COVENANT -- From a wife's perspective

Thanks everybody for the encouragement. It took me 12 hours to get from Topeka, KS to where I am now (Sandy Beach Campground between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids). My Mariner had a flat while being towed and by the time I saw it, I needed a new tire ... and of course today was Labor Day. One good thing was the rim was still OK. Guess I need to go ahead and shell out the $$$ for 4 more pressure pro sensors... <sigh> So $116 later I was back on the road and pulled into the campground around 9:30 this evening after leaving Topeka at 10 this morning. Did I mention I drive 55? Sorry if I box some of you truckers in but I'm doing everything I can to get the best fuel mileage. Ya'll just have to be patient with me.
I heard from my sweetie today. He and his trainer made it out of Hutchins on Sunday for a run up to KC to pick up a Gustav load bound for Houston. He got 1106 miles out of the run. He has to get used to where the truck is governed (66 mph I think?) and the fact that when he passes another truck that's doing 65 it takes a LONG TIME to get by and that makes him nervous as he hates tying up traffic. He's not used to running flat out like that but it was his very first haul and his trainer said he did a good job.

One problem he did run into was that he didn't get a chance to eat. Since he's a vegetarian he needed time to go shopping somewhere to get some food but while they were under a load, it was go, go, go and so all he got to eat during the entire time was two candy bars. So he was pretty hungry by the time they got back to Hutchins terminal.

When I talked to him this afternoon he said there were a LOT of drivers waiting at the terminal for loads. He had a chance to take a shower and wash his clothes. No food though and the snack machine was empty with all the other people milling about. While he was talking to me somebody came for him to make a Wal-Mart run and so that's the last I heard from him. I told him to buy a book or two as he's GOT to find something to occupy his time while they wait for more work. So far he' getting along with his trainer OK. He noted that his trainer writes down EVERYTHING that goes on. His trainer said that since he won't get reimbursed for the two hours they spent driving around looking for a trailer on Saturday that he will claim that expense off his taxes. Since I'm the one that does our taxes, you can bet that I took note of this little tidbit. I've told Redcoat that he better learn well and keep track of all his receipts so we don't get screwed. (Taking Danc694u's advice)

It's too late about the per deim thing. Hopefully he will be able to change it sometime in the future. He went ahead and signed up for it without calling me about it otherwise I would have told him that most everyone in the forum advised against it.

He's recruited his former roommate from Roadmaster school to team with after he finishes training. The guy currently drives for Werner and will make the jump when Redcoat finishes his training so they can drive together. Eventually he'll want to drive solo but since he has to team with somebody, and since he got along well with his old roommate, they will try to get together for the mandatory six months of team driving.

That's all my news so far. I'll post again the next time I hear from him. In the meantime, I'm camped here in Iowa and will be working peddling my pictures for the next month. I have a list of stuff that needs to be fixed on our rig and since it was built right up the road in Forest City I plan on going there at the end of the month before I head down to Illinois to my next territory.

I want to give a shout out to Rocks. If you ever know that you're going to go through Iowa City or anywhere along I-380 between there and Cedar Rapids, give me a holla. PM me and maybe we can have lunch somewhere that's not out of your way.

Mountain Mama I read all your Covenant posts and they were extremely helpful when we were researching companies. It's so much easier to know what to expect rather than getting surprised.

Bye ya'll!

 

Latest update. Well, Redcoat is on his second load carrying 50+ cases of foam cups from Dallas to east L.A. He called me last night on the road around 11 pm. After waiting for hours to get loaded, it was his turn to drive and he only got to drive for about an hour before he had to hit the bunk as he burned all his time while they were waiting to get loaded. He was having trouble trying to get to sleep. I know how that is. Back when I was in the military, I was on flying status and we would have Oh-dark-30 alerts to go out on a mission. You KNOW you need to get some sleep as it's going to be a long day but you just can't turn your mind off. And that's what Redcoat was enduring last night.

Then he called me at lunch to tell me he just made it through rush hour traffic in Phoenix without hitting anybody. He says he has a certain comfort level in the truck when he's running in 9th gear but his trainer says that's bad for the transmission and that he needs to run in 10th -- which takes him *just* out of his comfort level as far as speed is concerned. But to get the load there on time, you gotta go as fast as you can and so I'm hoping that as he gets more used to dealing with 4-wheelers that his confidence will get better.

An update on my own adventures: I had to take my truck down to the Mercury dealership this morning as my tire low pressure light was saying it had a fault. Well it sure did. Evidently when I was running with it flat for so long I lost the pressure sensor and it cost me $210 to get another one. While they were at it I had them replace all the valve stems as I believe that's why I had a flat in the first place and why I've been losing air in the other front tire. So now all my wheels should be good to go and it's time to go out and peddle some pictures.

Bye ya'll.

 

Latest update. L.A. to El Paso then Austin. It appears that even with all the sitting and waiting for shippers, Redcoat is getting in some miles. After arriving in east L.A., they picked up a load from LAX (I think) and are headed back to Texas. They have two stops, which I understand gives them an extra $27 I think for the second drop. All told the entire trip is somewhere in the neighbor hood of 2800 miles which when added to the first one gives him about 3800 miles for the week. I will keep you posted on how much money he makes as I know that is a big issue that a lot of new drivers want to know.

My thoughts on his training. Frankly, I don't see any. I see him getting time and experience but not any of what I would call "real" training. The next time I talk to him I'm going to ask him if they have had a chance to check off any of the items in his training portfolio. For the most part, it appears that they basically team drive with his trainer only sitting in the right seat for certain tricky parts of a particular leg.

When I was in the Air Force training to be a first engineer on the C-5s, my instructor sat beside me in the jump seat the entire time I was at the panel. He let me do my job but when there was idle time we were going over limitations, schematics, emergency procedures, Q&A, and what-if scenarios. As a flight engineer, I had to know everything about everything on that airplaine. I also had to know performance data and what the airplane was capable of doing given the amount of fuel it had, it's cargo weight, weather factors, etc. To me, that is REAL training.

Now it seems to me that (ideally) the trainer of a brand new truck driver should be in the right seat the entire time that the trainee is driving. While the trainee is in major traffic, I'd keep my mouth shut and just be another pair of eyes and let the driver concentrate on what they're doing. I'd only speak up if I saw a situation that could become a problem. On the long stretches of relatively quiet interstate, that's when I would be asking questions, offering different scenarios, sharing my experiences and stories of other drivers' experiences. Redcoats' trainer has been driving for 11 years. That's a lot of time and knowledge back in the bunk sleeping while Redcoat is driving.

Even though we knew this would be the case, I'm still not happy with it and neither is Redcoat. This system of "training" is not fair to the trainee and personally I think it's dangerous for other people on the road. It's unfortunate that some people new to the industry are forced to be indoctrinated this way. It reminds me of a herd of gazelle crossing a river chock full of alligators. They know they have to get across and they know the gators are there but it's something they have to do. Same deal here.

So at this point I'm taking the good with the bad. I'm glad he's getting the miles even as I worry about his (and others') safety. It could be that it's not as bad as I seem to think it is. I'll post further on this topic once I get a chance to talk to Redcoat at some length to get his thoughts on the matter. For now, he's somewhere on I-10 between Tucson and El Paso.

Bye ya'll.

 

Day 8 of 35.

Redcoat and his trainer dropped off their load in Austin and then headed up to Oklahoma to pick up a load headed for Paloma, CA and one other drop. They have logged 3883 in the past 7 days. Redcoat says the monotony is starting to get to him -- drive/sleep/drive/sleep/drive/sleep.... He says he can see why it is so hard on drivers and why they go from company to company trying to find some sense of normalcy as this lifestyle definitely is NOT normal. I try to give him encouragement by comparing it to when I went through basic training and tech school when I was in the Air Force. My first husband and I had been married for almost two years and we had a six-month-old son when we went into the military. I left our son with my mother and we headed off to Lackland AFB in San Antonio. Basic training took about six weeks and tech school took another three months after that with me going to Chanute AFB in Rantoul, IL and my ex going to Sheppard AFB in Witchita Falls, TX. By the time we got our orders to Dover AFB in Delaware, we'd missed four months of our son's growth and his first steps.

So I told Redcoat that if I could do it, he can too. He told me that it just gets depressing when you try to do a good job and you get no aknowledgement for it. It seems there are no "warm fuzzies" in this career. Only "cold pricklies." Do a good job and you get to keep it. Screw up and you're fired. I guess drivers are left up to their own devices to put themselves in a frame of mind where their own intregrity for a job well done has to be reward enough. I can understand how even a simple communication over the qualcomm like "Good work on getting to the shipper on time; much appreciated" would kind of make a driver feel at least a little appreciated.

But such is not the case. Redcoat says that students are just cheap labor for the companies. They are so used up by the time they get done with their 35 days of training that when they finally are allowed to go home, they don't come back. Their first time back home is when most companies lose their new hires. Which is a shame.

Covenant gives drivers one day off for every seven worked. So every three weeks you get three days. That makes no sense. They should double that. Make it TWO for every seven and now you've got something to look forward to. Three weeks out and three days off isn't even worth it. You can't even plan anything around that time frame.

We seem to be having a problem figuring out how to get his paycheck into our checking account. Covenant does have direct deposit but they insist on having a voided check before they will set up the direct deposit. In all the places I've worked, I've given them the routing number and account number and it got done. I don't understand why Covenant has to have a check. Actually I HAVE checks but they have my old name and old Florida address on them. I still use them anyway because Wachovia doesn't care what's at the top of the check. Checks cost $$$ and I see no point in not using up the ones I have before I order new ones. As long and I sign it with my right name, they go through. But apparently that's not good enough for Covenant. They don't want a check with the wrong name on it (even though the routing and account numbers are correct).

Redcoat got his first paycheck today. It was $196 and evidently it was the money for his orientation. Don't ask me where the other $4 went. I won't know until I get his statement which will go to my mom's Mississippi address. She sends me our mail every two weeks unless I ask her to send it sooner if I'm expecting something that I need. I'm guessing they will take his $100 advance out of his check next week. The money was put on his commdata card. We thought we'd be able to make a phone call to transfer the money to our checking account but, again, apparently this is not the case. Redcoat has three commdata checks that he can write to whomever but he has to get approval from payroll first to get a check number to put on it before he writes it. How convoluted is that? And that doesn't do us any good anyway because there are no Wachovia banks here in Iowa where I currently am. So even if he sent me a check, I can't take it anywhere to deposit it. The closest Wachovia is over by Chicago. Normally I don't need a branch anyway because I do all my banking online. Redcoat is going to try Western Union the next time they make a stop. In the meantime, I guess I'm going to have to break down and order more checks with my correct name and address on them just to satisfy Covenant's rigid, nonsensical direct deposit requirement. Grrrr.

Until next time. Bye ya'll.

 

Note to AfterShock: Thanks for the kind words. Redcoat begged me to get my CDL to ride with him and I even considered it for just a minute. And then I came to my senses. I make too much money in the job I have with TONS less stress and headache. After 10 years on flying status and being away from home for days at a time while flying all over the world, I figure I've paid my dues. Even though my home is now an RV, I have my computer, my dogs (Shih Tzu), my hobbies, and work that I actually like.

I probably would make a good instructor. My degree is in English education so I know how to teach. I love teaching and I have a lot of patience for students. But I personally feel that 99% of most trucking companies don't give a crap about their employees and all the hassle of dealing with all the junk you guys deal with every day would take all the joy out of it for me. Which is the reason why I don't teach for a living now. All the baggage kids have today and putting up with parents and non-supportive administrators -- it just isn't worth it. I read that a driver got fired for driving onto a homeowner's grass and that the company put an accident into his DAC because it was reported to the police. When company's start having their drivers' backs rather than just screwing them for every little thing, THAT's when I MIGHT consider learning to drive. Until that happens, I like working for myself.

By the way, what the heck does DAC stand for anyway????? Drivers Are Crazy??