April 9th orientation in marshfield

Heck the first day! Lol

 

...sitting at home with my very first case of "hurry up and wait" for the company. I put in a notice last Friday that I would be ready to head out with a trainer the following day (Saturday) on. Before getting more than 50' outside the driveway from Marshfield terminal I had a call to let me know I was scheduled to start OTR training today (Monday). I'm a bit concerned at this point, as it's almost 1pm, the trainer's coming off hometime, so has a fresh 70 hour clock to work with, and I could be looking at starting my time "in the wild" running nights. Granted, it would be FAR better to have a trainer in the truck while trying to sneak a truck in tight areas in the dark...but better yet would be to start off during daylight hours.
Well, I reckon I'll take what I can get and hope the trainer has a plan to get us on days.

 

Hot ####, another vict....er...student on the road!! I have no idea...it's a few hours by truck from where he lives to Appleton, which is where we are supposed to meet. Last I heard he had been dispatched, so should be rolling. Waiting to get a call from him.
BTW, my favorite quote from training was;
"Where's the race??"
"NASCAR, channel 8, FOX."

 

Now I have to wonder/worry...if he didn't get rolling til, say, 3pm, that means the 14 hour window is good til 5am...there is NO way I'm going to be able to safely stay awake/drive that late...I've been up since 6am (I slept in), just so I could be ready to hop in the car when the phone call comes.
The boyfriend thinks it's a non-issue...probably because he's NUTS and works 24/7. Or because he figures this guy's been up since early, too, and probably will shut down at a reasonable hour and get an early start tomorrow. I can only hope...
Here's another way to avoid an unnecessary service call, on top of all the ways Brian mentioned during training...
When you're trying to raise the landing gear, before you panic and call the company to tell them it's stuck and won't budge, you need them to call for service...try turning it the OTHER direction. No kidding. I can't make this stuff up, and I know that driver won't live it down for a LOOOONG time...it's gotta be the boyfriend's easiest call yet.
Service call: $60
Mileage: $200
Labor: 30 seconds, charged 1/2 hour, $30
Total bill: almost $300
Laughter: Lifelong...

 

WOOT!!! I finally got hooked up with my trainer last night, we started running this morning. It was an almost 500 mile day, with me driving over 400 of them. The trainer is cool, didn't make me feel like I was hauling too much luggage, very welcoming. Truck is a year old, trailer a couple weeks old...very nice start for the trip. Tomorrow we deliver load in Ohio. From there, who knows, maybe test my passport??

 

hey I am in Ohio...if you see 7499 be sure to wave!!

 

Still waiting to hear from a trainer myself.. Good to know one person from the class is out and running