The journey begins.

So orientation is in the books and on Sunday I will be catching a ride up to Lathrop with another new hire to get my tractor. From what I understand its a newer tractor (10000 series) which will be nice because of the APU and inverter,on the down side I know alot of the newer equipment is prone to maintenance issues. From experience I am well aware that these are not freightliner specific problems, all the truck manufacturers are having EGR,DPF and DEF related maintenance problems. In the last few years I have driven petes,internationals,sterlings and KW's so I am expecting an above average level of down time due to these issues. On the other hand some of the new trucks will go thier entire life cycle without a problem,I think its about 1 in 3.

Orientation was very well done and I feel prepared and comfortable as I start out on my own. It was a very long week and because of the holiday we got started a day late. Class was 0700-1600 all four days and was structured so it delivered the information in the order it was most likely going to be used. Lunch was provided by a local deli and we were able to pick from a good selection of sandwiches and salads there were also snacks that were restocked throughout the day. There were eleven of us which I was told is the average size for an orientation class.