My New Adventures At Beacon Transport

It usually doesn't end well anywhere. That's why it ends. But I am not bringing any grand illusions with me. My biggest complaint at CT was low miles and a camera in my face. From what I've heard from drivers I won't have either of those problems here. Is it true? I can not say yet but time will tell. I'm a pretty easy going guy. I always try to roll with the flow. Take the good AND the bad. I don't think for a second Beacon will be a fantasy come true where the sun always shines and they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. What I'm hoping for is a CONSISTENT payday with decent miles and a Dispatcher that knows his ### from his elbow. The little things I will deal with. As for the Northeast, I'm not a driver that won't go NE. Actually I hate Florida more than the NE. I ran to Mass once in a while when I was with CT. I don't want to be there every week but It doesn't bother me a few times per month. But of course Beacon doesn't run there or Florida.

 

So I have finished up my first day of orientation. One down one to go. Nothing noteworthy to report really. Just the usual tons of paperwork and the road test. One thing that I have noticed is the smaller companies don't have the driver amenities in the truck that the larger companies do. No refrigerator or satellite TVs. No APU. The newer trucks have SiriusXM but the older trucks have a standard stereo. Of course they will install and inverter it at your request. So I will have to buy a plug in cooler and possibly a stereo as I just cannot live without my Sirius XM. But this is to be expected at smaller companies where it is just not feasible to invest and lots of amenities. I was informed today by the operations manager that they will be looking at getting refrigerators for the new trucks they are ordering this coming year. I have already been assigned my own truck after I took my road test. I will be perfectly honest I hate the Volvo. And I realize I mostly hate it because it is not what I'm used to. I'm sure as time goes on I will learn to make the adjustment. The people have been super nice. The hotel while not the Ritz is nice. We have an awful house right next door. Tonight I just stayed in my room and orderd Chinese. We had pizza today for lunch so that was not an option. Coming from Cargo Transporters I was amazed at how small our terminal is. Very small compared to what I'm used to it. However we have about a hundred and eighty trucks compared to almost 600 at cargo. The terminal and the showers where nice and clean and looked to be well maintained. One thing I found interesting was you are required to pull your truck through the bay every time you are on the yard. They have one day designated for this purpose where they look the truck over check everything including fluids and tires and do any maintenance they find necessary. This is a complete change from my old company where it was done every 60,000 miles. You are also required to top off your tanks every time you hit the yard. Absolutely no fueling is allowed in the state of Georgia without permission. Overall I would have to say my biggest disappointment so far has been the lack of driver amenities in the truck itself. However it's not a deal-breaker I will simply add Creature Comforts at my convenience which they are perfectly fine with as long as you do no modifications to the truck itself. I try not to be a spoiled brat but I live in my truck far more than I live in my house so I like to have the things I need to be comfortable there. Hopefully tomorrow we will finish up with orientation and get our first load on Friday. There was only one other guy in orientation with me and his mom has been a driver with Beacon for 7 years so he decided to come to work there too. I am off of here to take a shower and hit the sack will update again tomorrow.

 

I have bad arthritis in my lower back so shifting gears especially in heavy traffic is very hard on me. I love my automatic. I shifted gears for 15 years so I'm good. We will be all automatic within the next 2 years. They don't buy 10 speeds anymore. Most companies will be fully automatic in the next 5 years due to fuel savings. Around $1,900 per truck I believe they said.