Profile For Old School

I sometimes enjoy the unique architectural designs I come across. Here's a famous one way down in the deep south.

Hey Brian, check out Cypress Truck Lines in Jacksosnville, FL. They may have a gig that works for you, and I bet they still have a few manual shift trucks in their fleet.

Pretty good birthday all things considered.

I agree. That sounds like a pretty good birthday indeed. Not too many truckers get a birthday like that.

Happy birthday!

I hope you get to have your cake and eat it too!

A mental pirouette, indeed

Andrey, your first language may be Russian, but you can still turn a good phrase in English - I like that one!

I did hope to hear and see some ideas how to bring a bike on a trip, but apparently it is not that common

Over the past eight or nine years of driving everywhere imaginable, I have seen maybe three rigs with a bike mounted similar to the one in your photo. It is not common at all.

Am I going to be sent home?

Garrett, it sounds like they already invited you to orientation and you are there now. Is this the first time you are revealing this information? If so, why hadn't you told them before? If you get sent home it won't be because you were honest. It is quite the opposite. You should have revealed this on your application.

Can you give us some clarity on why this is now bothering you? They should have already been aware of this. If it was something they had a policy against they would not have invited you for orientation. They do not like it when you come up with additional information after you get there.

I'm just a dumb Texan. I do have a child and some grand kids in Ohio though.

Old School, it's a Community College in AL

Okay, thanks Anne!

I don't know who Calhoun is. Can you tell us more?

You say you got your CDL, that's great.! How are you planning on getting your training certificate, and how do you plan on getting your first job?

If you are getting some of your pay as per diem, it really can be confusing. I'm not a Schneider driver, but I'm fairly certain that's what is confusing you. Each listing of your pay should have some identifying number with it. That could even be the load number.

You may have a line showing mileage pay on a load number, and then per diem pay for that same number. You will need to add all the lines with the same identifying number to see what your actual pay is for that load.

Congratulations Rob! That sounds like a pretty good deal for ya. We wish you the best. If it ends up not working out, we will still be here and so will trucking. It's been great having you in here with us!

We thank you for the compliments! That program is Brett's baby. He did a beautiful job with it. We are currently working on updates for some of it.

The back and forth, almost random way questions were presented kept me on my toes

There is nothing random about the way that program presents questions to you. It's algorithm recognizes the areas where you may be weak and brings them back up for review.

Conratulations! You did a great job with the testing.

How long did it take you to complete everything? That is a very thorough program, and we don't see a whole lot of people finish it like you did. Great job!

Good luck Andrey. We wish you the best, but you are taking a very difficult route. I don't doubt you will find something. I know there are those very type companies you are looking into. My good friend Daniel Babayev tells me how Russian people here in the states really trust each other and help each other. He won't even buy a used car unless it is from another Russian. I just fear you are going to run into the same issues you had with this last company. If something goes wrong they may end up terminating you. With each termination you are going to have to keep lowering your standards until you have no more options.

I hope it all works out well.

Here's what you told us...

It is hard, I need to tell you, to find a good job with only 6 months of experience and a poor safety record! Hard, but possible. Finally, I found a company that is willing to give another chance, it is a Western Express. They need a NE regional van driver, orientation is 2 days, then they assign a truck and I can start driving. Life is good!

That's why Anne thought you were in the "A" seat.

You even told us about your good experience at orientation in Plainfield, CT.

We thought you were at Western Express. It sure seemed like you told us that.

What happened?

I bet you can edit it yourself. If you can't, your logs department can certainly do it. I would go ahead and give them a call now while your truck is in the shop. They can probably clear it up for you.

If you are on the side of the road waiting on a service truck you are on duty. If your truck is in a repair shop and you are in a driver's lounge or something like that, you are off duty. Don't burn up your clock unnecessarily.

Laura made this comment earlier in this conversation...

Go back to page 3 and read Don's comment about schooling there and Big Scott's comment about your school. LET IT SINK IN. Then be glad it wasn't Old School who gave you a lecture!

I've been staying out of this one.

I am anxious to hear his reports of the training at Millis. Truck driver training is almost always rushed, and Kid keeps saying he needs more time to learn it. Millis is going to want him in a truck just as soon as possible. That's the way this game works. They aren't going to keep pumping money into someone who doesn't show progress. Kid holds the key to how this will ultimately unfold. I wish him the best. After all...

My best friend told me it's way better training over there, he's gonna come pick me up after his load. With the knoloedge I have now I can most certainly pass

You guys and gals have been extremely helpful to this young man. I am proud of each of you!

Hello Richard, and welcome to our forum!

It is tough landing a trucking job when on probation, but it is not impossible. You will probably need a letter from your probation officer stating that you are free to cross state lines for your job. The letter needs to be on the probation department's letter head. I think it will be extra tough getting in a company sponsored training program. To be honest, I wouldn't pay for a trucking school in your situation until I had paid my restitution.

As the others have stated, you have to disclose everything when applying. I think your best thing to do in the immediate time frame is concentrate on getting that restitution paid. If you can get that monkey off your back you can move forward a lot easier.

We are happy to help you with any other questions you may have, and we wish you the best!

They kept telling me that I had to send everything through my insurance company and they could submit the claim to CFI.

That's the way you are supposed to handle it. They call that coordination of benefits.

I ask CFI to cover the cost to repair the trailer, lost revenue for the first 8 days after the accident, and a trailer rental for 4 weeks after that. I felt like it was all reasonable considering they destroyed the back end of my trailer while I was parked in a wide open parking lot... I didn’t have a policy that covers down time or trailer rentals in these situations so they told me I’d have to collect the money directly from CFI.

Once again, that is coordination of benefits. Had you insured yourself properly, you wouldn't be having these problems. Your insurance company would have went after CFI and taken care of all that for you. As it is, you are stuck searching for answers from knuckleheads on the internet. It's kind of like Jailhouse lawyers. The other inmates aren't going to be able to give you straight advice. If you want it resolved you will need an attorney. It would have been much easier to just insure things the way you want them covered.

I am sorry you are going through this, but surely you were aware these kind of things happen out here. I don't understand why folks don't get the coverage they need. Actually I do. It is cost prohibitive. It is all a part of doing business. It is a part of the overhead expenses of being in business. Trucking is tough, especially when you are the owner.