the first half of werner training is done

they judge you to be trained by the time you complete 275 hours with a trainer, it takes 8 weeks or so. this time I was gone from home 4 weeks two days, I don't mind I just wanted to get home before my yard is a jungle (too late!)

there are alot of people driving around that should be banned from driving on the interstate. more on that in a minute......

I saw lots of countryside mostly from the superslab, I saw multiple deer, one buck (6 point kinda small but I'm sure good eatin') I saw 3 black bear, a few turtles, one tortoise and some great sunsets/sunrises.

I worked from about 8 or 9 in the morning 'til 9 or 12 at night sometimes more, I averaged making $3.30 an hour UGH.

some of the manuevers people make around a big truck confound me. one van tailgated me for a few minutes, pulled around up next to the trailer tandems paused there for at least a minute flicked on it's brights (oh yeah it's night time) then finished passing me?!?!?!

one lady tried to merge on to I-75 at 40 mph ( this one reminds me of Grayhare's post) I saw her and checked to see if I had room to my left, all clear. we get closer to an imaginary point where our paths are going to bisect and she's not speeding up AT ALL. with 30' she hits her brakes, I think she's going to merge behind me, nope, she suddenly swerves right at me. I laid on the horn and moved over enough to miss her spewing a load of oaths and curses!

I have seen a stretch of I-75 1/2 mile long that only had 5 vehicles on it including me and 2 of them were tailgating, they have got to be kidding me! they had all that open black top but they just have to tailgate.


my instructors at school told me I had to drive for ALL the vehicles on the road, he was right.

the worst big rig drivers I saw out there were driving dump trucks, on my last trip back from Georgia one of them rear ended a car causing injuries. everywhere they go they tailgate and speed.

 

actually during training your paid a flat rate per day, the 7,000 miles I drove my trainer gets the mileage. I get something like $43 bucks a day for the first three weeks. working for a big company like werner there are a few things to keep in mind, senior drivers get the better runs but a little butt kissing doesn't hurt to get you a better run either. looks like I'll stick to the less desirable runs for now. we did 4 shag loads last week, I got almost no hours or miles.

I'll have to wait and see what I think of the company over all when I start driving my own rig. the one thing I did see at this terminal (Alachua Fl, dollar general) is the guys that drive around and give evaluations drive brand new pete's and the guys that actually pull trailers and unload get stuck with old freight liners. my trainers freight liner was a 2004 with 318,000 miles on the clock. it should have been sent out to be leased.

I try to leave as much space between my grill and traffic in front of me as I can, spacing keeps you and the ####### in cars safe.

 

one of the "facts" the recruiter was so proud of when he came to school was 'none of their trucks are more then 3 years old'

for a truck just getting broken in it had alot of little stuff going wrong with the interior, switches falling off, A/C unable to keep the interior cool during the day (but it's Florida in July!)

the engine/tranny were very strong, it did have that going for it.