Starting at Magnum Transportation

So just a brief update...

My last few days as a Schneider driver were not too pleasant. Last Tuesday I ended up taking the wrong trailer down to a customer. I've no idea how it happened. I had looked over my load paperwork, did a full pre-trip on the trailer, looked at my paperwork again and took off. I'm assuming that my mind assumed that the wrong trailer I picked up was the right one since the trailer numbers were identical except for the last two digits, and somehow my mind never put two and two together. If the customer hadn't have said anything I would've been none the wiser about the mix up. Thankfully I was only 2.5 hours from the yard so I just took the trailer back to get the right one. I fully admit that it was my mistake. I got back to the yard and hooked up to the right one and that's when my truck decided it didn't like me anymore. My electrical pigtail was causing issues with my trailer lights and making them go on the fritz. Had a new pigtail installed at a Love's which caused more issues then it solved, and tried multiple techniques that former drivers told me over the phone to no avail. Pretty much sat on my keester all day Wednesday doing nothing until I could have a TA look at it. They fiddled around with different tools and machines for about half an hour to tell me it was a dealership problem that they couldn't fix. This was an issue as I was supposed to drop the truck off at the Gary OC the next day at Thanksgiving and I was stuck near Ann Arbor, MI. Had to convince night dispatch that my truck was not legal to haul anything but itself to Gary and they finally approved just to have me bobtail 200 miles there.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving Day and I parked my truck in the yard at Gary. Tony had set up for me to get a rental car from Chicago Midway airport for me to get to Fargo with for orientation. Took an Uber to the airport, and went up the the Enterprise desk. Apparently they didn't have a car in the class Magnum booked so I got a very nice upgrade to a black Mercedes sedan. It drove really nice but I would never want to own one. The amount of technology the Germans put in that car was insane. I'm 22 and fairly good when it comes to electronics but it legit took me 10 minutes just to figure out how to change the radio station. Drove back to the Gary yard, grabbed my stuff, and went back home to Michigan. Tony contacted me the day after to schedule a drug test in the town I live in before I headed up to orientation. Did that but more or less stayed at home and did nothing Friday and most of Saturday. Got a call from my on the road trainer after i finish my orientation and talked for about 5 minutes. We both have similar personalities so I think we will get along pretty decently. The only issue I have is I get anxiety if I'm sharing an enclosed space with a complete stranger, however that usually wears off as I get to know the person. Woke up early Sunday morning, packed the rest of my essentials, gassed up my rental, and hit the road about a quarter after 6 am for North Dakota. An uneventful drive besides for stopping for cheese curds in Wisconsin and getting a pic of the Minnesota Welcomes You sign. Arrived at Fargo in good time and checked in to the hotel at about 5:30-6 pm. Unloaded the car, took it back to the airport and rode the hotel shuttle van back. Woke up Monday morning, had hotel breakfast (Magnum gives you vouchers for them, they provide lunch, dinner is on you. However there are numerous food options well within walking distance and a Walmart about a mile down the road.), and met the rest of my class. There were supposed to be 7 of us but one never showed up at all and one more resigned on Tuesday. Besides for me and another trainee the other 3 were older folk. We did a bunch of paperwork that morning, met HR, Mark who ran orientation, and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head. After that Mark had as watch about 2 hours worth of videos after lunch, talked some more about various topics and then we left for the day. Woke up yesterday and took the shuttle to class. First thing we did were road tests. We all tested in a 2019 Peterbilt and it felt a lot different from the Cascadia I drove. I never went more than 25-30 mph even on roads with 35 mph speed limits since it felt a lot different to drive from what I was used to. Plus I only got a few blocks to get a feel for it before Mark switched drivers. Finished road tests and were back in the classroom about 11:30. Mark touched on a couple different topics and then we had lunch. He spent most of that afternoon learning about distracted driving, and how the mind works from that perspective. It was actually a real eye opening experience, and I learned a lot about how the human brain functions and how it relates to cognitive distractions and stuff. I have to say that Mark is an excellent and smart person from what I've gathered. Class ended around 4 pm and we headed back to the hotel. Woke up this morning, caught the shuttle van to class, and talked amongst ourselves until Mark showed up. That morning he talked and taught us all about hazmat. I learned more about hazardous materials in the first hour then I ever did at my CDL school and Schneider orientation combined, and it was a 4 hour class on the subject. Had a late lunch, had Mark demonstrate how to log into Magnum's website and things, then an guy named Aron came in and taught us about the PeopleNet system that Magnum uses. Class ended around 3:30 and we went back to the hotel for the day.

I must say that I'm really liking the orientation process and how Magnum is as a company. Tomorrow is only half a day but we have training on how to operate the reefer units with Sean, and an LTD workflow class with a driver manager afterwards. Two out of the five will get their trucks assigned to them tomorrow while the other 2 and me go out with a trainer. Mark and others said that I will likely only spend a couple weeks with my trainer seen as I already have 6 months experience, however he won't be into town until Friday, so another night at the Holiday Inn for me before I go out. I really do believe I made the right choice in going with Magnum. I'm hoping to stay here for the foreseeable future unless I move out of their operating area.

 

Sorry for the delay, it's been real busy. Finished up orientation Thursday, but had to wait until Friday to meet up with my trainer. As the government was lolligagging on my background check, i wasn't able to drive but could do all the non driving activities like pretrips, working the ELD, etc.

First load we picked up at Lamb Weston in Park Rapids, MN with a delivery at Gordon Food Service in Imperial, PA. Unloaded there and started to head up to North East, PA when we had to shut down because of high winds on I-79, which essentially started a large week long fiasco. Contacted the broker and set up a 7 am appointment the following morning. Got loaded there and besides for a bit of snow we made it to the Flying J in South Beloit with literally seconds left on our clock. The delivery was for that night (Tuesday) at 10 pm in Madison, which we weren't going to make. The broker said the next appointment wasn't able to be until Thursday. So faced with two days sitting at the hook we elected to drive to the reciever Wednesday night to see if they could work us in. At this point my background check had finally cleared and i was able to drive. Arrived at the reciever and checked in. They said they could work us in. No dice. Sat for 6 hours and never received a phone call so before they closed to 4 am i went to get my paperwork back. We finally got unloaded Thursday night, but we had to sleep at a nearby Kwik Trip as i was exhausted. Drove up to Appleton to pick up yet another broker load going to Dunn, NC. We called dispatch and said that we wouldn't make it there until Sunday. We had a 1500 appointment that Friday in NC, but at that time we were still getting loaded in Appleton. Dispatch said that the broker had us set up for a Sunday delivery. Drove the last 600 miles from Indiana on Sunday just to have the guard at the reciever take one look at the paperwork and said we needed a new appointment time before turning us away. We sat the rest of the day Sunday, all day Monday, and part of the day Tuesday with dispatch finally giving up and having us just drop it in the Greensboro yard, before sending us down to Charlotte for another load. At this point the two broker loads have left a very sour taste in my mouth. I know it's not Magnum's fault but i hope all their loads aren't broker freight. We're getting loaded as we speak (with yet another broker load I'm assuming to McClanes in Lewisville, TX) and we still haven't left North Carolina. Hopefully this load won't end up in a huge fiasco like the last two. On a positive note Adam called me today and said that I'm recovering a truck in Scottsbluff, NE and we'll get routed up after our delivery in Texas. All i know about it is that it's a Freightliner and the former driver of it broke his hip and is on leave for 6-8 months. Adam also said i wouldn't be forced to keep the truck if i didn't want.

But other than the load fiascos not at the fault of Magnum I've been enjoying my time here. After i get the recovery truck back to Fargo and decide to keep it or get another one I'll be on my own.

 

Judging by my trainer's and his DM's reactions, i think it's safe to assume that a fiasco as bad as that hadn't happened in awhile. I've heard that only 10% of Magnum's freight is by broker, so we must've caught them on a bad week. Shutting down twice for bad weather certainly didn't help our cause, but that was my trainers call, not mine. He saw me struggling and getting extremely nervous when we were driving on slick roads (i have very little experience driving a rig through snow, i started driving in spring) and decided to call it a day.

If you don't count the days we sat and did nothing we ran 400-600 miles each day, so not to bad. Definitely more than what i was getting with Schneider. And we also got payed layover for the days we sat and detention at other customers. We've never spent more than 4 hours getting loaded/unloaded when we got to customers.

Also we got loaded in Charlotte and made it to Mississippi last night. Wasted about an hour driving through the cesspool that is evening rush hour in Atlanta. 600 miles today and about another 500 miles to the reciever in Texas later tonight for a midnight appointment.