COVENANT -- From a wife's perspective

Another update. First thanks to hidingaway for the bank info. I plan to take care of that in the next few days. Rocks, I don't doubt what you say but all I know is the student coordinator didn't seem too inclined to try to find out the status of the people I asked for and I didn't want to presume to tell him how to do his job.

We are now in Illinois. I decided to forgo the trip up to Forest City due to a lack of funds for 400 miles worth of fuel and $95/hour labor costs since the rig is out of warranty. The things wrong with our rig will just have to wait. So if anyone is hauling ##### on I-55 near Edwardsville when you pass Exit 23 you'll see the Red Barn Rendezvous RV Park and that's where we are. Look for the gold motor home as we're near the front of the park and wave at me. There is a TA and Pilot the next exit down so if you're taking a break there, e me and let me know. Be nice to meet some of you folks that I now consider my friends.

Anyway, I emailed the student coordinator this afternoon to let him know that Redcoat is ready to get back to work. Haven't heard from him yet but I did ask (again) for the five Rocks mentioned. Failing that, Redcoat will just have to deal with whoever he gets (as long as it's not the same guy he had before) as he's got to find a way to get through his training. He's resolved himself to that although he does have another job offer in the works that may or may not pan out.

If it doesn't pan out, he has a friend of his who drives for Werner lined up ready to apply to Covenant to team drive with him once he makes it through his training. His friend is relatively happy at Werner but will make the jump if the money is there. So they both want to know from current team drivers with Covenant what kind of net pay they can realistically expect.

That's all for now. Will let you know when we hear from Covenant.

 

Hi Zipper,
The trainer may have created a hostile environment but I don't think he did it intentionally. I just think there was a serious lack of communication between him and his trainee that kind of snowballed into a really bad situation. I met his trainer and he appeared to me to be a nice enough guy with no weird habits or anything that I could tell. I think he's just been a trainer for so long that he's gotten into a rut and does things the same way every time rather than taking a hard look at each individual and modifying his training techniques to fit the situation. That and his tendency to just go go go for the $$$ at the expense of his student's peace of mind.

Anyway, we've heard from Covenant this morning and they have assigned Redcoat a new trainer. The man is in Ohio right now and they are loading him through St. Louis to pick Redcoat up. He is not one of the five people we requested for a new trainer but I am not surprised at that and really didn't expect they'd make the effort. Or maybe they did but none of them were available. Gotta give the benefit of the doubt unless you know otherwise. Not sure when he'll be passing through but will let you all know how it goes this time around.

 

The saga continues.

Redcoat met his new trainer this morning. The man arrived in our area last night and they agreed to get together this morning to head out. Redcoat has found out that his new trainer prefers a spartan truck -- i.e. no cooler, no microwave, no CB, no satnav, no cell phone, etc. So Redcoat is on the lookout for a deal on a small inverter to charge up his phone, laptop, shaver, and whatnot.

It is Redcoat's opinion that his new trainer is "a nice enough bloke" and he likes the man well enough. They have a load headed to Utah with a pick up coming back in this direction so I might get to see my hubby toward the end of the week. That would be cool. Redcoat drove about 560 miles and had another hour to go on his shift but he had to call it quits around 10:30 as he'd been up since six this morning and he couldn't trust himself to stay awake any longer.

I asked him how he felt and he said so far so good. He said the road was a good road and even though he went through two construction areas, it was a smooth road that didn't jerk the truck around so it was OK. He said he just maintained 60 mph through the construction lane and even though the traffic stacked up behind him a little bit, he didn't let it bother him and just concentrated on what he was doing. I asked him how his nerves were and he said he was OK. He said his trainer came up to sit beside him when he was in a confusing area of several interstates to help guide him through and so things went real well.

I told Redcoat to BE SURE to talk to his trainer to let him know when he feels like he's having trouble. I also told him that now that he knows what to expect things should go a little smoother and that he should actually try to enjoy himself a little bit. I told him he's probably a better driver than what he gives himself credit for which contributes to his lack of confidence in his abilities and he admitted that might be the case. He does tend to be a perfectionist. He also said that this truck handled a little better than the other one and so that helps too.

So he's going into his last half of training with an open mind and a bit of knowledge of how it really goes and this time he is more prepared.

Unfortunately it still looks like it's mostly going to be just team driving. Redcoat said his trainer told him that if they don't keep the truck moving that he gets his butt chewed so that tells me right there that it's not always the trainer's fault but that it's something the company expects. However, it appears so far that his new trainer is actually concerned about certain aspects of the driving experience for his new trainee so that is encouraging.

I'll keep y'all posted.