Comments By Larry K.

Can I type from the passenger seat while moving?

7/10/17 11:30 Eastern

Since it's been ten days since my last update, let's find out! So we have now crossed the country five times and are about a third of the way on our sixth. In addition we've spent a great deal of time running loads around and throughout the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. My wife and I logged 7008 miles in one seven day stretch and are now two thirds of the way through our required training hours. Incidentally, we're currently on a training salary but had we have been on miles we would have been paid for 7930 miles that week simply because of the way in which the loads fell and were submitted! We expect to be going in for our upgrade testing in about ten days or so and anticpate passing and receiving our own truck without issue.

So what have we been doing the past ten days? Well, aside from laying down a ton of miles, we've enjoyed several trucking perks and are still having one hell of an adventure! We picked up a load of lettuce in Salinas, that put us at a gross weight of around 77,500, and hauled it to just outside Nashville, Tennessee. We then hauled frozen chicken back to Los Angeles. Then it was miscellaneous refrigerated items to Gordonsville, Virginia. That was followed by a couple short runs, one of which was a light load of Amazon products and the other was 44,409 lbs of magazines that were fresh off the press. We're now hauling fiber optic cabling of some sort from Georgia to Salt Lake City, Utah and are, at this very moment, about to cross the border from Illinois into St. Louis, Missouri. We'll be stopping in about fifteen minutes and I'll drive the night away.

We've stopped in Morristown, Tennessee and had a wonderful afternoon and evening with our trainers family in the shadow of the Great Smoky Mountains. We were able to stop in Huntersville, North Carolina and spend an evening with my wife's parents, who we hadn't seen in three years. Every time the truck stops it seems the folks around us are speaking with a different accent. We've gotten to peek behind the curtain of numerous industries, having seen the inside of massive Amazon distribution centers, huge printing operations, chicken processing facilities and refrigerated distribution centers.

That's all for now, time to drive!

Things are happening fast now!

6/30/17 4:00 am local

Well, as I have to try and stay awake so as not to mess up my sleep schedule, it seems as good a time as any for an update. We're now sitting in Petaluma, California waiting till 8:00 am for the receiver to unload the frozen chicken we brought them. I'm blown away looking at the times on my own posts and realizing that I was sitting at a rail yard in Atlanta, Ga just 56 hours ago!

So, in that time, we left Atlanta with a load of carpeting that was headed for Salt Lake City. Somewhere outside of New Baden, Illinois we received word that we were going to have to perform a "re-power". We met another team at a truck stop and swapped our trailer full of carpets for their refrigerated trailer full of frozen chicken that was headed for Petaluma, California. Along this route from Atlanta to Petaluma we've: Discovered that Kentucky and southern Illinois are absolutely gorgeous (especially in the early morning hours). My wife dodged storms coming through Nebraska and then, in mid-Nebraska, I took over after dark and drove right through some major thunderstorms between there and Cheyenne, Wyoming. My wife got her first taste of a major downgrade between Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. Played some slots and took showers in Sparks, Nevada. I took over driving right at sunset in Sparks and started my shift by driving Donner Pass, in the dark and through major construction, for the first time, as everyone slept. (Well, technically the trainer stayed awake as far as the weight station and agricultural check point before saying "You've got this. I trust you" and crashing out himself.)

By 1:00 pm local today we'll have come full circle. After we get this load unloaded we'll run to have the trailer washed/sanitized and then well be picking up a load of Foster Farms in, of all places, Salinas, California! We'll immediately take that load and head back to Tennessee.

It's been one crazy (and exhausting) week!

Cornelius- Keep in mind my limited experience here, but from what I've seen the experienced drivers and trainers want to get out of the terminals as quickly as absolutely possible. For one thing it's a place you can get stuck for any number of reasons and, of course, if you're chilling at the terminal you're not getting miles and making money. Second, and you'll here this around the forum from the experienced guys, you have what they refer to as the "terminal rats". These are a select few individuals who've been sitting at the terminal for an unordinarily long time without a load and they want to do nothing but spread negativity and complain. So far, from the few we've met, if you talk to these individuals for a few minutes you won't be a danged bit surprised that they aren't at the top of the list with their fleet managers. Meanwhile you'll see seasoned drivers hit the terminal, run around like chickens with their heads cut off for a few hours, and then they're gone again. Our trainer has 18 years driving and 16 with our company. We barely had time to shower and get a load of laundry done before we were heading out on another load!

I'm very glad you're enjoying Cornelius!

Needless to say the adventure continues! We grabbed showers at the main terminal, did laundry, dropped off the truck we were delivering, swapped all of our personal stuff over to the trainers regular truck, and developed a deeper understanding as to why drivers hate going into terminals. We then immediately received a load assignment and took off. We are to pick up a trailer in Atlanta, Ga and then grab the load and head for Salt Lake City, Utah. As I'll be driving tonight I went to sleep. I awoke to the truck stopping over and over as my wife and trainer yelled out the window repeatedly attempting to get directions from people. I sat up to find myself in the middle of this MASSIVE rail yard here in Atlanta, Georgia attempting to find our trailer under an absolutely gorgeous sunset. The place is miles long and filled with thousands upon thousands of trailers. As nobody can find the damn thing we are still, at this very moment, driving through rows, upon rows, upon rows of trailers hunting for it as dispatch attempts to obtain more information as to it's actual location.

Starting To Feel Like Truckers!

6/27/17

We finally got our truck out of the Freightliner dealership in Tucson around 1:00pm last Friday. Turned out to be a simple fix which required a $20 part, $500+ in labor and a total of two days worth of training time. At that time we requested a load and were given one at about 4:30 in the evening. We were dispatched to pick up a trailer in Phoenix and then proceed with it to to a Marshall's distribution center, also in Phoenix, where it would be a "high value" drop-and-hook. Delivery was to be made in Lakeland, Florida. Total drive time of around 44 hours.

Unfortunately, upon arriving at the Marshall's distribution center we discovered that they required a "release number" which did not correspond with any of the numbers provided by dispatch. We ended up parked just outside the distribution center swapping messages back and forth with nighttime dispatch all night as they attempted to find this required number. Long story short we finally got out of there with our load around 10:00am local on Saturday.

The next 44 hours (or so) we're spent driving across the desert in 110˚+ heat most of the way. The trainer has become VERY comfortable with my driving and devotes the majority of his time to my wife while sleeping through portions of my driving time. I've been doing the vast majority of night driving and typically begin my driving around 2:00am. I believe it was my first full night (days & times are really blending together and becoming a blur) in which I was coming into San Antonio, Texas. Had a blast navigating the rolling hills on the way in and a sense of victory after having navigated the interchanges and construction zones on the way through the city.

I checked off two new-to-me states on this run as we reached Alabama and eventually Florida. In Florida I began my shift shortly after reaching I-75 and drove down to Tampa and then took I-4 over to Lakeland to make the delivery. My wife and trainer woke up right as I arrived at the receiver. Shortly before reaching Lakeland we received a subsequent "high security" load which departed from Sarasota and was headed for Georgia. I drove us back to Tampa and proceeded to a truck stop in order to grab some much needed showers. I then drove us down to Sarasota to pick-up the load. My wife took over upon departure as you are not allowed to stop with a high security load until you're 200 miles from the shipper. I have to say that as I was making the deliveries and pick-ups in Florida I just kept contemplating how freaking crazy it was that I was essentially "cruising" Florida with an 18 wheeler. I hit numerous areas of heavy traffic, drove plenty of intercity streets and really nailed down my newly acquired skill of floating gears. (Which I can now do fairly smoothly all the way up or down!)

We spent the night last night at a truck stop in Georgia (another new-to-us state) as we had the delivery scheduled for this morning and had to stop at least 50 miles before the receiver due to it being a high security load. Temperature was a nice 83˚ in beautiful Georgia so we enjoyed a little mellow out of truck time around the truck stop.

We're now on our way to the main terminal in Tennessee (another new-to-us state) to drop this truck off and get our trainers regular truck. Should arrive in about an hour or so. This first couple runs (after the breakdown) have been awesome and we couldn't be happier so far with both the company and especially our trainer. As we were coming through Louisiana, a state my wife loves, and eventually the new-to-us states my wife actually uttered the words "they're gonna pay us to do this". We've learned a massive amount of things in the past few days, undergone a great deal of stress, and have been completely exhausted at times, but overall, I have to say we're having a lot of fun doing it! Hell of an adventure at this point!

Looking forward to seeing corporate and then finding out where our next destination will be!

So by this time my wife and I are thinking we are about out of there. Darkness had already fallen and I know that it is I who will be first to drive. We'd been up since about 5:00 in the morning but I was wired at the idea of finally getting to drive and was ready to go. It was then that we find out we'll be waiting 3-4 hours on the paperwork and are told we'd better try and get some sleep.

At about 1:30am we awaken to the truck moving. The trainer had gotten the paperwork and was already headed for the gate. He stopped on the way out so we could all use the bathroom and asked if one of us was ready to drive, to which I quickly volunteered with one request...COFFEE! We checked out and headed to a truck stop down the street for some much needed caffeine and then I took over. Like the truck we took our road test in, this truck has a much tighter shifting pattern than our old Volvo at school but, with a little grinding here and there, I got us out of there and onto the freeway without issue.

With a weight of a little over 66,000 the first thing I noticed was that driving a loaded truck really didn't feel any different from driving the empty truck in school. Within the first hour I was shifting the truck nice and smooth and thoroughly getting a kick out of the whole experience. I got my first experience pulling some hills on I-10 heading for Arizona and quickly got the hang of it. By the hour and a half mark my wife had already gone back to sleep and the trainer was complimenting me on my ability to handle the truck. Needless to say this is nothing like CDL testing! Out here it's your ability to handle the truck safely that counts, not a bunch of nit-picky BS! Shortly thereafter he tells me that, if I'm comfortable, he's gonna grab some shut eye and that all I have to do is say his name and he'll wake up (He wasn't kidding. He jumps up instantly if you so much as say his name or if a message comes across the Qualcomm). He explains the procedures for the weigh station at the Arizona border and proceeds to go to bed. I find myself driving across the desert, thoroughly loving life for another 45 minutes before my wife joins me in the passenger seat. We watch the sunrise while trucking across the desert until finally reaching Phoenix in morning rush hour. By this time I'm thoroughly comfortable with the truck and handled the traffic of Phoenix like a pro, if I do say so myself. I make it to Eloy, Arizona with about 5 minutes left on my clock before my mandatory 30 minute break. As nobody had slept much at this point, my wife was to take over from here.

We get fuel in Eloy and both my wife and I practice a few 45˚ alley docks (we're required to do a certain number throughout our training and they must be at different locations each time). Then my wife takes us out. I stay up for about an hour as the trainer rides shotgun and wait untill I see her driving comfortably, and enjoying herself, before finally deciding to go to sleep. About 20 miles outside of Wilcox, Arizona I awake to my wife saying "What the hell just happened". Like the trainer I instantly wake up the moment something is amiss. The truck had completely died at 65mph and she had to coast to stop along side the freeway. The truck then restarted and we made it another 10 miles before it happened again. We got it started again and made it to the truck stop in Wilcox where our trainer called breakdown.

Needless to say we were told we could not drive the truck and they would be sending another team to get the load. Once the team arrived they'd be sending a tow truck to pick us up and take us to Freightliner in Tucson. As it turned out the other team ran out of hours and didn't make it to us untill 2:00am this morning. The tow truck arrived around 7:00am and, after getting hooked up, we had a nice ride in a pretty sweet Peterbilt back into Tucson. (Did I mention it's about 110˚ outside during all this? Thankfully the truck would idle fine.) So we spent the entire day chilling at Freightliner only to be told that we'd need to get a hotel and they'd get to us in the morning tomorrow.

So here we are. At a hotel and anxious as hell to get back out there. On the bright side we probably missed that storm coming up out of the Gulf but at this point we have no idea what the plan is going to be. Hoping the truck is fixed right away in the morning and we'll get another load from someplace local and continue on towards Tennessee.

The Beginning Of Our On-The-Road Training

Your results may vary, but this is how it's going for us...(PS this will be a lengthy post)

So let me begin by saying that thus far this has been nothing like the training horror stories we've read about. We absolutely lucked out with a trainer who not only knows his stuff, but is a genuinely cool guy who is mellow, patient and all smiles. That being said, we haven't gotten off to the best of starts. Read on for the story.

Our trainer arrived at the terminal around noon this past Monday. We were told at that time to get our stuff together, check out of our hotel and take a company van to the terminal (they've been letting us personally drive the company vans). We arrive at the terminal to get the rundown regarding what the plan is going to be. The company has a number of trucks at the terminal in California that need to be transported back to the Tennessee terminal. These are trucks that are 1-2 years old and are being placed out of service (as we understand it they will be traded-in for new trucks). Shortly after arriving at the terminal we are told that we are waiting to be assigned one of these trucks and then will be assigned a load. In the meantime we got to meet our trainer as he was running around like a chicken with his head cut off getting everything squared away. He's a small, soft spoken, Hispanic gentlemen about our age who is literally all smiles. Our immediate impression was that we were gonna get along with this guy no problem.

A few hours later we are assigned our truck. It's a 2016 Freightliner 10spd with about 500k on it. To our eyes it looked brand new but by company standards it's done. Our first task was to get a new mattress in it and load up our stuff. As we were doing so the man who runs the terminal came out and was literally over the top about wanting to make sure we had everything we needed and made sure we knew we could come to him for anything. Seriously, it's crazy how well we're being treated to this point so far!

So after getting settled in we're waiting on a load. Several hours go by and we're told by our trainer that we'd likely be waiting till morning as the shipper he anticipated was closed on Mondays. Sure enough we ended up sleeping in the truck at the terminal that night with our trainer. My wife and I took the bottom bunk, which surprisingly turned out to be fine, and the trainer took the top. As it was in the high 90's just prior to the sun going down we idled all night. Slept fine and it wasn't nearly as awkward as we anticipated.

The next morning we receive our load assignment. We are told we are to pick up a refrigerated load in Colton, California at 8:00pm and will be delivering it to a Walmart in Brundidge, Alabama. My wife and I had pictured bob-tailing directly to Colton and picking up a loaded trailer to head out. As it turned out our trainer told us to grab showers and do any last minute items at noon as we'd be headed out by 1:00. We were excited (and nervous) to get going but honestly had no idea why we'd be leaving at 1:00 when Colton was just 35 or so miles away. My wife and I had been running around town in a rental car and were both pretty nervous about driving an unfamiliar truck through LA traffic on the way out of town. Most importantly my wife did not want to start out driving at night and therefore wanted to be first to drive so my shift would begin after dark. When we were getting ready to leave the trainer gave her the option of either driving out of the terminal or we could start driving when we got out of the city. Obviously she opted to let him take us out. SOOOO glad she did!!!

So it turns out we have to go pick-up a trailer at a location that in itself was a pain to get to in traffic. Upon arriving we discover that they had a little accident with the trailer and had ripped a door completely off it's hinges. Fortunately, they had several trailers and we were able to locate another empty. We inspected the trailer, reported the issue on the first trailer via the Qualcomm and learned how to pre-trip the refrigeration unit. Then we headed out to a Blue Beacon truck wash in downtown LA to have the trailer cleaned and sanitized. On the way there the trainer is laughing and telling us stories as my wife and I are sitting there bug-eyed as we watch him navigate through insane gridlocked traffic and take us to a truck wash located in the worst possible place we could imagine having to take an 18-wheeler. Seriously insane! The road in was lined on both sides with straight trucks leaving an alley down the center barely wide enough to accommodate the truck. You'd have to have really seen it, but it was nuts.

So finally we get the trailer washed out and head for Colton. We arrive at a HUGE refrigerated distribution center along with what looked like every trucker in the country. We first learn how to check through security and discover that this will be a drop-and-hook. We then navigate around the building passed what seemed like thousands of trucks and trailers and find a home for the trailer we brought. Then we go into the warehouse to check in. Upon going inside we find ourselves in what seemed like the worlds biggest freezer. Seriously it was the size of a Boeing plant! Both my wife and I were seriously impressed at seeing what it takes to bring food to the masses. We get our trailer and the trainer and I secure the load and then scale it. -continued-

About to embark upon the biggest hurdle

It's hard to believe that, after all the nerve-racking things we've been through, permit testing, medicals, first day driving a semi, all the incredibly stressful and chaotic DMV final testing, all the evaluations necessary to get hired...it was all leading up to today and the beginning of what seems universally considered to be "the hard part". Trainer should be here by noon and we may leave as early as this afternoon (possibly in the morning). Minimum of 5 weeks living in a truck with a complete stranger as he teaches us what this is really all about. Fortunately, we're both intelligent enough to know that, at this point, we know nothing! Our first run will be about 2000 miles to Tennessee. The experienced folks have all assured us that we'll want to quit within the first couple days (not sure that helped). Right now it's an odd mixture of excitement, anticipation and utter dread!

Incidentally, as soon as we received our trainers name I Googled him. A company article came up from 2013 in which he won his state truck driving championship and was sent on to represent the company at the national level. VERY glad to know we'll be with someone experienced who knows what they're doing!

Wish us luck! (No, seriously....wish us luck!)

As they say... "The only difference between an ordeal and an adventure is your attitude!"

Company Orientation Day 4 (Yesterday)

Day four was less of an orientation and rather was centered around one thing. We are now officially hired! The morning was spent simply going over the last minute details of actually being employed with the company. We were issued our company ID numbers, assigned our comdata cards, assigned to a training team, a trainer and a fleet manager.

After that was finished we met with a wellness coach. This is simply an individual contracted with an outside company that assists drivers to stay healthy and meet their personal health goals while on the road. They also assist you in insuring that you'll pass your future DOT physicals. Incidentally, they took my blood pressure again to establish a base-line. As there was nothing riding on this blood pressure test there was no stressing over it and it came out ideal for my age.

DMV Fiasco (Again!!)

I'd love to say this day was nothing but celebration and high-fives for getting hired, unfortunately that was not the case. After orientation was over we headed to the DMV to take our doubles/triples and tanker endorsements. This DMV was packed and we waited a solid twenty minutes just to get to the check-in window. Here in California you must now prove residency and citizenship with multiple documents and, thinking ahead, we brought all of that with us. As we checked in the lady asked for these documents, as well as our CDL's, and looked everything over prior to even giving us a number. She even chuckled that we were on top of things and had clearly been through this before. My wife received the lower of the two numbers and, after about a thirty minute wait, she was called to a window and went to take her tests. Then I was called. My wife received her official license a couple days prior to leaving for orientation, unfortunately, mine did not arrive and therefore I'm still operating with the paper temporary one. Needless to say they would not allow me test until I receive the hard copy, thereby making this trip to the DMV pointless as it's a both-of-us or neither-of-us situation. (It would have been really nice if the lady at check-in had mentioned that as we'd have just left!)

My wife easily passed both her tests and returned to the window. Now at this point this would have been little more than an inconvenience, that is until she was informed that her hazmat had been dropped from her license!! Hazmat is critical for us, so this was not good! They were telling her that she'd have to re-take the hazmat test in order to have it added again. While she very likely would have passed, she hadn't even looked over the information since passing the first time and was absolutely distraught at the concept she may fail. As she was unwilling to even risk the possibility they initially were going to void her application for doubles/tripes and tankers and just drop her back to hazmat only so she could leave having what she came in with. Anyhow, this literally turned into tears being shed (she's been stressed as it is and didn't need this crap at this point). Ultimately they managed to wave the need for her to test and she finally walked out having hazmat, doubles/triples and tankers. Unfortunately, as they wouldn't allow me to test for tankers, it really has no benefit at this point. Upon returning to our company we were told that the DMV was incorrect to begin with and that she never should have been required to re-take hazmat since she passed and received it so recently. Gotta love the DMV!

So we're now just hanging out waiting on our trainer at this point. As he's currently on the other side of the country were waiting on a decision for one of three options. Either he'll drive here and pick us up, he'll fly here and we'll drive a local truck back to the main terminal or we'll fly to the main terminal and meet him. We're good with any of those options and simply waiting.

Company Orientation Day 3

Not a great deal to report today. We reported for orientation at the same time as yesterday and continued with training videos. Today the videos were focused more upon route planning, safe driving practices and company apps which we will be utilizing. In the afternoon we continued going over how to fill out our paper logbooks and completing them for the days we have "worked" so far. We also spent a great deal of time in just general conversation and I have to say, again, everyone has been fantastic.

As it turns out we will have one more short day of orientation and will likely finish around noon tomorrow. While some individuals were informed they were hired today (primarily those coming in with experience) we were told that they should have our paperwork completed tomorrow morning and that we will receive our employee ID numbers and be officially employees at that time. As we will be training together as a husband/wife team we expect to get our trainer sometime next week. We could be wrong, but we both get the impression that there is a genuine effort being made to insure that they get us a good one. Fingers crossed that we are correct in that!

Do You Vape? We do!

So this is a side note item but something we were initially a bit concerned about. I think others may be as well. My wife and I quit smoking and switched to vaping in late 2009, before hardly anyone even knew what "vaping" was. Neither of us has touched a cigarette since. As such we were concerned that in order to have a trainer tolerant of vaping we'd have to subject ourselves to being with a smoker, which would have been really tough for my wife especially. Turns out that our concerns were completely unfounded. I've been amazed at how many experienced drivers have rolled into the terminal and are vaping rather than smoking. We informed our safety manager today that we do vape and, if we had to, we'd go with an out-of-truck smoker if it was necessary. He responded with a resounding "NO" and told us that as vapers we don't want to be in a truck full of smoke and ashes that would soak into everything we own, or even an out-of-truck smoker for that matter. Very understanding! It makes total sense to me that companies would prefer vaping, after all the same benefits it provides us are major benefits for the company. The vehicles don't stink, you're not burning everything, you don't have ashes and trash everywhere, etc. Anyhow, we're both very pleasantly surprised that this turned out to be a complete non-issue!