My Maverick Experience

Maverick Flatbed Securement Training Day 6 - Wednesday 02/06/2013

Today started out with tarping. I worked with the other experienced driver all morning. We did eye to the side and eye to the sky coils at first. After the break we did Linear Steel and the box on the trailer in one of my previous posts.

Not a whole lot to describe about all that. Most all tarping is the same no matter what you're hauling. You just adapt it to the shape of the freight.

This is the set of 2 eye to the sky coils I did yesterday:





Lunch was at about 1015. We took an hour for lunch.

After lunch we took the final exam. It wasn't very hard. The final exam consists of 50 random questions from all of the other tests we took over the past week. You can get 5 wrong and still pass. I only got 1 wrong and it was stupid. I knew the right answer but got in a hurry and clicked the wrong one.

After everybody passed the exam we spent a while just talking with Gary. He gave us all a congratulations on passing.

After the exam we all went over to the main building to scan our logs for the past week.

After everybody finished we went back to the training building. The other experienced driver and I were allowed to leave for the day at this point. The Students had to go back at 1500 for a presentation on how things are going to work while they are with trainers.

If I were only going to be doing flatbed I would be turned over to Operations tomorrow morning and assigned a truck. Since I'm doing glass though I still have more training to do.

I finished the day around 1430. It's an unusually early end to the day for me. I'm not quite sure what to do with all this extra time. Tomorrow morning I start 4 days of glass training. The nice part is that I don't have to be there until 0900 so I'll get to sleep in a few extra hours tomorrow morning.

While getting ready to leave the yard today I saw this:



I thought all the old SNI trucks were gone. It was weird to see orange again.

My body is a little sore from all the extra movement of tarping. A long night of rest is going to be nice for once.

-Ryan

 

Maverick Glass Training Day 1 - Thursday 02/07/2013

For the first day of Glass training we didn't have to get there until 0900. I slept until about 0700 and then rolled around in the bed trying to sleep until 0800. It was nice getting to sleep in for once. I really don't like the early mornings. I'm used to late nights.

The first day started out with us meeting Kurt the Glass Instructor. There's only 3 of us in the class at this point. Everybody else either went to TCD or Flatbed.

We went over the different types of trailers and what is unique about each. We also found out that we carry a slightly different amount of equipment from thee normal flatbed trucks. We only carry 6 coil racks compared to the 12 on a normal truck so we can only carry 3 coils at most while most can carry 6. We also have to carry 2-4 normal tarps on our tractor since each glass trailer only has the glass tarps and equipment on them. We are also required to carry a set of tools for assembling and collapsing the A-Frames on the Step Deck and Flatbed Glass trailers. I know one tool that was shown in the videos but not on the list is going to be either an electric or pneumatic impact wrench. Seems like it would make it faster to attach the A-Frames than using a socket wrench.

We also found out that we will be securing and tarping indoors a lot. The truck can't move until every strap is on the glass and they will usually use the overhead crane to drape the tarp over the load so we don't have to climb on top and do it our selves.

We went over all the equipment and the proper way to load and unload glass on the Flatbed and Stepdeck trailers. There are a lot of steps and extra things needed with the glass compared to steel because the tarps need to be protected from the sharp edges on the glass. After going over everything we took lunch for an hour from 1200-1300.

After lunch we went outside and broke down a glass load. They recently moved all the glass stuff to NLR from Laurinburg, NC so it's all just set up in the parking lot right now until they expand the training building.

Other than all the extra edge protection and only using 2" straps it's not too bad. The edge protection is what take the longest to put in place. It's a little easier here because we're using wooden boxes to simulate glass so we don't have to worry about getting cut. In reality we will have to be careful not to lean on the edges because they will cut easily.

It took us about 2-3 hours to take it all down because we sere stopping a lot to discuss the steps and we also unbolted and then reattached the A-Frames. The Flatbed and Stepdeck trailers are almost identical in how they are loaded and equipped. The only difference is the obvious step and that the Step Deck can have 12" extensions on top of the A-Frames to haul larger glass. The rear Axle on the Stepdecks can also slide forward to change fro ma spread axle into a tandem axle. We are going to have to do this any time we cross into Canada.

It was about 1600 when we finished for the day.

After the first day and seeing the extra steps required for glass I almost wanted to go and just do normal flatbed. After getting through it all though and with the pay difference I'm thinking glass was the right choice.

-Ryan

 

Maverick Glass Training Day 2 - Friday 02/08/2013

Today started off with getting up at 0700. Class started at 0800. To save the trouble of having them send a shuttle back and for for us every time I'm just giving the other 2 guys a ride to and from the campus every day. No reason to make them wait for the van when there's plenty of room in my truck.

This morning we started out by talking about the Flatbed and Stepdeck trailer securement a little more. Then we took the tests. Around 0900 we went outside and finished putting the load back together on the Stepdeck. Since there's only 3 of us we only tore down and rebuilt half of the load. When we were finished it looked like this:



After we finished this we stared talking about the Double Drop (DGL) and the Double Drop with Rolling Tarp (DG7C) trailers. They are different not only because of the fact that they are lowboys but they also have the Glass Racks permanently mounted to the trailer. They also use different equipment to secure the larger pieces of glass that they can carry.

Another driver for the Glass division had just pulled onto the yard with a roll tarp flatbed that we were able to go outside and look at. It was nice to be able to see how it worked before being assigned to one OTR and having to figure it out for myself.

One of the downsides to not going with a trainer is that I'm going to end up doing a lot of things on my own for the first time and won't have a trainer there to show me. I'm pretty good at figuring out how things work though so I'm thinking that I should be able to do just fine. If I really get stuck somewhere they do have a 24 hour help line that I can call and one of the instructors will answer it.

After discussing the DGL and DG7C trailers for a bit we watched an old video from when Schneider still ran the division. It was from 1994 when they were doing the testing to see what works best to haul glass. It was on a VHS that they had transferred to DVD but still had all amazing picture quality of a VHS. It may be time to update this video. It showed how the glass moves quite a bit while the truck is moving. There were several times in the video where they would take turns at 25-30mph and you could see the glass tilt away from the A-Frames about 6" and then fall back without breaking. I didn't think it would move that much but apparently that's what it's supposed to do.

I was also amazed that no matter what the glass weighs we only use 2" straps to secure it. We are told to pretty much ignore the weight rules when it comes to securing glass.

We finished the day around 1600 again.

Nothing really exciting to talk about. The days are flying by at this point.

-Ryan

 

Maverick Glass Training Day 3 - Saturday 02/09/2013

Another 0800 start to the day. 0800 is much better than 0600. I can do this a little more easily.

This morning started off with discussing proper placement of the Setting Blocks on the DGL and DG7C. The setting blocks go on the deck of the trailer and these are what the glass sits on. There are 4 per side. They are moved around depending on the size of each Stoce (Stack) of glass that we have to haul. After a couple hours of this along with taking a couple tests and watching some videos we went outside and tore down the DGL. It took us about 2 hours to take it all apart. The hardest part is dragging the massive tarp back to the front of the trailer. In the factories when they load the trailer they will then hook the tarp to the crane and pull it to the back of the trailer. No matter what though we have to fold it up by hand.I would say this tarp could easily weigh 200-300 lbs. It's not very easy to drag is across the top of the racks even though they are smooth.

While we were working on taking apart everything one of the other guys got his foot caught on the tarp and fell a couple feet off the lower deck of the DGL. Of all the places to fall from this was the best possible spot. It's very close to the ground but he wasn't able to catch himself. He landed flat on his bad and hit his head on the ground. Luckily he was wearing his Hardhat and it kept him from making contact with the asphalt. We had to stop working on the trailer then until he got cleared by safety to keep working. He was OK, just a little sore and a few bruises.

While we were waiting inside we started going over logging while in Canada. We covered all of the differences between the US and Canadian logs and all the extra stuff we had to fill in while we were in Canada. The Qualcomm should take care of all of this for us, but in case it fails they need to teach us the Paper method too.

We took the test on the Canadian HOS. After we all finished and passed the test we finally got the all clear to go back to work. We finished taking everything apart and then started putting it back together. I did one side while they did the other side. I liked working alone on this because I'm going to have to do it alone in a few days. There was only one tall ladder so I spent the better part of the afternoon climbing up and down the racks. It wasn't a whole lot different than using a ladder because once I got to the top I could just walk along the top of the load. It was a little more difficult having to carry stuff to the top while also hanging onto the racks but I enjoyed it. I like climbing things so this part was fun to me.

The biggest danger is that I was climbing around 13+ feet in the air and walking on top of the load without and kind of harness. There's no place to hook one. I had to be extra careful where I was walking so I didn't step into a hole and wind up falling to the ground. There's isn't anything on the way to slow me down if I lost my footing. Thankfully I didn't fall and just enjoyed climbing all of the trailer.

Around 1500 if started to rain so we pulled the tarp back to the back end of the trailer. It would be a lot easier if we had a crane, but we don't so I had ot climb on top and manually pull it to the back of the load. The other guys were helping where they could along the way when it was getting caught on edges. Once we got it to the back we just tied it end flaps together to keep the wind from pulling them open and went inside for the rest of the day. By the time we left around 1530 the rain had stopped for the most part.

Tomorrow we will finish tarping the DGL and do the Canadian Map Reading lesson. Then we'll take the final exam for glass and be done for the day. Tomorrow is the last day of glass training. On Monday the other 2 guys will either be assigned trainers or just sit around until they are. I'll be sent over to the Main Office to meet my Fleet Manager and find out where I am picking up my truck from. I'm hoping to get a truck in Gary so I can drive my Pickup home first.

-Ryan

 

Thanks for all the tips. I'll be sure to remember them. I got to do the manual retarp on the DGL today. It was not fun.

We already got the talk about staying the hell out of the way during loading/unloading and always keep an eye out for falling glass.