6/21/16 Is the beginning of my Schneider career!!!

Here in West Memphis AR we're staying at the days inn. Connected to the hotel is a Mexican restaurant. It's awesome!!! Real

My bad. I meant 13 million!! Lol

I did great backing. Then we did an obstacle course. Did great at that too. Again everyone I came near to the best of my knowledge is still alive. If they're not alive it's not from my doing because I didn't hit anything! So, it was a good day on the road. Things are great to be honest. I'm very impressed. The guy in training with is a little behind so he's getting more time behind the wheel. Rightfully so. The instructors are crazy patient and he's come a long way due to their explanation. Really really awesome.

I'm at up with my TE (training engineer)and will be leaving on the road with him Monday morning for a week. I'm excited. Then I'm back here the following week and should have my truck 2 weeks from today. I can't wait!

 

Alright, Friday about 4pm we got back from pretty much doing everything we had done all week. I had no idea but it was a test. I passed everything and they officially moved me on to go out with my TE. The other guy had been held over. I guess they feel like he needs another week before hitting the road. I think that's great. He was talking about quitting and I tried to talk him up about the progress that he has made in the 3 days we drove. I'm not sure what he'll do but it's impressive to me that they're not pushing him along just to get another driver. I told him to take advantage of the opportunity to get better.

Saturday we did more classroom stuff map planning, company benefits, simulator and weight distribution.

Talked to my TE last night and we were scheduled to meet up tomorrow morning but he may have a load going from West Memphis AR to Memphis TN and he could use a day like today to drop some hours for our next 4 days. So, he asked if I wanted to meet up with him and do that run then meet back up tomorrow for our schedule. I said sure and I'm waiting for his call today around 10am. Also he isn't from here so in order to get home I'll only be with him till Thursday night. So this will give me a little extra time that I'm all about getting.

I know nothing about the Qualcomm so I'll need a lot of work there. Never even turned one on. Map planning I think I'm pretty solid on. I could use more work in all areas of course. But when I say I'm solid I'm basing that against my classmates. The 2 I sat between the instructor had me help because I had gotten the answers correct on mine and they were helping other students.

I think my area that I need the most work in is shifting in the lower gears. I'm really better at either skip shifting up from say 2nd to 4th than hitting each gear individually. One of the negative remarks on my test was I try to soft by sound rather than look at my RPMs. I think part of my problem is I'm fast at double clutching so I'm able to get to my next gear fast before my RPMS drop for the next gear and I tend to bounce the tractor a bit. So still a lot of room to improve.

My instructor threw the "We've just been in a horrible accident. You have to call 911. What road are we on and what intersection did we just pass." I had no idea. I knew that we had turned off some street about 10 miles back. He said not good enough!!! FAILED that one! That was our first day driving. I had been doing that exact thing someone mentioned above of out loud saying cross streets and roads. I did it without instruction because I'm horrible about remembering things I read. I have to read it out loud to retain it. He never asked me again but I think I would have been ready lol.

I'm sure I'll learn a lot on the road this week. I can't wait. Hoping to start today.

 

East bound and down, loading up then trucking!!!

Well, kinda.... met up with my TE this morning at about 8:30 in West Memphis AR. Loaded up my personal belongings and we took an empty 1.7 miles to load. Lol I'm sitting in the bunk waiting for them to load it. We went in and announced our 10 am appt. She said it was at 12pm. We told her we had another appt in Memphis for 1pm. She said they'd see what they can do. That was an hour ago. Still not a sound that they are loading. I took the time to get my stuff unpacked and situated. And I'm just reading some blogs.

My trainer seems nice. Been here for 25 years. Seems like there will be a lot to learn on the Qualcomm. But I'll get there. I'm an information sponge. But we'll be headed to the Florida Georgia line. Isn't that a country band? Two music references today. I'll have to get used to this waiting thing.