Newbie

well turned in apps yesterday. got 3 prehires back today, werner, roehl, and prime. and only first day. will see how it goes. still trying to scan a lot of the forums to see what companies need to be avoided at all costs.

 

end of week 2. after all prehires received, talking with recruiters, and speaking with some actual drivers. made the decision looks like i am heading to prime. as long as everything continues to progress. will be otr with trainer soon. orientation is scheduled for the 22nd. course i am all kinds of nervous about the driving test. natural i am sure. pretty much got all the yard manuevers down. straight back is easy. off set and alley back are real good. the parallels are still a bit tricky, but still have another week to work the bugs out. the drive part is not too bad. still getting used to the touchyness of the brakes. turns are fairly good. shifting still needs work, the whole double clutching takes some getting used to, required for the testing part, have heard not so much in real life. getting up to speed with other cars around still scares the hell outta me. but as i have learned, the nervousness tends to keep a person on their toes. but thinking about the test itself has me on edge. i know calm down, easier said than done.

 

ok so it has been a year since i opened this thread. did my training period 40k miles, got my own truck, a lightweight '12 freightliner. made like a pinball, spent anywhere from 4 to 7 weeks out at a time. paychecks were pretty good, but marriage was starting to suffer. then m-i-l health issues came up, requiring me to make a change. switched over to american central trucking. been there 2 weeks now. and am very happy with my choice, generally stay fairly close to okla, and the wife is much happier as well. not home every night but been home at least once a week, so far.

 

So it has been a while, things were going real good for a while. But it finally got to a point of almost "forced dispatch". At least it felt that way to me. So another change came along.
So started out as company driver, progressed to running as a lease op. Yes, i took the next step.
Got my own truck and now running as an o/o. Admittedly things get a little stressful at times. Booking my own loads(with my wifes help of course) and having to keep a lot closer eye on my hos. But, i also feel a lot more satisfied at the end of every load.
So far so good.. and next planned step involves getting away from swinging doors and start doing the real work.
A lot of nervousness involved there, but i'm sure it will be well worth it. Might actually live longer by doing so physical work again.