System Transport, orientation

I thought I'd go ahead and journal my experiences with orientation as a rehire with System Transport.

***************************

Today Sunday November 24th was day 1 of orientation. Of course normally it would be held on a Monday for day one but due to the Thanksgiving holiday they kind of shifted everything a day ahead.

The day started with logging into the Qualcomm and the laptops and filling out some paperwork on the laptop, things like I9 forms and W2's, and also a couple of open book quizzes from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.

During this time we all took our turn peeing in a cup.

And then we moved on to a little bit of lecture, we watched some videos on distracted driving and some safety stuff.

During this time they were taking us out two at a time for road testing. I was a little bit nervous cuz I hadn't shifted with a clutch or even driven a truck for like seven or eight months (I had some now resolved medical issues) but it went really well. I missed a few shifts but that's not really what they were testing for, they were testing for, you know Lane position control and safety, using your mirrors, are you being aware of your surroundings, are you speeding are you breaking any other laws, are you running over mailboxes, that sort of stuff.

I passed with flying colors, the tester didn't even have any pointers for me, so I was happy with that.

We had lunch catered in from Subway which was fine with me. I like Subway, it's good solid lunch.

After lunch we went through securement, and went through the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations regarding securement. It was excellent.

As far as I'm concerned the flatbed training at System Transport is excellent. This is not the first flatbed company that I trained with. I trained with Jones Brothers out of Missoula about four years ago when Tom Walter was still there and he and Rex were butting heads all the time and it was absolutely a miserable experience. I didn't learn a #### thing not about shifting not about double clutching not about load securement although I will say one thing I did learn a lot about tarping but you got to kind of get securement before you do tarping.

Anyhow the day ended with a bit of a tour of the yard and the facility and we were introduced to the securement bay and the tarping stations.

So then tomorrow we're going to have a morning of classroom work and then afternoon we're going to go out and do tarping and securement for a couple hours and then we're going to go over to the off-site for a physical means test, which is where you have to climb up and down the ladder three times and you got to carry 40 lb at chest height for a hundred feet or something and then you gotta lift I think it's a hundred pounds up onto a bench that's about the same height as a flatbed deck from the floor. Basically they just want to see that you're capable of doing the job without blowing a gasket. Contrary to popular belief flatbedding does occasionally require a little bit of physical exertion.

Normally the physical means test would have been done on Monday afternoon I believe but this year because of the holiday everything's kind of messed up. They're working around the holidays adjustment really well.

There's quite a few experienced flatbedders in this orientation class, over half this class are experienced flatbedders, with three or possibly even 4, I'm not sure, owner-operators.

The members of the class with flatbed experience will be starting out doing tarping outside tomorrow after lunch and then the the new guys are going to be working on securement, inside, then we'll go for the physical means test.

So I went through the same orientation a year and 3 weeks ago. They made some changes and they look like very positive changes to me. The changes aren't aren't dramatic but definitely positive.

After talking to two of the owner operators, I've decided that if I'm still doing this job successfully in a year or maybe a little more than that I'm definitely going to consider buying my own truck.

One of the owner Ops that I talked to bought his truck through the company and he's really happy, he really enjoys the freedom and he really enjoys working with System Transport. He gets good loads and they treat him well.

The other owner op that I talked to started out with just buying one truck I can't remember if he bought his through a company, any way he'd only been driving for six months when he bought his first truck. He now owns Six trucks, has three of them contracted to System Transport. He's actually coming through orientation again coming back driving for System because his little brother is starting as a driver and he's going take him out in his truck and train him and then put him in his truck as a driver.

 

There's a couple things I forgot to mention.

They're putting us up in the Baymont Inn & Suites it's brand new and we've all got our own rooms pretty nice place actually nothing too fancy but brand new and pretty nice, continental breakfast provided by the motel, lunch is provided by the company, dinner you're on your own but if you think ahead you can order 12 inch sub and eat 6 of it lunch and you got yourself another 6 inch sub for dinner.

Orientation starts at 7 am. They provide van shuttle service between the motel and the terminal.

 

I'll try to find something, but there are a ton of variables, such as drivers experience level, which fleet (OTR, maxi, which is 8 axle rigs and regional, and they have a couple of specialized fleets, such as glass and poles).

When I started with them last year, I drove OTR, lower 48 states, for $.43 with 8 months OTR Experience and a couple months regional experience, none of it on skateboards.

This time around, I'm going in to the pole fleet, hauling utility poles in and out of Canada, starting at $.50, but again, it really depends on a lot of variables.

 

So today was day 2 of orientation.

We started with more classroom work in the morning. We had some more quizzes.

We watched a video about the in-cab cameras.

We got signed up for payroll.

We had a class on the Qualcomm.

We had a class on Hazmat.

We had a class on foul weather driving.

Let's see what else, we had a visit from HR and got signed up for payroll, got information about our health insurance and other benefits.

That took us up to lunch.

After lunch we spent I think it was three hours out in the securement bay and outside doing some tarping.

I will say that the both the classroom and Hands-On practical training in securement and tarping at System Transport is excellent and very very valuable for anybody that wants to get into flat bedding.

At 3pm we went off site and did our physical means test.

That's where you have to climb up and down a ladder three times and you got to lift a basket full of sandbags up to a 50 inch high shelf a number of times and every every time you do it three times they put more weight in there until you're finally up to 75 lb, we had to lift that up on that shelf a couple times.

You have to do a hand grip strength test. You do a vision test.

You're wearing a heart rate monitor during all this so after each of these tests they check your heart rate. (Not for the grip strength or vision tests, but after all the other tests. )

You got to lift a steel tarp up onto a 50 in high Shelf I think it was twice or three times.

You got to carry a crate that has 40 lb in it, got to carry that I don't know like 25ft back and forth twice.

I passed. I was afraid I was going to pass out. I've been sitting on my ### for 6 months doing nothing but playing World of Warships Legends, so this was a challenge but I passed and I'm 57 years old and definitely not in the best shape I've ever been in. If I can pass that test anybody can. But no okay I'm kidding, it's pretty challenging and even though I'm not in the greatest shape I've ever been I'm in better shape than a lot of people my age so if you're a doughboy, don't bother.

I do want to emphasize again though that the quality of this training in this System Transport orientation is very very valuable training.

You get some really good resources, you spend a little bit of time digging through the green FMCSR, you do a lot of Hands-On.

We're going to be back to the securement and tarping tomorrow, and we have to do a thorough pre-trip inspection and pass it, I mean it's a pretty serious Trucking outfit.

I'm in the right place and if you're a driver that wants to get into flat bedding, even a new driver, if you're serious about wanting to get into flatbedding I think this is a good way to do it.

 

I've only flatbedded For 3 months up to this point but I would say that it's worth the hard work. I mean you know you get paid proportionally to the work that you do in my opinion.

Yeah it's intimidating, it definitely is at first, very intimidating cuz you don't want that load to get damaged, you don't want it to shift or fall off you know.

Go to the company that's got a good training program and I think you can't go wrong.

Flatbedders are a slightly different breed and it's a little bit of a Brotherhood and you definitely get treated a little bit differently everywhere. I've rarely had to wait very long at all to get loaded a couple times you know like maybe a half hour 45 minutes cuz the trucks were lined up ahead of me that sort of thing but that's pretty rare. And as far as getting unloaded kind of the same thing usually you know you're delivering to businesses that want their stuff off your truck so they can sell it. Or use it. But it's nothing like dry vans and waiting hours for a lumper to do what should have taken 45 minutes.

One of my favorite things about flatbed so far honestly is Interstate 80 in Wyoming or I-90 through Livingston Montana when the crosswind's blowing 40 miles an hour and those dry Vans are getting pushed all over the place or having to wait it out, that's rarely a problem with a flatbed. I mean yeah if you get too much wind you're going to still feel a little bit on your tractor but you rarely have a high load at least I have only had like two high loads so far. Usually your loads pretty low to the deck and crosswind really doesn't affect you very much.

 

And in the interest of finishing what I started here goes day 3 of orientation for a rehire at System Transport.

So today we started out with the safety coordinator came in talked to us about CSA scores and TSI, which is the company that is made up of System Transport, TWT & James J Williams, has a program called Focus, it's kind of like the company's version of CSA sort of.

After that we got an introduction and a run through and instruction on the driver portal which is a a website that it really acts like an app when you open it on a smartphone but it can be accessed from a smartphone a tablet PC whatever.

The Driver Portal is really excellent, TSI has a really excellent IT group and they really have the driver portal very well-developed.

Driver can access his payroll records you can actually access your Qualcomm messages and you can actually get incoming messages sent as text messages on your cell phone, like if you're in taking a shower or eating dinner or something and you get a pre-plan it comes right to your phone. It's awesome.

It's also got access to all kinds of excellent resources on the driver portal, they put a lot of work and effort into it and it's a fantastic resource for the driver.

After the driver portal we had a representative from open-road come in and as far as I could see every driver in the room enrolled in open road. I know I did and I hope I never need it but it's certainly worth $1.06 a day.

After the open road representative we had an excellent presentation and instructional course on the Qualcomm and macros by a driver. He was excellent man I'll tell you what and I told him so later, he appreciated the compliment.

So TSI's Qualcomm system is all set up on a basically it's a reply only basis for the driver. The only time you would actually compose your own Qualcomm message would be like if you want to send a freeform message to your manager or something like that.

Empty calls and loaded calls and all that kind of stuff is all basically reply, it's excellent. I mean you do have to fill in some blanks like your trailer number load number bill of lading number that sort of thing but basically that's all just fill in the blanks it's excellent.

And then after the Qualcomm instruction we had a representative from the shop come in and talk to us about maintenance oil and tires and lights air pressures and tire chains and all that kind of good stuff.

He talked to us about the temperatures at which we are allowed to idle the truck they're programmed to shut-off if you're outside the idle-allowed temperature zones.

After lunch we went back and finished up outside with our examinations on securement and vehicle inspections.

 

Okay now that I've told you about orientation at System Transport / TSI, I can tell you about what's Going to happen with me now that I'm done with orientation.

I'm going to be driving Fleet 254, System Transport's "pole division," and that's utility poles.

I met my fleet manager my driver manager whatever you want to call him. I think he and I are going to get along just fine. He seems like a pretty good dude and he definitely knows the industry. He said actually I'm only going to be hauling poles about 10 to 20% of the time, the rest is going to be just general commodity flatbed Freight. Which I'm fine with I don't mind that at all.

He said he likes to keep his Fleet west of Ohio and north of Denver. That sounds really good to me.

He has what he calls the Northern Hemisphere, so generally speaking I will start out in the Spokane area, head over towards Ohio and go from there up into Canada and then from there from Canada back over towards Spokane and basically that'll be the rotation.

I'm pumped up about it, I'm excited. He said he's actually sent trucks as far north as the Northwest Territories, and I told him I would love to see it but maybe not this time of year.

The tractor I'm being assigned is a T800 with a manual 10 speed. I love T800's, I drove those when I was hauling chips and when I was hauling gravel and they are about my favorite truck.

And I know they're not fancy, they're just a basic work truck but I'm happy about it. The sleeper is nothing like those fancy ### T680s but I'm thrilled about it. It's an older truck with a lot of miles on it, I forgot to check the mileage. It won't be assigned to me until tomorrow, then you know I get to go out to the shop and they give me my straps and binders and all that good stuff and then I get the keys and then I get to move into it.

But System rotates their trucks at around half a million and I'm guessing this one's probably around four hundred K or so.

You know it's got an inverter and a bunk heater and that's about all I really need.

 

Well I got my tractor this morning and long story short ended up at the Kenworth dealership getting the def harness replaced. they probably could have done it as a terminal if it wasn't a paccar engine but they don't deal with paccar at the terminal apparently.

The shop works until 3:30 in the morning, they're going to leave my truck out front and I'm going to go pick it up and get an early start.

I'm sitting in the hotel right now. The tractors actually got 566K on it. . I probably won't have it very long as it'll be rotated out soon. But it's in fantastic shape for that many miles. It's a 2014. Driver seat was just replaced it's literally brand new.

Pretty excited to get back on the road, I'm taking a load of aluminum flat sheet from Spokane to Minneapolis for my first drop and then another drop just outside of Chicago and then my final drop in Chicago. And then I'll most likely take a load up into Canada I'm guessing it's going to be an EMJ load.