CTL Transportation new hire experience 2016

OTR drivers are out 10-14 days at a time with usually 2-3 days home time. Regional are out 2-4 days with 1 day home time. Local is like any other local gig, home every day. CTL is very accommodating once you get a six months in. Due to them hauling roughly 80% hazardous materials, the trucks must stay at the terminals.

 

Here we go!
Day 1 of orientation

We meet up with the orientation director in the lobby of the hotel they booked for us (Clarion Inn) at 7:30am, on Tuesday. Out of 6 of us who were scheduled, 5 showed. The director passed us folders with DOT and physical forms to take to the clinics later in the day. He then told us he wasn't actually the orientation director, but the Manager of Safety! He said the guy who normally does it is sick, and that his normal duty is to advise and assist drivers when emergencies happen (like spills, rollovers, accidents). We are gonna call the Manager of Safety.....Boss.

Boss took us over to the 1st clinic to do our DOT physical and drug screening. Unfortunately the place was under staffed at the time and took us 5 hours to get threw all of us........well almost. 1 of the guys who had over 20 yrs of experience was completely bald...everywhere! The clinic couldn't was unable to get a hair sample and thus the guy couldn't go any further. He said he would go try out CT Transportation, the flatbed division of Comcar. 1 down, 4 left to go.

The 4 of us went to the 2nd clinic to take our agility test. The agility test required us to lift 35ibs, 55ibs, and 75ibs baskets of weights 3 times onto a shelf that was head level. We then had to carry the 75ibs basket 100 feet away and back to shelf. Next we held a 35ibs weight above our head for a 1min, squat for 1min, bend over for a 1min, and touched our toes while standing for 1min. After that the doctor gave us a pulling pressure guage that was wrapped around a poll and told us to pull. We had to show we could pull a 100ibs without stressing. Finally we had to climb up and down 3 steps on a ladder 10 times.

After a day worth of the doctors, we went to the Tampa terminal. They fed us cold pizza while we filled out paperwork after paperwork after paperwork. That summed up the 1st day pretty well, paperwork and the doctors. Before I forget, the others guys at orientation goes as follows, Forrest Gump from the oilfields of North Dakota, a 2 year veteran of the prestigious CR England company, and the 55 year old who wants trucking to be his last job he'll ever have. A diverse group if I may say so.

Day 1 thoughts were neutral.

Day 2 comes tomorrow......

 

Lets ignore that I took a few days to update....

Day 2

Immediately after we arrived at the terminal, Forrest Gump (who had experience hauling oil and sugar beets in the Dakotas) told Boss that he'll stick with his old job and left. The 3 of us left went through classroom lectures on general knowledge stuff and company policies. We took multiple choice tests in between each section. The tests were a piece of cake and easy. Everyday of the week at noon we would take an hour break and have a sub sandwich or a burger from the deli next door.

Towards the end of the day, they took us out for our road test! Unfortunately for me, I couldn't take mine. I didn't have the "N tanker" endorsement on my license at the time, despite passing the test at the dmv (I had to wait on my background check to process before they'll put my "X tanker/hazmat combo" on my license). Bummer. Well I'll get back to that later. The other 2 went and to the road test and passed with flying colors. They said all it is a 6 mile loop to and on the freeway (I-4) and back and do a blindside back into a spot without hitting anything.

Day 2 finished.

 

Day 3

Day 3 was exactly like Day 2 but instead we learned about how to drive tankers and unload the tankers via the Pump off and Air off methods............in the classroom. Boss would go through the slides and vocally summarize what they contained without giving us time to read what were on them. Apparently we had a lot to cover since our class was cut short by 2 days due to lack of availability of trainers or other personnel to train us. wth? Anyway it was a lot to soak in. When I expressed my opinion that we should have a few days with hands on training, Boss told me that we'll get it out in the real world with the trainer.

Towards the end of day 3, we went outside and got an overview of the trailers. We climbed the ladders to to open the dome lids and was told on how to check for leaks and the procedure to unloading. I saw at least 6 unique trailers out in the lot. Afterwards we went back inside and the CR England guy got pulled aside by Boss. The guy slept through half the lectures and was clueless on what we were talking about. He came out the office and told us that he was booted from the orientation. It's just the 2 new grads left.

End of Day 3.

 

Don't worry! They'll test ya in a day cab. The back window can be taken advantage of, but don't get comfortable with it if you're going OTR like me.