Burleson Terminal

Yes. Millis will hire at 21 but like Solo said ypu gotta call a recruiter. Call and ask for Alice.

 

Ill be here at Cartersville until the morning. Trk 2091. If anyone is here lemme know. Ill be in the lounge eashing clothes.

 

Thats about how my luck goes...lol. you starting school here or are you on the road? We will definitely have to hook up some time

 

Lemme know when you get your truck. We will cross paths eventually. I met Baritone today.

 

So...where do I begin? Its much easier to keep a running commentary when things are fresh. I covered most of the class room portion, and when I got out on the road with the trainer, it was running non stop. Pat, my dispatcher is really good and he didn't let us have any real dead days, just sitting around waiting. I mean, we ran all day, every day. By the time my OTR training was done, I was piecing together hours to try to get my drive time in because there just wasn't anything left. I didn't want to take a reset because I didn't want to lose the time.

So...Its your trainers truck...your trainers rules. Its his home so it doesn't really matter if you like it or not. My trainer smoked...like a friggen freight train. I don't smoke. I don't LIKE smoke. I've washed everything I own twice and the stench continues to permeate my clothes. My leather jackert will have to go to get dry cleaned...but its his truck, he can smoke if he wants. I lived out of truck stops because there was no room in the fridge for anything for me, so I kept snack stuff in the truck and ate out of truck stops. Gets expensive. On average I spent about $150 a week, sometimes more. But thats the price, so I aint complaining.

The driving part of the job...no big deal, that comes in 15000 miles. You drive between 250 and 650 miles a day...you'll get the driving in. It takes about 6 weeks to complete and in that time you will back into a dock about every other day, and back into a parking spot about 5 times a week, so you will get the backing practice...and you won't be good at it by the time you finish. I'm still spotty on my backing. No, the driving part isn't the problem. There are two areas of difficulty in training (Not including personality issues with the trainer) The first is trip planning. I have to say this was the single most irritating and frustrating part of the job...Not because I had a problem with it, because I don't, really. The problem is...EVERY>>>SINGLE>>>TIME I would bust my tail planning out a route, including stops, and by the time I was done, my trainer would have already programmed HIS route into his map program, so I would explain my route and he would say..."I don't like that way, I go THIS route and then he would rapid fire, rattle off the roads and turns in a state I've never been in, on roads I've never heard of, and get irritated when I didn't remember, then he would chastise me by saying this is all part of trip planning and I should have all my stops figured out, when I no longer had a clue where I was going, so I would get pissed, throw my plan out and turn where he told me to turn and go where he told me to go, but then what really ticked me off is that He would deduct the out of route miles from my total driven miles saying I don't get paid for out of route miles...when MY plan didn't HAVE any out of route miles...Yeah...I'm still sore about that one. On another note...since being in my own truck, my first run actually came in 12 miles UNDER the dispatched miles, my last two runs in his truck were 2 miles under and 6 miles under once he left me alone and let me do it my way. So trip planning is a problem...and the biggest problem is that the trainer has every road you will drive memorized. But you don't, and you need to learn to do it yourself, not follow someone else's directions. You will memorize the roads also but it takes time.

The second issue in training is the QualComm, you really need to get that down. Up until I got into my own truck I would stiff forget steps. Maybe its because I was perpetually irritated, but there are steps you have to take and they have to be done in order. Ready for Dispatch, Arrived at Shipper, Loaded at shipper, change your load info, arrived at your stops, unloaded at the stops, empty at final, you gotta remember what to do when, and how. Its a PIA but its gotta be done.

On one of my last loads as a trainee, I pull into a dock, its not too tight of an alley dock, but there is no turning around. It has to be done right, and I slid that trailer in like I'd been doing it twenty years. I was so friggen happy, No pull ups, no repositioning, no nothing. It slid in picture perfect. I went back to chock the wheels and make sure it was square on the dock and the blasted doors were still closed. AAARRRRGGGGH! So LIke an idiot, I had to pull it all the way forward, open the doors, and back all the way back in again.

Don't forget your doors.

I was coming through a parking lot one night. I had 13 minutes left on the clock, it was late, I was tired, it was pouring down rain, I couldn't see anything, I just wanted to park it, I didn't really care where, just get it parked. It was one of those nights where three trucks are stacked outside of parking spots on the end, so it was a tight turn.

Yeah, you older drivers already got it figured out. I clipped the flatbed trailer. I felt it hit, just a nudge. No damage to anything, but I got a reaming for it...Now I swiing WIDE and if I can't swing wide I cut the corner as slow as I can to make sure that never happens again. No big deal really, the flatbedder didn't care, it didn't do anything to him. It didn't do anything to us, but I felt about an iinch high.

We were at Miller iin Ft. Worth picking up a load. If you have been there, just in front of the Millis dock there is a lightpost surrounded by concrete pillars. The only available spot for us to drop our empty was right in front of it...so I had to bring it in at an angle, but even though I had a clear shot in, I couldn't get the truck around the pillers, so my trainer says, jack it around, and keep jacking it until you almost hit the trailer on your side...Then you can pull forward enough to slip it in...so he's my trainer, right? He's suppossed to be teaching me how to do this right. I don't questioon it, I do as I was told, but I'm inching along...now I bet the older drivers have this one already figured out too. Suddenly the trailer starts jerking, a driver hits his horn...My trainer looks at me and says..."You hit the trailer on this side" I was furious, because If he had left me the hell alone I would have gotten it in the hole my way without hitting anything...but NOOOOO. I wasn't going fast enough, time is money, we are burning the clock.

Someone must have been on my side becaause again, there was no damage. I was the driver, I should have gotten out to look. Now I don't listen to anyone, I get out and look, but it still irritates me.

Anyway, those are some of my mishaps. Feel free to comment or ask questions. I'm on my second run now, after hometime. Sitting at exit 66 at this craphole of a truckstop on I-40 in Tennessee. Headed to Philly then to Jersey. Catch ya later.