Talk to me about why...

Fontana forensics

Ontario airport is close to the Best Western if you don’t want to do the dog and the BW will pick you up; train station is close if you can hack the Amtrak. SNI will reimburse you to their cost of a bus ticket; anything over their cost is on you.
The Best Western is nice, quiet, and has a pool. Two queen size beds to a room; they will try to double you up so don’t count on a single…the cost of a single is 35$ per day over what SNI pays. Count on 6 or 7 nights depending on when you go on the road with your trainer. It is California so smoking is not allowed in the room, in any restaurant, or in your dreams; you can smoke once you enter Arizona, Nevada or purgatory.
Up the road is a Denny’s and an In & Out Burger, across from Denny’s is an expensive but very tasty India restaurant; try the Keema Naan. There is also a Japanese noodle place; good feed for 7$. Over the interstate about a 15-20 walk from BW is a Stater Bros grocery store; rooms have a small fridge with room for only two frozen entrées. Breakfast is an extended continental: hot food, waffle maker, cereal, rolls, fruit and yogurt; coffee is weak and gravy for the biscuits is not like moms (comes from a can). Lunch the first week is on SNI, careful not to overeat and find yourself nodding out during the afternoon lectures.

You get the chance to purchase 90$ work boots for 35$, they give you a Motor Carrier Atlas and a bright lime safety vest; I mistakenly purchased a vest after reading DFO talking about not being issued one and needing one as soon as he was on the road. The Atlas has a glue binding; it is not the high end model with laminated pages and spiral binding, but hey, its free. I suggest a quality magnifying glass.
The orientation lectures confirm there is a no alcohol policy during training, that pets are not allowed for company drivers but they are OK for O/O; hazing and harassment are not tolerated.
The lunch special in the OC dining room was a tasty chicken stir fry.
Don’t wig out over the physical stress test, the walk to the grocery store and carrying bags back is more physical demanding.


Day Two:
Official hire date; got the new boots, very comfortable. Got our safety vest which is a sartorial requirement anywhere outside of the buildings here at the OC. Classroom on HOS and paper logs, rest of the day is backing and driving around the lovely industrial trucking mecca of Fontana.
Watched a student, from another company that will go unnamed, miss a gear, then get lost grinding away trying to find his way home in the gears and ended up stop right in the middle of a right hand turn; his 53’ butt sticking out in the road. Trucks are to Fontana what sheep are to New Zealand…no matter where you are just sneeze and you are bound to snot smack 3 or 4.
Lunch special was a penne smothered in marinara sauce and a spicy Italian link; I asked for a half order and still almost had a food coma…too heavy and too much, but still very tasty. Found a Jack in the Box, a Subway, a Starbucks, a Spires restaurant all a few hundred yards or less from the Best Western in the opposite direction from the Denny’s.
One important lesson that someone has learned everyday so far is that when they say the shuttle vans leave for the OC @ 05:25 don’t count on them being there @05:26.
Lots or reading and homework which if I can’t have a cold adult beverage means I don’t want to watch a ball game on TV and rather then get bored I might as well do the reading…again.
Don’t take much, do your laundry at the motel or at the OC…

The rest of the days are just rinse and repeat...don't ask Fo if he is Tongan, he isn't!

Little Eddy

 

You can bet we would become the talk of the truck stop!

The Saga continues: I get to Portland to pick up my PU and I am told it needs to be fumigated.
Turns out the driver wasn't big on rules or policies especially the one that says no pets allowed. Apparently besides a flea infestation the dog also had bladder issues; I hope the driver who was fired never sees a final check and his record reflects his disregard for the policy and his total lack of sanitation and common decency. It would be an insult to pigs to call him a pig.
This clown will have the opportunity to tell his "Schneider kicked my dog" story and he has the dog as evidence.

Now I have a fancy room and later there is a meet and greet with a piano player and open wine bar. Somebody please remind me, am I not suppose to be hauling freight? I remember something being mentioned about an expectation that has me pulling loaded trailers...5 days in and 1400+ miles and I still haven't had to use line 3.
No worries and no whining...it is what it is and I am happy to be moving air and standing upright.

Little Eddy

 

You have class on Saturday and after that it is a roll of the dice as to how soon you go on the road with your TE. Some leave as early as Saturday night and some have to wait until Monday. If you do wait a few days go to the OC and do the computer classes online and get your laundry done...those CBTs will haunt you during week three if you don't start on them as soon as possible.

If you want or need good coffee the Starbucks (next door) opens at 4:30...BW makes light coffee water that has zero kick.

Little Eddy