Schneider training March 15th, Carlisle PA

Hello All,

well first day of training is over, wow! It was a long day and I'm exhausted.

Starts off with a LOT of paperwork to sign and hand in, this was done by a guy named Mike.

After this me and the other bulk guy went to training with Carl (instructor) for bulk training. He wasn't in the best mood cause he should of had the day off, so he seemed a little brash and rude. He really drilled how dangerous the hazardous materials are and showed us videos of drivers who have been burned by various haz. liquids because they did not wear their protective suites. Only 2 guys (me and ramone) are doing bulk, the entire rest of the class is doing Van. Me and the bulk guy looked at eachother and said what the hell did we get ourselves into, the class for Van drivers seemed much more laid back. We've decided to stick with it, I really have no choice, no van in NJ available.

After the movies of drivers whose faces melted from haz. liquids, we went to the yard to climb ontop of the tanker and walk the catwalk. Let me tell you it's a lot higher then it looks and you certainly feel the wind.

We also had to take a physical test which was a breeze and conducted by a very attractive girl might I add, that'll get the blood pressure up.

My nerves have settled some in that I'm starting to bond with 2 fellow classmates. This certainly is a shock to my system, I've been used to the office environment for years now, the personalities and styles are completeley different, feels very strange at first and on several occassions I had this feeling of what am I doing here, culture shock. I see this as an adventure though.

Till next time . . .

 

It certainly has payed off, some of these guys are just plain shady.

 

Sorry to hear that man. They are a big company and that stuff does happen. Keep trying man.

 

Well as I learned here, about 1/3 will not make it through training. I've seen a few guys go already. The classwork is open book and note so its real easy. Tomorrow start on the simulators.

My only problem is this Van guy who keeps making fun of me cause I"m in Bulk, guy is a complete idiot. Keeps saying your gonna get sprayed with hazardous material and your face is going to melt or blah blah Van is so much better. Wish he'd shut up.

 

Thanks, I blocked him out today and avoided him and my day went much better. Some people are real negative here and I try to stay away from them, real downers.

 

Things got better today, I avoided that Jerk who keeps teasing me about being bulk and my jersey accent, he seemed to get the point. The key is to not engage him.

Also, we started on simulators today. We we're taught how to double clutch and 'bump and run'. The simulators we're cool and it was helpful, the guy teaching was Jim and he was the first instructor that I felt actually wanted us to learn, nice guy. The other guys are ok, but always seem very impatient with students, like you have to hesitate to ask a question.

After simulator we we're taken to the yard, where we got to see a live demo of coupling and uncoupling, we also got to learn all the controls and finally got to see the inside of truck. After all this classwork, the interactive stuff was more fun and the time went faster.

Best advice is to avoid the negative people like a plague, I've seen many who just want to keep bashing this process and are miserable. If you stick with the good people it will be more fun, to me this feels like a long class trip.