First Day Out

If you need to and can stay a bit longer to get the backup down, do it. You won't regret it and backup is just such an important part of trucking. Dang schools don't give anyone enough training on this.

 

I am planning on hitting Salt lake myself, working on the financing part $4400 cash is kind of steep, I found a local school here in AZ and can pay $3200 and the class is 4-1 so lots of practice time. Weighing my options now.

 

Plus Steve I have offers from Watkins and Shepard, Cargo Express, May, Swift and US Xpress, Covenant and 1 other I cannot remember. I am planning on going with Watkins and Shepard or Cargo Express.

 

You are only going to learn the basic rudiments of backing in a school. The real education begins when you add traffic, blind side backing, telephone poles and short, metal posts just out of your line of sight, and that customized Peterbilt with the special paint job and full of chrome, (with the driver sitting there watching you) that you have to get within inches to get into your place on the dock.

Take your time, think about the angles, get out and look, get out and look, get out and look (get the picture). In school you go over the same situation time and time again. In the real world you are faced with a different one each time you have to make a delivery or pick up. With time and experience, you will pull up to a dock, eye it, figure the "set up", and go to it with confidence.

Murphy's law: If you mess up, there are ten drivers watching. If you do it perfect, without a pull-up, nobody ever sees you.

 

Hey Disneytrucker just wondering why you are going w/ Watkins Shepard or Cargo Express. I'm not sure of your backgroung but as a newbie myself I went w/ May and they were great for me, unfortunatly I left b/c of family. I am rethinking this and may go for it again and was wondering why you are going with who you are. Before I call May and ask if they rehire what does W/S or Cargo Express offer a newb. Thanks ~ Liteguy

 

W/S after their own 30 day training 10 day orientation or 3 day orientation you hit the road solo, I am a pretty private person and look forward to that part. Both are smaller companies and know you by name not truck number that is huge for me. Both offer really god benefits for the family W/S more then Cargo. I applied at May and they turned me now not sure why out of all the big ones, Werner, May, Stevens and Swift May is the only one to turn me down, oh well. Give W/S a call they have a website, talk to Roxy or Sandy see what they can offer a returning newbie.

 

I remember both of my "first days out" with both companies of worked for well. My first day solo OTR was a trip.. I went from Toledo to Knoxville.. I had never been out of the Northeast and this was my first trip to a Southern state at the time. I parked at a Pilot on 75 in Tn North of Knoxville and decided to call my parents which has been a daily thing since the day I moved out - I knew they were leaving Tampa but was surprised to learn they were at the gas island at the Pilot where I was parked. Pretty crazy considering we were almost a thousand miles from home..lol.. We did dinner and scoped out where I was delivering my first load.

My first trip with CCX now Con-way Freight was a long night line-haul in a massive snowstorm across I80 in the Keystone - no further explanation needed.. I figured out the back box is unruly and likes to lock up after learning doubles and a single axle have a nasty tendency to get stuck but I kept them on the road and have ever since..