From School to Superior Carriers

Discussion in 'Superior Carriers' started by Keith48, Mar 27, 2007.

  1. BigDaddyJollyRob

    BigDaddyJollyRob <strong>"El Oso"</strong>

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    Nov 10, 2007
    WARWICK,RI
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    GREAT JOB WSYROB, KEEP EM COMING, I HOPE TO GET ON AFTER SCHOOL.:biggrin_25522:
     
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  3. MoneyCat

    MoneyCat Light Load Member

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    Aug 25, 2006
    West Texas
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    I think I'm scheduled to go school in kingsport on 21st as well. I've been training in Baltimore doing local work & they're puttin me in at the comfort inn each night. I just did couple of days hauling neodol at unilever & now starting the dry bulk stuff with a blower on Monday. At home now for the weekend. This tanker stuff is sure is different, I feel like a ragdoll when driving this liquid. :biggrin_2559:
     
  4. wsyrob

    wsyrob Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Sep 14, 2007
    Winston Salem
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    Cool I will be there then for sure. Look forward to meeting you.

    I have never driven anything else loaded so I don't know the difference. Drove a load of something non hazmat from Dow in Charleston WVa today. Really pushes you down the hills. I found the surge actually helped me time my braking intervals. Brake a little, let up on the brake, wait for the bump in the back then brake a little more. I sure like driving in the mountains better than local around town. I took it from Beckley to the yard down I77 through Fancy Gap. Nice road and beautiful scenery.

    Another nice surprise awaited me once we got back to the yard. I wasn't expecting a pay check this week since I took last week off. Superior paid me 2 vacation days for last week. The vacation days paid me more than my training rate.
     
  5. wsyrob

    wsyrob Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Sep 14, 2007
    Winston Salem
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    Moneycat, I just found out today I will not be at school until Feb 4. They are going to send me to another terminal for a week to work with a different trainer.

    Monday was a real long day. We started at 5 AM and didn't finish up until 7 PM. All local work picking up and spotting trailers within a 30 mile radius of the terminal. We finished up the day loading a trailer that was to be delivered today at 8:00 AM about 75 miles away.

    We started at 6:15 AM today and got ourselves in a bit of a mess. Our directions from dispatch were wrong. They told us to turn left at the first stoplight once we got to the town where the plant was. Problem was they added a stop light. You could not read the street sign as it was on the opposite side of the road. I turned down this road and drove about a mile. By the time we realized we were on the wrong road we were too far down it to back out easily. It was a dead end and we were hoping for an intersection that we could get turned around in. We stopped a car on the way out and asked them if there was a turnaround at the end of the road. They told us yes so we continued on. Then the road turned into a dirt road and we were afraid to go down it loaded with 44,000 lbs. I surrendered the drivers seat and my trainer began backing out. As we went by this one house after backing about 100 yards with our beeper going off a man came out and told us he would open his gate and let us use his road to get turned around. It took some work but we got turned around and actually made our delivery appointment. In talking to the guy he told me that they get several tankers a month down that road and that several had gotten stuck trying to turn around farther down. One rolled over and a tow truck driver died in an accident pulling one out. Real nice guy. This experience convinced me to buy one of those $150 gps units once I get out on my own. Even if they don't route you for trucks they will at least give you the street names before you turn and would have prevented todays mishap.

    Waited 3 hours to unload. Got back to the yard about 2:30 PM and they cut us loose early for the day.
     
  6. wsyrob

    wsyrob Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Sep 14, 2007
    Winston Salem
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    Wednesday was all local work. We dropped and hooked about 7 trailers total spotting empties and bringing loaded ones back to the yard. Good practice.

    Today we did nothing but pump waste water into 2 tankers and spot them on the yard. It takes over 3 hours to fill one because you have to add acid to lower the ph so the disposal company will not refuse them.

    I also found out the vacation pay I got last week was a mistake. They are taking it out of this weeks check. Sort of sucks to get it then have it taken away. I just wanted the record to be right. Student trainees do not get vacation pay.
     
  7. MoneyCat

    MoneyCat Light Load Member

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    Aug 25, 2006
    West Texas
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    haha, I just found out on friday the school was full and was also setup for 4th. I'll be driving there since its only about 375 miles from me. I just did a week of dry bulk training in B'more at Grace davison plant. that dry bulk stuff is sure is a hassle, watching the gauges, tapping the hoppers, loud blower :biggrin_25512:
     
  8. wsyrob

    wsyrob Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Sep 14, 2007
    Winston Salem
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    Look forward to meeting you at the school Moneycat. We have a few bulk trailers on the yard but I haven't pulled one of those yet.

    Friday was an easy day. All we did was load 2 trailers of transformer oil and spot them on our yard for other drivers to deliver this weekend. The company that loads them is about 20 miles away. Its easy work. All you do is pull on the scale straight line back into the hole. Pull back on the scale and off you go. Takes about 1 hour to load the oil and the company does all of it. Started at 8 and got off for the weekend at 2:30PM.

    Seems like Superior is hiring a lot of drivers lately. I read several message boards and lots of people are posting that they are coming on board. One guy that drives for crete posted a spreadsheet where he made 65K last year (only 53 days home) is joining up. Another experienced driver is starting with my trainer on the 21st.

    They tell me I probably will have about 3 more weeks with the trainer after the school. That will put the training period at close to 3 months but it was during the holidays. A little longer than most but I am starting from scratch and want to be well trained. So far so good. I have improved tremendously.
     
  9. MoneyCat

    MoneyCat Light Load Member

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    Aug 25, 2006
    West Texas
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    Hey, I'd recommend the garmin gps. I've used it (nuvi 350) when I was doing city deliveries in DC, baltimore, va beach area. It can say street names ahead of time. You can zoom out and see roads miles around you, so you'll know where to jump off at or continue. Also, if the gps routes to a road you don't want to go just keep driving and it recalculates new directions within seconds. I'd had it for 10months now.
     
  10. wsyrob

    wsyrob Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Sep 14, 2007
    Winston Salem
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    I bought my wife a Garmin 330c from Walmart for Christmas for $135. She works for Hospice and needed it to find patients houses. Works great.

    I have both Delorme and MS streets and trips on my laptop so I just bought a little usb gps antenna for $30 to try that out before buying a stand alone unit. I like the idea of a 15 inch screen
     
  11. wsyrob

    wsyrob Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Winston Salem
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    Jan 14-18 5th week

    Had a good week. I am really getting a grasp of the paperwork involved in doing the job. There seen to be little differences between companies that we deal with. Some of it is the same every time but every once in a while something will be a bit different.

    This week was a lot of local work with one 350 mile trip up to Riverview Va thrown in. It was good to get up into the mountains loaded again this time on a 2 lane road. I commented to my instructor this week that its like trying to learn how to drive the truck 3 different ways. The truck reacts differently bobtail, empty trailer and loaded trailer. It changes shift timing and how fast or slow you have to come off the clutch to stay smooth. With a smooth bore tank different product reacts differently so every load drives differently. Its one of the challenges in driving tankers that aren't dedicated to one product. I also feel like my backing is improving. I was able to get the truck into every loading and unloading hole that I was asked to do.

    Naxt week will present new challenges and i will begin working with a new trainer for a couple of weeks. I leave Monday to go to Kingsport Tenn. I will drive with a trainer out of that terminal for the next 2 weeks. Have to be there at 10:00 AM Monday and will be off by noon Friday so i can get back for a terminal safety meeting on Friday. They are putting me up in a hotel at company expense for the next 3 weeks. I still will get to come home on the weekends. The third week will be the company training school.

    I am looking forward to working with a different trainer for a couple of weeks. I am not implying that there is something wrong with the guy I have been with for the last 5 weeks. He has been excellent. Its just always good to get input in a different way. No 2 teachers communicate the same way.

    Hopefully the hotel will have free wifi. If not it may be a few weeks before I can update this thread
     
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