Comments By Brandon S.

Thanks for the help and support. I look forward to possibly meeting up somewhere! Stay safe!

One more week of mentorship and you're off to the races. Good luck!

Our ranges will overlap from time to time. Who knows, we may end up meeting at some point.

Thanks Anne! I do appreciate it. This has been a stressful change but I’ve been having fun too. I’m happy to be with a good company.

Finished orientation, heading out with a mentor on Saturday! Excited and ready to get started.

OMIGAWSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know, I'm such a 'trucker's wife hick' deep down, can't help it!

SO. DANG. HAPPY. FOR. YOU.

Best going forward, good sir. No emojis/emoticons on here would show my happiness for you & the missus, enough!

Super psyched for you'sn's!

~ Anne (& Tom!) ~

Finished orientation, heading out with a mentor on Saturday! Excited and ready to get started.

Good luck to you! Stay safe!

Way to go, Sir! I'm a long way off from looking into a situation like yours. I just finished my 3 weeks of training at Roehl in Wisconsin and got my CDL. Gotta go out with a driver trainer soon for a few weeks. Seems you were doing your Wally World stuff while I was doing my Roehl training. I've always heard Walmart was a great company to work for, and even moreso driving for them. Nice to know they may be a good choice later on when I have some experience under my belt. Happy trails!

Thank you very much!

Wishing you the BEST, good sir.

~ Anne & Tom ~

5/12/22

Today is test day. No more practice. This is what they have been preparing us for all week. Now the nerves have returned. I keep telling myself I’ve done good all week. Why be worried now? But yet, what if today is the day I screw up? What if today is the day I hit a trailer backing up? Or hit a curb on the road trip? Or forget something on the pre trip? The devil has a way of whispering in your ear and trying to rob you of your confidence. But I wasn’t listening to any of that today. First up today, road trip. City route. Really not that bad. Just watch out for the idiots on the road and show your courteous to other drivers. It went well. One down, two to go. Next, pre trip. I got real frazzled with this one. I know every step by heart, I just don’t like racing a clock. I did however get everything and have a few minutes to spare. One more test. Now the backing. No problems with this one either. This also has a time limit as well but for some reason I remain very calm on backing. I just always get out and look and make sure I’m going in right. I get it in no problem. I feel pretty good. I know I did well. We had one driver retake the test Friday, but in the end all 16 passed. It was a good feeling when we heard those words “welcome to Walmart “. I’m looking forward to going to orientation on Monday and beginning my career here. I plan on it being my last.

5/11/22

Wednesday was practice day. We pretty much did the same as Tuesday. First up for me today was driving on the road. Today we went the country route. Narrow roads, tight corners, and Amish buggies. Yes Amish buggies. I ended up behind two of them on my trip. I wasn’t sure if they wanted us to try and pass them, especially since the roads were so narrow, but when I got a passing lane I went ahead and passed. The cdt didn’t say anything. A mile later I got behind another one so it didn’t do much good lol. Everything went good on the trip however and I felt pretty good about it. Next I did my pre trip. It went good, I remembered every step and did it in better time today. Backing also went well today. I got it in fine and faster than yesterday. At the end of today they let us stay over and practice backing and pre trip if we felt we needed it. Tomorrow is testing day so this was a chance to work on anything we needed. I felt pretty good about how I was doing so I didn’t stay. It was good they gave us this opportunity. They really want you to succeed here.

Thanks best of luck to you too.

Hi Brandon Thanks for your insightful posts, I am new to this world but eager to learn more, I admire your dedication and bravery to just stand up and go for it. Keep up the good work and best of luck to you. Try not to hit a sign. :)

Good luck!

5/10/22

Today’s the day we get to get in the trucks. The cdt’s came in and start calling names and taking people out to do one of the three assessments. Backing, pre trip, and road test. First up for me, backing. I have to say, this one I worried about the most. It’s been awhile since I’ve backed a 53 foot trailer, and the scenario was pretty tight. I was wondering if they are going to test us in manuel or automatic. I’ve heard people say both before coming here. They are automatics. At least they are this week in this place. I remembered how they showed us to set up for this the day before. I simply did it that way and I ended up with a perfect set up. Now I just had to start turning at the right time and hit the hole. I stopped and got out to look a few times. It really does pay to. Once I got it in it was just a matter of straightening the cab. I backed it in and stopped about a quarter inch from the cones. The cdt said if it was a rodeo people would have cheered. Lol I just got lucky. Any closer and I would’ve failed.

Next I did my road test. A simple trip down the highway. No problem. I got called for my speed a couple times but other than that it went well.

Finally I did my pre trip last. We didn’t name every part, but it’s a pretty thorough pre trip. You have to do it in 30 minutes. There’s enough time, but I get frazzled a little and jumped around to much in my order. I got everything, in about 28 minutes. I’ll try to do a little better tomorrow.

We lost one driver that day. He hit a sign on his road trip. I really felt bad for him. Hopefully he’ll come back in the future and try again.