Millis OTR journal

That doesn’t look too bad, I was expecting to see just a bunch of junk piled up in all the wrong spots.

 

Had 2 backs yesterday. 1st one a sight side that I didn’t really set up for since I parked to just to run into office then they ended up giving me a dock right next to office. GOALed 4 times since it was a little tight and there was a swamp right in front of it. Second back was that battery place in CT. Have been there 4 times. 3 docks you can do a sight side back 2 docks blindside. Have yet to get a sight side back. Hopped out probably 6 times to look. Lol even though I was a looky Lou I was impressed with my backing skills yesterday.

 

I have one more day of training at the MTI Academy till we graduate. Well almost we still have 1-2 days of orientation next Monday where they go over benefits, pay, etc and we "officially" become Millis Employees.

Tomorrow we're coming in do a little bit of backing till lunch. Then after lunch do some road driving to finish up the day. Their's only 2 of us in this class so we got lots of practice. We both caught on very quickly to the maneuvers.

They give us $10 allowance for food everyday so we're probably driving down to the local pizza place and split a large. I'm ashamed to admit it but my favorite part of the day is eating out for free at all these delicious restaurants around here LOL

The three weeks here have been smooth. Watched allot of trucking YouTube video's on how to back and drive so I never really struggled on backing or road driving. We did a road trip up to the Trenton Ohio terminal this week and it was fun driving through the mountains of West Virginia.

At truck stops I wanted to purposely try and back into the tightest spot I can for a challenge but my class instructor wasn't up for it. I understand he doesn't want to risk hitting something so I stuck to backing into a WIDEOPEN Pull through. What fun is that LOL.

We already have our trainers setup. I haven't met my trainer yet but was told he's great laid back guy that doesn't go home and racks miles quickly. Was also told he's a chain smoker that goes to sleep with a cigar hanging from his lips. I don't like smokers but figure I'll sacrifice a month of it for someone who my instructors recommends as a solid guy. I'll deal with it for solid training

So next Monday I'll be driving home. I plan on packing all my things from the hotel to me car and taking my car to the terminal so I can leave from the terminal to my house which is about 2 hours away. I'll be at the house for the rest of the week and I'll start up the following Monday on the road with my trainer back at this terminal. I'm excited. I honestly feel this is going too smooth.

My hardest decision which I can't figure out is if I want to do OTR or Regional. I don't like how small the regional truck is and that it has no windows. I was also told all the new Heartland spec'd OTR trucks come with APU's which will almost guarantee me a fuel bonus. But being home every week will make my GF happy if I go regional. Also curious how much money I would be losing going Regional over OTR. Decisions, decisions.

 

I had one trainee out of Eden who started out OTR then went regional out of Eden he quit after 2 weeks going regional. But quitting was more of a personality quirk. He did say the the loads were much shorter, lots of mountain driving, and way more communication with dispatch compared to OTR. He said he felt he had more control as OTR compared to regional. Said they will run your clock out as much as they can. Also said parking was more of an issue. But that being said there are regional guys down there who love it.

 

Regional truck tour begins at around the 36 minute mark.

 

One of the cleaner parts of my truck is the part of the drivers door I touch to shut it when I GOAL. I do that more for hooking and unhooking but still get out more than I thought I would. Sometimes I surprise myself wondering how I did such a good job, other times I wonder how I could be so bad.

I saw CRST doing some backing training in a truck stop parking lot and was really impressed. They had cones on the lines for the space the student was backing into, and were stopping throughout the turn to discuss what was happening. That beats talking to myself afterwards as I'm driving to the next stop!

Last thing. I had another idea for the fuel bonus: everytime we stop for fuel at a recommended place (including terminals) and the equipment doesn't work or doesn't work right it's bonus time. And they'd add up too - pull up to a Pilot with only 1 hose on the lane you're in and find out the AP doesn't work after pulling up to another lane it's double bonus time etc... I know this won't happen but it's still funny enough to share. Closest I think I'll get to this is the 2nd free shower I got at a Pilot this week when the pumps clicked off like the tanks were full when they weren't. I started all over again and got over 50 gallons both times (and finally got the tanks filled) and a 2nd shower.

 

For future reference this place is pretty suck-tastic. It would be great if Driveline's docks were the ones marked with lines, but those belong to someone else. First picture is where I was. As you can tell there's no room to the left to setup for sight side. Go ahead and pull up where the Watertech place is and prepare to blind side. Not only did I have to blind side but I had to get turned back around first.

I ain't gonna complain much, though. I'm sitting in Colorado for the second time in little over a week and I'm preplanned all the way home.

I wonder what ever happened to that guy that came in this thread a couple of years ago trying to say that you can't get miles with Millis. I'm getting around 3k a week and I ain't even that good at this.

 

Where do you guys keep your brooms on the newer trucks (the ones that don't have the cat walk or the rack for the pogo sticks)? I need to get another broom but don't see where I'd put it on the back of the truck. There's a handle on the back that might work for the broom handle, but nothing to hold the business end of the broom, where do you guys keep yours?

 

I keep mine under the bunk in the side compartment.

 

That's where I've been keeping mine, but it's small and I want to get a bigger one.