My DS, C1,and USA Truck experience

I heard somewhere that USA is going to automatic trannys? If so what trucks are they in so if I get to choose I'll get to pick one with a manual trans.

 

I hope your training goes well here, kcmofire. Good luck. Weather's improving. Thanx for posting.

 

For the life of me I can't figure out how they assign trucks. Some guys get trucks on the spot, other guys go to recover abandoned units, other guys get shuttled from terminal to terminal.

The "official" line is that automatics are on the way, but the company's in transition right now. ALL trainer trucks are stick, (just to make sure you know how) but 90% of the newer units are autos. If you get anything other than a 9400 it's a good chance it's gonna be an automatic. And any hull # above with 2000 is gonna be a newer truck. The old trucks run from about 7900-9999 and there are fewer of them on the road every day.

Last time I saw a new truck (like plastic on the seat new) the hull number was 2425. So that's about where the numbering is on on the absoulte newest trucks.

Oh and they've started using Cascadias, the Pro-stars aren't working out. There are a hand full of Kenny's & Petes that go "mostly" to senior drivers (though there have been exceptions).

 

Why weren't the pro stars working out?

 

From what I've heard while taking my 34-hour reset at Vandalia, it has something to do with how the maintenance guys are governing the trucks. Apparently, the way they install the governor somehow voids or jeaopardizes the warranty on the Prostars. #### shame, too; I've had an opportunity to drive both the Petes and the Prostars, and the Prostars are actually nicer.

Personally, I wouldn't mind getting a newer 9400 like the one I have now (mine's got over 417,000 miles on it; shouldn't be much longer before they put me in another unit). The old beast isn't much to look at; but the sleeper is pretty roomy, and I prefer manuals anyhow.

 

Good luck, there are a lot of cool trainer's with USA. (and a few bad ones.)

Just remember to do what you're told (unless it's absolutely a mistake) because you're a guest in his "house". If you have a different "style" for how you want to do things wait untill you're on your own.

(I never got the hang of backing untill I had my own truck, my trainer tried and tried, but his style was different from what I'd been taught in school. when I got my own truck I used my own technique, finally got it sorted and now I can back pretty well.)

 

I'm glad you have a good trainer! It makes a world of difference. I remember my trainer very well, he was terrific. (I wonder if he's still there...)
Take notes (or keep your logbooks), so you have something to remember it all. After a few months or a year on the road, the loads and cities and shippers start to all run together. I still get a kick out of flipping thru my logs from 8 years ago and reminiscing about my rookie days.
Have a SAFE trip out there, keep the shiny side up, and do it by the numbers. Thanks again for keep us posted!

 

On the subject of bad trainer:

The guy I didn't like said I had bad handwriting.
He ripped a page out of my logbook (!) and told me to re-do it.
This is after being told by the orientation guy that taking pages out of your logbook will get you fired.

What do you do at this point?
Argue with your trainer and get fired?
Or break a FMSC rule and get fired?

(in this case I did what the trainer said and hoped I could get though the month without a logbook review. Better to possibly get fired than fired on the spot.)