New Career Begins

Just got off the phone with my trainer, Bobby. He is expecting to pick me up sometime after 3pm tomorrow.

He also gave me some great news. He's driving 1 of 15 brand new International Prostar Maxx in the whole company. The company has over 2,400 tractors.

I will be the only trainee in a new truck apparently. He said its so quiet you have to shift by rpms instead of listening to the engine.

 

My trainer, Bobby picked me up around 530 last night and he had me do some backing in the truck a couple of times in the terminal. He said I did pretty good for a newbie but gave me some good pointers for future practice. Then we headed down the road 11 miles to pick up our first load. Which of course wasn't ready even though dispatch advised that it was ready. Anyway, it's suppose to be ready by 5pm today.

So we did a WalMart run for some groceries and then dinner at Steak & Shake. Afterward we headed back to the terminal to get some sleep.

I knew space would be limited because I grew up around trucks. But its actually a little tighter than I thought. At least at first glance. Bobby informed me that he just got this truck and hadn't really had a chance to stow gear correctly. We're going to take care of that this morning while we wait. He says once its all stowed correctly, it'll be just like home.

Oh and his truck it brand new with only about 4K miles on it! 2011 International ProStar + with most of the options so it'll be a nice place to live for the next 6 weeks.

 

Well another delay now. Our load won't be ready until sometime tomorrow afternoon and there isn't another load right now to change to. So I guess we'll spend another night at the terminal.

We've ordered a pizza and settled in to watch some tv.

 

Thanks Chompi,

I'm working for USA Truck and yes I know all the negatives about mega-carriers but its a start.

 

Good morning all, just a quick update.

Yesterday was my first day of driving albiet a short one. We picked up our load at 1830 in Dayton bound for New Jersey. I drove 4.5 hours till Smithton, PA which is where we decided to berth for the night.

Only had one issue early on when leaving with the load. I missed 5th gear but my trainer said that I'm not used to the truck yet. He was right because I didn't have an issue with that the rest of the night.

We made a fuel/meal stop before leaving Ohio and I used my Comdata card for the first time. Easy peasy!

Up this morning enjoying the sunrise while writing this entry. We have about six hours to go on this run yet.

Last night before we called it a night, my trainer told me that my first day of driving was one of the best he's had of his students. There are two phases of the OTR Training and he thinks we might be able to shorten the first phase of 10-14 days down to 6-7. All depends getting my 43 hours of drive time in which I don't see as a issue at all.

Think I'm gonna hit the showers this morning, have some breakfast and get back out on the road.