Comments By Mthrsupior aka Julia Balsamo

So Brett, if I wanted to be a tester for your TS locator what would a poor rookie like me have to do?

When I was in training with Roehl, the recruiter was very specific in explaining to me that if I wanted a female trainer, that they have them, but that there can be a wait for one, and if I was willing that they would put me with the first available, male or female. It ended up that I did get a female, but my female friend that was in my class got a male trainer.

The interesting thing was that before we left the training, we had a "gender sensitivity" training, and all female trainees were assigned a "safety" dispatcher, regardless of what gender trainer we would be getting. We were required to call our safety dispatcher at least once a day, in a private place away from our trainer and answer two questions: 1) How were we being treated? and 2) Did we have any problems or concerns with any aspect of our training or trainer? If we didn't call in then they were required to call us to "check up" on us.

I had absolutely no problems what so ever, and neither did my friend who had been assigned a male trainer.

I hope this helps,

Julia

Hey Thinks too much Dave,

I'm just catching up on all the posts and I ran across this thread.

Just so you know, yes, you can do a ride along. I did one last October. It was the first time I had ever been in the cab of a truck. Let me explain...

I was doing research into this field, getting pre-hire letters, and interviewing possible companies to work for. I contacted the local recruiter for Schneider and scheduled a meeting with him and a tour of the terminal. When I was there, we discussed some opportunities available to me when I was ready to go to work, and he mentioned a dedicated route for a WalMart DC that was fairly close to me. When I mentioned that I might be interested in it, he asked if I would like to do a "ride along"? I said yeah! and he scheduled it for the following week. I simply contacted the FM and arrived at the DC and the FM printed some insurance papers, charged the driver 25 dollars to be billed to his account for a one day insurance policy, that the company would reimburse him for immediatly, so he wouldn't have to pay for it, and I didn't have to pay for it either. Then we went on a two stop route and were back at the DC after about 200 miles. It wasn't a long time, but it was enough for me to pick that driver's brain for several hours, and it seemed to be something they did on a regular basis.

So I don't know if it's only the local routes that will do that, but it is definitely available if you want to get a taste of this industry.

So if you really want to do a "ride-along" and I highly sugest it, ask around, it can be done and was well worth my time.

Julia

Tami,

You are very welcome. I wanted to share that story with you all because, as I was standing behind this driver, listening to him gripe, I thought to myself, this is exactly what Brett was talking about. Sometimes things happen in trucking, and it's not anyone's fault, but if you handle it with a great attitude, people will want to do what they can to help you. I just kept thinking how grateful I was to Brett, and this site, because I probably would have been one of the ones complaining and blaming everyone else if I hadn't been prepared by everyone here.

I have always heard "you catch more flys with honey" and believed in the principal, but it wasn't till I got to this site, and read some of the experiences of all of you that it really clicked, and so I went into my schooling and training with that attitude, and now, I'm seeing the results unfold in front of me, and I have to share it with you all. It trully has been a life changing experience for me, and a true blessing! Because of my new attitude, I am happier than I've been probably my whole life, I love my job, and I look forward to each new day, I work hard, and am tired at the end of the day, but I feel good about what I'm doing, and how I'm doing it. and

Hello all my TT friends,

I'm trying to get caught up with everyone, but I have so much to catch up on, it might take a few more posts...

I did mention that I like to talk, right? So, here goes...

I've got a delivery to make on my way towards hometime in the North/Central Pennsylvania Allegheny Mountains, and I get to the top of a hill that has a truck pull out so that trucks can get into a low gear, and know that there is a very steep grade, and a 20 mph speed limit for the next 5 miles. Okay, but when I pulled over, I couldn't get the truck out of gear, it's like the clutch won't engage. So I call my maintenance/breakdown crew, and the guy says to me that it sounds like the clutch break went out and that I should be able to turn the engine off, shift, and turn the engine back on, and then I can shift on the road, without the clutch. Ummm, I can??? Really? In the mountains going up and down hills, I can learn to shift without the clutch? Oh, okay, no problem! Well, I turn the engine off and shift gears, and then I start thinking about some of the conversations on here, and I finally put two and two together and realize that, ohhhh... That is what you were talking about when you said that the only time that you need to double clutch was in school. I never could figure out what you all were talking about. I thought you meant that you could single clutch it, which I was guilty of a few times, but without the clutch at all??? It just never clicked that you could do that... Ok, so I know it can be done, I've just never done it. I'll give it a try. If I can't figure it out, I'll just have to drive in 5th gear the last 30 miles of mountain driving, I wasn't going to be in a much higher gear anyway, so what the heck??? So, I proceed down the hill, and get into a flat spot and discover that, hey I can shift without the clutch. It's kinda tricky and took some practice and getting used to, but by the time I got to the consignee, I had the basics down, and could do it for the most part, but to shift into reverse, you have to shut the engine off, put it in gear and start her back up. (I actually, did get it to go into reverse once without shutting it off, it was kinda like when you pop the clutch on a manual transmission in a car, but that was very difficult, and it was easier to just shut her off to shift). But I digress... So, of course it takes me a little extra time, but I got her backed into the dock, and got unloaded. Ok, so now what? I'm in the middle of the mountains, without a clutch, and not any tow or sevice stations within about 40 mountainous miles, and of course no signal, not even on the QualComm. So maintenance says, if I can limp it along, there is a garage about 40 miles away, but since it is a Friday afternoon, they won't be able to look at it till Saturday morning, and probably won't be able to fix it till sometime next week, when they can get the parts, but they have a place to park/shut down for the night until they can figure out how to get me home. No problem, it's better than waiting for a tow truck for 2 days. So I limp it along to the garage and get shut down for the night. First thing in the morning the garage takes a look at it, and decides that the clutch is shot, that it needs a new one, and that it is going to take a few days for them to get parts, and then to replace it. So, how am I going to get home? Dispatch says, they can have someone come out of route to get me, but it will take awhile, so I sujest that I just have my husband come pick me up. I'm only about 180 miles from home anyway. Dispatch says wow! Thanks! That really helps. Ok, No problem... Oh, yeah, but how am I going to get back to my truck after my hometime? Dispatch says that they'll have someone recover the truck, and I can start my new schedule out of my local yard when I come back from hometime. Ok, easy enough! But of course that was the weekend dispatch. The regular dispatch says, ummm no, I need you to recover the truck, so we'll have someone pick you up at your drop yard, and take you to the truck. Ok, but it's not like it's just a few miles off the 80, it's 2 hours up the mountain, and two hours back down, so it's an extra 4 hours out of someones route to "swing by and drop me off", so by the time I get to the yard, get into my rides truck, and get to my truck, get a comdata check to pay for the repairs, and get settled back into my truck, I've wasted a whole day of drive time. But my FM is extremely grateful and gives me some great runs up to New York, through Canada, and beyond. I used all of my hours before my next hometime, and made a pretty decent check. She made up for my patience and willingness to help, by giving me some great miles. Win-Win

I love trucking! What a great job.

Hello again, it's been a long time since I've been able to drop in and update you all.

I want to say that I am doing really well, enjoying every minute in my truck, and extremely grateful for all of you. So Thank you Smart GuyJax, Momma Star, Old-School Newbie, Spunky Red, and a special thanks to all the second service contributors, whether military like Army Dave, and Ranger Dan, or police like Prime time Steve. From the bottom of my heart, Thank you for your service to our country and thank you for your contributions to this site as well. But I owe a very special thank you to our Benevolent Brett. Thank you for this wonderful site, the increadible resources, and the invaluable insight that you give us all. But most of all, thank you for your honest, straight forward, opinions, and for telling us what we need to hear, even when it's not what we want to hear. It is because of this site that I have developed the attitude necessary to stay positive, and polite, which has proven to be immensley beneficial.

So with that said, I have a couple examples to share with you:

I go to a shipper, and am detained, causing me to have to shut down early and deliver the load later than expected, no problem with dispatch, cleared with customer service, but it causes me to be a day later to my next pick up then scheduled. So I go to the new shipper and there is a driver from my company who is apparently in the same situation ahead of me. He gets to the window and the receptionist says "this appt was for yesterday, you're late, we'll have to work you into the schedule" Driver says: "I'm not late! I was just given this dispatch" Receptionist says: "well, I'm sorry, but I can't change the appt time, so we'll have to work you into the schedule. They'll get to you as soon as they can" Driver says "They won't get to me! I won't be waiting for anyone, I'm not late!" Receptionist: "I'm sorry sir, you'll have to call your company, there's nothing I can do" Driver says "We'll see!" and storms off all ****y. So I walk up to the window and the receptionist says "So, are you going to yell at me too?" I say: "No Ma'am! I know it's not your fault, I'll be glad to get my load whenever I can. Just tell me where to go, and I'll be there" Receptionist looks up at me and says: "Thank You!". So I get backed into my dock and low and behold, it only took them about an hour to get to me, so I was able to get loaded, get down the road to a truck stop, and shut down for the night. The thing is, that other driver missed out on a very good run, just because he had a ****y attitude.

Next, I have a friend that went to school with me that actually got fired and now can't find work. Why? because she had a terrible attitude, and unreasonable expectations, and thought that the company was taking advantage of her and "out to get her". I had tried to tell her about this site, and what to expect, but she didn't get it. So after she gets fired, I asked her why, and of course she says "none of it was my fault" that the dispatcher didn't like her, and that she wouldn't answer her questions, and left her broken down on the side of the road without a bunk heater for "4 hours". She then tells me that she has yet to have a load that delivered on time without having to be relayed or rescheduled, or whatever... So after talking to her for awhile, I finally figured out that she was having problems with the route plans that she was given, that she didn't have a truck GPS, and was afraid to use her phone GPS, because it might lead her on a truck restricted road. So she was trying to only use the company directions, and getting lost, or stuck in tight situations because of "their" horrible directions. Totally not her fault, right??? Then she tells me that her truck bunk heater went out so she would spend hours trying to get into a hotel for the night, and finally would just go to a hotel and call them afterwards. She then said that she had been left on the side of the road for hours, and no one would get back to her, and that her dispatcher would call her on the phone while she was driving, and on and on she went, with none of it anything that she did wrong! Really?

I felt bad for her, but really, this was the same dispatcher I had for my training, and she was wonderful to me. When I was transferred from her to my solo dispatcher, she gave me a glowing recommendation! This is the same company, we graduated from the same class at the company school, and we had the same training dispatcher, but my friend would constantly get lost, try to find a way out herself, and just stop on the side of the road and wait for an answer to her questions, waste a ton of hours, and never managed to deliver a single load on time. Then here I am, with all the wonderful support of all of you, and I hit the ground running. I don't complain, I run as hard as I can, I keep in constant contact with my dispatcher, keeping her updated on what I'm doing and why, and asking her for her opinion on the best course of action, when necessary, but I get the job done. I'm still a little slow! It just seems to take me longer to do things, and I tend to drive a little slow still. I have made some mistakes, but I explain, and ask for help, and my FM loves me.

Oh, and I forgot there is 1 more thing. When I'm using the forum I like to go to the oldest unread thread and read every thread until I get all the new threads read but when you click on a thread there's no way to hit previous topic or next topic like there was on the old forum so you have to go back to the main page and then select the next 1 on the list that you want to read, and that's a pain on my phone so I would like a previous thread or next thread options.

I haven't been on here for a while and I haven't seen any of the newest versions, but I think that you should do the replies to the threads in reverse order so the newest reply is always on the top and you have to scroll down to see any of the original first reply. Or maybe you can have that as 1 of the new layout version you can choose from.