Stevens Transport aviary

Our lead trainer today went over what to expect over the road. He explicitly said NO FLOATING. Stevens policy forbids it, and any driver caught doing it comes in immediately for retraining classes, any trainer-driver doing or teaching it comes in for disciplinary measures.
The "F word" as they call it is not even allowed to be spoken during training and no discussion of it is even allowed during training in any way other than "NEVER DO THE F WORD"
Double clutch every gear up and down. Even the road test will remove points for each time you do not double clutch.
Otherwise he gave pretty much the same info as our instructor today except...
First trainer driver will do a lot of the driving, yet allowing you to drive only a few hours a day at first, mostly teaching you by example and teaching you the Qualcomm, time management, backing, trip planning and logs. You will have to drive nearly every state and at least two or three mountains up and down with at least 25,000lbs of load, and get 8500 miles of driving in about 35 days.
Second trainer-driver will have you doing most of the driving, trip planning, logs and all to make sure you know your stuff during those four weeks before you go solo.
Been doing sixteen hour days this week because of Christmas. Short day tomorrow, our last day of school classes, so I'll do an update on classes and all, including my own "Stevens are idiots" screed then. For now suffice to say I won't be heading out with a trainer Saturday with the rest of my class, may even be sent home instead, but I do have my CDL though.

 

Sometimes you can pull forward into spots at some places, but mostly you back those big bad boys right in! We were doing what's called 45 degree backing today, which is mostly like truckstop parking, and it's not easy for a new driver! But we only got to try about four or five times each a day for two days. But the guys with experience were doing it very well and like it was nothing, and tellling us how nice and wide the practice space was compared to most real world spaces. But you get tons of practice at that when you go out with your trainer. Here at schooling you really only get a bit of practice at it, an introduction to different kinds of backing and parking situations, not in-depth training on those things. The in-depth time is all about regulations, normal on-road driving and safety, how to drive safe, how to drive defensively, and how to drive safely. Did I mention safe driving practices? Oh, and safety. Plus you spend some time on safety.

 

YAY!
My Christmas present from Stevens is here! I got my CDL on Wednesday, but today I got my graduation presents...certificates of completion of training. Those certificates are not easy to get and are recognized around the country by most if not all trucking companies as badges of excellence.
On Monday I have to jump through some hoops for them before I get hired on, but I'm not worried about those hoops much. I'll take some time this weekend to explain what the stupid deal is of Stevens, it really is a bunch of hooey if you look at it from my side, but I can see how it is a concern if you see it from Stevens' side. Bah humbug, but it should be just a matter of a phone call to get them happy and me on a training truck and onto the road.
This weekend I'll also do a recap and opinion of the training experience at some point too.
Right now I'm stoked about graduating, about having a CDL, and about it being Christmas Eve! It's snowing right now and below freezing in Dallas! A white Christmas even though I'm in Texas! COOL!
So, for now, Merry Christmas everyone and be safe!

 

Myself I am having an issue with a policy that is neither written nor recorded anywhere that any student, driver or trainer can find, that both recruiters and the CSA admit is known only to them and never given out to prospective or current students unless it comes into play.
Not a single one of them said anything about not speaking about it to anyone, so I am going to reveal it.
I firmly believe that I and any prospective student should be made aware of this stipulation to being hired during the initial phone call interviews.
Any student who has graduated the school, should be able to proved a W-2 proving an income for the past three years in excess of $13,000.
You won't be asked to prove any such thing until just before you graduate and are due to be hired or not. But before graduation, if you can't show an income of $13,000 or more each year for the last three years, you must have written proof of why that will meet an undisclosed criteria that only the guys in Safety have any knowledge of. None of the recruiters, the CSA or trainers know what that criteria is or could be, and only the guys in Safety can make the determination if that reason for making less than $13,000 for any of the last three years is satisfactory.
I was not made aware of this fact until the afternoon of Wednesday, and told I would have to provide that written documentation of why I made that small amount of income by today, Christmas Eve, the very next day after being informed of that fact, or I would not be given a job after graduation.
Do you know how hard it is to provide that kind of documentation the afternoon of the day before Christamas Eve? Back home it was the last hour or two of being open for any offices to find and fax that kind of paperwork down here, and I was lucky enough that both my radio station manager and the office manager there were able to quickly write a letter explaining their firsthand knowledge of why I was unable to earn more than that, but that wasn't enough for them. Now as far as the legal paperwork proving the situation I outline below, the legal offices, the medical offices, her doctor's offices, and the nursing home records offices were either closed or the persons who could get those papers were gone for the day already. And of course, none of them were in on Christmas eve, or the recruiters who were tasked to get that information didn't try to get hold of any of them. They told me there were unable to get the info anyway. I was unable to do anything about it today, as it was our last day of classes and I could not be excused from classes to make phone calls or I would miss the final exam tests, the mandatory safety workshops and the mandatory paperwork we had to fill out all day. Our day started at 7am here, 8am back home, and we were released at 4pm local time, which is 5pm back home on Christmas Eve. Not much I could do by then as far as contacting lawyer's office, doctor's office, or the records offices of the nursing home or hospital.
What a cluster####.
But I should be able to clarify the situation for Stevens with a phone call or two on Monday and get on my way.
I'm taking the positive outlook and saying...Hey, instead of heading out with the trainer on Saturday, I get to stay at the hotel on Stevens' dime on Saturday and Sunday at least! Two extra days off after schooling before I head on down the road is all!
And at least Stevens decided to pick up the hotel stay a couple more days to let me get hold of the proper paperwork and get hired on instead of just saying get out after pulling their secret employment requirement on me.
Geeeeeze!
The big deal is that for the past several years my mother was unable to care for herself and I lived with her to provide the care she needed so that she wouldn't have to live in a nursing home or extended care facility, and could instead live at home during what was obviously going to be her last years of life.
She died in July this year at 83 after years of dementia, heart attacks, diabetes requiring insulin injections (she could not have read the needles to fill properly even if she could have held them) COPD requiring breathing treatments every 4 hours (she could not have opened the small vials of medicine even if she could have remembered to take the treatments) a stunted leg from polio as a little girl that qualified her as legally handicapped and unable to walk, and I could go on and on.
So I was unable to work full time at the radio station (though by law full time for on-air personalities is only 25 hours a week so I was legally fulltime) and earned less than $13,000 a year for those years.
Now Stevens wants me to prove that I was mom's primary care giver or they won't hire me. It would have been easy if they had asked before I packed away all those kinds of papers and records after her death six months ago and then cleaning out her house and then took a 26 hour one-thousand mile bus ride down here! Or even if they had asked during the phone interviews how much I made, then asked why, then asked for paperwork or doctor's statement showing that I wasn't a lazy bum living with my mommie and not working for a living. Or they could have asked one of those three or four times they asked me to call them every week before I came down here "to stay in touch". Or they could have asked my first week here in training. Or the second week. But they waited until the day before Christmas Eve, the day before graduation, to even ask me anything about it, or even mention any such stipulation to being hired after graduation.
Shame.
So now I'm sitting in a hotel room over a thousand miles from home, now in debt for no less than $4,000 and most probably more like $7,000, with no assurity or certainty that I even have a job after selling most of my largest possessions and anything I couldn't use on a training truck...ON CHRISTMAS!

 

You may assume you have a pre-hire, but be careful and cautious, and go speak to the office ladies before you're too sure of that fact.
I currently don't know if I have a job for sure, as I don't know what criteria is good enough to please they guys in Safety about why I didn't make more than $13,000 a year for the last three years. I am not allowed to speak to the guys in Safety to ask, and the ladies in recruiting and the offices say the don't know what the criteria is or what I would need to provide, but to provide whatever documentation I can.

 

If Stevens has a real flaw, it's tons of outdated materials and paperwork!
NO PETS
Current drivers with pets before sometime in 2008 can keep their pets, but no one since then is allowed a pet on the truck.
UNLESS you lease from them, then you can take the truck home and/or have a pet.