Finesse's Adventures with USA Truck

Hey guys,

Well, let me give you a little background information on me before I get into the glamorous details that are called, training with C1.

I have always wanted to travel. I like to drive everywhere and I have always fancied the idea of getting paid. I'm not to terribly intelligent but truck driving seems to fit those criteria. Not only that, but I can finish my schooling online while I drive. Praise Jebus!

I have enough credits for a BS degree, however I have changed my major somewhere around the neighborhood of 6 times so I do not even have my associates. Drafting, architecture, business, psychology, real estate, and finally law, round out the ever extensive list of classes that have peaked my interest. What this means is that when I get a hair up my ###, I usually do something about it. So here I am.

Now that this exciting path into my not so intriguing personal life is over, I will start the journal.

I am on day 3 of training. I have finished my tests for my permit, passed them. I have completed my tanker and hazmat endorsements also. I tried for my double-triple but failed it by one question, so when I go and finish up my HM background check I will be re-testing for that one. :-/ So close.

I've never driven a stick before, so I am really looking forward to figuring out how to drive it. I love good challenges, so this fits relatively well.

Tomorrow I start going to the yard. I'm glad that all that studying is over, I can relax for a little bit now at night and just really focus during the day.

Mullet Man made an entrance this week. He seems really nice, but every class has that one person who knows more than the instructor and likes the sound of his own voice, so he never shuts up. Good guy, means well, just irritates me.

I'll keep ya posted.

 

Hey guys,

Got my rig!

To catch you up, Mullet man ended up dropping out. Day 1 on the yard proved to be too hard for the poor guy. We were doing straight line backing and for some reason he couldn't figure out that tricky steering wheel. I've never seen someone be able to get the tractor/trailer at a 45 within a straight space like that. When that happened obscenities came flowing out of his mouth and I swear he was gonna stab someone right there. Luckily I was in the bunk and he just ended up jumping out.

I have videos and pics that I'll post up eventually. This one guy was cool. He was from Syria. His nick name is Gearbox. "Grind em till you find em" is his motto. Hell, no ones perfect, but he was a pro at that. I also have pictures and a video of the instructor sleeping in the co-pilot chair as we are driving around. True story. I was having to give directions, and he would only wake up if the driver slammed on the brakes... I thought about doing it once or twice just to mess with him while yelling "OH MY GOD!!" Call me sentimental, but I just couldnt bring myself to do it to the poor guy... he seemed so tired. He must have been, he trusted students who had only driven 2 days for about 2 hours each day to drive, while he was riding, to not wreck in a firey catastrophe.

I made friends with a couple of people in the class. Cool fellows. I always enjoy meeting new people. I hope to seem them again.

One guy was from North Carolina. He actually ended up not joining the USA team. Appearantly to be a trainer for USA you have to be disfunctional at some level. He got 2 bad trainers....

Mine was cool, so I saw fit to rub it in a little. Hindsights 20/20 though. Probably not the best idea on my part. Im sure there are other really good trainers out there too.

I passed my upgrade test. Got my rig after a greyhound ride later.

I've had a couple problems with my dispatcher. She doesnt want to give me all the details of the load when I originally get it and wants to tell me the details after the fact and then blame me for not doing it. Very annoying.
I should probably ask for a new dispatcher, but like a schmuck, I'm going to try and hash things out with the twit. Seriously, how hard is it to tell a driver they are swapping the load with another driver, when they send the load assignment? even in a message right after it, not 6 hours later. God forbid you tell her that.

And why would you even pull me off a 800 mile load in the first place? I had plenty of hours to run it and not be over on my 11/14/70. Makes no sense. She'll call me, bring up a topic, I'll shut her down, then she hangs up on me. No phone privelages anymore. nu-uh. None. Nada. Zilch. Not gonna happen. If its an emergency she can leave me a voice mail.

She will then send me a load its due in 7 days and its intermodal, so it has a stopoff. There is no delivery time nor date in the corresponding field for the stopoff. I stop an hour away, take a shower, eat a good meal, take a short break because ive been running my ### off.... "beep beep"
"Why is ths ld tking so lng?"
"They r waitng 4 ths ld."
"Thy r on my case get ths ld there now"

"Oh im sorry, I must have misread the delivery time"
"What was the delivery time for the stop off? I don't see it on here?"
"Ill get going right after I finish my lunch, k"

"I nd u mving in 5 min"

"Ill get moving as soon as I finish my lunch."

"I nd to see u mving in 5 min."

Seriously, does she think that her problem becomes my problem? The first 2 weeks I went ahead and let her shovel the #### my way, but to hell if she thinks she'll keep getting away with it.

Maybe this is a childish way to look at this, but seriously, if everybody was competent and did their own job, without relying on someone else to do it, then this industry would be a much better place to work. Call me an Idealist, but thats the way I feel.

It's all about communication, and for some reason she is lacking it. How do they hire dispatchers exactly? I'm curious.

Bought a light stove, need a microwave. That'd be great. The stove is awesome though. 50 bucks, and I dont have to keep eating junk food. Awesome. Got an ice chest. Great! I can have cereal in the AM. Just got to get my work out regimen goin and ill be set. It needs to be based off my sleeping and occasional free time though. Im not complaining but nothing is ever orderly is what I'm noticing. Something like when I wake up I run for 15 min. That would be good I think.

Got a CB Cobra 29 LTD Chrome. Fantabulous CB. My antenea is jacked though. Need to make time to fix it. I can still use it in traffic, which is all that matters to me right now anyway. I really like laughing at the idiots on the CB... McCain! Obama! F-U (black slur) "Obama"... for real? Seriously...Arguing on the CB is like running in the special olympics... even if you win, you're still retarded.. Every once in a while someone intelligent gets on and I can have an intelligent conversation for all of about 2 minutes until they get out of my range because my truck only does 62 tops on flat land.

Gettin in the groove of things though. My normal dispatcher was on vacay for a week. Things were ... She back, now things are Nothing is ever her fault though...

What to do, what to do.

I am the type of driver that wants to stay out 5 to 8 weeks. and be home very little. Only for emergencies and events that I have planned well in advance. between my 5 to 8 week runs. Isn't that what dispatchers want? Seriously though. I don't think she could have a better driver than myself.

I first tried sucking up. No go. Then I tried playing stupid. Nope. Third, I tried the whole, I did what was on the Qual, thing. Nada. I'm now just getting into my, #### you, let me do my job. Lets see where this gets me. I might even throw in a "talk to her boss" thing. Duhno, what do you guys think I should do?

I'll cuss her out for $50. throw in $25 and ill insult your dispatcher too if you want.

Til next time... Rubberside goes down.

 

I try and call the shipper/receiver if I can make it earlier, but usually the numbers they give me are ####.

If I ask my FM for a new number, show always questions me, so I usually try and find something online. I should probably get a roladex or something.

I've started a new routine with her, lets see if it works. lol