Werner Orientation in Allentown PA 4/2011

June 9 2011





Hello Mr. V., Whosedog and the Group:


I was sure glad to get this Hotel room to hang around in to wait for my 3rd Trainer, Johnny Today. My Sister dropped me off here last night and I was supposed to hook up with Johnny Brooks at around Late afternoon at the Latest. Johnny had to make it down from Quebec Canada to Allentown in less than 24 hours, but the weather and his Truck is holding him in Hazelton so I have heard. He said that he will be able to make it here by 5 AM tomorrow.

It was over 90 deg. most of the day. I just stayed in my room on the second floor here and kept my window curtains completely closed and my vents off, but It was still getting hot, with the ambient heat making it's way in here, even with the AC unit running on High Cool. I am still sweating here after taking 3 showers, but I am going to go out anyway and to make a food run.

I had a great day today, just surfing the Web for Christian Music by the stray cats at the Harvest.org site and listening to Jim Tolle on his radio site a lot.
I am going to have to make a decision on whether to work OTR or switch over to the Virginia Family Dollar account relatively quickly, so I am just giving it to God for awhile.

 

June 10 2011





Hello Whosedog, Jayshawn and the Group:


I waited all day yesterday for Johnny, the new 3rd Trainer and I got a call about 7:30 PM from him informing me that he had a bad tire and that he needed to get his oil changed and preventative maintenance in Hazelton PA, but that's not the best place, I guess to get it all done. He said that he would be late, until 5 O'clock in the Morning Today, and then he could'nt show up he said because of his preplan that was late already. I called him up as he was in Buffalo NY and he just said that I'll probably have to get another Trainer. I thought, Cool! no problem, I'll just call up my Student Driver Manager and let her know that I am ready to do the Dollar General Account.

There was a man at Breakfast this morning who said that the Dollar General Account will pay between $1000 and $2000 per week. I told him that It could'nt be all that bad at that pay rate. I used to unload a lot of Trucks and move a lot of freight around for K&G's. I know what It is like to bring in pallet loads of products off of a truck. I just appreciate the Home time opportunity of one to two days per week.

I am not really bad at straightline backing and even backing around corners and doing 180's with a rig. I have had to move my Schools Trucks around a lot in their small lot in Bridgeport PA. I just Hope that the car drivers know enough to keep out of my way. I've seen one delivery at a Warminster PA Dollar General store and It was right off of a back entrance to a shopping center. I usually see them unloading in Flourtown PA at the Dollar Tree, and that location is'nt all that bad, If You don't approach It or the other ones directly by the road.

I am just doing the same old thing right now, nailing these CBT's for an entire day or the Weekend. It may just be what they need to see to get things rolling again.

 

June 16 2011





Hello Mr. V. and the Group:


It's been pretty cool to hang around with the other students at the Hotel, and there looked like some nice girls there to talk to as well.

I did not have to wait for very long to get another Trainer. I had one Call me on my cellphone right after I got back to Oreland and finished taking care of my things there. I had to get a Montgomery County Suburban Para Transit Taxi to get me back up to Allentown for $150 and $50 off on the next "just in time" ride from my home if I need to go there again. JLR Limo.

I hooked up with a Trainer by the name of Sheik Sharif or "Sharif from Liberia and Philadelphia, who happens to be a very nice person, and sort of overly cautious on the side of being a slow driver and a carefull person with the highway space margins and things like carefully and repeatedly backing up.
In other words Sharif is quite an excellent Brother and Trainer as long as You are willing to listen to him explain about Safety over and over again and to take it in stride and give him Your 10 hours per day. It was our job to deliver the mail twice so far, once from York PA to Dallas Texas and another one from Chicago IL to Canton Georgia, once to Chicago with some Mexican food products and now we are McAlla Alabama for some more mail products.

Sharif mainly handles USPS mail and RR Donnelly.

Everything was easy as far as OTR Trucking is, we had to stop because of the Windy weather and Thunderstorms and then twice again because of the high heat and the need to get showers and do the laundry, within just 5 days.
There was a lot of mileage for each driver, basicly but this is allright for the lenghth of the program.

I am able to get "tested out" by Sharif, he is an 8 Year Werner O/O and he is a very Good teacher. We have a 2006 Freightliner Classic with the "bird" on the hood for aligning with the stripe on the right side of the road. The Truck is a 9 speed and It seems to have a lot of power, and I am shifting it a lot better than I usually would do, so It's been no problem getting along in a civil manner in the Truck. I have been doing a lot of backing up to the Shippers and consignees. Sharif also lets me do a lot of the paperwork and the macros.

I got a call from my Student Driver manager and she asked me when I would like to start working with my Family Dollar store trainer but I have'nt called her back yet, I figure that I have an excellent trainer, finally so I am going to just work on whatever I usually had some inexperience with recently, the gears and the backing up, and then I'll go over to my Family Dollar Trainers.

I still only need to have about 160 hours of study and roadwork in order to pass the Werner drivers qualification program, and Sharif is cool with me so I am just going to hang out for awhile, and then gradually get into the harder work. I've been fine with the straightline and slightly offset backing so I'll probably get their work done, especially if someone from the store could help me with the traffic control.

I am just interested in the Family Dollar account for the home time right now anyway.

 

June 18 2011





Hello Mr. V. and the Group:


I have heard that there are "carefull drivers and paranoid drivers" and that the "paranoid drivers" will impede traffic and to become a nuisance and a hazard to the other drivers on the road. There are some people who want to test their brakes all of the time and some people who always have to slow way down every so often for no good reason whatsoever. This can only work in certain circumstances at certain times of the day, even if the paranoid driver can get away with It for years and years. My situation with Sharif is like that I guess. I like to use the jake brakes as much as possible in all situations and circumstances and to mainly use the throttle to maintain a safe space cushion around the rig. Other people want to constantly "cover the brake pedal" in order to keep the cushion of space around the rig.

All I can tell You about my situation with Sharif is that is what has happened yesterday Morning with Sharif and I don't have a lot to say about It.

One of the main problems that I had with Sharif's Truck was that It did'nt have a Good driver's seat to begin with in It. He is an O/O and I guess that he feels that he has to save his money but the problem with his Truck is that he has the seat pushed all of the way forward for his smaller frame and then he has a couple of rubber bungee cords wrapped around the seat belt holder and the other end of them attached to the door handle, because the whole lock is broken on the door and It has a tendency to open up on It's own while You're on the highway. This means that the seat position does'nt let You cover the brakes comfortably. I can force my leg in the position between the seat and the dash board but I am always hitting my knee on the cup holder.

We were coming back to the Chicago IL area from McAlla Alabama with a 4 stop RR Donnelly load, fortunately we were only loaded to about 24,000 pounds so the Truck was handling really well...but we were late with the load due to a power failure and the crew loading the trailer for about 4 hours back at the wharehouse. We left McAlla at 2:30 PM and then went up to route 20 through Atlanta GA during the rush hour traffic. I don't know what made Sharif go completely crazy, the tidal traffic flow (of about 6 lanes wide) or not knowing exactly where our exit was supposed to be on the left or on the right, but he started shouting "move right, no don't move right!" and "move left, no don't move left!" and of course while he was shouting his commands I had to double check the traffic myself, like only someone who can see the mirrors can do, and with the kind of traffic that we had, well people will always want to cut in and out quite a bit to take a lane. I personally did not think that It would have been a Good Idea to start bluffing and bullying myself into lanes in that particular situation. The Cops did'nt bother us and We did'nt have any near misses, but only because I would have to constantly jerk the wheel back (a few times) in order to avoid going into the other lane after I originally saw a hole to go into, but did'nt seem to work out. Naturally we slowed down a lot to try to open lanes or sped up a few times to get into lanes. It really was'nt a big problem generally and we did'nt even get any people to blow their horns at us, which was Good.

Sharif's Truck does not have GPS so we were both a little bit unclear about what part of the road to travel on to make our exits. I don't like to say It but Sharif gets to be out of hand every so often and even to the point of being ridiculous about lecturing people about Safety and their driving habits and I would say that when he did it while I was driving during the Atlanta Georgia rush hour traffic, instead of being calm and simply spotting the traffic for holes and lane changes he went a little bit too far for my own patience level with him. He seemed to really be making a mockery of me and hitting me with some cheap low blow B.S. accusations at that place in time. He just could'nt stop trying to tell me about how I have to "work on my composure" and "don't panic" and "don't get stressed out" when there are a lot of distractions on the road and then he told me that who'ever gave me a CDL was a fool.

So I just told him that I did'nt want to hear any more about It and I did'nt care about that kind of conversation anymore. So he just started telling me that he did'nt want to train me anymore and that I should just not do any trucking and to go somewhere else, then he became intent upon being completely silent except for his texting on the Qualcom and his pleading with someone to give him a place to let me off of his Truck. It was a pity to see him so depressed and agitated and his accent changed around from a Spanish one to an African one to an Indian one. I was still driving at the time, like I was when we first picked up the load, so I just kept on driving and we did make a couple of rest stops at the Welcome center in Tennessee and at the Tennessee Truck stop on I-65, right outside of St. Louis that we had to go for fuel, but I continued to drive my 10-11 hours all of the way to Indiana.

What was really strange about this whole situation was that Sharif had just upgraded me to the next level or phase of training and everything was going along just fine and then after we left the Atlanta metro area and even after that when we left the St. Louis metro area he started complimenting me again on my driving. He told me that I can drive but I just have to work on myself, on my composure! I told him that he should just take my camera and video me while I am driving so I can see what he is talking about. I had no clue about what he meant by this.

I don't like to use the word paranoid myself to describe other people but if anybody was uptight and crazy and loud (and whining) It was my Trainer. My driving style is a little bit different than Sharif's and I drove the speed limit through most of my 10 hours, while Sharif would have (before he went silent) would have ordinarily asked me to drop it 5 to 15 MPH below the speed limit along the twisty and hilly route 65. I just did'nt see a need for It except in the construction zones or in urban areas that I encountered later in the day.

The thing that started to bother me about Sharif's Truck was Sharif's Truck started to get the last vertebrae of my back really sore. He had no cushioning on his seat, the foam was completely worn out, covering the metal pedestal and then the air shock absorber on It constantly lost air and then when the cab of the Truck would jump up and down on the road the freakin chair would hit metal to metal and eventually It started wearing into my flesh. I had to buy an extra pillow to sit on and one of my camping pillows to use against my back in the seat. I am just so glad to be back here at the Hotel for 5 and 1/2 hours to rest.

It should have never have become a problem but that's life in this kind of a business. I think that they call this one of the dirty secrets of Truck Driving. The way most people get started on Good jobs in Driving is to go through a lot of screwed up experiences with people. I think that It may be just like going into the entertainment business.

I think that Sharif has the potential to be a really Good Trainer, and he may have been one in the past, but something is really screwing up his head recently. He did'nt clean the Truck between students, It was filthy. It did'nt have a working APU and we were in close to 100 degree weather and it did'nt even have a fully working air conditioner. The big dome lights did'nt work either and the bedding was completely warped and compressed out of shape with big broken pieces of matress foam laid on top of the depleted freightliner mattress. He was'nt into trip planning either. We only got one team shower break in 5 sweaty days OTR.

This last experience was a mess but I would say that it was overall a positive one, indeed just to get the wheel and stick and the backing up experience. I feel like a new man anyway because of It.