Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

Hi all, I got perusing this thread one day last week and ended up reading the whole thing over several days!

It's always interesting to read and compare how alike AND how different trucking companies are, simultaneously.

In this case, I didn't see any post actually detailing what happened with George, the recent trainee? I just read between the lines that there was the ever-dreaded distraction followed by an incident of some kind?

I'm mostly just nosey because I feel like I was right there with you guys from following along online, but I also worked for a company that seemed to go out of their way to fire newbies for (in my opinion) outrageously stupid reasons. One theory among the drivers was that the company preferred abusing government grants for companies that hire rookies and students to actually employing them. They would also routinely hire back some of these "firees" so that the joke in the yard was asking how long such-and-such a driver as fired for this time.

Just curious about how common this is at Abilene and what sort of mistake (or incident) would warrant firing a new driver they went to great pains and expense to hire and train. That, and I'm nosey.

Thanks in advance!

 

Im sure JB will chime in on this as well. George first of all is one hell of a good guy and I am glad to call him a friend. George went through several months with a flatbed as a trainee and they parted ways. Smartly. I believe honestly that both parties realized that it was not a good fit. George also went to a school on his own, not a company school. When he came to us he was labelled a stage 2 trainee. Meaning some experience with competence in the basics like lane control and can safely operate the truck with moderate to small input from the trainer. Our stage 2 is Team training. He did very well at this as well. He came on my truck after about 2 mos. We immediately started fine tuning. He mainly needed backing practice and trip planning. I would say that almost every "incident" was related to this. George will even tell you this... When he took the time, thought it out, and just let himself do it he could hit his backing. In honesty most of the incidents were preventable. He just rushed himself. When he stopped and asked for help from JB or I his probs were solved. When he got excited and forced things is where bad things happened. It was a culmination of smaller things that led up to Abilene deciding to place him back as 2nd seat Team Driver. Some people need more, some people need less. He needed more. Then the fuel hose happened and Safety couldnt afford to keep him running on our DOT number with the # of minor incidents that had happened in his 6 weeks solo. The "indicators" forced us to part ways before a something worse than crushed cab extenders happened. Same way an auto ins company would drop you. Abilene did their due diligence according to their professional responsibility to the industry. It sucked for Abilene because George is extremely likable, personable, and gung-ho for his job (and Jungho as well). I was there when it happened and it absolutely sucked seeing it. I kept quiet about it bc I was asking myself what could I have done better?!? It was a teaching moment for me and hence my change of outlook I posted about on my thread.

 

I see, thanks for info!

It happens to the best of us out here, some of us are luckier than others with the timing for sure... Sorry to read about it, because he really did seem to be very enthusiastic and thorough, which is a battle unto itself! Not really something that can be taught!

Safe travels out there, wherever the wind blows today!

 

Good morning. Hope everyone had a good Memorial day. About to be in the shop for a couple fail codes. Seems a brake fault worries the shop.

 

So glad to hear that George got on with Trans Am. I followed your (and his) posts closely when you were training him and he seemed like a generally good guy with a great attitude. I wish him much success in his new career.

 

Hey JB you still on the yard?