How long does it take..........

@numbers, thanks for this thread, and thanks for keeping up with it while you went through the initial process. I am glad to hear you are on the road and going through your orientation. I hope to see you out there some day.

 

No problem man...hope it all goes well for you too.

Wow!!! Crazy AS HELL out here...just the amount of crazy things you see will blow your mind.

Drove in NYC earlier this week. Once you get over the mental fact that you are in the largest city in north america, it isn't as bad as many make it out to be. We went into NYC in the early morning and we missed rush hour, I can imagine a big difference during the day instead of 430 in the morning. Getting there so early was by design, We had a drop at the receiver, once we made the drop we got dispatched to bobtail from NYC over into Scranton area to pick up a brand spanking new reefer from thermo king. From Scranton we headed to Delaware to pick up a load of poultry. On our way down the PA Turnpike we actually passed right by my old apartment, I could see the roof of it from the turnpike.....I had some mixed emotions about that.......what are my old friends up to......how is my scooter doing in storage.......whats my ex up to........really f*-ing weird ya know, knowing that the next time I set foot in that town I'm packing up the rest of my stuff and shipping it to Texas......I didn't think I'd get so f*-ing messed up about it.....but it dawned on me that this is my life now.......and my trainer kinda talked me through it, said some cool things and said some harsh things, but it helped to even me out a bit, and once we got to delaware I climbed into my bunk and everything was alright.

Now I'm sitting in a Truckstop north of Richmond waiting for my dinner to arrive and catching up on email, the forums, and downloading a couple new books onto my tablet for later this week.......crazy how much you can read during downtime.......

 

i GOT Diesel in my blood. Seen it all twice. I just do it now because I like it.

 

While I am thinking about it, I've also learned a very valuable lesson since heading out with a trainer. Always take the load, never turn one down because of the distance. A 200 mile load is 200 miles you get paid for instead of sitting waiting for a 2000 mile load.

Case in point, guy in my class called me one day, said they have been sitting for 5 hours waiting on a load because his trainer turned down a 175 mile load. At the time he called we had just gotten back in the truck after eating some lunch, grabbing a shower and doing some laundry. We had to go 25 miles to pick up a load, got their hooked up, and it was a 225 mile trip or so. Made the delivery, got a preplan for a 1900 mile trip, got some rest, picked up that load and we headed off.....the next day when we were about 200 miles into that trip, Get a text from that same guy, they finally got a load but it was only for 400 miles, he said his trainer was mad as heck

My point is this, we did the 225 miler and had started our 1900 miler by the time those two got any miles, because my trainer takes them all and his trainer apparently doesn't. I don't know about anyone else, but if someone is going to ask me to make money, I'm gonna make money, it all adds up in the end......seems foolish to pass over a dime in this business.

 

It sounds like you have one of the few good trainers.

 

He's former Army, highly motivated, and an all out decent guy for the most part. He gets a little "short" when he gets tired, or when I am trying to bump the dock for the 4th or 5th time........but its not like he's mad, its more like he is frustrated for me, want to just reach over and help, but doesn't because he knows I'm trying and learning.

Now he does have some girl issues, but he keeps it quiet and private for the most part, only heard him yelling on the phone once, and that was during our 30 mins the other day, so I went for a walk at the rest area/welcome center and talked to the old dude working at the welcome center reception counter.

 

If only ALL Trainers could be like him!

 

Numbers, so glad everything worked out for you. Liked the fact you were proactive with your final decision on driving a truck, got things rolling and researched the opportunities offered to you.

Will look forward to hearing more of your training adventures, for i hope to be in a training truck (havent applied anywhere yet, but will start next week) as soon as i finish school. Best of luck to you in this new career.

 

Still out here plugging away at my training miles. Down in Virginia as I type this, little truckstop across from King's Dominion amusement park 2nd time in the past week we've been here.. I wanted to say ###### it and run across the road, buy a ticket and go ride some roller coasters, but I decided to sleep instead lol. Woke up right around the time the Park was closing and then had a good time for the next few hours just watching all of the tourists come and go from the truckstop. Families with kids who were so tired they were crying just to cry, cars of teens baked red from sunburn, it was probably the most entertaining 2 hours of my life....well at least the past few weeks anyway.

Nothing spectacular as far as driving goes, saw my first Truck accident as we came up on it after being in traffic for 30 or so minutes. Looked to us like the truck driver got cut off and ran his truck off the road. everyone seemed to be ok.

Got roped into a one sided conversation at dinner last night.....one of those AMERICA is spying on us conspiracy conversations...I was just sitting there eating my dinner and reading google news on my phone when dude just sits down and starts going on about how the gov'ment is trackin' my every move with that phone i was usin'. I was kind of bored so I played along.....now I wish I had those 45 minutes of my life back, probably stupider after hearing all the jumk coming out of his head......airplane exhaust trails are actually chemicals designed to control our minds and to keep us pacified.....

Found out one of the guys I went through class with literally disappeared one night, got out of the truck and just up and gone. Few days later called in from home to quit and ask for all of his stuff he left behind back, If you'd asked me while we were in school, he'd be the last one i'd expect to bail, I would have given him better odds than me of making this work, kind of got to me as he was my roomate and was the one of the only 2 or 3 people i kind of got to know during training.....I only found out after my training coordinator checked in on me, and well people love to gossip told me the whole story......

Sleep still sucks, but getting easier to just "sleep on demand" as my trainer puts it......loads are all starting to become a bit of a blur, nyc, scranton, baltimore, atlanta, richmond.....it's all becoming the same ......off towards south dakota tomorrow......

thanks for all the privte messages, been doing my best to keep up with them.........catch everyone whenever i get internet and time................

 

So when will you be completed with your training, numbers? Are you REALLY looking forward to having your own truck, or is the time with your Trainer pleasant enough that you think you may be pretty lonely out on the road by your self? Course there are trade-offs to both having a partner on the road and being solo, I would think.