STARTING A NEW CAREER WITH JBH

Day 2 went good. Did a 93 on the road test. Just went for a quick spin. Think they just want to see you use your mirrors, signal, turn, and change lanes properly. Need to be comfortable with a clutch. You can float shift but they want to make sure you can double clutch, and downshift properly. Had to back into a spot at a truck stop but the place was a ghost town plus it was a giant place. Intermodal guys have to do a jackknife alley dock style backup. If you've driven at all it's a piece of cake. More paperwork, videos, and safety training. Since our class is so small were gonna be done by lunch tomorrow. We did lose a guy today. Have no idea why.

 

I'm really curious what's on the JBH orientation thread so I'm gonna finally read it. I can tell you my experience has been just fine. Boring in a lot of ways but I would think any company has to show you all the safety vids, and all the procedural stuff. I think the two other guys were lied too bye a recruiter about hometime but how is that a surprise? So far what I was told has been legit. Can't say 100% till I start training at the account though. I did have more interaction with people in JBHs safety department than I did with my recruiter cuz of something I knew I had on my psp. I needed some assurances before I gave notice to my last job.

 

If ur looking for a job just be sure you get a copy of your psp befor you start applying with anybody and if something is iffy on it have the recruiter get you to the safety department right away and talk to them. That should avoid any surprises at orientation. For me everything got checked and signed off by quality control before i get to orientation and I suspect that is most common. I don't know how common it is to talk with the actual fleet account manager you are going too but that help calm my nerves a ton.

 

All done with orientation and home. Final day went fast and we finished just after lunch. Very good instructer. We trained on their people net system. It's the e-logs and tons of other stuff. Little confusing now but I'm sure after a couple of training days it will make my life easier. Speaking of training I start tomorrow. Now I will find out the Ins an outs. Think I'm doing A Chicago suburb run right out of the chute. If I can't report tomorrow night I'm supposed to be back Friday eve.

 

Well first training trip went well. You team it with the trainer. I started and drove from Mn to the nw suburbs of Chicago. Had to top off the tanks so that took 7 hours to first destination. Made 2 stops in Chicago suburbs and then took 294 to Indiana for final stop. Was kinda worried cuz it was morning rush hour (drove by Ohare airport at 730am) but traffic flowed great and it was pretty much speed limit driveing on the tollway. Off the freeway is another story cars are constantly moving in and out of your lane but your moving so slow that its not really a problem once you clear intersections. The delivery locations can be tight but managable as long as you think it thru. The unloading is pretty easy with the electric pallet jack and lift gate. Avg time at a stop is 20min to an hour depending how many accounts you are delivering too at each stop. I didnt make it too my final stop because of my 11 so the trainer took over. I was dreading the team thing going in but actually it worked great. It turned what would have been a 32 hour trip to 24 hours. I wouldnt want to do it on a consistant basis, the trucks are just too small for two people. E logs are pretty cool. I was on countdown at the end and went 10 hours and 58min. Went from 1030pm too about 1145am. Overall its pretty good just need to get all the procedural stuff down. Adjusting the body clock was tough but expected that. Think when done training and on my own i should adapt. I beleive after i can get adjusted, get the process down, and they can trust i will be in the right spot at about the right time the money will be there.

 

So my first trip went from thursday night 1030 pm to friday morning 11ish am so on my own add 10 to that cuz of the team thing. Had all of saturday off. Then sunday did some yard spotting. Basically running the yard donkey and moving trailers in and out the loading docks to be loaded or staged after loading. Even though i wanted to use the yard donkey i didnt because there wasnt anyone around to show me the controls of the thing and i didnt want to mess something up my second day. Used regular tractor and ended up moving around 13 trailers. I dont think this will be a regular thing asked of me, think the yard guy was using some vacation time. Its not something i'd want to do on a regular basis but i did get some valuable experience out of it and got to know the two yards. Then at the end of the day i trained/drove on 1 local run to help another driver get farther on his 11. I ended up working about about 12 hours and was done by 8pm.

 

Monday i had a 530am start that ended up being 7 because of factory production issues. I drove to Nebraska and back to 185 miles of home shop and only had a half hour remaing on my 11. Think its just over 800 miles round trip. Got back to yard at 11pm. With the team did it in 16 hours so add 10 hours on my own. Got home at 1145pm. Now the nice but tricky part. Dont have to be back till 8-10pm on Tuesday night. Get to sleep in my own bed and going to have to knap all afternoon on because im gonna be up and driving for 13 hours or so starting as early as 8pm tuesday eve. So far this has been the hardest thing to deal with but im hoping once im done training and a schedule sets in i can figure out some type of sleeping pattern. The unloading with the electric pallet jack is pretty easy. Could be as long as 1.5 hours at some of the bigger stops but should average in the 30 to 45 minute range. Now in the winter during or right after a snow storm or if my pallet jack quits working and i have to use a manual pallet jack things could get difficult. If its snow hopefully i can get really close to my delivery door because either i shovel or contact somebody to remove it for me but most of these are unattended places so whats worse the work of shoveling or the waiting for somebody to get there in more than likely the middle of the night? Overall so far so good. Think it does pay a bit higher because of the physical labor of the unloading but im sure its nothing compared to the food service delivery jobs and the two wheeler up and down those catwalks.

 

Also on sunday i met some more of the people on the account. There is one guy at almost a million miles and 2 others at 2 million and one of those guys is really close to 3 million. One of the 2 million guys is on loan from Chicago i think. Think at 1 its a 5g bonus, at 2 its 10g, and 3 is 20g bonus. Also at 2 million you get your speed bumped up to 67mph.

 

Tomorrow is one week into training. Just returned from another Chicago/Indiana run. Took 23 hours but solo add 10 hours. Im not sure if turnaround from run to run will be 10 hours. So far its been more like 12-14 hours. So solo I should be at about the middle of my day 4 and i would have done about 1900 miles so far this week and 6 stops. Doing pretty much the same run again tomorrow eve so if I was solo by sat morning, I think, I will have 2900 miles and 10 deliveries. Was told going in 2400 miles avg per week at .40 cents a mile and 11 deliveries avg per week at 22 bucks a stop. There is so many accounts i think unless weather or mechanical issues pop up that should be easy and a minimum.
Also dont think i ever said this but we just load up at the production facility and deliver the product and pick up the empty containers and bring them back. One big round trip so no dealing with dispatching or reloading. So far it doesnt have the feel of a giant company just a company with about 22 drivers.