new to trucking, orientation on Monday

Good luck Marvelfan! I hope you keep posting, since I am almost literally walking in your footsteps. Graduated today. Waiting to head up to Lumberton to test out. I'm thinking that I was probably in class when you were here.

 

What is the minimum hours with a trainer now if you know for sure? Heard it went from 250 to 200.

 

I'm not sure when it changed. Last year when I trained they required a straight 240 hours behind the wheel to be able to test out and become solo. I became a mentor this year and the requirement is now 200 hours BTW with additional hours required if you fail either the written or drive test at the end of training. My first trainee aced the drive test but overthought the questions on the written exam and failed it, so he was assigned an additional 50 hours in my truck (but the additional hours can be with another mentor).

 

Sounds like you have a great mentor. I like to get trainees done as soon as possible, which means I may sacrifice total miles for a week in order to get their hours behind the wheel at the expense of my own driving. The fastest I've had a trainee finish 200 hours is 28 days, the slowest was 33 days. It really depends on how the freight is running. The slower time was due to several unplanned breaks waiting for appointments or waiting for a load.

Right now I'm parked, waiting for a load.

 

Tucumcari and running on the 54. I love that trek. Did you stop in and see Dorothy's house in Kansas?