Profile For Paul J.

oops, there is a typo and couldn't find the edit button lol.

I meant to say "I'm now an OTR driver for Wilson" not "I'm not an OTR Driver for Wilson" lol

Hello, I haven't posted/visited this forum in a long time. Been busy.

Spent most of last year going from zero knowledge/experience about the trucking trade, to successfully getting a 2yr DOT certificate and a Class-A CDL in November through Wilson Logistics. I'm not a solo OTR driver with them.

During the training, I did 25k team driving training with a trainer, and then 30 or 35k team driving with a student.

This isn't the first time I broke into a new trade. Last time it was welding. I spent the first 7 years straight out of welding school getting rooking level jobs to use to make all my rookie welder mistakes, get fired due to those mistakes, learn from it, etc until I got my first professional level job fabricating bulldozers for Caterpillar. COVID shut the factory down and that led me to door dash and that eventually led me to trucking since I discovered through door dash and even delivering for Amazon that I enjoy driving for a living more than I did welding for a living.

I assumed that my experience breaking into the trucking trade was gonna be the same as when I first became a welder. First year always sucks. That's when you make all the mistakes you HAVE to make to learn the things you'll never learn in the class room.

...But my performance as a year one rookie isn't as bad as I thought it would be. So far only been late for a delivery once since my training days and was still able to deliver, and still no accidents. I kind of assumed my performance would suck, I'd make all my rookie mistakes with Wilson and then when I get a second trucking job, that's when I would perform a lot better just like how I did with temp welding jobs VS Caterpillar.

Most of the really good paying jobs I've seen in the trucking trade via indeed require 1 year and 100k miles of experience.

So I'm staying with Wilson Logistics until I meet that 100k/one year milestone in my experience before seriously looking for another, better paying trucking job. Best case scenario, I'll just stay with Wilson Logistics the whole time because I only plan on being a trucker for 2-3 years to save up a bunch of money and then I'm immigrating to Mexico to buy/build a house outright, become an english teacher, then go back to college and finish my education in math, engineering and physics so that I can become a STEM professor some day.

Because of what I'm trying to accomplish with my life, recently paid off all my debts before even becoming a trucker, have no wife or kids and won't even date again until I'm in Mexico, and won't even go back to college until I'm in Mexico, if for some reason I end up leaving Wilson for a 2nd trucking job instead of staying for my 2-3 years as an OTR trucker, what would be yalls advice on what company to apply for?

If it helps yall answer my question, I would only apply for the kind of OTR trucking job in which I would be living out of my truck and never going home. That's what I'm doing right now and wouldn't leave Wilson unless there was a better paying trucking job once I reach my 100k miles/1yr experience milestone.

Technically speaking, I'm homeless and my truck is my home. My sister lets me use her address as a physical address to have on my ID paperwork because you can't function in society without a physical address. Everything I own is either in my truck or in two storage tubs in my sister's shed. The idea is to own as little as possible so when it comes time to immigrate, I can move to mexico with just the clothes on my back, my passport, and a few luggage bags.

Currently, company drivers at wilson are getting paid .50/mile and get 1,500-2,400 miles/week.

I was a company driver for Wilson Logistics for a month, so I could learn how that works. I'm now a lease operator for several months before I go back go being company driver because I simply wanted to "experience what it's like" to be a lease operator haha. I literally became a lease operator just out of curiosity so I can experience the difference between lease operator VS company driver. And I do plan on becoming company driver again several months from now for obvious reasons that are mentioned many MANY times on this forum. :)

Should I stay at Wilson for the rest of this year, next year, and worst case scenario a third year before immigrating to Mexico, or is there a more lucrative option for me as a basic Class-A CDL driver who really enjoys living on the road, once I hit my 100k miles/1year experience milestone later on this year?

Hello, I haven't posted/visited this forum in a long time. Been busy.

Spent most of last year going from zero knowledge/experience about the trucking trade, to successfully getting a 2yr DOT certificate and a Class-A CDL in November through Wilson Logistics. I'm not a solo OTR driver with them.

During the training, I did 25k team driving training with a trainer, and then 30 or 35k team driving with a student.

This isn't the first time I broke into a new trade. Last time it was welding. I spent the first 7 years straight out of welding school getting rooking level jobs to use to make all my rookie welder mistakes, get fired due to those mistakes, learn from it, etc until I got my first professional level job fabricating bulldozers for Caterpillar. COVID shut the factory down and that led me to door dash and that eventually led me to trucking since I discovered through door dash and even delivering for Amazon that I enjoy driving for a living more than I did welding for a living.

I assumed that my experience breaking into the trucking trade was gonna be the same as when I first became a welder. First year always sucks. That's when you make all the mistakes you HAVE to make to learn the things you'll never learn in the class room.

...But my performance as a year one rookie isn't as bad as I thought it would be. So far only been late for a delivery once since my training days and was still able to deliver, and still no accidents. I kind of assumed my performance would suck, I'd make all my rookie mistakes with Wilson and then when I get a second trucking job, that's when I would perform a lot better just like how I did with temp welding jobs VS Caterpillar.

Most of the really good paying jobs I've seen in the trucking trade via indeed require 1 year and 100k miles of experience.

So I'm staying with Wilson Logistics until I meet that 100k/one year milestone in my experience before seriously looking for another, better paying trucking job. Best case scenario, I'll just stay with Wilson Logistics the whole time because I only plan on being a trucker for 2-3 years to save up a bunch of money and then I'm immigrating to Mexico to buy/build a house outright, become an english teacher, then go back to college and finish my education in math, engineering and physics so that I can become a STEM professor some day.

Because of what I'm trying to accomplish with my life, recently paid off all my debts before even becoming a trucker, have no wife or kids and won't even date again until I'm in Mexico, and won't even go back to college until I'm in Mexico, if for some reason I end up leaving Wilson for a 2nd trucking job instead of staying for my 2-3 years as an OTR trucker, what would be yalls advice on what company to apply for?

If it helps yall answer my question, I would only apply for the kind of OTR trucking job in which I would be living out of my truck and never going home. That's what I'm doing right now and wouldn't leave Wilson unless there was a better paying trucking job once I reach my 100k miles/1yr experience milestone.

Technically speaking, I'm homeless and my truck is my home. My sister lets me use her address as a physical address to have on my ID paperwork because you can't function in society without a physical address. Everything I own is either in my truck or in two storage tubs in my sister's shed. The idea is to own as little as possible so when it comes time to immigrate, I can move to mexico with just the clothes on my back, my passport, and a few luggage bags.

Currently, company drivers at wilson are getting paid .50/mile and get 1,500-2,400 miles/week.

I was a company driver for Wilson Logistics for a month, so I could learn how that works. I'm now a lease operator for several months before I go back go being company driver because I simply wanted to "experience what it's like" to be a lease operator haha. I literally became a lease operator just out of curiosity so I can experience the difference between lease operator VS company driver. And I do plan on becoming company driver again several months from now for obvious reasons that are mentioned many MANY times on this forum. :)

Should I stay at Wilson for the rest of this year, next year, and worst case scenario a third year before immigrating to Mexico, or is there a more lucrative option for me as a basic Class-A CDL driver who really enjoys living on the road, once I hit my 100k miles/1year experience milestone later on this year?

I have a basic idea on how to check the weather and wind speed of a route that I’m about to drive through as part of my trip planning process when hauling a load from point A to point B.

But how do I check for wind gusts? When I look up wind conditions I only find wind speeds but not wind gusts.

If there’s a good app for this please let me know.

I'm almost finished with my 25k miles worth of OTR training!

Would have finished it sooner but my trainer needed to go home for a couple'ish weeks to spend time with family.

I'll be at that 25k mile mark by the end of the week, and then it's back to Wilson Logistic's terminal to do a couple classes, some evaluations and then I'll be doing the final phase of my OTR training, which is 25k miles team driving with a fellow student.

My OTR trainer was a VERY good trainer! Thanks to him I'm no longer nervous when driving and am able to handle heavy traffic in Atlanta with no issues.

Thanks to him I've also learned why you shouldn't depend on the GPS. I thought when truckers talk about this they were referencing not using a trucker GPS but apparently even trucker GPS devices aren't all that good.

I'm able to finally back into parking spaces and docs but not nearly as efficient as my trainer can. but of course he's been a truck driver for 16 years lol.

thanks for all the useful info on this forum! WOOT

Oops, typo: meant to say "I'm now on the road" not "I'm not on the road" lol

I'm not on the road, team driving with an OTR trainer. Things are going well! I recently drove from Missouri to Jacksonville, Florida, and we wend from FL, to some place called Middlesex, PA where we're resting at a truck stop and then will be delivering our 2nd load to somewhere in New York state.

Training is going well! My new trainer is a great trainer and I'm learning a lot from him.

Also here's a link to the latest video in my trucker vlog. I uploaded it before I was setup with an OTR trainer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwoF6NmA7WE&t=2188s

I'm not on the road, team driving with an OTR trainer. Things are going well! I recently drove from Missouri to Jacksonville, Florida, and we wend from FL, to some place called Middlesex, PA where we're resting at a truck stop and then will be delivering our 2nd load to somewhere in New York state.

Training is going well! My new trainer is a great trainer and I'm learning a lot from him.

Also here's a link to the latest video in my trucker vlog. I uploaded it before I was setup with an OTR trainer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwoF6NmA7WE&t=2188s

As an employee of Wilson I can confirm this. The first week of training they pretty much told us students this same thing. I didn't officially become an employee of Wilson Logistics until yesterday when I passed my CDL test. I'm on the payroll starting next week. Just did a bunch of paperwork last night on my laptop at the hotel that involved tax forms and setting up my direct deposit. From now, until I'm setup with an OTR team driving trainer (which will happen next week) I'm doing lots of paperwork and have a new list of training videos to do today. Hope this info helps.

Greg you said in your first post you have choosen Wilson. Here is the question. Have you applied and they invited you to join them??

You also said you have visited several social media sites. I think by some of the questions you are going into some of that info may be causing you to think about some things that may be unrealistic.

Companies that train have been doing it awhile and have systems/policies in place that have proven effective for them. That is really their concern. Not all programs are for everyone.

Students are in a constant interview process. Not only are they looking to ensure you can master the physical skills of the job, but evaluating how well you work with others, problem solve, and if your going to be a good investment for them going forward.

If you give them an impression you will not be a good fit you will find yourself in a bad situation.

You're assuming a lot of things about some person on an internet forum that you don't know.

One, I don't think for a second that I can learn in a couple weeks what takes professional drivers years to learn.

Second, it's the trainer's responsibility to train his trainee how to be a truck driver. There's a difference between holding someone's hand and not giving that student the chance to figure stuff out...vs...not teaching anything at all and watching sports on your phone and listening it through your headset, while hiding that phone behind a clipboard so that the safety camera inside the cab doesn't catch you NOT TRAINING YOUR TRAINER....and that's what was going on. He was not training me at all.

Before I left for that two weeks of on the road training, the safety director TOLD me to call him if I run into this type of situation. So I did what I was TOLD. After he talked with my trainer, my trainer actually started training me. I still caught him a few times watching sports on his phone but I still learned what I had to learn from him (mostly). I still had to take the driving section of my CDL test twice in order to pass because of his lazy training.

The manager over the kraft training, the safety director, and another trainer that had to RE-TRAIN me was ALSO on my side and told me I was in the right and said the only thing I did wrong was not report him until in the middle of my training.

I think you're confusing my stance on "a trainer should actually be training me and not be doing the bare minimum at his job" with " a trainer should be holding my hand every step of the way and not allow me to not make any mistakes at all". Which would be another example of making assumptions and jumping to conclusions about some guy on an internet forum that you don't even know.

Also it's not uncommon for students who go through the OTR side of training here at Wilson Logistics, which is what I'm about to start, to change trainers two or three times. And that's either due to having a lazy trainer or personalities just not jiving with each other because both the trainer and trainee will be living out of the truck during the months worth of OTR training that we students go through after we pass our CDL tests.

As trainees, we are SPECIFICALLY TOLD by the SAFETY DIRECTOR to ask to change trainers if we feel we are not getting the training that we need, for whatever reason. And we are SPECIFICALLY TOLD that it is OUR responsibility to speak up in those situations because the safety director understands that not all trainers are GOOD trainers/have the ability to adapt their training style to the individual trainee's needs, etc.

Did I alienate my kraft trainer? Sure, maybe. But I don't get paid to give AF about what others think/feel about me. I'm getting paid to train to learn how to become the best and safest driver I can be before I start driving on my own. And if I gotta hurt somone's feelings so I can learn how to be a safer driver, that's what I'm gonna do. If that trainer doesn't like me anymore, that's HIS problem, not mine.

I was a welder for 13years and was fabricating bulldozers for Caterpillar until the pandemic shut the factory down.

By the end of my welding career I was training newbies how to weld like me. I got new guys to be as good as I am in two weeks because my training style is so good that I was the number one guy that my bosses at Caterpillar sent new welders to.

So I do know a thing or two about training.

This is where your thought process is wrong about a trucking career-you are thinking a couple weeks of excellent training and you’ll be as good as a thirteen year veteran. Not the case here-this job throws new things at you all the time and you’re going to have to figure it out on your own (you’ve already alienated an experienced driver you could possibly call for help.). I’d almost guarantee even if you had a year with a trainer, you’ll run into an unknown problem your first couple days. Who’s gonna tell you what to do then?

YASSS

I took the CDL test this week and passed!

I got 100 percent on my pre trip (and I'm the only one who tested this week and didn't miss a single thing on the pre trip)

I got 100 percent on my maneuvers (straight forward stop, straight reverse stop, forward offset and reverse offset)

When it comes to the driving test, I had to do that twice. There was a handful of mistakes that I made that failed me.

But I had one more day of re-training with a DIFFERENT trainer...and regarding all the new things that he taught me he said the trainer at KRAFT training should have taught me that. I told him what happened between me and that trainer and even he was on my side and said he was sorry there wasn't enough KRAFT trainers for me to switch trainers.

When I went to re-take the driving part of the test yesterday, I got a 100 percent on that as well. I'm not going back to work until monday next week. Over the weekend, I got a bunch of online paperwork to get done and some training videos to do and then next week starts the process of setting me up with an OTR trainer, where I'll be team driving OTR with a trainer for X amount of miles. After that, I'll be OTR team driving with a fellow graduate for X amount of miles and after THAT I will be company driving by myself.

Starting monday next week, I'm on Wilson's payroll.

Yeah I guess that’s my welding background experience subconsciously guiding my actions.

A welding shop can also be a hazardous environment and safety is a huge deal in professional fabrication environments, especially at Caterpillar where I used to work.

Most professional welding jobs you will get fired if you don’t report a safety incident. And I have the attitude of risking getting fired for reporting myself for doing something stupid than risk the trouble I can get into for not reporting it which can lead to an even bigger accident that can lead to injury or death.

Nothing annoyed me more than macho super welders who behave as if safety is for sissies cuz they are always the ones who get injured lol

Truckers can be just as much of a roughneck as a welder and that macho thing is a safety hazard in my opinion.

Did you mention your pole hit when talking to the safety director? I’m a no harm/no foul type of guy, but admitting something like this to safety (after the trainer let it go) is a brilliant move on your part. Lol.