EPES TRANSPORT-Greensboro, NC

Thanks. I will keep in touch

 

Day 1: Orientation is going smooth, but on med hold because of sugar. That will work out, but have to wait until after to take road test. Allot of information to thrown at people at one time. The newbies haven't a clue on what health insurance mean to them. For the most part we have experienced driver and switchers. Lost one guy for medical and nobody hit the trailer....lol, knock on wood i'm the last to take road test......lol. Hotel is great, Carolinas diner is Less that ten bucks a day, and lunch is awesome. Plenty of Cascadias available. Well I will post tomorrow. All and all EPES, seem to be a good fit.

 

yeah they're a class outfit.....at least so far lol......but i've made it almost to the year mark so i think i'm not going anywhere......

sitting in ohio tonight waiting for the snow to start.......not seeing any snow removal equipment anywhere in sight so i sure hope i don't wake up to a hardcore winter wonderland in the morning.....80% chance of snow after midnight but not once yet heard anyone say how much......at least i've got 16 channels on tv here so maybe get some good local news on a little later tonight

got my load delivered in high point this morning and that was no fun going to thomas built busses and having the load assignament and directions say plant 7 and the BOL say plant 1 lol......trying to negotiate around that place was an exercise in close quarters combat lol......once i'd been around to everyone who was anyone and they finally figured out where it was supposed to be and which dock they got right on it and i didn't even have time to get all the salt and #### cleaned off my windows from last week before they had me unloaded......after a blindside into an ecnlosed dock with brand new busses on all corners to have to try not to hit

got the next load off the yard and of course i roll around the corner on the yard and see the #### red tag from 100 yards away.....gotta love it when that happens......fed pm due......and they only had 2 guys working in the trailer shop today and the elog is tick tick ticking already......but again, they got right on it and when i rolled off the yard i had 7:30 to get there and 8:30 on the babysitter......

got to the fuel stop and the hub reading was out of sync with the fuel card.....don't know why that happens sometimes but wish it wouldn't do it when i'm so pressed for time......didn't take as long as last time to get things back in sync and i was rolling again......at least it was a light load and had no problems pulling the hills on the turnpike.....blew by everyone coming up flat top at about 60......never even downshifted.....

pulled the brakes at the consignee with 18 minutes left

as long as i can get this one scanned by cutoff tomorrow i will have salvaged a good week out of what didn't look so good around wednesday last week......will have 2860 if i make the cutoff tomorrow.....those little ones add up if you get enough of them and can keep rolling.....

 

Orientation day 2: After jumping through hoops to get my sugar test done,I passed it with no problem. Im glad the clinic was wiling to work with me. Now just waiting for fax from doctor to approve that i'm worthy to drive. I had my old med card and used it to take road test. First time in Cascadia, pretty nice. Never imagine how visibility you have verses T660. Felt like driving a fish bowl.....lol. As usual alot of information thrown at you, and the insurance is awesome,I already have BCBS, but I will save money if I got my own plan and get off her BCBS. Dinner at the diner again was awesome (i'm not hard to please). So we look forward to another day of jammed pack information session, but its so worth. I'm amazed how everyone will kinda stop what they're doing to give you assistance.

 

Once in, your almost family! The one you help today
May be the one you need help from one day.

 

I hate snow........that about sums up my last two days......

took the load off the yard monday to ohio......was able to park at destination and woke up with it snowing.....rolled down to a little town called peebles and picked up a load in the snow.....heavy by now.......and another mud pit.......real pain for a neat freak like me who likes to keep at least the inside of the truck clean to load/unload in these mud pits seems like all i do is clean the inside of the truck lol......

back out of ohio to pa snowed all the way........leaving ohio on 80 on the west side someone went out through the woods......he must have never even lifted when he went off the road because he was waaaayyyyyy out in the woods.....all you could see was the trailer doors and about a foot of the trailer......the rest of the truck was buried deep in the trees......ended up with a snow/rain mix into pa and once the temp got down to 29 figured it was time to get off the roadeven though it was a little short of where i wanted to stop for the night.....got up the next morning and the parking lot at the J was like an ice rink......slip and slide all the way in to get some smokes and then slip and slide all the way back to the truck but roads were fine just wet but still snowing just down to flurries now....

drop that one and then get one out of pa to chesapeake.....pull up to the shipper and the gaurd is just a ray of sunshine lol NOT.......really must suck to hate your job that much lol.....glad to see d/h and ready early so got it and got out of there......easier said than done lol.....that tiny town getting over to the petro to weigh was a real pain......turn in town was so tight i almost didn't make it......had to back off of it in traffic and try again lol.....that's always fun.....and oncoming line of traffic had to back up so i could get around the corner without taking down the light pole......what idiot puts light poles right out on the corner of the sidewalk on the road anyway? obvious these towns were settles and built before there was anything that resembled a 53 coming trhough town......gotta love that route sugesstion lol...another one to cross off the list and do my own routing on if i come back through there......

got into dc right at 1630.....wonderful.....at least the weigh station was closed this time.....but still took 2 hours getting through so that makes me late for my appointment in the morning.....and preplanned on a wal mart going up to marcy new york tomorrow that delivers by midnight......may or may not make that it will be close.....at least i'll get 7-8 hours that way before i have to take 10 so parking shouldn't be an issue....but dropping that late will be.....i've been here before and there's no parking for miles in any direction and my gut tells me once i drop up there that late i'll get the "no preplan in your area take break and contact dispatch in the morning" message that usually comes when i drop that late at night. so....break where? will really have to do some preplanning on my 10 tomorrow before i get there to figure out where in the world i'm going to park in marcy, ny tomorrow night lol.....

at least it's not snowing down here lol....but calling for more up toward pa and ny by friday.......

did i mention i hate snow? lol

 

Orientation day 3. Well another great day of waiting,wow medical paperwork would be so much easier, if they discovered email.....lol. On a good note, I met SDaniel today. Great to have meet you. Well back to the hotel again. Just saw 200 miles fall out of my wallet. Anymore time here,there wont be a ckeck. Other that, met some very nice people at driver appreciation today.

 

What is it about the medical paperwork? Does every driver have to forward his medical records or something from their doctors??

 

Sounds like a great company. Must look into them once I complete Truck driving school at OC Tech in Orangeberg. Good luck to everyone one the road. And be safe.

 

remember what i said about patience grasshopper lol.....there was alot of sitting around and waiting during my orientation as well......i think it's by design just to see how you react to having to wait around......such as waiting for hours sometimes at the shipper or receiver lol......just to see what your tolerance for bs is and whether or not you get testy about having to wait around........might show what kind of face of epes you show our customers during those trying and irritating delays sometimes waiting for people who get paid by the hour to load us when they don't care that we get paid by the mile......or might be on an elog that's already running the 14 down lol........

ugh......more snow.....and i got the added bonus of fog this time lol.....climbing the hills on 81 after the split above harrisburg, vis went down real quick to about 1/10th mile and snow......was like the all the way up to wilkes-barre when i came down off the hill.........####### idiots flying in that fog knowing they couldn't see past their hood.......not me......right lane and running about 50 and that still was maybe a little fast.......sitting at the petro in scranton on the way up to ny.....conditions really go downhill once i make the turn north on 81 out of here in the morning but i didn't have enough time left to get up to the pilot and hour up the road so here is where i stopped for the day......news is showing pretty good accumulations of snow north of here into new york and still snowing up there now......may end up waiting till daylight to roll depending on what it looks like in the morning....will be 33 here overnight but well below freezing to the north.....not sure if i want to roll into that at 4am or not....we'll see.....

got a new appointment time on this load so not nearly as stressful a run and i can deliver in the morning as opposed to midnight like i had thought i was going to have to......after i sat in traffic on 64 going down to chesapeake this morning, kinda blew any chance of making the run even close to the drop window so let my dm and know and magically about 30 minutes later got a new appointment time.....one thing i've found for sure is communication is key.....if something like that happens, i don't show up late and say i WAS stuck in traffic, as soon as traffic stops i shoot him a message right then and say i AM stuck in traffic now and for how long......goes a long way towards making the day alot smoother and keeping him happy and if he's happy, he's running me hard....and we're both happy lol......works really well with safety too since i've got the babysitter in the truck......communication......if i know things are happening and i'm going to run over my hours....unforseen traffic or weather......one time a ridculous company routing.......even though it's only happened a couple times.....it goes over faaaarrrrr better if you call them and give them the heads up before you go over as opposed to going over and then having the phone ring and it's them wanting to know why lol......anyway....let him know as soon as traffic had been stopped for more than 5 minutes this morning and got things worked out so the run is alot more manageable......

but still a long ways out to be on friday morning......definately only getting home for a 34 this weekend before i roll again......