Saying Hi! Begin my Orientation Oct 11th.

I wish more people would post their positive experiences with their trainers. All we read is negative, negative, negative.
Glad things went well for you Aiken. Keep up the good work and be safe out there!

 

Past my test today so it looks like I'll be headed up to Atlanta for orientation on the 6th. or 7th.of Dec. along with some of my class mates.
Are the no trucks available after training usual or is it unusual and how long of a wait is there?

 

Romans,

There was a poster on here, roadtoad69- she leased from kllm.

Have you read her story, very honest and informing.

I wish you luck, but it may be tough doing the lease.

Please stay in touch, keep us posted !!

 

Hey! What is with the past tense?? I'm still here
Still with KLLM and still in the lease program and doing well (DISCLAIMER: I got into the lease program before they changed it so I still have the lower truck payment with the longer 3 year term and the higher cpm.)
My big problem recently has been with the shop and getting things fixed. I had my truck in the shop a few weeks ago and told them my check engine light was coming on, the temp was shooting up, it was belching black smoke out the exhaust and dumping a LOT of speed going uphill. Long story short...they pretty much pressured me offering a diagnosis on what I thought was wrong. I took a SWAG and said "Maybe the EGR Valve?" and then they proceeded to check ONLY the EGR valve, say it was fine and kick my truck out of the shop saying "It's probably just because it is getting older...". No diagnostics or attempt to find out what the REAL problem is.
Yeah...sure thing buddy...while I'm at home for hometime my truck just woke up one morning and said "Gee...I'm feeling old and cranky. Think I'll fart black smoke and flash her with my engine light..."
I was pissed. But I decided that since, according to the shop, it was in such tip top operating condition I'd just drive the SOB until it blew up. That was until they sent me a load to Cali. I turned it down citing the ongoing problems with my truck and stating that me trying to make 600 miles a day through the mountains fully loaded was not going to work. PLUS, once they get you out there they will run you up and down the state for a week or two before letting you back out and they get this process started by telling you that they don't have anything out of SoCal so you *have* to go up to NorCal to get out. It's a major PITA and BS.
SO...they then sent me to Indiana instead...only on the way up there they send me a pre-plan going to...again...Cali. I'm not patient about repeating myself so I decided to tackle the issue from another angle. I picked up the load, went out to Cali, dropped it at the receiver and then told them that the ONLY load I was taking was one going right back out of Cali from SoCal as my truck tried to overheat on me twice in Arizona and was slowly getting worse and worse so I was absolutely not running over the Grapevine or around the California hills with it. All the while I am sending in the road breakdown macro every single day documenting the problems I'm having with my truck.
They (*gasp!*) get me a load out of SoCal going to Texas and I get a Qcomm from the head of the maintenance department. He wants me to bring my truck back to the company shop for repairs. I tell him I need some rock solid assurance that someone is actually going to *FIX IT* this time, otherwise I want to go to Freightliner or another outside shop. After several exchanges, he assures me he will supervise the repairs himself and have one of the best mechanics on it. Little do they know that I'm going one better. I'm putting my hound dog in the Doggy Day Spa and *I'm* going to be up their butts like a bad suppository and supervising the repairs as well....seeing as *I've* already had to start learning more about these engines so that I could tell him that it is the V-pod that is bad (not actuating correctly), I have a hole in my air charger, I have an oil leak and the truck is throwing the codes 44, 25, 39 and 83 (and since 39 is the code for an EGR valve problem there may YET be a problem with it). So I might as well get my hot little hands greasy and learn what is what, where it is located, what it does, how it does it and how to fix those things I can fix myself. And SOMEBODY is going to show me how to put a new belt on my bloody APU since they don't want to take the time to figure out why it is shredding them about once a month.

Other than that, I've answered a casting call for a show about women truck drivers that is currently in development and have been called back for step two in the casting process. If there is a voting portion I will expect you all to vote for me or I'll put frogs in your fuel tanks....
I can't WAIT to hear management's reaction if it all comes to fruition

RT

 

It's sad, but it seems you really need to get up people's rears to get things done. If things were fixed right the 1st time, everything else would be a non-issue. Sounds at least like you got their attention. I'm looking forward to reading how all this gets resolved.

 

Road Toad: Good to hear from you again. My opinion of the EGR trucks the EGR system is trouble prone. Not as bad as the 1st batch (the 04's) If you had a high exhaust temp keep an ear out for a turbo failure. The 1st thing you will notice is what sounds like an air leak as the engine should be putting out power. This is the bearings screeching from a soon to fail turbo.
If you can catch it whilst it is simply screeching it is a lot cheaper than when it has blown.(and much less time consuming). To properly show this to a mechanic you will need a loaded trailer(at least 20k lbs cargo) so the mechanic can hear the turbo screech. The other sign is your hound dog will start barking when you try to put a lot of power out(dogs can hear the higher frequency sounds and it is irritating to many dogs)
FYI Last month when I went in for PM Service I wrote up that my batteries were not holding a charge. Nothing was done about the batteries. Last week my alternator gave up the ghost. Drove from Pittsburg to Breezewood to get this fixed. Cost KLLM for the batteries. The alternator surprisingly was still under warranty. Total bill was over $1100. Don't know who paid for what.
Also found out that we are only getting 32amp alternators on units now. KLLM used to put the bigger 42amp alternators on units.
Good luck with the truck. Wish Joe Stianche was still there in Jackson. He is quite knowledgeable. Maintenance . . . not sure what to say.
We still have a lot of good people there.

 

Other than that, I've answered a casting call for a show about women truck drivers that is currently in development and have been called back for step two in the casting process. If there is a voting portion I will expect you all to vote for me or I'll put frogs in your fuel tanks....


RT[/QUOTE] PS Where do I vote?

 

Ah...one of my many lovely talents is the ability to get up people's butts like a jalapeno suppository

Just ask the shop guys...who have nicknamed me El Chupacabra....
Or my poor dispatcher who takes an unholy amount of cr*p from me....

RT