Anyone have current info on FFE?

February 6 2010





Hello Group:


I really enjoyed my Trucking very much in this past Week, but I am still actually on a relatively low level of priority, based upon my experience to being able to get my own Truck within the next few weeks. My Trainer Curtis said that every Student that he has fails the first week of his Training and then they will go through a cycle of progress and regression and then some more progress towards "being finished" and released from the FFE Driving Academy.

I still have a little bit of work to do on my rapid smooth shifting, backing up on the proper set up at 45 deg parking, Logbook work, my Lane control on curves and my Lane (control) in moving to the right side of the Lane while I am being passed, some space management around mergers and Momentum on upgrades knowing who to call at corporate for Trip planning work then my endurance, for night driving and that's about all.

If I can get this all together in a few weeks, 5 preferably, FFE should be able to give me my own Tractor and I can test out with one of their Examiners.

I figure that I learned two really important lessons in this past week. One is to always use the spot mirrors on the front of the hood before checking on any other mirrors on the West Coast mirrors and the flat mirrors before changing lanes and the Second is to pull over to ride the white line on the side of the Road while being passed by other high profile vehicles, especially combination Trucks, and especially while climbing and on curves. I actually had one Truck cross over the center line with his trailer while approaching Christiansburg TN South on the 81 and leave some paint on my drivers mirror. It made me so embarrassed. No breakage but It left me thinking about how to prevent this from ever happening again.

I ate a beautifull veggie Omlette, all You can eat, at the TA's then I drove 500-600 Miles from the TA in Franklin Tennesee, next to Nashville yesterday afternoon to 11:30 yesterday evening to just outside of Dallas Texas on the 40 and the 440 and the 30 and some of It was through the hills at night.

I learned a lot in the past week about how to use all of the mirrors and to also be courteous in centering the Truck in the lane (and flicking the interrupt and headlight switch) when being passed by other Trucks on the Highway.

I also learned not to talk too much while I am pulling into Truck Stops and rest stops beside the Highway because there are signs for Trucks only at different places and I had to roll through one because I missed the sign for the Truck parking.

These little problems were a blessing in disguise though because they just make You think twice about potentially getting embarrassed the next time and then You will feel so Good about doing things precisely right as the time moves on. This is what will make You a professional driver.

I got my first Tractor Trailer and Driver Level III inspection at the Scale house in West Memphis Arkansas yesterday and I am so happy that I did'nt get any citations for violations, even though I could have listed my Bill of Laden numbers in my Log book and done a little better job of writing in the dates exactly right. I had listed some days twice or put a 3 in for a 2 on the Months.

All that I can say is that I have had a relatively easy time with FFE and my Trainer, and he allowed me give You his name here: Curtis Qualls. He is the best. All You need to do to Pass the FFE Driving Academy is to request Curtis Qualls. Send him an E-Mail or a Facebook message and he will let You know when he is available.

Curtis used to Train police Dogs and work a lot as a mentor with NA and he is constantly in touch with his family and friends back at his home in Escondido CA quite a bit by way of his Bluetooth Android phone headset and he is really Good at doing Navigation with his phone and exchanging Text and Video messages.

What I like the most about Curtis is that he is into Green foods and healthy living. He seems to like to talk a lot about the Lord and the topics on the Patriot radio. We listen to Bluegrasss and Country music every night in the Truck. I would say that he is not an arguementive type of a person because he can appreciate a wide range of Sirrus radio shows from FOX news to Trucking to Howard Stern.

Curtis is an extremely friendly and considerate person and he is what he is, he needs to have some help from his students, because of his Years of service in Trucking as we all will need to have someday in just getting the rig coupled and uncoupled and running the paperwork up to the Office at the Shipper and Recievers. He's really working on his weight problems because he knows he's had It Good before. Curtis is a Champion Motorcross Rider and a Motorcycle Machinist from a previous career and he is also an accomplished Martial Arts enthusiast. I don't usually say anything about his weight because of his strength and his command of situations involving negotiation.

When You are close to 400 pounds It will stress Your back and everything else, so It would be hard to stand up for long periods of time, without being in pain and besides You can always get someone else to run all of Your errands for You and do at least half of the driving. I have really benefited from and appreciated the lessons and experience that Curtis has given me, and my working enviornment has been relatively slow paced and easy due to both of our needs to take some rest stops and to sleep late in the Mornings.

He won't be someone to care about how many times You have to take to take piss breaks as long as You do the work and to run the miles on the Truck.

I thought that It was a kind of a bummer to have to drive mostly after dark and to miss a lot of the natural attractions of the Smokey moutains recently but It is paying off for me big time in just helping me to develop my driving skills a lot faster. It is definitely a lot harder to drive after dark in the moutains.

I just want to reccomend Curtis Qualls, as a Trainer and a Good friend (he is on Facebook) if You would like to work for FFE. He just loves to stay around the restaurants at the Truck stops and everyplace else where there are people to talk with for hours and hours everyday, and he does'nt really mind it at all if You go off and take Your showers or do laundry or just go into a corner and read Your newspaper and get on the Internet by Yourself because he makes plenty of friends on his own.

Curtis and I Love Trucking for all It's worth being out in the fresh air and meeting new people and having pleasant working conditions and If You are also a friendly person concerned with other people You will Love It as well.

 

I recieved your application and we are interested in you! Please give me a call.

Any correspondence concerning status of application(s), including denial of application(s) for employment or application(s) to attend any training are strictly conditional and are not an offer of employment. Any acceptance of an application is simply an invitation to attend the company’s pre-employment training and screening programs to determine overall qualifications and suitability.Offers of employment are dependent upon the successful completion of all conditional offers and pre-employment screenings, including physicals, drug screen(s), road test(s), background investigations and all training offered by the company. At the time of successful completion of all the requirements, an offer of employment may be extended to the applicant and any offer of employment is based upon varying hours of work schedules. This communication is based solely upon information made available to us by the applicant at the time of this correspondence. Any falsification or omission is cause for the invitation and/or conditional offer to be revoked.

Thanks for the invite! But, I'm looking for a JOB!!

 

February 8 2011






Hello Allow Me and the Group:


Yes, I got the same thing in the mail as well. It is still an invitation in my opinion and whatever else that the FFE sent You beforehand and especially afterwards about being accepted to their Orientation and the way to get to their Orientation is the most important part of their basic correspondence with You. It's really not that hard at all for someone who is clean and particularly somebody who has a clean DMVR and a DAC report to qualify for a Trainee job at the Frozen Food Express.

I guess that what they don't tell You about all of this is that Your life can get harder after You become a Student or Trainee because their work can be something that You will continue to have to demonstrate to the Trainer.

You have have the patience and competence to perform everyday when You are in their Driving Academy. The Trainers at the FFE have to observe You and to test You every day and to give You a write up at the end of each week, so It is a steep learning curve that begins with Logging and then Safety awareness and then Road skills, Shifting and backing lessons.

It may be easier technically for some people than for other people and It may be an easier lifestyle to adapt to, for doing Over the Road by some people's needs than for other people. There is a lot of work available in this company and You just have to be ready and able to agree to do It when It comes along.

I have known a lot of people back in my Truck School, where I got my CDLs who were origionally really proficient at doing all of the pretrip inspections and shifting and backing but just did'nt agree with the whole lifestyle of doing OTR. There are a lot of slow students in the CDL field and then there are a lot of Trainers who are mainly just looking for Codrivers for their rigs so You have the responibility to just keep on trying to fit in, until You do secure a job.

Hopefully It won't be too difficult or frustrating to You or take You too long.

I had another Training day yesterday in Lancaster Texas where we had an excellent "sweet" paying route all planned out, to Cheyenne Wyoming and then back East all of the way to Burlington NJ, by way of an interchange (Trailer pick up) at a local Love's Truckstop nearby, and I am still learning how to shift acceptably, fortunately for my Trainer, he decided that it was the right time to be my Codriver, because as he was resting in the sleeper berth, the heater fan to the sleeping section of the Tractor began smoking and burned out and we had to go around back to the home terminal Yard again to wait a couple of days for It to all get repaired again. I got off of route once, and that was a bit embarrassing, just south of Decatur Texas on the 287-81, and then I had to do the uncoupling and the Trailer landing gear was so funky that It would only crank down on Low speed and to make matters worse, a brake line, the service brakes, came off somehow just after we pulled back into the yard and I started backing up with It off and It made some really loud screeching noises.
I thought that I was scraping a trailer next to me, by the sound of It, while I was backing up, then all of this had to happen while we were on Midnight shift between 12:00 AM and 5:30 AM. We had a Safe Trip up to Northern Texas and at least I can say that we got some Good Motel vouchers from the company while we are geting our rest and are waiting for the repairs to be made to the Tractor. It seems to me that the repair staff at the Lancaster terminal are mostly engrossed in installing as many People net computers as they possibly can do everyday, so maybe that is part of our problem. We have a Tractor with only 220,000 Miles on It so we are pretty lucky things that can go wrong just have'nt happened that much on our rig.

I just got finished with the People net computer class and It could be considered difficult if You do not have any previous experience using PC's or GPS applications, and It is all in the same control box so It was challenging but interesting only to the people who could do It right away without any problems. A lot of people including myself came into the Training office after the People net class was over and asked the Trainers to advise them about how to do something on It. I considered It a Kudo for FFE to allow me to add people to my address book in the E-Mail contacts page and to communicate with my family and friends by personal E-Mail limitlessly.

 

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crazyindian
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OK, let's take this from the top, you have been a trucker for TEN YEARS and you have no idea how the hiring process works in the trucking industry? What exactly do they really know about you? Do employers owe you a job sight unseen? I think it is great that they spell out the process so clearly. Most companies policies are pretty much exactly the same but they are not this up front about it.

 

I would think they should do all of the checking they need to BEFORE going to a person goes anywhere. I can see being dis-qualified for not passing a road test or something. But they should check the background, references, MVR, DAC, and whatever else they need to do beforehand.

 

So they should spend their money, time and resources before you decide to commit anything to them? You know your background, if you have a problem with your MVR, DAC, work history or criminal record and you are truthful with them, they will tell you whether they will hire you. If you are untruthful, you will find your way on the way back home after they find out. It is not their issue, it is yours. Most of these things are driven by the insurance companies.

 

February 9 2011






Hello Allow Me and the Group:


I think that It was really Cool of FFE to actually check my DMVR background after they sent me that message:

Any correspondence concerning status of application(s), including denial of application(s) for employment or application(s) to attend any training are strictly conditional and are not an offer of employment. Any acceptance of anapplication is simply an invitation to attend the company's pre-employment training and screening programs to determine overall qualifications and suitability.Offers of employment are dependent upon the successful completion of all conditional offers and pre-employment screenings, including physicals, drug screen(s), road test(s), background investigations and all training offered by the company. At the time of successful completion of all the requirements, an offer of employment may be extended to the applicant and any offer of employment is based upon varying hours of work schedules. This communication is based solely upon information made available to us by the applicant at the time of this correspondence. Any falsification or omission is cause for the invitation and/or conditional offer to be revoked

I have a recruiter from Driverschoice1.com and he was very thorough with my Application to the FFE. First he sent me the form letter about the company Itself, that I posted in here on page 2 and then he sent me the above mentioned form, so being what I am and what I was twenty years ago (on my DMVR) I filled out the application form that he sent me after I showed some interest in FFE.

I was then in a position to ask him what was really important to the hiring process and whether I could still get a job with what I had on my DMVR from twenty years ago. I won't go into it here but I did have some points violations and some suspensions for speeding at that point in time.

My recruiter went to the manager of the Orientation program and asked him whether I could be accepted and whether I had graduated from a CDL Driving School then I went on to describe my having a TWIC card and a Passport etc. I was very fortunate when they wrote me that:

You are all approved to come in, let me know when you are due to arrive in Dallas?

So, I thought that they were very thorough and nice to me and It is a Family company and they seem to have some appreciation of their employees, Good EOC values to their employees, extensive honor awards and a wall of fame etc.

The Training Managers J.D. Jackson and Trecia Willingham are the friendliest people in the South I believe, they really feel for the students and they have gone out of their way to make me feel at home at the FFE Driving Academy.

They understood that I really did'nt get along with my first Trainer and they gave me every courtesy and break that they could give me, including providing me with 100 percent backup when I needed to get home from South Carolina in the Trainer's truck to the Orientation center and then providing me with a wonderfull new Trainer.

J.D. Jackson also understood that I had been working on the ProTreads for a day or two and when I requested more time to finish them all, he actually gave me Hotel Vouchers for 3 additional days in the 5 Star MCM Grande Hotel for a whole weekend, where I finished all of them. I was able to do 65 of them because the Training managers appreciated me being patient and willing to wait for a Trainer.

It was just a Cool company to get started in and by the way, Everyone at the FFE Orientation has to fill out a new application on paper as the Orientation begins even though everyone probably already filled one out Online beforehand. (like I did, and had it checked by the recruiter) This may be just one more "honesty test" that they are giving You.

I had a situation here at Lancaster Texas within the last two days where the weather changed really rapidly to extremely cold and the Truck was broken down so while my Trainer and I were waiting on repairs the Training managers FAX'ed over some Hotel Vouchers and sent the MCM Grande Shuttle over to the FFE Terminal to pick us up. The Lunches usually cost about $9.00 here but FFE picked up the tab for 2 buffet meals.

My Trainer asked me to go over to the FFE Yard anyway in order to pick up his Hotel Voucher from his driver manager (they can't leave their desks to use the FAX machine) and I had the unusual pleasure of walking up to the Driver's Manager's room (which is all open) and just around the corner and upstairs from the Driver's lounge at their home base. They had the nicest friendliest Driver's managers anyone could find to partner with and the ones that I saw had some time to treat me like a human being and to answer my questions and to give me the Hotel Voucher in a considerate manner.

I think that they are finally finished working on the Truck. It had a bad air leak in one system, an electrical leak someplace and then the heater fan problem in the sleeping area.

We should be Good to go and get some of their jobs Tomorrow and have some fun cruising. There seems to be no shortage of work at the FFE and we are interested in getting started doing all that we can do for them.

 

I got one of those too.
Standard "legalese speak" for any company nowadays.

Talkin with recruiter now.