Comments By RedBeard

Headed to Ennis...fingers crossed

good luck

What is their agility test like? I'm a small guy and not sure I'll be able to lift the tarps

yea welcome to the site. So how small are you? Just to give you a heads up about a tarp just cause your small dont mean anything i had a guy in my class who weighed 122 i had a hundred lbs on the guy it was kinda easy for me and tough for him but he did it and did it twice so anybody can pick it up as long as they do it the right way and give it all they got.

Are O/O or company and do you know how long most heavy haul guys stay out?

Been great, hard, but good doin lots of coupling/uncoupling, backing, tons of trip plans, and some trapping and sceuring. They said my trainer will teach me a lot more when i am with him. I did meet up with squid great guy got his number and already talk to him about somethings i was worried about. He said you and him swaped numbers thats great he is really helpful and will answer any of our questions hell me and him talked for around 30 mins the other day. I will try and keep you updated on here but being honest next 4 weeks will be rough so may not be able to do a whole lot on here.

Dude sorry i missed you today i was asking around for you but didnt ask bruce. Also i dont have a smart phone so i didnt see this until i got back to hotel. Ill talk to bruce tommorrow and try to get your number. Besides not sure they would have let me talk much we have been really busy they are throwing a lot at us this week with our road evlauation(loaded trailer) today and back up manuvers tommorrow not to mention trip planning and cbts hell you know the drill.

Hey red beard looks like we might get to meet up I should be in Cuba on Monday, they are giving me a new truck. I have swapped 4 times. That is not normal by the way almost everyone I talked to has their first truck for roughly 6 mos. I just have that cloud above me. Lol. But I'm heading out tomorrow bound for Huntsville then down to Cuba. Hope we can meet up while I'm there. Send me a pm with your name and info so we can.

I have finished 6 weeks and aside from swapping trucks so many times it's been great. From my trainer to my FM even Bruce Moore who does final week and was on vacation for our class they have all been there for me and helped to get me into this new truck. I have felt really bad for calling so much with discrepancies, but they have been nothing but supportive and it helps that I have run very hard for the company. As matter of fact just Monday I ran 648 miles with a regin load securement and took a shower lol. If you keep the door shut and bust your butt this company will take great care of you.

dude that will be awesome ill be doing back up drills so hopefully we can meet up i sent you a pm hope it works mine dont work. Yea that is what a lot of people said keep your door shut and keep moving and everything will be great. Well hopefully see you tommorrow.

Congrats man, looking forward to your next update...So no video game and no high BP...was agility pretty much just getting on and off the trailer and lifting the tarps

yes tarps and getting on and off the trailer plus they put weights in a box and make you pick it up and move remember keep your head up it creates good posture.

3rd is spent all day in the yard doing coupling/uncoupling, folding tarps and throwing straps no chains that day. If they talk about a record for the fastest tarp folding time. just try and beat it you may not beat it but you should get a hat for trying. A couple of guys in our class did and one guys was like 10 seconds off. Also that day is the road evaluation test like squid said all turns in 4th and seriously i mean seriously check your mirrors every 5 to 8 seconds and you will do fine.

4th day is in the classroom all day doing map reading and log books. I loved that day i love reading maps knowing the states and doing fake trip planning (i am sure ill dislike trip planning when i have to actually have to do it for real). If you dont know how to read an atlas i suggest you start now, study every part like mileage directoy, legend, height restrictions and index. Now you dont need to know the distance between nashvile and dallas or how many height restrictions florida has and where small town usa is but just where to find them at. I am saying that cause the more you know the better and it will help you not to fall behind.

5th day they issued your employee id and gave you a hat and said welcome to mcelroy but that does not mean your in the clear i have read and actually talked to guys working there nothing is final till you take your first solo run so dont let your guard down ill still might the ax hope not but you never know. Also on that day you get shown the backing field and what they want from you we wont start that till sunday we got off for the weekend but have to be there at 11am on sunday to start that and start doing shift training with a fully loaded trailer.

So i have finished two days orientation here it as follows;

1st day is a whole and i mean a whole lot of paper work like more paperwork than it is to buy a house. Then afetr that another guy comes in and talks about saftey and the simulator. He tells saftey is the most important thing and how 99% of all accidents are preventable and a lot of people think they are great drivers in their personal cars but are really average due to eating and checking our cell phones. Also he tells us to take the simulator very very serious and never ever call it a video game.

2nd day is your DOT physical and your agility test its pretty simple a few hard parts but not to hard just breath the whole time through try not to get excited about anything so you can keep that heartrate down. They are big on not having high blood pressure.

So hope that helped out a little ill try and let you know how the rest of my week goes.

Thanks ill keep that in mind squid when i go down there. Parrot ill will let you and this site how it goes ill try and keep notes and hopefully like hell ill get through it. Good luck to you in Ennis my classmate said he got within less 4 seconds of following distance when passing a car and said another guy got sent home cause he took a corner to fast so like squid said we gotta keep in fourth.

Squid ill look again hopefully its in one of those folders if not we will figure something out.

That still sounds good about the tarps and miles which is pretty much what recruiter said i didnt get the pm but that is nothing new i get emails from brett and emails about notifications but not pms. Mcelroy sounds but i am a little worried i had a classmate get sent home cause he failed the road test. Me and him were pretty equals in driving i think he was actually better than me but i cant let it get to me i just hope i get passed it.