an indication that they believe that communicating like this is quite acceptable. Ham radio is usually simplex or push to talk while waiting for the receive protocols on the net I agree and It's perfectly legal right now.

There is some Video ham activity going on as well, and then VOIP or voice over IP on the Inter'net. I am expecting to see more Ham radio Video sometime in the future. All I know is that right now we are seeing a lot of Youtube Hams.

C.B. radios are of course commonly accepted as part of the Trucking community and they are necessary for Truck paging and dispatching at some Distribution centers. C.B.'s have weather channels in them as well and You have to be ready to tune the stations in and to listen to them for meaning.

I personally think of my Video comm's as just a form of Ham radio over the Internet so to speak or 801.1 wireless Ham radio. Communicating with a camera for me is just like talking with a friend in the Truck.

You wrote me this comment as well and I am going to comment on It:

"Going from company to company will eventually catch up to you and then you'll have little if any choice on who you drive for."

Well, I have only worked for (2) company's so far for about half of this year so I do not feel that that is really anything like switching between many company's at all and like I say It really has not been any problem at all for me right now or "yet" so I am not going to worry about It at this point in time.

I am just going to give Truck driving my personal best effort and work with whatever the company people offer to give me and if they will treat me right then they can depend upon my services. I think that I have been fair with them up until now, and I think that the company's that I have worked for have treated me very well in most circumstances and situations.

I have had no problems so far with finding employment in the Transportation Industry except perhaps once, right after I left FFE and at that time everyone was asking me for 3 to 6 Months of experience before they would consider me for a career with them. I am not finding that I am having that problem right now. I think that the company's that I work for have probably hired a lot less conscientious people than me and what I would have to offer them.

I know that as I gain experience, and that is my number 1 goal right now, right next to Good reports, I will be able to find more Career opportunity's. I like what I am doing, so I will do my best to keep working for at least as much as I have been doing in this past Year.

You wrote me this comment on my Posts and now I am going to comment on It:

"It is my observation that you certainly own the lion's share of the blame for not being employed in the trucking industry for longer than you have".

Well, RCA1802, I can't get inside of Your head to figure out what You have decided to write here so I am not even going to bother to try to do It. I am feeling that the difference between Your viewpoint and my own are like the two people who agree on the content of a glass of water, where one person thinks that the glass is half empty and the other person feels that It is half full.

I don't think that It would be productive of me to blame myself for giving my personal best efforts and hard work to each of the (2) employers that I have worked for this Year so I am not going to start out each day to consider any faults of my own at my lack of employment status. It just is'nt good meditation for me.

Yes, my family situation is tenuous and they need to have me around the home more often than I probably can make it there so I probably should be there more often. Truck driving can be hard on the family, but I need to have some experience in this line of work, before I can be recognized as an experienced professional driver. Employment security is a rare thing to have in Today's world, so I am thrilled to have a chance at having some part of It.

I am aimed at being experienced enough to work in LTL or the local CDL labor bank I think, at this point in my life and my family's lives.

"Should be and Need to be, run on two seperate railroad tracks I have been told" and I believe in this too so I think that whoever said It was pretty Good.

 

August 30 2011





Hello byuadrk and the Group:


I am happy that You are not mad. I am not mad at Werner or FFE at all right now. I really Loved them all and I still do and I miss the people at the Terminal that I worked with in Allentown. I just thought that I would say that and I know that those particular company's were not particularly mad at me either. I did'nt even break any of their rules, so they never complained to me.

Beth Kerns, the Werner Student Driver Manager supervisor, my own SDM, always told me to write down my own reports about the Trainers that I have worked with to report any of them, accurately that "went off on me" and to wait for the next one because "they are not all like that" in her own words.

She also told me that the OTR drivers were more stressed out than the dedicated account drivers but she originally did not offer me a solution to dealing with this situation, like get out of the OTR divisions and into local
.
I think that Werner and FFE probably just wanted to have a lot more experience than I have had to give to them when I was with them, at the times I was there and they were my starting company's.

I am particularly glad that they have not given me any negative DAC ratings for my personal best efforts.

I know that I could have looked more alive and probably would have looked happier on my latest Youtube Videos if I had just done them over again a time or two so, Yes, I feel a little bit guilty for not doing a few of them more pleasantly better than I have in sending a few of them out a little bit roughly.

I wrote the Thread in this Werner Orientation column in order to help other people to get through the Orientation process with a positive attitude and to try to help them to not make some basic mistakes in first few days.

I have no complaints about the people doing the office work and Trainers in the Orientation and I have been treated well by all of the people in the administrative and Safety departments at Werner. They were friendly if they thought that You were giving them Your all. The Students were nice there and acted like Brothers to me. The women students treated me nice.

The Doctor Lady and her medical technician were nice to me as well, allowing me to do a regular diabetes screening test, rather than the finger stick method on the second time around. I tried to treat them well and also get them more data than they really needed to have.

My one regret is that I got injured on home time and did'nt report it early on, and so I let myself get dismissed for being out longer on the medical leave of absence.

I have had one of the best Student Driver Managers, the supervisor Beth Kerns, that anybody could have had there. Tim from Safety has treated me well and I have been retested by a friendly and professional Safety department administrator.

I don't know how Werner could have sent me the type of Trainers that they did within the (3) Months that I have worked for them. I kind of thought that they may have had a belligerent purpose for giving me some kind of harassment in order to get me to quit the company. They may be crazy that way I suppose.

Maybe they were just trying to get me to stay for a short while and then to collect their bonus!

There were Good sides to every Trainer that I had at Werner. I'll have to say that I drove more than half of all of the time that I was with every one of them so I got my hours in and I did some OTR. I have learned a little bit from every one of them so for me It was a kind of a refresher course. I was taught to have this attitude about any company Trainer from my Truck School Trainers.

I really liked It most of the time that I was there and I would consider going back after I can get a few more Months experience. I really Love the Werner Dedicated routes, particularly the Dollar General stores but I do wish that they could hook up their Trip pack system to Transflow instead and to update their Qualcom radios in the Trucks to the latest model and to activate their GPS.

I am not feeling worried about going on to the next company and trying my best to help them and to help myself get some experience in the process. I had one extra lesson on 45 deg parking from my Truck School and I wrote what I learned about it on Wiki answers and I also practice double clutching and shifting in my dining room chair everyday and I pray everyday for my own Skills, Safety and Security.

The next big company, Swift, that I am signed on for now has also treated me quite nicely and considerately. They were Very overcrowded with new Student applicants in my hiring area, around Philadelphia PA so I have had to wait in their Que for 2 weeks (first checking out my background), Secondly, the same thing for a few days longer while they reviewed me and then set up my confirmation phone call and (Third, set up an Orientation date). This they did for me and they did very well.

We had a major Hurricane in Pennsylvania a few days ago and all of the PA National Guard was called up to assist the Philadelphia area and so the Hotel for the Orientation was going to be crowded with refugees and State National Guardsmen from the nearby camp Indiantown gap, so I asked the Recruiter for a revised Orientation date. My recruiter called me back as she promised and she scheduled me for 2 weeks later once again in a friendly manner, but by that time I realized that my family was going to need me to drive for them around down at the shore for their vacation on the same dates as the Orientation, so I begged off once more and I got rescheduled one more time for the next available week. All together I have been waiting for Swift for one reason or another, Their popularity among the Students, The Hurricane and then my Family's vacation plans.



Swift was very friendly and Professional to me in this whole scheduling situation and they have also offered me my choice of dedicated accounts in the Philadelphia area.

 

September 1 2011





Hello Mr. V. and the Group:


I am supposed to be Scheduled for September 19th. I think that Anyone in this part of Pennsylvania would have to wait for at least two weeks in order to find a place in their Que up at the Jonestown PA Swift Terminal.

I was origionally Scheduled for Sept. 12th but I had to put them off for a Week because of my Family's vacation.

I will let You know how Swift expects for the new drivers to get started and all that Good stuff.

Thank You Mr. V. for asking about my employment situation once again.

 

September 13 2011





Hello Denali Dad:


I did not really expect to see anything happen negatively while I was driving with the camera on while I was doing my Video blogging. I was watching the road quite a bit before and after, and I know the roads well where I was blogging so nothing happened while I was driving and doing the blogging. I think that It was exactly like talking on a speakerphone. I guess that I am a Motorcyclist at heart to begin with and I know that I can't make any mistakes with my Goldwing, and that frame of reference helps me to focus on my driving.

I am Blessed in having attained a perfectly clean Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) for the past 19-20 Years and only 3 not at fault Motorcycle accidents in the recent 4 Years. I wish that I did'nt have to count the Motorcycle accidents while I am in the process of being hired but I can't begin to think of them as significant because (2) of them were rear end collisions at Stop signs and one of them was after someone cut me off in traffic, in front of an expert witness.

I do not usually Video Blog in a Tractor Trailer because I am usually too busy talking to the Trainer or watching a road that I am unfamiliar with driving on, until I can become more familiar with It's Landmarks and Waypoints. I have'nt had any accidents at all with Class A vehicles at any point, in Truck School or in my Internships at my last 2 jobs. I drove thousands and thousands of Miles in my 5 Months in driving commercial vehicles and It has all been smooth sailing. I do not expect to have any accidents anytime soon for any reasons.