IITR Or Elite Truck School Oregon

Y2K, wife and I moved over here in 2007. Looked at sunriver etc, prices were way to high then, love all the sunny days here, dry days as well.

PS that is the cleanest Walsch rig I've ever seen! What did ya do before your new profession? How did you end up with Walsch, you home daily with them?

 

I worked in Sunriver for a while back in about 1976,that's when I lived down in Wickiup Jct.being as Sunriver was too expensive for me as well heh.
I do miss the amount of sun there but not the long cold Winters.
I have family and friends in Redmond,Bend and Silverlake so I still get over there a lot.
Yeah that's a clean Walsh truck 'eh,not mine I pulled the pic off the web.
Yes I am home daily driving for Walsh,currently a night driver working on average about 10 hrs 5 nights a week,so far (I've been there 2 months) I'm very happy with this job.
Before becoming a driver I was a custom cabinet designer/sales person for 10 years doing both residential and commercial work,mostly upper end residential though.
I was a hands on cabinetmaker as well with 35 years experience,that all ended in 2009 with a job loss after 24 years with the same small company ,I became a victim of the recession.

 

Y2K, does Walsch take on Rookies? After you graduated, who did you go to work with? Is Yacolt out by Battle Ground? Wife and I lived in Vancouver wa mid 70's till 92, when we moved to Tualatin. Oh Its sunny here, 27 deg. Its goin to be another beautiful day over here.

 

You need one year of experience to get on with Walsh,I know we haul from a mill in LaPine but not sure if any drivers are based there or not.
I first drove for May Trucking and then Schneider.
Yes Yacolt is near Battle Ground,the cabinet shop I worked for all those years is in BG.
Yacolt is about 15 miles NE of BG up in the sticks,it's an old logging town.
I have 5 1/2 acres up here 2 1/2 miles from town with this view of Mt.St.Helens.

 

Y2K, that's a beautiful shot of St Helens. Did you live there whe she blew in 1980? My wife and I were in Vancouver then sat on our deck and watched that day. Both of those companies are on my radar, seems as though folks at Schnieder are pretty happy with the company. I'd be interested in what you did at Schnieder and how you liked it. By the way, were about 5 miles west of Wickie up. Does Walsch have a terminal out by you, or do you have to go to the main terminal to dispatch? Hope you had a Merry Christmas and enjoyed your time off.

 

Thanks,it was taken from my house.
I was living in Bend when it blew,I moved to Vancouver in 1981 and up here to Yacolt in the Winter of 1984/85.
Bought this piece of land in 1987 and have been here ever since.
I'd probably go with Schneider if I had a choice again,I have nothing against May and they started me out 2cts a mile more than Schneider was going to but in hind site I think Schneider would have been a better choice.
I would have been making the same money after 6 months and Schneider has a lot nicer facilities for the drivers at their terminals and more different options for drivers to chose from such as tanker and inter-modal for instance and they have different home-time plans as well.
Not to mention a a much better medical program,they're just a much bigger outfit with more options.
You don't want to do what I was though,I delivered Dollar Tree stores for 8 months and it was back breaking work,all hand unloading boxes on freight rollers doing from 3 to 5 53' trailers a week.
The only reason I stuck with it as long as I did is was getting home most Friday afternoons and being off till Sunday late morning,then sometimes during the week getting a 10 hr break at home.
I worked from the DT Dist. center in Ridgefield,WA just 27 minutes from home.
I'd really had enough when I left,I had applied to SNI's inter-modal division in Portland and been accepted but the powers that be wouldn't let me transfer at the time because DT was short handed (understandably).
I found the Walsh gig on Craigslist and was just at my 1 year level so they hired me,I have a perfect safety record and a good driving record so that certainly helped.
I gave SNI my 2 weeks notice and then moved on,I was pleased when Walsh said they had an opening for me to drive out of Kalama,WA. if I was willing to work nights Sun.-Thur.
It takes me about 35-45 minutes to get there so a little less than going to Troutdale and I don't have to deal with driving the 205/84 mess,in fact I hit the freeway I-5 at Woodland and only have 9 miles of it up to Kalama.

The mountain looks different every day.
Here's a couple more lol.

 

As soon as I get home again I am setting up a meeting with Joe at the Troutdale yard for Walsh. I have friends that live in Yacolt. I'm in the Orchards area in Vancouver.

 

Y2K, those are some awesome photo's of St.Helens. Are you the photographer, or is that the work of the better half. Go Ducks

 

I took them all myself.

 

That's the way to do it,go in person and get a hard copy of the application rather than doing it online.