Running With Watkins & Shepard

My initial thinking about WS was the same...until I hired on with Colonial Freight System ( a good company by the way). I spent 3 weeks with a lease operator who let me back into a dock twice, and only drove the interstate at night while he slept. I requested a new "trainer" who was near termination because of three preventables in the span of two months. He asked me to do a pre trip prior to my first driving session with him. I found the left rear trailer tandem missing six lug nuts from a tire repair he had done a few days ago! After a week with him, I said no way am I going to spend another four weeks.

I called WS and they sent me to Conover for a five day orientation and Tim approved me to go solo. They can tell whose going to be ok and whose not.

Best of luck to you!

 

Nope, no trailers here at WS. A 10 day orientation and away you go...they have a pretty rigorous training program that weeds out the people who couldn't handle it on their own. It's mostly a confidence issue. They can tell if you can handle it or not. Then there are the guys (or gals) who decide for themselves that they don't want to be out there without a safety net and go somewhere else. It works, though as WS has a great team of people out here, and as you probably know by now, we are more like a family.

Heh, I've been there. If it had been my first or second run I probably would've gotten lost as well. It doesn't help that the plant isn't even on the actual street that the address is... I've learned to google map every pick up and delivery to get a lay out of the land, so I was fairly certain of where it was....isn't that a nice little turn to get into and out of there onto US30? Oh, and were you lucky enough to actually have someone in the little scalehouse around back? The shipping guy tells me, oh yeah, it gives axle weight! I drove up on it, had to get out and look inside only to find out it only gives gross..I then backed off the scale and rolled each axle on separately and had to keep hopping out and running to the window and writing down the combined weights and then pulling off and doing a little math to figure out the individual weights... fun times
Just curious, did you load go to a DC in Sacramento? Mine did, and it was a cluster the whole time...only 1 guy in the guard shack, and he had trucks lined up going in and coming out and it took me forever to get out as he was on his lunch break when I wanted to leave....

 

Sorry Warp but that was too funny.

 

For all those interested, I just posted an update on ORG'S Swift thread after a long "talk" with him. It was great to hear from him.

 

Well, at least we'll get great fuel mileage traveling light!

 

Boy, can't slip anything past you sharp guys....

I did notice at a later time the error in my typing, but alas, was on a 34 and couldn't do the work to fix it...LOL

 

Hi Bear, nice to meet you.

I'll kick in my 2 cents because you answered my post, but it's these other drivers that can really give you the specific details, but here's my take.

I've been following the exploits of Chris, Warpdrvr, Cagetrucker, Deserted1, just to name a few. They have all posted how they do spend seat time with a trainer but just not in an OTR scenario. The folks at W/S have to determine very quickly if you can be safe on the road and get the job done. Their 10 day training program packs in a lot of information. You have to be confident and resourceful. There's no hand holding. If you can't make the cut you go home. But the word is that they're nice people and they will work with you if you have potential.

If your interested, talk to Chris, or any of the other W/S drivers. I'm sure they can give you plenty of info.

 

Hi Chris
What's on the agenda today? Truck hopefully fixed? Get a loaner or what?

Still mulling that HOG ride -it's not you!!! Just call me dipped in batter and deep fried!

 

Haven't even taken it to the shop yet. They aren't open on weekends. I just finished writing up the whole ordeal for the shop. I have to call Mark this morning to see if I can get another truck...loner or whatever. They have none here so I'll have to see if he has a driver passing through to take me somewhere or if I have to sit tight here until mine is fixed.

I think this is going to take at least a few days so I don't want to give up the room until I know what's going on. I figured it would be best to see what the shop says first before calling Mark about another truck. I don't want to get another ball rolling unless I have to.

So my first call this morning will be to Kenny (terminal manager here) to get his take as well.

I may have to upgrade my cell phone plan sooner than I thought with all this calling around I'm doing.....

 

Well, the truck is at the shop and they gave me a ride back to the motel. Really nice people there. With the "laundry list" of things I gave them it will likely take a couple days but I'm not sure. Nothing too serious in that list so I'm not sweating the small stuff but the bigger items do need to be taken care of.

So I think I'll call Mark in Missoula, let him know what's going on and see what he has to say. Everyone has been great in making me comfortable here but honestly, I'd really like to get rolling and start learning and getting used to the "process" of working for these folks. I know that dealing with breakdowns IS part of the process so the good news is, I'm learning that first....LOL

In a way, this is all good. It gives me time to get my thoughts (from all that info pumped into my head in orientation) in order. Get all the important contact names and numbers in my phone, get caught up on laundry and talk with my folks about how my dad is doing. He's about the same, no better, no worse, and at his age and in his condition, that's also good news.

There's a Wal-Mart about a 1/4 mile away so I can walk over there and get a few things I need.

OH, this was kinda funny. Saturday night I was a bit hungry. It was late and there's a few places like Burger King, KFC, a seafood place, real close to eat. I won't eat at BK and wasn't in the mood for seafood so I choose KFC. So I walked down there and only the drive through was open. Well, all I had was the rig so I "walked" up to the window (apparently the "order post" doesn't recognize pedestrians...lol) and asked them if they minded a "walk through"....lol ....The girl at the window was SO nice and said "what would you like sweetie?, I'll fix ya up" So I placed my order and stood there with a car waiting behind me and the lady inside had this really puzzled look on her face....we Laughed about it. Got my order and went back to the room with it.

Up north? If I had walked through the drive through? They'd have probably called the cops thinking I was some kinda NUT.....