The rookie

Ok when I get done with my TE today I’ll send you some stuff about how they want you to drive the truck

 

Made it to the end of the road with my Te, we were local so we got to do about a unload per day and I was lucky to get one of those trainers that was able to explain everything in detail and was able to review just about everything so I feel pretty good about my Sqt’s starting on Wednesday.

 

So my Sqts were originally scheduled for Monday and my Te put in for me to start on Wednesday as Monday would’ve only put me at a week and a short one at that due to being off thanksgiving and Sunday.
So Wednesday comes and I go in for my test and they weren’t prepared at all lol but they got clearance to let me continue my Test. Luckily I got all my check for learnings finished back in Pittsburgh
So I didn’t have much left to do.
Wednesday is technically day 3 of the sqt class so the other 3 had done some stuff before me but wednesday was testing your Pump and Air abilities . They went well for me and I passed pretty easily. Especially since they let you use sheets with the step by step procedures on them. Now the Air unload was straight into the tank. The pump is a little different as they have you do it backwards and pump from the tank into your trailer asthe trailer is now the customer. It can confuse you if don’t pay attention as the tank doesn’t have the Qrb and it throws off your five point check and the bleeder valve is out sideways and it has just room to lean your bucket under it.
Now part of the job or any job really is knowing your equipment. I mean they give us a thick book called the highway to success and multiple packets on all the equipment we are using and told what they are looking for well in advance. A lot of stuff you need to know to proctect yourself. I say that because you can embarrass yourself. Now I’m not trying to rag on this guy but this training has been pretty much a full month ,day one was 11/5 and today is 11/29 he was leaving to go out with his Te the day after I got to Pittsburgh Meaning he had atleast 2 weeks on me. Now all of the training trailers I have seen have been multicompartment (specialized for training) allowing for multiple people to use them at the same time. So he hooks up to a compartment ,goes up top and goes to the wrong dome lid...multiple times after being told. He looks up and goes oh I never seen one with 3 dome lids like this...bottom line learn as much as you can about your equipment.. which brings me on to today got in at 0700 they took every body else out with instructors and i was left in a conference room, caught my logs up.. and was told my instructor would be in soon ( The company videos for bulk training are done by one guy and in Class you watch about 3 of them per day.)
So my instructor comes and it’s the guy from the video not gonna lie I was a bit star struck haha. So he had me do a quick CFL then asked what kinda trucks I’ve driven . And which one I prefer. Told him a manual and a few minutes later he said I’m going to pull it up. Now I’m thinking he’s pulling up a training truck to use for the day... he pulls it up and says imma clean it up then I’ll be with you. Few minute later he call me out to help.. The previous driver was a mess and left everything in the truck. As we were cleaning it slowly hit me lol that this was going to be my truck got it clean got all of my issued equipment and were officially handed my keys . Still have a road test and a trip plan to finish but I got my truck!!!
Now on to knowing your equipment and not just going through the motions of a pretrip... I uncovered some stuff about the truck that maintenance is gonna have to fix, rusted hit lines, the truck has a new oil pan and the right steer leaf spring is missing the rubber piece in between the center ubolt prevents metal on metal and the right side of the trucks metal is stained black , my guess is he was driving with the suspension low and never raised it cause all of the trucks ubolts looks grinded.

Lastly we went out for drive which went well considering my Te truck was an auto and I hadn’t driven a manual in about 2 weeks and my in truck instructor was visually trying to explain turns to me ... Also I was getting a few for my truck. So with all that I only missed a gear twice. Once I forgot the splitter thinking I was downshifting getting ready for a turn so i free rolled for a second and that’s a no no. But i was fine and one I upshifted to slow and missed it entering a hill. But other then that I did well. Then to the yard we worked on slow manuevers which forces you to use your mirrors and make use of your space then 45 the trailer for an uncouple. And that was my day

 

Saturday I passed my final test which was a road test just a 30 min cruise. Then came back to verify your slow manuevers and backing and a final uncouple. Afterwards is the final knowledge verication. They ask you a series of questions to check if you were paying attention such as difference in trailer types, how your hit lines work, down to company policy on shaving and safety equipment. I was also told to overlook my truck and to put it in the shop...found a few more issues since it rained that day, found a leak in my windshield which was a nice surprise and my radio is stuck in usb charge mode . Other then that every thing appears to be in working order, also mentioned the issues I posted earlier. Unfortunately it was the weekend and the whole staff was pretty much off so I have to wait til Monday to have my sit down with my dbl and get released.. so I guess I’m stuck here in the hotel till then.

 

So Monday morning I had a sit down with my DBL in pretty much went over the expectations and then was released. Next I had to pick my truck up out of the shop and then I was all set to go home. Now my assignment was to grab a trailer from Chicago and bring it back to Michigan to Park it.Then drive to the nearest OC to park the truck. At the start of the day I have plenty of time to make it home. So I got in my truck started doing my pretrip inspection and realized that maintenance only fixed half of my requests. My hit lines were still rusted and my some of my interior lights were still not functioning. So I spent a good chunk of time sitting in the maintenance express line. Get into the bay to find out they don’t have the parts. Mechanic end up pulling the fittings off of a wrecked unit. After fueling I finally get moving. Make it to the yard only to not find the trailer , dispatch gets me another one. So I find it check my tags, and make sure it’s clean and noticed some thing was off, the qrb had fluid in it , and there’s no washout papers only inspection papers. Turns out the trailer was clean but defective the hydraulic line on the internal valve was busted. So I had to drag that back to oc then pick up another to take home. Which led to my first solo night being in a truck stop watching a few close calls in parking. Made it home after about 2 hours of driving. Was a interesting first assignment but my team handled everything very well. Got to get a bunch of supplies to clean the truck. But I got some off time after the month long orientation.

 

So much has happened idk where to begin... my first assignment had me to a short haul right up the street then grabbing a trailer there and taking it all the way near the top of the badger state... 1st night my plan was to make it out of Illinois and find a spot to park then find a spot near there I would have plenty of time especially since I started early .. made it to wi with about an about 115 left on my clock but I did not for see the construction on 41 it’s down to two lanes with construction and a lot of signs missing passed the first test area as it was too late but as I continued a few exits were closed..The night came down to me parking within 2 minutes of my clock. Woke up made it north and I can’t remember exactly where but at some point the entire scenery changed it got real gloomy and snow was everywhere.. So I get to my destination and it takes me to the back of the building and it looks like there’s no where to unload I see no tank, at the end of the drive there’s a bay but I see no tanks so I ignore it...go around the side of the building very narrow but I manage and its looks like the right place as there’s all the doors and I can see people but the road says doesn’t look like it has an out and I quickly realized I’m screwed . The guy comes out the front door and says yea you’re gonna have to reverse it back around the corner and get it into the bay -_- now I get it around to the first corners but the second corner was another story. They had plowed the snow just up to the edge of the street so that made it tight and next to bay were pipes and that made it’s so I had to get straight and then pull up and working my trailer to the right so I could pull up think of as doing >> ] in reverse... I was very close to doing it Got out and looked several times felt I finally made it .. go to finish my last corner just barely scrape the snow hardened in to ice and my front right bumper skin falls off... it didn’t grind or make a noise only noticed it after I looked to see when I went to pull up to avoid the pipes.. so I go to call it in.(my dbl gave me a bunch of phone numbers to everyone in the office but every time I call I get someone different than who I was trying to reach, it’s more of a hotline than a direct connect.)
So I call in to speak to my dbl, got someone else, got transferred to accidents, to get transferred to Schneider emergency maintenance. Each call went something like this, what happened? Did you get out and look? Are you ok? Who’s your dbl? So what is it exactly? Where are you ? What did you hit? Did you damage the customers property?, So wait what did you hit again?
Now where the snow is plowed to is a empty field so any other conditions I would been fine. I can’t blame anybody as I was the driver I just wished the place had better signs even the guy that did the unload said it happens often and that they need more signs but it happened and I’ll deal with the consequences but next time I know don’t even enter if it don’t have crystal clear directions. After spending tons of time on the phone with them I go to head back to the wash and between the traffic on 41 and the struggle of downtown Chicago eating up my time I was Left with about two hours to drop a trailer Finally get my pump cleaned and find a trailer (apparently the wash has another lot hidden in the back guy at the desk told me) they got me wash in about 30 mins finding the trailer took another about 15 as I the guy told me of the other lot and it was and intermodal(whoever had the idea to put the container spec plate so high is a turd) I’m not short but there’s almost no way to read the Vin numbers at night. I conveniently found a way to do it. After I inspected and sealed up I had around 50 mins to make it to gary (about 11 miles) made it with 20 just enough for a post trip. Talked to the maintenance advisor and was told express could take care of it and they open at 4 0400 I’m able to start my clock at 0500 so I should be good to make my 1st appointment at 1000

 

Yesterday was very interesting Maintenance was very quick and I was able to almost make my appointment on time. I’ve ran into so much construction between Wisconsin and Illinois. Coming into Wisconsin is the worst and downtown Chicagois a rage inducing nightmare. They have ZERO patience there. But Made it to my appointment 30 mins late . Walked in to the security gate with my reference number/pickup number..only numbers I had. The guy stopped me after the 1st three digits and said all they number started Xxx. And the game of phone tag begun. Rang up my dbl got a different guy, the staff is great just annoying that I got a specific number to call someone and get keep getting someone else and the 1st question they ask is did you let your dbl know??(like who did I call?) (great people just slightly annoyed at the process) about an hour later the guy for their 12 o’clock arrived at 1130 and was told I could have his time slot if I got the number( the security guard at this particular place was very cool we laughed and joked the whole time) got in at about 1215 they started the loading process and it looked like everybody went to lunch and it was a customer loading so I took a nap. Woke up a little confused but quickly came too . Now at this place , they load you you rescale then you drive back around to get your paper work in their lab. So now I go to enter my paper work into the Qualcomm and.... I got double of what was in the expected...phone tag part two, had to wait for them to update my assignment to take off. Tack on another 30 mins gone. Next I was off to the rail yard. About 165mi later .. from a glance the place is scarily busy especially with it being my first time ever at a railyard ... and the process is set up so backwards...I got there at about 1700 with 2 hours left. They let you pull in past the initial gate to scan you trailer and it’s no going back. You pull up and there’s about ten isles to choose from and they all say railpass required... (never heard of it) at the gates it’s a kiosk and phone. If you have any questions you just push the button. The first thing they ask for is your driver id or employee code so I press the button ...nothing called my TE and he kinda explained what’s going on after a few failed attempt to get in touch with somebody .get off the phone with him and I hear hello??.pick up the kiosk phone and the lady explains that I needed to come in and register in the office, to the right of the gates looked like offices but no way to access them, so I asked where is the office located? Asked where I was? At your inbound gate!!! What city are you in ?.... Uhh ?. “Ok I’m at a call center I’ve never been to that yard so idk. Can you ask someone else at you job,or look up a map? This button was placed here for questions.... so I pull in and find the little hut they have for drivers assistance get registered and pointed towards a lot to park it was specifically told not to double park it.... so pull to the 1st row ... fully double parked... second fully double parked just said I’ll go to the end... all the way at the end of the lot was tons of parking. Got out with about an hour and had to scramble to find parking. Which took me to my last 15 mins

 

So everyday I feel like I’m learning something new. Yesterday’s lesson was that in order to go home I have to manually request to go home so I am regional and the way it was explained to me this whole time was that I’d work the week and towards then end of the week they’d route me home for my 34 reset. there was never any mention of having to put in every time you want to go home. The pros is that right now My focus is to save money so as it was explained to me I can go til I’m ready to come home, but this week I need to get home I really need a new phone as unless I put it on speaker I sound really muffled to everybody. Need to pick up an inverter and get some more clothes for the winter. But the last two days I’ve been pretty much stuck at this tank wash and using it like it’s my home lol Wednesday day I made my delivery and had a drop at the wash and needed a tank for a early delivery Thursday . Woke up the tank was clean, made my delivery, had about a 7 mile radius I was working in all went pretty quick then my next assignment which is what I’m currently on has me taking a tank to a repair shop... So I had about 8 hours when I started ... Go to hookup notice it’s in the dirty yard and still has placards.. so I call in the start the game of phone tag... they’re telling me it should be clean and I’m sitting here looking at the dirty tank, so about 4 hours later I get the clean tank and notice the customer doesn’t have business hours listed so I call them. No answer and then I just attempt it because it explained to me as just a drop in a yard... 7 miles laters I get to a fenced off property.. so I’m here now at the tank wash getting ready to try again