YRC Driver training - Roadsidedown's journey

My trainer keeps telling me we will all be in automatics soon but not sure if “soon” to him means within a year or ten years given his long experience! The mechanic did mention we have a few in the yard already. Personally I would like to get at least several months on the manual before going automatic just to burn in the muscle memory.

 

END OF WEEK FAUX 3 - P&D ROUTE TRAINING

No driving this week. Snow and limited number of drivers combined to not make any trainers with two seater trucks available. Missed Monday due to not having extra warm clothes with me to unexpectedly working the dock. Showed up but no driving possible and not about to freeze to death on the dock so went home. Tuesday I had to take off to get title transfer and tabs on my daughter's car (she is out of country) before the end of year. Still lots of freezing and some snow so probably would not be driving anyway. Showed up ready for anything on Wednesday and ended up doing ten hours on the dock. COLD! Tomorrow I doubt I will be driving. There is less snow and ice but I need to clear up some admin issues. So may end up working the dock so I can be there when office folks come in.

Can't help the weather but I was bummed that I practiced four hours on my own time last Friday to learn free floating gears up and down and improve my backing. Then don't get a chance to apply any of it this week. Planning to come in again this Friday when most folks are out and practice some more on my own.

I really got frustrated with the office stuff this evening. Apparently none of the on-boarding paperwork I completed ever got submitted three months ago. Only by hounding the benefits admin company was I able to clear up that I am eligible for medical benefits and have been since November, but I have not received ANY info about a medical ID number or how to file a claim, etc. Plus, it looks like I have all default options and none of my wife's info on file, so we don't have the medical plan I applied for. I can't find any evidence that all those plan documents, beneficiary info, nothing went through. Suppose to get my employee ID card this week but of course no sign of it. I've been here over three months and the only evidence I exist at the company is I get a paycheck and I can log into the forklift. So now this is becoming mission #1 to track down my status on all the benefits I am suppose to be getting, getting the member numbers, and documents stating my coverage, etc. I filled out boatloads of these documents on the first day, 9/21/21. I suspect because my employee ID got hung up in the computer transfer the first week that nothing else went through either. Maybe it will take a ten minute chat or it may take a couple of hours to re-apply for everything again. This terminal is sorely understaffed in most positions so if you don't know the system nothing is likely to get done. It was only because my trainer gave me a website and phone number that I managed to get the health benefits acknowledged, though the wrong plan. These are all the reasons I don't want to work in an office and desire to be driving on my own. This crap is easy to manage if you are seated behind a desk a room away from the admin folks all day, all week, all month. But we drive 5am-6pm so it is really difficult to get anything done unless I opt out of driving for a day and just pester the office until something happens.

I don't know if other LTL's suffer from the same affliction regarding office help or lack thereof. I have been really happy with my co-workers and trainers and finally being on a real route. But this paperwork aspect of the job YRC sucks at for sure. I am happy that payroll magically works great. Everything else from finding a key to a truck, getting a badge, getting help with benefits, etc is nearly non-existent. Things move forward almost solely by the momentum of the experienced drivers and dock workers.

The bright side is that once I get everything set up correctly, there is virtually no one in the office to be calling me about anything except dispatch while enroute for a pickup. Fine by me. OK, let's flush this week, be satisfied I'll get a couple of focused practice sessions in around the yard floating and backing. Hopefully get back on the route next week for nominally week 4 but only the third actual week of driving. Say good bye to the bedeviled week three and ole 2021 and start anew in 2022!

 

Thx! My original dock trainer suggested the same. Says they are very helpful and should have all the info. Called and left a msg. Worst case open enrollment is January so should be able to get in with Kaiser either way.working dock again today. More snow.