Newbie Team Driver Wannabees - Can We Do This?

Not nervous about school at all, but an emotional wreck about moving all the things out of the house to list it for sale and the sudden change in our lives. Not sleeping well at all.

Good luck to you, we wish you the best!

 

If anyone is wondering about us, we're still alive! Things just don't happen the way we intend sometimes. We thought we were going to team drive with USX, even called them for info. And then life took over. Everything happened so quickly that we hardly had time to breathe.

We moved to North Port, Florida in 2012. We have had quite an adventure.

Basically, (for those who don't want to read this thread from the beginning), we found out at the end of July 2012 that our lives would be changing because Tim's company was going to be shut down. After working for them for 25 years, he would be unemployed.

We made decisions about what we'd do, got busy and implemented them. 4 months later we had sold the house in KY, found a new house in Florida, bought it, packed up our things, drove them here and moved in.
That was the most either of us had ever accomplished in a mere 120 days in our life.

• We sold our KY house in 20 days
• drove to Florida towing our travel trailer (4 day trip)
• stopped driving in Venice, Florida and stayed at a KOA campground for 3 weeks
• we looked at about 14 houses in just over a week and put in an offer on one
• we closed on the new house a few days after the offer was accepted,
• drove back up to KY (3 day trip)
• got the rest of our things out of the house, cleaned it and got the stuff out of storage
• packed up 2 U-Haul trucks with our things and parked our Dodge truck at the storage place
• drove the 2 U-Hauls back to Florida (4 day trip)
• unloaded the U-Hauls, took them back to U-Haul here in North Port.
• Tim then got on a plane back to KY, alone, to get our Dodge truck and our boat out of storage.
• He drove back to Florida (3 day trip)
• We unpacked boxes for a couple of weeks and tried to get settled in. We're still working on that.

So after all that, we rested for a couple weeks. We went boating, drove around discovering our new hometown area, just slept a lot and tried to catch our breath.

Then we had to decide on a CDL school near our new home. We got lucky and found a good school in Punta Gorda, FL, a 25 mile drive from home. The cost was 6 grand for a one-month course, which was kind of high, but at least we could be home each night and didn't have to stay in hotels somewhere far away. We decided that Tim would go through first, so he signed up, started school in February and graduated on April Fools Day.

He loved the school! It was fun, the instructors were kind and understanding. It's a small school, they only take 5 students a week, so he got personal attention and learned a lot, got a lot of driving time. They had a beer truck and an 18 wheeler (52 ft) for practice driving on the roads and highways near the Punta Gorda Airport and on I-75 in Florida.

He got several offers from companies and decided to go to Werner out of Lakeland, FL. I know what everyone says about Werner but he figured he has to start somewhere, so he wanted to make it a company that was near to our home, (2 hours drive) and one that would allow wife and dog to come along on trips. So on Easter Sunday I drove him up to Lakeland to start his company training and I drove back home. The story of his training is so long, it would make a good book and he's encouraging me to write an e-book about it, since he has absolutely no time to do anything normal anymore. I just might do that, while it's all fresh in my mind. Needless to say, it was a crazy 10 weeks. (I think it was that long ... not sure.) He just today was promoted to "Professional Driver", which is what the company prefers to call it's drivers. Do not call them truck drivers!

Our secondary plan was for me to attend the same cdl school in Punta Gorda after he was through training, which is ... now. And then I was going to follow him to Werner and we were going to team drive after my company training was up. But he's not sure he wants me to do that right now. And after living his company training story along with him all these weeks, and knowing all that he went through during training, I'm not so sure I'm ready for it either. So for the time being I will stay home, mow the grass (which grows about a half inch a DAY here in FL!) and keep the home fires OUT and the A/C ON, in case he ever gets to come home to visit. He doesn't live here anymore, I told him that, he just visits. You all know what I'm talking about.

So now he's at the hotel in Lakeland, FL awaiting further instructions. He is signed up for a truck, along with 5 other new drivers. He reports to the terminal every morning on the company van and is getting to know the people who work there quite well.

So far, he likes Werner, the company. His trainer was ... like a character from a Stephen King novel, that's all I can come up with. And his 9-10 weeks of training was almost unbearable at times ... but he survived, having lost only about 20 lbs (that he really didn't need to lose). But he's ready for the next chapter. And staying optimistic.

Sorry I have taken so long to let you all know what's going on, but this has been the busiest time of my life, I swear. And how do you even begin to tell it all? It boggles my mind.

Annie