Anyone have current info on FFE?

65 just seems crazy. At USX we have access to them all but there are only eight that are required before upgrade. I thought 'Space Management" was one of the best.

 

January 24 2011



Hello Group:

I had to break off the last update about the FFE Orientation and Training School this Afternoon because I had my Driving Academy Administrator come in to the Driver's lounge and ask me to come back to his office and to meet my new Trainer.
I was very pleased to meet this particular Trainer because he is going through some of the same things in life that I am dealing with, Obesity, he is 380 pounds and he likes to take life easy, although he says that he runs hard. He said that he likes to eat at Subways and enjoys a Vegetarian diet as well as a powdered milkshake energy mix diet, but otherwise he cannot eat, due to his obesity situation right now.
He was asking me about my last Trainer and then he started telling me a story about how he himself has had to make some adaptations to life on the Road.
He said that everything about Trucking is an adaptation and that I will have to learn how to be ready to (adapt) drive late at night and in the Morning eventually, but It was exactly one of those things that he himself has had to deal with in the course of his own experience.
I mentioned why I thought that I wanted to get into Trucking, I just said that It was fun, and he agreed with me on that, and I think that we have at least that much in common. He said that all Students make mistakes and he is here to show everyone about how to do things the right way.

 

Well, to say the least FFE is so bad off for drivers that they have recently adopted a sign on bounus to get more drivers which they never used to have. You'll spend a lot of your time waiting to pick up a load. This is how bad it really is in number's even for someone who does run and can't do to their limitations. In the previous 7 months of employment with them in 2010 and just got my W-2 in today from them, I made a whopping $7,752.33 total. That would mount to far under $20,000 a year. And no, they don't believe in their driver's going home either. As I have told many, FFE is a company that I would supply a keg/BBQ party just to watch them burn for all the #### they have caused me.

 

January 26th 2011


Hello Group:


Today was a really nice day, although It seemed to pass slowly. The afternoon before I had to drive the rig around the Yard in Lancaster Texas and to get the load coupled (for the first time), We then pulled out to get the weight on the load at the Cat Scales up route 35, a mile and a half away. It was a challenge to line up with the Scales twice because the Love's Truckstop in Dallas was really crowded and we had to do It twice, and after all of this, I still could not get the weight exactly right on the Drives and the steering axel.

My Trainer at FFE and I drove up to Denver CO where we had to bring a Trailer of Cocoa Cola and their products to the main distribution center on York St. It took about half of the day to get the Truck unloaded and then we had to wait in a long line at the Pilot Truck stop in order to get the Trailer washed out so that we could bring it up to a Meat processing plant in Ft. Morgan CO where we later did a drop and hook.

We are going to make a run down to Louisiana, eventually, I'll talk to You Later.

 

January 28 2011





Hello Group:


The only problem with waiting that I have had this far, with the Drop and Hook up at the Cargill plant and the wait at the Coca Cola plant in denver was waiting in line for the Trailer wash out at the Truck Stop in Denver. We were supposed to call the Lancaster Terminal for an advance authorization for this purpose and we had to wait for close to an hour and then we waited again for the Truck wash, but otherwise we just had to wait about an hour for the Coca Cola people to unload the Truck and then we drove up to Ft. Morgan in order to do the late in the evening Drop and Hook.

My Trainer and I have been getting 800 Mile runs with the Dallas to Denver and then the Ft. Morgan Colorado to Louisiana route, which is actually about 1,000 Miles. The last routes that I did with Carlos were from Laredo TX to Atlanta GA and then from Greenwood SC to Dallas, so I'm not sure what's wrong with that other than You really have to be able to run hard and honestly with Your hours of service at FFE. They say that there is really a shortage of Drivers at FFE for the amount of demand for the work that they have available.

Refrigerated work is a specialty and I have heard that It is one of those recession proof Industry's. So, I'll just have to let You know how It goes.

 

January 30th 2011




Hello Group




I had a long drive with my Trainer, Curtis from Amarillo Texas over to Shreveport LA from Route 287 to Route 35W-S and It was uneventfull, except for the Dallas-Ft. Worth area Rush hour traffic, where I had to back off a lot and let the other merging cars into my CMV lane. The ramps on 35W-S were rather narrow, and It did help to slow down a lot in crossing the Interchanges. The speeds on the ramps are rated for cars, of course but a lot of Trucks were taking them at speeds over 50 MPH.
We are headed over to Robert Louisiana, and as soon as I started driving on Route 20 for about 15 to 20 Miles I saw the pickup truck in front of me lurching around and jumping into the air for a few minutes and then I ran over a big Tire carcass and then a little bit later, a second one or possibly a huge rubber antifriction mat, but I just held on and kept on driving straight until we reached the area East of Tyler Texas when a passing tanker kept blasting his air horn at us, and being as I did not have the C.B. on, Curtis turned it on and requested information about the problem with the Truck and It turned out that one of the big hanging springs in the back of the Trailer that holds our air lines snapped off at the frame and our air lines were dragging on the road, or very close to the road. We Thanked the Tanker and then pulled in to our fuel stop and got out a bungee cord and pulled the air lines back up closer to the frame.
I drove in to the Flying J in Shreveport LA or rather East of It at Greenwood and then we changed drivers and let Curtis do the parking this evening, and then we filled in our Log Books, because the People net Monitor in our Truck went offline (we will have to return to Dallas to get another one), we started discussing Logging, and Hours of Service and calculating the Recap and entering It in, and then how to find a better way to calculate the hours, by using a little Verizon card phone, and we turned in at about 1 AM.
I guess that I drove about 500 and some miles easily, and with great pleasure. That's all for now, I Hope that You all will find some nice places to stop off and eat on this route to Louisiana, They do have some nice spacious Truck stops on this route.

 

February 4th 2011





Hello Group:

Everything is going as It should be. We sent our load of fresh meat (live unload) to Robert Louisiana and then immediately picked up a load of Rice of all kinds in Greeenwood Missippi, chauffered that one up to Hazelton PA and then we picked up a load in York PA then went up to Boston MA.

We did experience one severe Winter storm as we arrived in Hazelton PA, but the Good thing about relaxed Trainers is that they may sleep for half of the day, and that was extremely fortunate all of us, because the Roads needed to be salted thoroughly and I don't think that It could have been done any sooner than the late afternoon.

It was a little bit difficult to spot the black Ice and I could feel the whole truck or tractor shift a little bit on some of the turns. It was'nt bad for the most part after 4 PM and we used a little bit of Jake braking in order to prevent some high speeds before we went downhill to begin with, and Jake braking did a lot to save our lives.

The only part of the whole experience in the Northeast that I did'nt like was the section of Route 81 between Knoxville TN and New Market Virginia that goes through the Smokey Moutains. There were far too many downgrades, most of them unmarked and winding switchback turns, mostly unmarked for me to be completely comfortable with the driving after dark, since I had no Idea what was coming up on the Road.

On the Other hand, It was a very relaxing Drive because of my Trainer, being the kind of person that he is, and he will make a lot of stops and encourage me to do the same, in order to get my rest breaks, shower and eat and to do my laundry. I think that he would tolerate these things mainly because I am able to drive cleanly and neatly for more than 500 Miles per day for him, with 34,000 Lb maximum loads.

The Shifting, even with a Good Truck, ours is a Freightliner Centrury with only 200,000 Miles on It, could be considered challenging, with the need to maintain momentum, and to coordinate that with the Traffic flow, mergers etc. but It is not something intolerable for my Trainer, as long as my lane control is slow and easy and of course, precise.

FFE is working out well, and It is no problem at all to work for the company, and of course certain people in the company who have the patience to teach It's practical dimensions.

I have personally backed up to the docks, taken in the paperwork, been given the responsibility for the receipts and the lumpers after each run, scaled most of the loads fueled It, checked the refrigerator and done most of the P.T.I.'s.

 

Sounds like you are coming along nicely! When are you due to get your own truck?

 

It's nice to be getting some good reports. Good luck.

 

It sounds like it is exactly what training is supposed to be. Great job