My return to LTL... with SAIA

Good to know. I originally ordered 3 polos and 3 pairs of cargo shorts. I considered doing the woven shirts because they were less money but I also figured that they are significantly hotter to wear. I think at this point I'll just let that $150 sit on my Cintas account and wait until the colder weather begins to roll in during the fall.

I also need to find a sturdy badge holder to attach to my belt, because I hate having anything around my neck and that lanyard for my ID is going to drive me insane.

 

Finished the last day of city driver training today. 1 day with a liftgate pup, the rest of the week with 48 and 53 foot vans. Pretty easy week overall with my trainer. He told me when we started that his only purpose was to familiarize myself with the P&D process that Saia uses.

Having been out of a combo vehicle consistently for some time now, I started the week off with some rusty rookie looking back-ups to docks with the 53' on Tuesday and what not but it all came back to me later on in the week. Funny thing is that I've never done this many alley dock maneuvers in my entire time with a CDL.

Missed a few pickups that the dispatcher sent me with the wrong appointment times.

I'm not well versed on what the line setup is at my location.

 

On average I went out with 12-15 stops and accumulated 3-5 pickups on a daily basis. The one day I went out with a liftgate pup I had 18 stops, 15 of them residential and had another 4 pickups to do later in the day. Didn't hook any sets, I don't think this operation runs with taking sets to a distant stop and peddling that way, so unless I'm running line I don't think I'd build a set.

The days I dragged a 53' trailer were days where I did swaps at a few accounts. Interestingly enough, dispatch would have me drop my first trailer that had pickups on it and send another driver with an empty to pick up my first trailer as I was on my way back with the swap. The accounts we do swaps at fill 53's to the brim, and if it's one of the new trailers that have the load bar tracks, they'll even drop load bars and load on top of them. Not only will they load on top of the bars, they actually do a #### good job securing the freight as well. The day that happened to me was awesome, aside from spending an hour and a half entering 43 bills in the little handhelds, which are probably the worst thing I've encountered so far.

As far as assigned tractor goes, I'm still in the dark on drivers vs. vehicle count. I initially thought I was getting a little M2 Freightliner, which I would have loved, but it seems I'll be put in an older Volvo, which I'd be just as happy with because I love peddling with Volvos. I peeked into the cab of the Volvo before I left Friday, for it's age... surprisingly clean and maintained. My luck it'll smell like a bingo hall but if I can get my paws on it and keep it then I'll be happy to do so.

I do wonder if those iShift Volvos that they have with the little shifter next to the seat had the performance mode neutered or not though.

 

I saw that in the employees group earlier. That’s gotta be a hoot to pull

 

About on par with dragging an old FX National trailer, which I did with some moderate frequency. Those old Wabash National trailers are easily found in the Northeast. I also loved (sarcasm) when I pulled a Watkins trailer, you know, one of those ones that are sun bleached and you can see the old lettering under the poor paint over job? lol/

I'd say than MOST of Central's.