Stay Away!

Did you go to California for orientation ?
Did you take the bus of fly Southwest?
How was the hotel ?
How's your trainer ?

 

Well, I'm going on my third week with my trainer and it hasn't been as bad living in a truck with a total stranger as I though it would be. Fortunately, my trainer is retired military like myself, so we have a lot in common. The first thing he did on day one was take me out to the yard to see if I could backup a 53'er. Seeing no problems there, he kinda relaxed and felt he could trust me behind the wheel of his truck I guess. The first week on the road, I drove over 2800 miles myself. He added another 1200 or so himself. We where constantly moving. He does the Eleven Western States as a route, but we ended up as far east as Illinois on a few runs. Coming through Kansas on one run, it snowed the whole way. He let me drive it and was surprised at how well I handled the truck/trailer in bad weather. We must have seen at least six rigs and twenty cars flipped or in the ditch. It was a crazy, long, and mentally exhausting drive. After that day my trainer trusted me with everything and treated me like a team-mate. He sleeps well now while I'm driving...and vice versa. Pay is another issue. I arrived in Colton in early January for orientation, yet haven't been paid for orientation, nor for my reimbursables, like my plane ticket to Colton, and my taxi fair to the hotel. I did receive a $50 dollar advance on the fuel card/slash ATM card they issued me. That $50 being part of my orientation pay so they tell me. And I did receive a $300 deposit to my checking account last friday, I think for my first week on the road with my trainer ($47 a day), but I have no actual break-down for what the deposit was for. I still have to learn how to access my pay info on the SATCOM in the truck. Bottom line is, if I hadn't had my own money in my bank to work with, this could have been a real hardship for the first three to six weeks. So be prepared for that if you come work for this company and have no funds of your own availabe. Barring that, everything else is great! And to the couple a few posts back; I don't remember a husband/wife team during truck driving school. Did you mean orientation at US Xpress? I do remember a few couples there. To the rest of you...Good Luck and take care!

VegasRoadDawg

On the road again!

 

Hey Dawg,
I'm leaning toward USX now. I'm lined up for werner in 10 days but am going to backout.
I was planning (If accepted) to fly out of Vegas to Ontario. Is that what you did ?
Are they keeping your runs over 900 mile so your pay drops to 26 cents a mile?
.35 cents looks good unless you keep getting 900+ runs.

 

Can't PM until 50 posts.

 

2nd Career,

I'm still on with my trainer so I don't know how my runs will be when I get my own truck. They do use a sliding scale though, but I haven't heard anyone complain about it yet. Infact, no one has said anything negative about the company since I've been with them. I did fly in from Vegas to Ontario for orientation. They tell you taxi fair is only $20 to the hotel from the airport. Nope! I paid $34 by the meter. Today (friday) was pay day. They deposited $375 in my account, so some of the reembursables may have been paid. Overall, I'm very happy with the company so far. You say you might go with Werner? A third of the people at my Orientation were people who had quit Werner. All of them talked mega bad #### about the company. But who knows, right? Goodluck!

VegasRoadDawg

 

Okay, Here's my Two cents on the deal. While no, you dont have to justify your actions, you have to understand that as a company Driver you have no right to remove a truck from the shop. I would have fired you also. If I put a truck in a shop to have it fixed, and I hired you to drive it, and you threw a temper tantrum because you couldnt smoke a cigarette, I would also probably call the cops for unlawful entry into a commercial vehicle. The Guidelines of the shops are clear. And They have signs posted everywhere. No drivers in the shop due to Insurance Regulations. You had no business being in the shop, You should have asked where an appropriate place was for you to smoke. Only the Company that owns the truck has the right to make the decision of when the truck leaves the shop. You said it yourself, the company told you to leave the truck in the shop and let them finish the work. You went against the directives of the company. You caused a physical altercation with the shop as you were illegally on the shop floor trying to move a vehicle that you were not authorized to move. By all means you deserve to get fired. I would say that you are going to have a very very hard time trying to prove to anyone that you were fired in bad judgement.

P.S. Get some Anger Management Counceling quick before you really wind up in Jail. (If you are not in Jail Already)

 

Thanks Road Dawg for your reply. I'm going to cancel or postpone Werner on Monday until I can figure where to end up. I am waiting for a reply from a USX recruiter who has been mailing and calling me. Her name in Annettte.
Keep me posted with your progress...thanx....

 

Does USX run Freightliners or Volvos for the Florida runs?

Hunter

 

Well At Least we can agree on one thing.

wolfie