Comments By Landion

THanks guys. I'm actually hoping to hit some winter weather with the trainer. Same thought as the construction I'd rather go through it with him in the truck, instead of me and another rookie during our 5 months of team driving.

So I was finally picked up by my trainer last Sunday night. He's a middle aged, Southern man, complete with the thick souther draaaaawww. Quite a character, I'm not sure he's ever heard the term "politically correct " which suits my personality perfectly.

We've been running our clocks out each day and are close 3000 miles so far. The driver manager he has knows that he runs hard, and hes said that by keeping up with him I'll be setting myself up nicely for a prime spot after training.

The thing that I appreciate most, and the thing that I hate the most is being forced to drive through the construction on 35 & 35W through Texas. I learned how to drive in a 10 speed, this is an 8 so I'm still getting used to quick down shifts, and I don't like driving my car next to construction walls.... so driving a truck through them is certainly not in my comfort zone. But I know I know I need to do it throughout my career so I appreciate having the trainer with me as I go through it.

After reading and watching YouTube videos on some horrible training experiences I have to say the 15 day wait at the most disgusting hotel I've ever seen was worth it. I have a pretty awesome trainer.

Sounds like you are at crst..

England

Thanks CS. We don't have a choice but to bug them eveyday; we have to check in o a daily call in the drivers lounge at the hotel to get an update. It seems like this is the way they find out how many and who skipped out and went back home.

The branch manager and owner of my school have also been trying to do what they can to get the ball rolling.

I'm OK with money when it comes to food, but I'm behind on every bill but my phone. They will give us a $50 advance if we request it. I'm trying not to go there, 1) it won't get any bills paid, 2) I've heard some horror stories regarding advances from people at other companies.

I hadn't thought about asking for other work to do, good suggestion. I'll have to wait till Monday for that, since none of my contacts work weekends.

So at the end of day 13 and still waiting on a trainer. I can't afford to sit here for too much longer, not getting paid.

I tried calling a few other companies and because of my contract with this company nobody will touch me. They also hold the proof that I went to school, and because the school I went to doesn't want a legal battle they will not confirm my graduation with another company.

Any thoughts, suggestions, or ideas?

Lol I don't doubt that, robert. I've seen plenty of his responses and they're always informative

Thanks old school. The waiting is annoying, but not as much an issue as the impression that they're bringing on way more people than they can process into otr training in a timely manner.

I heard one of the hiring coordinators on the phone today, as I was walking past, say that they needed to get more trainers trained. I know I'm not unique in this, but bills need to be paid.

Patience is a bit easier when there's some money in the bank. Lol

Hi guys - I'm hoping you can help me understand if what I'm seeing and experiencing is the norm or if this really is as dysfunctional as it seems.

First - yes I know that some recruiters are less than honest; mine was no better. I was told to show up to the hotel this past Saturday then head over to the office to begin my paperwork. I found it kinda strange as I assumed an office person would be doing the orientation and paperwork, and most office employees don't work on the weekends. But he assured me that people were there 7 days a week. So I did as instructed - nobody was at the office. So equipped with no information on what I needed to do I headed back to the hotel. Once there I met my roommate (didn't know I would have one of those) and he gave me the information on the daily shuttle that brings people from the hotel to the office for school and orientation.

So Monday was the first day of orientation - went through the drug test, agility test, and some paperwork. Spent half the day sitting and doing nothing, then took the shuttle back to the hotel. Today we had more paperwork, company specific orientation, and was given our fuel cards. We were done with all of this by 11:30AM then sat and waited until 5PM, missing 2 earlier shuttles back to the hotel, just to get our pictures taken. Mind you, Monday they provided lunch - Tuesday they did not, with no communication a head of time that we would be responsible for lunch, so went 12 hours with nothing to eat. I spent 12 hours each of the past 2 days at the company office going through all this and will get paid (eventually) for 5 hours.

My roommate has been waiting for 5 days now to be contacted by a trainer, according to the conference call that he was on, there are still 7 people in front of him. After today there are now 40 more people who need a trainer (including me). So we are being held up in a 1 star hotel waiting for who knows how long. When I asked how long it was going to take to get a trainer I was told that they didn't know, but last week they had a backlog of over 20 people that were cleared.

I am under contract with this company because they paid for my CDL school and extremely frustrated.

So is this how it is everywhere or am I just with the armpit of the industry?

Thanks Nick - that's good to hear. I'm not afraid of running hard - the only anxiety is about who I'll be in a truck with for training and the CAT time.

Also I spoke with the recruiter again today, and either he mis-spoke when we first talked or I wrote it down wrong... it's not 2 weeks of training/orientation before the OTR training starts, it's 2 days. So I'm reporting in on Saturday and should be on the road toward the beginning of the week.

I agree with what the others have said. I just graduated last week - At my school there were 3 companies that would pay the tuition. One of them requires a 9 month commitment after graduation, another a year. The last one deducted x amount from your checks each week after you start driving for them, for 13 months to pay for school. After that they would reimburse you that same amount over the next 13 months... so 26 months for school to be paid for.

Other schools that I looked into had finance options, and you would repay after graduation - if your company offered reimbursement they would send the payment right to them so that you didn't have to worry about it.

The cash pay amount for the schools in my area is $3900 - 4100.