Starting my New Career with Modular Transportation

I'm a brand new driver.

 

OK, thanks. I just filled out the app and submitted it.

 

Good deal man. Great company so far. Everyone has been great.

 

Nervous as hell right now. Meeting up with my trainer at 730 am tomorrow morning to start my training. Have no clue what to expect. Ready to get going though.

 

I did 6 weeks with a trainer with FFE. The first couple of days I was ready to punch him for various reasons, but I hung in there and still keep in touch with him. All I can say is bear with it.
I haven't heard anything from them yet but hope to. I need to get on the road again and am trying to avoid the mega carriers again.

 

So far very lucky. Got an awesome trainer. We are heading up to Onaway MI with 55, 000 lbs of Ibeams. So good start so far. Prob start driving tomorrow.

Hopefully you hear from them. Trainer said they are great to work for.

 

Good deal. Keep us posted on how things are going and stay safe out there. You are learning in the right weather for where we live!

 

Well today was the end of day 2 with my trainer. Let me first say I lucked out and got an awesome trainer. A little back info. We don't run as a team. We stay at a hotel everynight. Anyway.
Day 1
I meet him at the terminal and its starting to snow. We have to pick up 55, 000 lbs of Ibeams and take them all the way to northern Michigan in Onaway. About 30 min from the Mackinac bridge. The weather was horrible so needless to say I didn't drive at all on day 1 which was completely fine with me. I wanted to sit and just watch and ask questions which is exactly what I did lol. We made it to Gaylord MI and shut down for the day at about 4 pm. We couldn't deliver after 3 pm so no need to rush. We got the hotel and went to Burger King to grab a bite to eat then went back to the hotel. He showed me how to fill out my log book by showing me his and explaining it. After that we crashed because the weather was horrible and they were expecting and got about 6 inches of snow. It was also very bitter cold.

Day 2
It was 3 degrees with a wind chill of -14 when we got up at 5 am. Went out to warm the truck up and it didn't want to but slowly turned over and fired up. We head out after our pretrip and he is driving because the roads are all snow covered. We make it to Onaway in about an hour and we had another driver from Modular there to get unloaded as well. They get us both unloaded and now Modular wants us to switch trailers with each other. We had a 45' one and he had a 48'. Now with that all done we find out we are heading to Clair Mi to pick up a 9500 lb load of very small pipes. We not but 4' long. We get that strapped and tarped and off we go to Lansing Mi to pick up an oversized load. Its one freakin plate that hangs over each side of the deck by like 4-5" lol my trainer couldn't believe it was only 1. It weighed about 2400lbs. So now we got that loaded and strapped and tarped, now we have to put all the oversize warnings on the truck so he showes me how to hang the banners, pop the middle light out of the trailer to hook up the warning lights. We get all that set up with the nice orange flags and we are ready to rock. We have 2 loads on the truck so the first one which is the pipes we picked up in Clair Mi are going to Ft Wayne IN. The oversize load goes to Harrison OH. We are now done for the night in Angola IN. The weather go a lot better while in Lansing so I was getting more eager to drive. We were at where 69 and 94 meet and we stopped at the TA truck stop on 94 to fuel up and so he could pull money off the comdata card to pay for the hotel for the rest of the week. We fuel up and he shows me how to do that and we go inside and I fill up my 64 oz mug with some good ole Mt Dew. He then says to me "you ready to drive?" I'm like hell yea lets do this. He got a kick outta that so here we go the nerves are really ramped up. My first drive is with an oversize load although it wasn't that much of an oversize. I only had about 40 min of driving to do because I guess with oversize you cant drive in the dark. So here we are now in Angola and I'm ready to get back behind that wheel tomorrow. It makes a world of difference having a great trainer.
I will keep you all updated. Oh and Tarping sucks lol but I can get use to it. Also if there are any typos I'm sorry , I'm on my phone.
TroyD

 

Well first week is down and wow is all I can say. Here I was thinking all along that I was gonna be more worried about the securing of loads and such and to me that has been fairly easy so far. Its the driving that is driving me insane. Im so nervous and Ill admit scared when im driving. I was in Chicago for the first time and I dont even remember breathing. My trainer was like dude relax while he was laughing because my knuckles were white. He says I driver great but man Im a nervous wreck behind the wheel. I thought the driving was gonna be the part I would be fine with. On Friday I drove from Chicago to the Port of Indiana to pick up some sheets and then drove that back to Grand Rapids and I started feeling more comfortable. It also didnt help that the weather sometimes was not the greatest. So far so good though. Looking forward to heading back out again tomorrow.
TroyD

 

Well went into the terminal today to take my graduation test and passed it with flying colors. I get to pick up my rig on Monday and start rolling on my own. Im super excited and super nervous at the same time. Im ready to roll though. Its a constant learning process and its time I start learning on my own.