Bulkmatic, as it happens...

Hey, hey, HEY! Are you cheatin' on me???

 

Don't tease me man, I know where you park your car!!!

 

Had my interview. Everyone I have dealt with so far has seemed very laid back and straight forward about things. Never hemmed and hawed or answered questions like a politician (not actually answering them).

When I showed up I was asked to fill out a short 2 page questionnaire. Things like list the 5 most important things to you in working for company, how many nights a week, if any, can you be away from home, do you prefer to drive during the day or at night, do you prefer to drive a day cab or a sleeper. Things of that nature.

Man came out and took me back to his office for what basically turned out to be about a 30 minute bull session. Really nice down to earth guy, up front about everything as far as I can tell so far. Went over my sheet I had filled out and gave me the generalities of what the job entailed, what to expect and all that. Took the time to stop during whenever I had a question and answered them all. As stated, it took about a half hour but I think if there had been a lot more questions on my end and it had needed to take an hour he would have had no problem with that either. Very laid back and no rush to get thru things, more focused on making sure he and I were both on the same page about the job and no going to be wasting either of our time later down the line because of things left unasked or unanswered right now.

At the end he asked if I was still interested in the job, which I was, so we headed down and the man in charge of the shop took me for a test drive.

Popped the hood and I ran thru a general pre-trip. He didn't want the whole thing but enough under the hood and walk around to be satisfied that I knew what to look for.

Driving test was straight forward, nothing out of left field, a trip down the road about 10 miles and back then a back into a spot and drop the trailer. After a month out of a truck my and it being a strange truck to me (do all Macks rev to/shift from such a high RPM range?) my shifting could have been better but he had no issues with it.

After test drive was sent to doc in the box for basic DOT physical.

A few points were clarified:

> Pay during your training period is a flat rate, but it is $200/day, not the $180 recruiter told me (a mistake in my favor? thank you sir, may I have another!)
>Fueling is @ Pilots if possible. Was told there is a macro to use for fuel that will bounce you out a list of all places in your area with current pricing and you can chose which one to hit up.
> Assigned truck, no slip seating every day.
> Phone policy is totally Blutooth touch free. You may talk on the phone, make/receive calls as long as it can be done 100% from voice commands. Touching the screen is a big no no and if caught doing so you will be out of a job.
>Loads pay zip to zip. What can ya do, nothing is ever perfect anyplace ya go.
> Bonus policy... There is a $6,000 sign on bonus. It pays out over 37 weeks. First pay out of $1,000 after 35 days I think (don't told me to that as I did not write it down for some reason) then weekly in smaller amounts as time passes. I told him up front that my view on sign on bonuses was generally they are there because either the job itself sucks so bad they can't keep a driver in the seat or the company itself sucks so bad they can't keep a driver in the seat. I was told that once I'm on my own and become proficient in the aspects of the job I can expect to gross $1,300-1,500/week but until then the loading and unloading will most likely take me much longer then normal in the beginning meaning I will be making less because of how pay is structured and this is the company's way of trying to make is easier to retain drivers thru the learning curve in the beginning as opposed to them getting pissed they will never make any money and giving up on the job before they actually become good at it.

Waiting to hear back from them after they hear back from doc in the box, my previous employer and insurance company.

 

Doesn't sound too bad. Will you have to load off of rail cars?

 

I was told I would, yes. Not sure how much of the time it will be from rail cars, it doesn't really matter to me so I didn't bother asking.

So far they seem decent, and this is the type of job I need to have due to family issues, so if the money is at least close to what they say I'll be pretty happy with it.

 

I guess all that studying I did for the drug test paid off. Got the call earlier, start training in a few days.

Will update things as I figure them out.

 

]

Funny, I'm noticing more Bulk matic trucks on the road now. Congrats my friend. ^5

 

Day 1 in the books. Today, tomorrow and possibly part of the day after are something they call Bulkmatic University, which, to me at least, is what I would define as orientation.

As usual, what follows is in no particular order.

As with the other orientations I have been thru my brain is now about 68.93% mush. If I recall half of what was tossed out there today I would consider myself lucky.

Was given a laminated pre-trip check off card, basically what I have been doing all along but it's nice to have.

Also got a Driver Reference Book. Between class time and homework I haven't had time to do more then just glance at it so far but it looks to be pretty well put together. Heavy paper, spiral bound, and it appears to cover everything you could want. Kind of a quick pocket reference for everything from blowers to rail car transfer to blow up pictures of components with parts identified and usage guides and everything job related in between. I see myself getting a boatload of use out of this during the first months.

A couple other packets that we are going thru.

Cover a brief history of the company first then focused on safety for a good time. Spent some time with the man running the shop going over the general practices and how to go about putting truck/trailer in for service, service intervals and got a general overview of the 3 basic types of trailers used and a walk thru the trailer washout bay/procedure. How and who to contact for breakdown and tire issues.

Went over to a lead customer and took a walk around of the place and how they do things there then headed out to lunch (on the company).

Covered the Smart Drive camera set up in depth and he showed us some videos, the ones he gets sent to him when the cameras go off. The amount of information he sees is way out there, not just the video but also location by GPS, engine parameters throughout the time-frame and a couple other things. The way they are able to break the events down by type and terminal and track who keeps setting things off for what reasons is freaky.

Covered the point fairly new point system for preventable accident screw ups. 4 points or 3 preventables in a rolling year. Roll the truck over, 4 points. Hit a bollard, 1 points, #### like that.

When you first hire on you get a $275 dollar credit to put toward uniforms (Jeans, work pants, polos, shop shirts, light weight coats, caps and whatnot, Bulkmatic logos). Glanced at the items and price list really quick and looks like that's a hell of a lot of dough but it's use it or lose it, so I guess I will be using it. Every year thereafter you get $100 for the same.

$100 credit every year toward work boots (safety tow required). Head over to a specific store in the area and pick up what you want, if over the $100 pay the difference out of pocket.

I know there was a lot more then what I just covered, at least it feels like it, but at the moment I can't keep it straight and I gotta get back to homework reading.

@Steelersjunkie Caught your post in the other thread, Gary sometime sounds great brother, but at the moment I simply have no clue what would work. If you happen to find that you're going to be out that way text me and we'll see what we can put together.

 

No rush, brother. I can put together a run there with the click of a mouse and a phone call. Holler at me when things settle down for you and I'll make it happen