Day 1 of a Brand New NorthEast Regional driver.

Glad to hear. I'm leaving in about 2 hours now. I think I'm just making the same trip to Jersey, except shorter this time because I'm getting picked up in my hometown instead of meeting my trainer at the terminal 90 minutes from my house.

I hopefully won't have much to post tonight. If I do, it's probably because something bad happened, lol.

 

Second trip down. Just another short one, down to Jersey from CNY, spent the night at the receiver and back home in the morning with a pickup in PA not far from the border.

Trip down started fine, but there was A LOT of heavy fog, lol. Little nerve wracking for a bit. Getting down to Jersey, I started shifting less smoothly and making some stupid smaller errors. Trainer said I was likely just tired, it was after 10 PM at that point. Already feeling more confidant behind the wheel, but still plenty of white knuckle moments on some of the curves on 81. At the receiver, my trainer helped me set myself up to back in, and it went pretty smooth, especially when I slowed myself down and didn't slam into the dock, lol. After that, same deal, except I had pillows and an extra blanket this time and I slept great. For about 4 hours... Some hick driver knocked on our door at 5 AM because he was backing into the door next to us, and was worried about scratching our "perty truck"... It wasn't the easiest back to make I guess, but it wasn't that tight. So, we're awake an hour before the alarm was set for and having to move the truck (trainer said it was one of the company's guys, so I guess "no" wasn't an option), trainer wasn't going to sleep after that, so I wasn't either. I'd complain more about my lack of sleep, but I did get 4 hours, felt pretty well rested, and this story ends with me being back to my car by 2PM.

Return trip wasn't drastically different than the last time. Picked up cardboard in PA, trainer doing the driving in the morning, me driving shortly after my 10 hour break a couple hours away from home. I must be doing OK, because my trainer actually tried to take a nap after our switch in the sleeper, but 81N seemed to be nothing but bridges and potholes, so it didn't really happen. Still, feeling even better behind the wheel every day. Day ended with a live unload that took just about 2 hours, which went by pretty quickly in my hometown, then trainer dropped me at my car and went on his way home.

Haven't quite gotten 20 hours of On Duty driving time between the 4 days I've been on. Not sure if that's normal, but I'm not going to complain, as I was "prepared" to stay out for 4+ weeks with no breaks for training. Well, expected to, finding out prepared probably wasn't the right word, lol. My trainer is a good guy and a good trainer so far, but I can already tell that 4+ weeks with someone in a truck would have gotten annoying pretty quick, so I'm pretty glad I lucked out here. Tomorrow I head out for 3 whole nights! (lol) I guess it's gonna be the same route to Jersey, but with different return routes and maybe and extra load or 2, not exactly sure how it's going to work. I'd really like to try doing a 10 hour day, see if I'm "man" enough for it yet, as it's supposed to be pretty difficult at first for many people. I have no idea what my sleep schedule is going to be like though, I don't see my trainer stopping for 10 whole hours. Gonna find out soon, lol...

 

Been busy...

Not sure what to think about my "training". I just got back from a 4 day trip Thursday, gave myself some time to relax and reflect before posting, because I'm not sure what I should do. The problem I have with my training is that after the first load down that I drive, all my driving after that is after 4 to 5 hours sleep, then sitting in the passenger seat all day, then driving in the evening. After the first night, there wasn't a time I wasn't driving tired. I have no idea if the Safety Manager/Recruiter/guy in charge of training knows exactly what I'm going through, because I'm finding it pretty ridiculous. My last 3 days of training were leaving the receiver in Jersey between 6 to 8AM, sitting in the passenger seat while the trainer drives back to NY, then I drive back to Jersey starting after 5pm when the load back down is ready. My trainer is a veteran driver with 3 million miles, he thinks it's cute when I tell him I'm tired... He's not a bad guy, but he doesn't want his schedule changed to train, but he's the company's only trainer. I'm afraid what I'm looking at to stay with my company is put up with this BS schedule, or not be able to get trained. They're running us like a team without a proper set up tho, so it's part of dispatch too.

I'm just not sure what to do. If I tell HR, maybe they'll realize they made a mistake, apologize to me and try to fix the problem. Or they tell me to man up and deal because they're not willing to lose money on training me, so they just keep running me and my trainer as a team. My other choice is to leave, but then I go to another training situation, except this time it's on my DAC that I quit after a week and a half, so I'm looking at, what, Swift..? Not worth that.

I can't imagine advice that would help here that I haven't considered, but if anyone wants to way in, I'd appreciate it, or maybe you see something I don't that could help, idk.

As far as my training, for my devoted followers, it's going OK. My backing needs work (possibly because it's usually in dark lots after staying up 16 to 18 hours on not enough sleep, idk...), but I feel more comfortable behind the wheel. It's actually kind of easier when I'm dead tired because I don't get nervous as much. Haven't done much exciting. Jersey and back everyday... Supposed to make a trip to NYC sometime next week or so. Not a huge change of course now that I think about it, lol.

I honestly can't see how going solo couldn't be an easier time than this, so I guess there's that. At the moment, I'm just leaning toward grin and bearing the next 2.5 weeks of training so I can just be done with it. Once they clear me of training and assign me a truck, I'll talk to Safety and ask if they realize how ridiculous their "training" is. I just don't want to risk my job, because it seems like my trainer could just refuse to keep training if I refused to run team. BTW, when I say running team, we don't actually sleep while the other is driving. The roads up here are to rough, and I'm in the top bunk (No chance in HELL my trainer would give up the bottom...), so sleeping while driving isn't working, I've tried. My trainer realizes that too, I'm not just a whiny baby that chose to stay up all day, I've really tried to get rested and I can't. No free time, not many stops, just driving and sitting in the passenger seat. Thank god I didn't sign up for real team driving...

We're in a brand new Pro Star. Are those pretty average as far as a smooth ride goes? My buddy got into a place that drives volvos, he kept saying how smooth the ride was. I feel every bump in the road so far... Just wondering if all models are like this.