Orientation 02/29/12

With you being that close to the yard, you "shouldn't" have a problem with getting/moving your stuff. But if you were like me and broke down in the middle of upstate new york... (transmission went right after i took off in the morning) then its wise to empty everything out especially when they told me "we are not going to fix it". I spent two days in a hotel and had family travel to come and get me (530 miles one way). I almost quit then but stuck it out another couple months to finish my year .

 

They will route you to your truck. It just may not be immediately. More likely than not, if they can't get your truck fixed in a reasonable amount of time, they will put you on the Greyhound back to W. Memphis. When my Prostar fell apart last July it was in the shop in Baton Rouge for a week before they reassigned me. I was routed back to it but it took about 1-2 weeks for it to happen.

One thing I want to caution you on Sarge, don't listen to some of the advice you are getting sometimes. I'm not saying its all bad but you need to WORK with your FM and not against him/her. I understand Tracy was a douche but thats not all FMs. Give this one a chance. Ask him if you can go back by your truck or ask him if he can route you past it. Try to work within the parameters of company operations. I don't care what anybody else says on here, that FM is YOUR boss, not the other way around. They are expected to treat you with dignity but when you start dictating things and making demands you will find that you are headed down a bad path. I'm the only one left from my C1 group and I'm down to being 1 of 5-10 left from my overall hire date. From my observations its been about 50/50 on whose been fired and who quit. You will find out the first time you spend some time in a terminal other than Van Buren, tractors are not just empty because people quit, USA has been firing a fair amount of drivers lately.

The reason I tell you to exercise caution is that sometimes some of the drivers you meet will tell you to put your foot down anytime you don't like something, well that doesn't always work. Keep in mind that you are one of 2500 other drivers in this company. New ones come in every week. They want to retain those that perform well and don't have accidents but at this point in the game you are easily replaceable and it won't hurt USA Truck a bit to do so. Eat some crow for awhile and build a good relationship with your FM. I promise you it will take you further than having to make phone calls up the chain all the time. I'm almost done with my 11th month and I still am averaging 3000 miles/week, I make my home time, and my FM and I even talk over the weekend about our kid's birthdays. Almost everybody I know that "has to get so and so at Van Buren involved...." is making the guaranteed minimum of 2000-2200/week and nothing more. I've never threatened to quit, I've never had to call Karen, my Group Mgr, or anybody in Safety, and I'm looking forward to turning this truck in within the next few months and getting a new one. Some on here might call me a company kiss arse, I just call myself paid and satisfied.

 

Unless the truck has a number that starts with a T, it will be auto. The T660's are pretty nice, small... but nice. Luckily you didn't stay in your 9400i to get used to the roomy interior lol, because you can basically touch the passenger side window while driving down the road. The sleeper isn't much bigger but at least it gets the job done and you should have enough storage for yourself.

Hopefully you will get lucky and only have to lightly clean it .

 

I love all the dash switches lol. But the no tilt/telescope steering sucks. The later model 9400s did have that option for USA but I guess we weren't that lucky haha.

 

Sarge you should be fairly pleased with that KW. I have been with mine for 10 months. It's not as roomy as the other trucks but it's much lighter than my Prostar was. I've only had two loads in 10 months that were so heavy I couldn't fill up both tanks and not worry. It is a little bit longer than the International and unlike the 9400 does not have a recessed front axle. So you will have to get used to the larger turn radius. But it's not bad, just different. If you are taller than 6' plan on bumping your head on the ceiling alot too until you get used to it.