Starting Orientation – Nov 2016

So I just completed the first week of orientation here at the Schneider Dallas OC. It's been both interesting and boring at different times but I sorta expected that, so it's no surprise. Overall, I'm still looking forward to working with Schneider National as an OTR driver and wishing my roommate, who's going Dollar General Acct, luck.


Was a bit surprised to find out that the first day of orientation was unpaid, but the reasoning that none of us were in the system yet made some sort of sense. I wrote it off as the cost of doing business... though I got a bus ticket, night at the Inn, breakfast and lunch for free... so it evens out.


Went through the road test pretty well; my trainer doing a good job explaining the company policy on actions taken on the road and calmly pointing out potential hazards, both due to my error or external to the truck, before they became problems. We did have to take a break during my 45deg backing, as his way of explaining things just didn't click with me. After observing another training group practice, though, I was able to pick it up and complete the maneuver.


Good to see that CBT's are just as mind-numbingly boring outside the military and also just as buggy. Was able to use my previous experience with CBT's to power through them in an afternoon, though. A few of us were able to have a 1hr duty day today because of finishing all the required work early. Feels good to have a day off when we were planned to be worked every day till Thanksgiving.


Interesting to note that almost half the class is prior military and only 3 people disappeared on the first day. We did get one guy who washed back into our class who I'm surprised can tie his boots up without strangling himself. Saying he seems dumb as rocks is an insult to rocks... either that or he has some undocumented mental issues to where he can't remember something told to him after 30 seconds. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't feel safe with him on the road.


The Dallas OC isn't new but it's in decent condition. Kinda questioning the industrial clothes washers with such a small bin, but they work okay and they're free. The cafeteria thing cooks some decent food but I'd be bringing in my own lunch if I wasn't given a meal ticket for lunch each day.


Looking forward to learning about the Qualcomm and getting on the road with my TE soon.

 

So, we spent Sunday and Monday doing Trip Planning and Qualcomm work. Since Thanksgiving is screwing with the schedule, we shared the course with a class who'd already spent their week driving freight with the TE's.


I couldn't believe how little they learned about using the Qualcomm while on the road. Most of the repeated 'stupid' questions came from their side of the room. I could tell the two instructors were getting frustrated with how quite a few people weren't 'getting it'. I'm definitely not perfect at the Qualcomm usage but these guys would fail to find the Messaging App when it's on the home screen and had already had it pointed out to them.


Most of my problems with the trip planning was the way the main instructor was running things but it was sorta good in some ways. They'd load us a preload in the Qualcomm and then we'd have to fill out a planning sheet as we would have ran the load. After we filled them out, he'd shoot them down with all the problems we'd failed to account for. It was an interesting way to do it but I found myself getting frustrated when I'd figure out we were missing something and he'd tell me to wait till he brought it up.


I think I'm gonna have to practice some more on my own to really iron it all out. This is probably just one of those things that need experience and can't fully be taught.


The TE finished guys are having their final driving tests tomorrow but I'm not sure about what my class is going to be doing. Guess things are going to spool down for the holidays now but I know I've got to come back up to Dallas to meet up with my own TE next week.