Anyone have current info on FFE?

Joseph, thank God you are off that truck. What a loser. You can run legal, you can use restrooms, you can eat and drink, Do not allow any trainer to treat you that way. I am not sure what FFE policy is but with USX, my trainer is not even allowed to drive until I have 75 hours behind the wheel.

 

Hey Joe great postings on your progress. By the way did you go through Smth & Solomon (Norristown)for CDL ?

 

January 20 2011






Hello Group:


Yes, FFE is a very friendly and nice company, but they did have at least one or two crazy trainers that I have personally heard about or experienced and I have had the FFE Driving Academy Supervisor tell me "Oh well, we'll just have to find You another one", so at least they understand their situation.

It was also hard to find a nonsmoking Trainer for me, I have waited for two days now at their home terminal in Lancaster Texas, in the break room or driver's lounge. I am just finding out about the different jobs in the company from listening to the other drivers talk about the jobs that they have worked on.
I have heard in Orientation that a lot of people will wait in the Drivers Lounge in Lancaster for long distance runs that somehow pop up there first or else they will go there for some LTL runs into the Dallas area that pay about $50.00 per run, if there is nothing else to do.

The Good thing about waiting at the Lancaster Texas drivers lounge was the fact that It is such an nice company and everyone has been super friendly to one another here and they were either there watching the Giant screen projection TV in there and playing their best DVD's or surfing on the Free WIFI system that FFE provides for everybody there or reading something. There are a lot of Trainers and Trainees who go there to mix or to just talk Politics and about world events.

I was on one of their free PC's doing all of my Driving Academy ProTread system Videos and Tests. It really Good to have a place where PC's are Online and available at least to do the hundreds of Videos and Quizzes that they gave me to do. If You have a laptop You can do them anywhere on Tread1.net. I just checked it out, and they have 17 category's of Topics and usually 28 to 35 pages of Video presentations and Quizzes with each category, so It really amounts to a lot of work. I put in 7 1/2 hours on the computer all day Today with their computer training work, because I figure I may not get to have any time off of the road to do It in the near future once I get a Truck and a Trainer.

I was kind of Hoping that they would come into the Drivers lounge again Today and hand me another Hotel Voucher and a breakfast meal ticket just so I could come back to the Grande in Desoto and pull up all the rest of the Online lessons. I apparently have 7 more ProTread category's of work to do, and It looks like only one of them requires a Book to finish, and that would be the HazMat category of Quizzes.

One of the things that I have learned, hanging around in the Drivers Lounge is that most of the work that FFE does is in the direction of the NorthEast U.S. and Chicago. Since I live in the Philadelphia PA Suburbs I have the best possible company for requesting loads for "drive by's" for some extra home time, even if I still want to do OTR. They are supposed to give You home time at one day per 7 days on the road but It works out really well with FFE is You would like to Travel up North a lot, rather than to stay in some circuitous routes around the SouthEast and the SouthWest for Your home time there.

I live kind of close to the Burlington NJ FFE Terminal, wherever that is, along the Turnpike somewhere I once heard, and they need a few drivers for the LTL.
I think that this is something that may work out for some of the people who live in my area, and If You don't want to do LTL then there's plenty of OTR.
I'll bet that they have some regional operations out of Burlington NJ but I am still finding out about all of the possibilitys there.

I Hope that this will help some people. I'll let You know about how life is with a Trainer as soon as I get one. FFE is also looking for Teams if You know of anybody who would like to get into a Good company.

 

January 20 2011






Mr. V:


Yes, I went to the Smith and Solomon School in Norristown, the best deal for the Money, worked and practiced out of the Bridgeport PA Yard from the 16th of January 2010, almost all Year on the Weekends...We had a lot of bad weather last winter and sometimes the teachers could'nt show up on the weekends but they made up for It completely by extending and extending their 4 week program for as long as You needed to practice Your Yard skills or Road skills. It was beautifull!

I graduated with my Class A on October 15th 2010 and my Class P on November the 7th 2010. I then went on and graduated from their OSHA compliant Forklift Course in Cherry Hill NJ a few weeks later.

I went up to the Williams Transportation Co. in Mansfield PA, up by the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania to "Test out" on my Road skills part of my CDL's because It really is a lot easier up there to maneuver CMV's and they will give You Automatic F900 Landscape Dump Trucks and 30 ft. Construction flatbed trailers up there to take Your tests in their School Bus company. Anybody can pass their tests with a little bit of practice. I just Love that place.

Manny and George and Mark had me practicing and practicing with the 45 ft. dry van Trailers that they bought from National Freight, I think, and the Freightliner Columbia's.

I could have easily passed with their Semi's out in Lancaster but Smith and Solomon would like for You to pass everything in 3 Trys. I stalled out twice out there in Lancaster so the Head teacher was very upset with me.

I Later found out about Mansfield when the director of Operations at Smith and Solomon talked to me about my situation and believe me It was a fun place to go to and It did'nt seem to make any difference anyway, as long as I graduated my School. The Director of Operations at Smith and Solomon in the Philadelphia area was one outstanding kind of a person for sending me up there for my Road skills test. Anyone that practiced everything for a few Months could easily pass the Test in Mansfield PA.

 

I remember you. I passed 06/16/10 up at Mt.Joy , glad to see your doing well, be safe out there.

 

January 21 2011






Hello Mr. V and the Group:


Yes, FFE is allright as a company and they are a very Safety conscious company as well. They are really tough with the people who go over their hours and they have some kinds of Software connected with their people net GPS systems that will tell them who is going over their hours. They need to see a Paper Log Book as well as the computer transponder track.

They have a belief that a graduate of their FFE Driving Academy is an "experienced" driver after 6 Months and they will reward their Trainers, who only need to have 6 Months of experience at FFE after graduation and a clean record $500.00 for every student who makes it for 6 Months preventable Accident free.

I don't know if they will let outstanding students out on the road before the 6 week interval, provided that they know how to drive in all kinds of weather but a lot of Students here are returning Drivers or experienced with other companys or were employed in the Trucking industry Years ago.

There are quite a few Senior citizens working for FFE and a handfull of women of all kinds. You could'nt walk around the driver's lounge for a day without meeting all kinds of different people of all descriptions and life experience groups. I think that a lot of the people in the Drivers Lounge became Truckers because they were probably bored with their previous jobs.

In any case, I started hanging around the Driver's lounge for a few hours Today, because It is a Friday, and after the last Orientation they were supposed to get a lot of Trainers in to see the Trainees.

I worked hard on getting finished 11 major ProTread Category's yesterday and then worked as hard as I could Today doing about 7 of them so far, but their computer slowed down a lot on one of my ProTreads Today at the driver's lounge and I thought that It was slowed down on all of them so I just gave up early, at 3 PM and stopped doing them over there.

I am now doing them on the WIFI connection at the MCM Grande Hotel this Weekend.

I had to check in with the Driving Academy Program director this Morning, and sign the form and I told him that I was interested in being on the bottom of the list for Trainers since I had to finish all of my ProTreads and he was pleased with that I think, then he assigned me 3 nights at the MCM Grande Hotel (1/2) price or for $24.00 for a single room for one day, so that was Good, and It will reset my 7 days even though I had to deal with some screw ups. I'll tell You about them.

I checked into the Grande, where I have been staying in the South Dallas area for most of the past 2 Weeks and by some mix up the clerk there forgot that I always register for a "King's room" on the 4th floor with a couch and a single bed so he assigned me a room mate later on, a really polite, quiet and intelligent looking middle aged man with a Southern accent, but I kept the room single anyway so that was O.K. because of the electronic stuff that I am always carrying around and working on.

I was just checking out the connectivity on the WIFI on the Third Floor of this Hotel, It worked much faster and more reliably than anything ever could up on the 4th Floor where I have always stayed. The WIFI is essential to my being in contact with the FFE ProTreads server for the driving Academy.

So, I think that It was really Good that the Hotel desk screwed up about trying to give me the 3rd floor room, and even when they tried to give me a Good room mate here. I think that sometimes You just have to sacrifice in order to get things done for Your employer in a situation like this.

If I get another flaky trainer this next time, well at least I put my Good Faith or due diligence in by finishing up the ProTreads, so I'll be ready to test out.
It's like I said if You get some nut trainer he will always try to call Safety and then try to dump You off beside the road at a Truckstop if You don't do all of Your work and call the School Yourself. I am Hoping that this is going to work.

I am just going to keep this computer on running constantly, like I did last night, off and on at all hours, checking on all of these Internet Video lessons and passing everything possible.

I had a really Good day Today, I walked around the fenceline of the Lancaster Yard and up and down the rows of the Trailers parked outside of the Driver's lounge and I spent 2 hours power walking to stay in shape.

I have a lot of ProTread lessons (Tread1.net), about 30 of them, to finish right now so I had better get started.

I just ate some of the Hotel's New England Clam chowder and ate a lot of Salad on their Soup and Salad bar in the Flag lobby area. It was fantastic!

I Hope that this trainer that I am going to be getting on Monday likes to teach.
It has me a little bit worried that one of those people can say whatever they like about You to the FFE Driving Academy managers. Carlos, my last one really flipped out on them even though he had to pay for It, but that's OTR and what It can do to Your mind sometimes.

OTR was really easy for me, especially coming from the Northeast and It was a lot of fun just being in a valued position and seeing the Southeast. Carlos was in a Good mood yesterday and I drove the Truck right through Athens Georgia and around the outside of the Athens Technical College where R.E.M. worked.
The Scenery was spectacular and It was a lot of fun!

 

January 22 2011






Hello Group:


I am spending the Weekend at the MCM Grande Hotel again in Desoto Texas, where I finished the FFE Orientation last weekend, so actually I have been here for close to two weeks. It is a Good place to get soup and salad and they will give You Your own coffee maker in each room, so It's nice if You can bring Your own Tea to brew while You at this place.

I have decided to make this place my personal PRO TREAD Boot camp after all of my experiences last week, and then figuring out last Monday what the PRO TREADS really are, I figured that they were the written paperwork with the questions that they give You at the end of Your training that You have to "Test out" on, but then I figured out that they are actually some Internet Video lessons or a "distance learning enviornment" where You have to watch them and then fill out the multiple choice questions and True and False answers.

They play in segments of about 5 minutes each and they usually have about 20-30 pages of one Video at a time per page and they will play for about 30-40 minuets. There are 3 categorys of them: CDL Skills, OSHA and related Videos.

I was able to get about 35 of them finished so far this week and I am Hoping to be able to get them all (40-50) done at the end of this weekend.
PRO TREADS are very helpfull for teaching people about Log Books and whatever You have to look out for on the Roads. I guess that there's a lot of them compared to whatever they will give You in Trucking School and even on the practicals but I suppose that the Company does'nt want for You to take it for granted.

I am Thankfull to Carlos, my old Trainer, for showing me the way to properly do Log Books while on the Truck, but It was also very helpfull to see a few Videos, they have about 4 sets of them with this company, The FFE Driving Academy, on the same material. I don't think that I can forget about how to do It now.

It would be cool to see FFE make a few of their own Videos about how to work their People net Log In, GPS and Load message computers in the Trucks and to see a few Videos on the proper way to send in the paperwork, like Old Log Books and Diesel receipts and the shipping Bill of Lading etc.

I still have no clue about how this communications enviornment works at this particular company. I really Hope that I get a Good Trainer next week and I also get to drive a reasonable number of hours and pick up some loads.

All I can say is that It was a lot of fun for the most part last week and the things that were not agreeable seemed to get resolved very quickly with no questions and no negative consequences on my part. I still don't have enough hours on the road for me to even be able to say I have backed up to a Trailer and coupled and then uncoupled one, or to be able to say that I have practiced some 45 deg. parking. I guess that all of this will come in time.

Crazy Carlos, my Old Trainer is also staying at the Grande. I finally took a power walk around the outside of the Hotel and saw the Big Green International ProStar sitting off in the corner, so I guess that he probably broke down and needs to have the Lancaster Yard Terminal for his repairs. That old ProStar had 30 to 35 pounds of Oil pressure maximum and It was ready for the Scrapyard, at least as far as the engine was concerned.

I just Hope that I will be able to get my Breakfast and get away from here before Carlos tries to B.S. me a little bit more but then again He's friendly basically so maybe he learned his lessons about going off on me a few times.

 

January 23 2011






Hello Group:


I got my quota of 50 PRO TREAD Video lessons done Today, It did take me all of last week and into this weekend to be able to accomplish all of this. It even took me until midnight for the last two nights. I still have a few more PRO TREADs to do on HazMat and OSHA, but at least I finished the basic driving skills Video lessons. This is really Cool, because I won't have to do that much more to graduate, just work!

I ordered out for a Big Veggie Lovers Pizza Hut pie because they closed the restaurant in the MCM Grande for the Weekend and I am ready to eat it now.

 

Glad I read these threads as I have applied to FFe along with several other just deciding which to go with

 

January 24 2011






Hello Group:


There are 65 PRO TREAD Video lessons in the FFE Driving Academy program.

My Trainer has'nt showed up yet Today, Monday, but I can Safely say that I have finished all of the work that I had planned for this Week, finishing all of the Video distance learning lessons with the True and False and multiple choice answer questions.

This is actually what I would have preferred to do anyway. It is probably really hard to find any time on the Road to get these done in a short amount of time.

I think that 65 of these can be done in about 5 full days, so I don't even know how most people do It, unless they have some home time on the computer to work on them.



I am so glad that they are finished and I Hope that my Trainer is an easy going type of a person. It is actually hard for FFE to find nonsmoking Trainers for the Trainee drivers.