I'm in with Groendyke

I left for orientation in Enid, OK on Sunday. Got back late last night. They put me up in the Ramada. It was a pretty nice. I was very well fed through this whole thing. But it was pretty brutal. Smith system pounded all day long. If someone reading this hasn't heard of this system before, just think of basic safe driving. Some guy took this "system" and somehow managed to trademark phrases such as "aim high in steering" and get paid from it. I was the only person in the room with less than 20 years of driving experience. So naturally the instructors didn't treat me the same as the other guys. At least not until I made perfect scores on all of the written tests we had to pass in order to be certified to haul hazmat. I guess that was a big deal because all of the instructors became very friendly on the last day. But whatever I don't care as long as I can make some money. As you can imagine, in this room full of long time drivers, it was story after story and long drawn out debates which held up the class so we got out late all 3 days. We had a corporate tour which was one of the best ways to waste my time. We got to meet people from accounts payable and payroll. Oh yeah and some of the administrative assistants to the VP's. All of the VP's happened to be out of the office. There is an amazing break room. And a huge trophy room. A Groendyke driver won the NTTA driver of the year award so he could walk in there and take a dump on someones desk and still be signing autographs on his way out.

One surprise was me finding out through this orientation that had I waited a month to hire on, I would be getting paid 16 hr training pay instead of 12. Another surprise is that we are switching from percentage pay to mileage pay with a system similar to Trimac. Unfortunately, I am at the bottom of the scale so I will most likely not see Trimac money. I'm actually worried I wont be seeing much money at all. I have had one current driver tell me he averages 500 a week. One of my buddies used to work for these guys and told me the same thing. I asked my trainer about this and he was quick to discount it by saying "they wanted to be home every night" or "they didn't want to work". I still have about 20 training days before being released to my own truck. I guess we will see how it plays out.

One thing I did like is that if I stick with them there are other positions I can work into. Non-driving positions in the corporate realm. They also gave me some decent stuff. Bag, multiple hate, good tire gauge. Stuff like that.

Seriously though, if you haven't heard of the Smith system, look it up. Then you can join me in wondering how some guy got rich off of that while I'm out here working every day.