Comments By Dan R.

Whether the DOT examiner wants to see a release from the neurologist or not can vary widely, but as it sounds like he's headed to a different company, someone along the way is going to want to see a release as well as a recent report on the condition. They'll need to show it to in-house docs or their insurance docs, but in both cases it's to make sure insurance will give them the okay to take on the added liability.

I think that's the key. With my trainer it would always amaze me that no matter where we were in the country, he'd say 'there's a ________ up around the ____ mile marker, hit that place up." All that is is time, though. Knowing what places are good, what ones aren't. I'm starting to get there in Western Region myself. Like, my absolute favorite is the TA in Wheeler Ridge, CA. ALWAYS parking, options for food going from McDonald's to a nice sit-down place. Then there's ones like the Troutdale, OR TA or Loves next door to it that aren't even good for swinging by for a drink.

Part of my trip plan now includes looking up satellite views of the truck stops if I'm unfamiliar with them. The more information I can find out about where I'm stopping the better.

Always someone worse, though. What drives me up the walls are the people that park along the curb perpendicular to the space. Basically rather than backing they're taking up as many as eight spaces. Nosing in kind of annoys me, too, but mostly because it reminds me of the time I'd stopped by the TA by my house on the way home and some fuel so I didn't have to worry about it after leaving home and had a super trucker O/O come up yelling about how "didn't you see me backing up?!" Yeah. I saw ya, which is why I kept my distance. But if you're relying on other people watching out so you don't hit them, no matter what you're doing in this, you're doing something wrong.

That said, I'm a bit of a hypocrite. If it's been a long, hard day(you know the ones), I'll certainly be a lot more likely to be lazy if I see a spot I can nose in that would take more effort to back into, if it's a set-up that's decent for getting back out. As I've gotten more experience, though, I realize those times are quite few and far between. The ones I'd usually pick are also ones that are ideal for straight line, with all the room in the world for set-up.

No, PODS is a different animal. I'm not sure if it's considered dedicated or just completely different, but it's not part of national. There are solo folks in PODS as well as teams.

They absolutely have been doing forced teams for quite some time during their Phase II training stage, where you team with usually three or four different people before getting called to move to regional or dedicated. It's potentially worse than with other companies as England is one of the most lenient companies when it comes to hiring as they don't have to worry about what their insurance will allow as they're self insured, so they'll take anyone with a pulse at the school. Obviously they have the same standards for getting through school, but with so many people coming in, more people are going out and that leads to some real problem children getting in. The three folks I teamed with on my truck during Phase II were very hit or miss. First guy crashed the truck the first ten feet he drove(moving forward, bobtail, in a WM DC), second guy just... just didn't get it, though being a demanding little poop to dispatch would get things done faster but of course ended up with frequently sitting and waiting for a load he'd 'demanded' be sent right away. The last guy was great, though. The first seat I rode with had a booze problem. Never drove drunk, I made damn sure of that, but any time he'd take a 34 the first stop was a bar. There's never an excuse for having to clean a drivers booze vomit off the side of your truck.

I suppose this is of note, and I did note it in a reply a few minutes ago but figured it kind of deserved it's own thread as it's quite a monumental change.

CR England is transitioning away from solo drivers in the national division. That division will consist almost entirely of trainers, true team(these are teams that pick each other, rather than being forced together), and drivers who have somehow messed up enough to get removed from another division(in mine, three driver failed loads in a year and you get put on national and forced to team).

They're also working, slowly, on adjusting their regional division. The idea, if they haven't abandoned it yet, is to transition from pure regional into a shipping lane set-up. Most will start or end at one of our terminals with the goal of the other end being 'home' if there isn't a terminal near home. I'll note that this doesn't seem to be catching on well as, despite my lane being OR/WA - SLC, I have yet to get a load that fits that description in either direction since the switch and don't know of anyone that has actually transitioned into their lane yet(save perhaps for the I-80 lane folks). So, who knows how that will go.

The change to team for national will drastically affect experienced drivers hired on I believe as the 'old' system was you'd go for refresher and/or orientation, get seated with one of our phase II advanced leads for on the road training, then play around on national OTR for a few months to meet the six month requirement that regional and dedicated divisions have. Now after that roughly two week training process will likely be followed by some forced teaming for a few months, though I have NOT confirmed that.

England does have a history of forced teaming. After school and your ~180 hours with a certified trainer, you'd upgrade to Phase II training which was essentially forced teaming of new drivers, as the first seat you'd be teaming with would typically have maybe a month more experience than you(the program was designed to support lease trucks as they had a HUGE turnover rate on lease contracts, far higher than other similar programs, but that's no longer what it's used for).

This info, save for the part about experienced driver, is information directly from my dispatcher.

CRE is transitioning their national division into team only. It'll be almost entirely filled with trainers, true team, and those who can't maintain on-time delivery or have other problems(essentially the punishment division, which is ridiculous). They've thrown their wait considerably behind their regional effort now, but with some changes in that instead of something like Western 11 like some companies have, they're moving to lanes. Technically I'm on the OR/WA to Utah lane, but in the couple months that I've been on that I don't think I've actually gotten a load like that in either direction.

What this means specifically for the original poster is that you've got a decision to make is that it will be team for a while. They'll tell you about six months before you can switch over, but that isn't entirely true so long as you show you're productive, don't cause problems, etc. Just make sure you put in for every solo position you could possibly want in CareerTrak(on driver.crengland.com or through the Toolbox app). Once you show a couple months of consistent good productivity, you'll start getting DM's calling you. OR look into training, that's where the real money is in the company

Except it's not a $200 value as they shouldn't be charging you guys for it at all. I had no idea Prime made you guys pay for all that crap, but now feel a heck of a lot better they didn't hire me. That's just insanity. If you work retail, the employer doesn't make you buy the cash register. Hell, in the fire departments I've been on they didn't even make us buy equipment. We could get extra stuff(and believe me, we did...), but that's more to the tune of buying a nice GPS. An option, not a requirement to do the job.

I've been thinking about getting an electric scooter to take with me. One that folds up and is re-chargeable.

I suppose if you happened to get a truck with a stretched step deck you might be able to stick a Harley on there... I'd grab some nice flatbed straps to tie it down, though. That's not like a push broom or something where it doesn't matter a ton if it falls.

It depends on what you'll be doing, but if you're OTR it won't matter in the slightest. You don't have to go to a terminal to 'go home', just need to get freight going in that direction.

Knowing when to challenge yourself is important, though. If I'm going to practice backing, ideally it's going to be in one of our company yards between two dropped trailers, rather than at a customer between two O/O's who have poured every dime they've ever had into their truck. If I mess up, it's a lot better to rub a trailer than take out a fender.