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

There is no set time or mileage quota for training. You progress based on your trainer's evaluation of your driving. I was in training for almost 1 month. They basically train you how to do the job, how to run the way Abilene wants us to, procedures etc. You will be coming here as a fully licensed driver so the trainers expect that you know how to drive a truck.

I have never worked anywhere else doing OTR so I couldnt comment on whether the training here is good vs somewhere else.

 

I was stabbing away at my tablet keyboard as fast as I could, Cap'n.

 

Thxs redtwin
I don’t have any experience
Driving T/T.

 

Good job. We’re at sea tomorrow, so as one of the trainers here, I feel obligated to answer. Just not tonight.

 

Didnt have any experience driving a tractor trailer either when I started here in 2016, not since i went to CDL school in 1995.

The driving test you do when you get here is easy. A quick run through of a pretrip where you basically get told what you should be checking rather than having to go through everything like in school. You then hook to a trailer and do like 10 mins on the road. Remember your turn signals, dont speed or hit anything and you're through.

Once you get on a trainer's truck they will go through what they expect of you. I had 2 trainers and they were quite different so no way of saying beforehand what you will encounter there. I have to tell you though that you will be running so it would be best to prepare yourself for a lot of driving right from the start. In my experience there was no gentle break in where you dtive 6-8 hours then gradually increase. I drove my full hours from day one.

 

No wonder I couldn't post. I thought my phone was going bad! LOL!

 

Seems slow on here tonight, but I will hold down the fort til the others show up.

 

I was trying to send you a message. My phone is messing up!
I will try tomorrow!

 

Thxs redtwin

 

No problem, I know its nerve wracking, but it is honestly much better here than many of the training horror stories I read about at other companies.

How are you getting to Richmond?. Once there, you get put up at a LaQuinta half mile away. You get your own very nice room ( breakfast buffet etc) and will get picked up and dropped off each day during orientation. Lunch during orientation is covered ( probably still Subway). Dinner you fend for yourself. There is a BK across the street and McD half a block away. I just saved half my sub from lunch for my dinner. If you stuff yourself on the free breakfast at the hotel you wont need the whole sub at lunch anyway.

Orientation is in a classroom, lots of videos to watch, paperwork to fill out etc. You get your company ID and fuel card. Dont know if they still give you a polo shirt and ball cap.

Personally, I found being on the trainer's truck rough. Thats mostly because im a private person and dont like people in my "space". The thing is, its not my space, its the trainer's space. Keep your head down, go along with what they say even if you may not like all of it and get through it.

Thats how i dealt with it. I just need to get through this, even when the trainer was talking what I thought was a bunch of BS. So what, its his truck. When I get my own truck I can talk as much BS as I want, and getting your own truck is when it all seems worthwhile. When you get your first full paycheck, not the daily pay you got in training, it will definitely be worth all the stuff you had to put up with in training.

I dont know what kind of jobs/pay you have had in the past, but in my 32 year working life, the last 2 years here have been the most money I have ever earned...and the least I have had to work to earn it. Just keep that in mind when things seem kind of tough and you might be second guessing doing OTR.