Posted: 6 years, 9 months ago
View Topic:
A Husband and Wife Trucking Journey
Company Orientation Day 1
What a day! Phew! Not particularly difficult in the "hard work" sense but rather in the very stressful "if we're gonna get sent home, it'll likely happen today" sense. We woke up about 4:00am, after neither of us having slept particularly well, to meet the shuttle at 6:30. We arrived to discover that we had gotten lucky with an exceptionally small orientation class of seven people. The first few hours were filled with watching videos while simultaneously filling out mounds of paperwork. Periodically throughout this we'd be pulled out, one at a time, to perform our physical agility tests, blood pressure tests and drug tests. Paperwork consisted of everything from benefit enrollments to sexual harassment policies. The videos ranged from company introductory videos to comdata videos. Unfortunately, very little from the videos stuck as we were doing paperwork and being pulled out of the room as they were playing. After all the morning activities were completed we had a short, 10 minute, drive test. The final task, performed at the end of the day, was to complete two drives on the simulator.
Physical Agility Test & Blood Pressure
I had watched videos on the physical agility test and really wasn't concerned about it for either of us. As it turned out it was a cake walk. You're taken into the terminal weight room and you begin by having your blood pressure taken. THIS I was worried about simply because I stress and my blood pressure can spike to borderline levels. Turned out it was 120/89, or right about there. They then have you doing ten squats in which you must place your hands together and touch the floor each time. Afterwards they check your heart rate. Then you lift a milk crate filled with 30lbs off a knee high bench and must turn 90˚, squat until it touches the floor, lift it again, turn 90˚ back to the bench and set it down. You repeat this three times and then they take your heart rate again. They then place an additional 20lbs in the crate, for a total of 50lbs, and you repeat the same process. After that they have a diamond plated steel bench designed to simulate the rear of a trailer. You must step up on the lower bar, then kneel up onto the deck, then place one foot flat on the deck in front of you. You then reverse the process to get down and they take your heart rate. You are then taken to a pull bar, which is a bar tied at both ends which attaches to a scale mounted on the wall. You first must pull the bar and I believe the target number was 90lbs. Then you push the bar for 75lbs. (The weight may be backwards there but that's what I believe they said.) They then take your heart rate again. And that's it! All done! (Incidentally my wife and I are in our early forties and are each packing 30 more pounds than we should be. Still not an issue.)
Drug Test
Pee in a cup, then initial it.
Drive Test
To my wife's credit she jumped at the chance to be the first one in the truck. I nervously watched as she drove out and returned about ten minutes later. Passed! A couple guys waiting on trainers told me as she left that it was easy and really just amounted to going around the block. I was however warned that there was one turn where everyone clips a ditch. When my wife returned I went out to meet the examiner (I guess that's what you'd call him but we later discovered he runs the whole show here). As I met my wife she told me she had passed, but warned me that she got dinged for taking the second turn to wide (which I thought was odd). She also informed me that the truck was far different from any we'd driven, the gears were much tighter and the layout was different. I made a mental note and headed out. As I got in the truck it was clear that she was correct. It will be great driving these trucks in the long run but there was zero time to get to know it and it was far different from our old Volvo at school. I approached the second turn (all right turns) and remembered to watch taking it to too wide. Bad advice! I kept it tight and barely, and I mean barely, hung the outside of my tire over the ditch. Needles to say I got another chance and passed just fine. Turns out the issue was that my wife held it in the left lane too long before getting over. That's what she was dinged for, not "taking it to wide". Anyhow, we passed!
Simulator!
This was a trip as we'd never had access to a simulator at our school! There were two drives, the first being a super easy simulator introduction. The second drive is what I'll call the "the roads are packed and EVERYONE is a freaking a@&hole" test!!! It was insane! Over the course of a few simulated miles you have people that won't let you merge, idiots running out into the freeway, a semi on the opposing side of the freeway that crashes and explodes making you think someone hit your truck, an ambulance parked on the shoulder that veers out in front of you to respond to the crashed truck, cars cutting in front of you, people changing tires half in the road, rain, thunder, lightning and ice. It was freaking nuts and felt like we were playing Grand Theft Auto - Trucking Edition!!! My wife scored a 94% and I scored 93%. Both generous scores if you ask me, and yes, she beat me again!
We're not supposed to know if we're hired till Wednesday. That being said, we literally passed everything critical today so, barring something completely unforeseen, it's looking good.
Posted: 6 years, 9 months ago
View Topic:
A Husband and Wife Trucking Journey
Pre-Orientation Update
Well, we're here and all checked in at the motel for orientation. Gotta say that at this point we're both just sitting here thinking how weird it is to finally be at this stage. The hotel they put us up in is a perfectly acceptable basic travelers motel. Room is clean & comfortable, a/c works and the internet is free and faster than what were used to on our boat. The whole experience is oddly reminiscent of my being shipped off to New Orleans for the diving industry, except that this time it's me and my wife rather than me and a dozen other guys stressing out over what's going to happen over the next few days. My wife did get a kick out of counting all the female truckers we passed going over the Grapevine on the way here. No less than half a dozen or so counted just on the Grapevine itself.
Our recruiter had told us that, upon arriving at the hotel, the front desk would give us a packet of paperwork to fill out and that we should e-mail her to confirm our check-in. In fact we were told that if we could arrive early we'd be able to get the packet filled out and be one step ahead for orientation. Unfortunately the front desk had no packet for us but instead just a "welcome" letter telling us to meet the shuttle at 6:30am tomorrow and listing what we'd need to bring. I then e-mailed our recruiter from the room, as requested, and immediately received an auto-response stating she'd be out of the office till 6/19. and provided the e-mail of another recruiter who'd assist individuals seeking assistance for orientations beginning 6/12. Apparently she failed to mention to us this past week that she would be gone the week of our orientation. Not to worry, I fully expected the recruiter to drop us like a hot potato the moment we arrived for orientation. Of course, we also don't actually need her for anything at the moment so I'll think positive and just assume that if we need something the other gentleman will handle it.
Anyhow, orientation will last three days and I'll post a "what we did today" in the evenings if time permits. Obviously this is a critical stage so we'll keep our fingers crossed that all goes well and take it one day at a time.
Update to the update....lol
Just prior to hitting the "submit" button the room phone rang, A company representative called us down to meet in the lobby and went over the details of orientation. Nice young lady. So far it seems like they've got it together!
Posted: 6 years, 9 months ago
View Topic:
A Husband and Wife Trucking Journey
First off let me start with a big thank you from both of us for all the congratulatory comments. Much appreciated!
Update - June 6th
As today was supposed to be the day in which we were to depart for tomorrow's orientation, I thought I'd post an update as to the current status. This, again, is simply so that those who wish to embark upon this journey in the future can see how it actually goes down, or at least can potentially go down.
Initially we were supposed to receive our hotel confirmations from our company on Monday of this week however, we were called Saturday mid-day and informed that the Wednesday (6/7) orientation at the California terminal was, unfortunately, full. As such we were given three potential alternatives and were given thirty minutes to discuss them prior to having to call back and confirm. We could leave Sunday morning and attend orientation beginning this Monday, we could wait till the following Monday (6/12) to attend, or the company would immediately book us plane tickets out of San Francisco to fly us directly to the Tennessee terminal for a Wednesday orientation. I was actually rather impressed by that last option. I wasn't even aware companies would be willing to spring for last minute plane tickets as most of the stories I've read involve Greyhound tickets, even over great distances. We've sent the company several documents and, supposedly, they have actually conducted all of our background checks so at this time I'm choosing to believe it's a sign that we are highly desirable as potential employees. (Probably not the case, but it sounds good!)
The first option involved departing less than 24hrs from being notified and posed numerous issues. We had a rental car booked (no desire to ride Greyhound if it can be avoided) and we'd have to reschedule, on the weekend, and for the next day (a Sunday). We also have arrangements secured for our dog to be taken care of while we complete company training and had no ability to positively rearrange that in thirty minutes.
The offer to fly out, while appreciated, involved having to get someone to give us a ride to San Francisco International Airport, which is an hour and a half away, on a Tuesday and during work hours. Again, not something we could positively arrange and confirm within thirty minutes. I'll also be honest in that my wife and I like to have our bases covered. We're aware from the stories of others that orientation is NOT a guarantee of employment and that individuals can be sent home for any one of numerous reasons. Often times we hear that people are left high-and-dry when this occurs and stuck trying to find a way home on their own. If this should happen to one or both of us, we'd rather be in Southern California with a rental car than in Tennessee needing to pay for a return plane ticket to California on a last minute booking!
Ultimately we selected the option of going next Monday. We'll depart Sunday the 11th and begin orientation Monday the 12th. And to think, I was under the impression that all the hurry-up-and-wait stuff wasn't going to start until we began running freight!
Interesting side note:
Upon going into our school to pick up our diplomas the office lady confided in us and told us a story which explains the headaches we experienced with testing at our commercial DMV. I immediately had to come home and Google it for myself. Apparently, and from what the office lady told us, this DMV is still under a major crackdown as it is embroiled in an ongoing investigation due to one of these false CDL's being issued to an individual who got into an accident resulting in multiple fatalities. My wife is absolutely convinced that they had me pegged as being undercover! Lol! (Who knows, but I wouldn't doubt it.)
See for yourself: https://calcoastnews.com/2015/08/salinas-dmv-employee-traded-drivers-licenses-for-bribes/
Posted: 6 years, 10 months ago
View Topic:
A Husband and Wife Trucking Journey
First major hurdle down! CDL's obtained!
My wife's retest was scheduled for 10:15 this morning and, by absolutely pure luck, the owner of the school was able to catch a cancellation and get me into the time slot immediately following hers. We both passed without any issue at all this time and literally did so back-to-back! There were a few interesting tidbits regarding some issues with our truck, both the trucks we had in for testing in fact, but at this point I'm just gonna leave this update with a big "WE PASSED!" and enjoy the rest of this holiday weekend!
We spoke to our company yesterday and, making the assumption we'd both pass today, they scheduled our orientation date. We're gonna take a week to decompress from phase one and square a few personal things away in preparation for being gone. We'll then be leaving on June 6th and will begin our three day company orientation on the 7th. After that we can start tackling the next major hurdle of company training!
Posted: 6 years, 10 months ago
View Topic:
A Husband and Wife Trucking Journey
Brett- Thank you, and a special thanks for TruckingTruth as this site has been invaluable. Not to worry, we have absolutely no intentions of giving up and will keep playing this game till we come out on top. I'm sure we have countless challenges ahead however, I'd like to believe that after this we'll be dealing with individuals who have some vested interest in the driver. I know our future company trainers get bonuses if we pass our upgrade and can't imagine companies want to waste time and money by deliberately screwing with people. (I could be completely wrong about that, we'll see.) The problem is the DMV examiners could care less and simply go sit in their cars, in their little shack, or walk across the street to 7-11 and wait a couple hours for the next student if they fail someone quickly. Incidentally, and this may be typical but came as shock to me, our school has been dealing with these examiners for quite some time. Of the five typical examiners we are told that only one has a CDL themselves and has ever driven truck, three have admitted they can't even drive stick! They're simply there to insure you follow their checklist as they interpret it. That blew me away as my examiner for my pilots license had 30 years in the air, many of my instructors and examiners in diving school were ex-navy seals and all had numerous years in the industry. Of course the big issue in all this, and the reason for my venting, is not simply about having to retest but the fact that when they pull some trivial junk like this it can take up to a month for that next opportunity. The vast majority of these students are currently unemployed...so it's a big deal to those of us just looking to get back to work!
Cornelius- Very glad you're enjoying! Hopefully we'll have something beyond the training to share sometime soon.
G-Town- Exactly! It is my understanding that the compressor/governor low pressure cut-in is conducted to insure that the compressor/governor will cut-in properly and before pressure drops to an unsafe level (100psi by the book). That's it as far as I'm aware (and please correct me if I'm wrong). I received a "postponement" rather than a fail because this examiner and I talked in detail and he is absolutely, 100%, well aware that I understand this system...I just didn't perform it the way he wanted me to. As I know that some of the examiners will auto-fail you if you get too close to 100psi, especially this particular one, my wording is designed to absolutely insure there's no chance of that and I've practiced it a thousand times. Specifically I say, "I am now going to perform my compressor and governor cut-in test. My compressor and governor must cut-in at NO LESS THAN 100psi. In this truck I know that my compressor and governor will cut-in at 105 and therefore I am going to depress the service brake until I reach 104". I then depress the brake until I reach 104 and wait the prescribed 7-8 seconds until I see the needle rising and say, "my needle began rising at 104 and therefore I know my compressor and governor are cutting in properly". I can not possibly understand how that can be construed as a failure in any way as I've literally made sure to cover all bases. The compressor/governor are in fact cutting in above 100psi, I've identified where it does cut-in, and I've avoided any possibility of being accused of dropping below 100.
Side note: The owner of the school thinks he can get me into a testing spot a week from this Saturday. He says he'll know by next Tuesday. We'll see, fingers crossed.
Posted: 6 years, 10 months ago
View Topic:
A Husband and Wife Trucking Journey
So here's the latest...
My wife finally had her first test yesterday and was assigned an examiner we had never seen before. As it turns out this female examiner was filling in from a different DMV location. My wife absolutely loved the lady and was thrilled that this examiner was so willing to be patient with her as she's VERY nervous. She passed her in-cab without issue (we do it PRECISELY the same way as we practice together every day), she then passed her exterior pre-trip scoring a 96 (this examiner actually told her the score she received). She then moved onto skills and performed her straight-line flawlessly and the offset backing equally as flawlessly. At this point she was assigned to do a parallel park to the drivers side. Believe it or not, this is one of my wife's best maneuvers. She had to use a go-around but then pulled it off without a hitch. At this point she's pretty confident she's got this in the bag, probably too confident, as she goes out driving. Upon leaving the yard she drags the trailer over the curb a bit as she's leaving. Several instructors watching say "Ooh! That's an auto-fail" but the examiner tells my wife it's ok and they keep going. As onlookers, we wait to see if she comes back immediately as if she doesn't we know the examiner let her off. Sure enough she does not return. Twenty minutes later she returns but is not coming from the prescribed route and, of course, we all know that's not good. Along the course there is an extremely tight turn out by an airport. The whole point to this part of the course is to insure you do not clip the curb. Unfortunately during my wife's drive there were several police officers and cars parked along this road, making it nearly impossible and she clipped the curb. The examiner told my wife that she recognized the added difficulty but unfortunately could not giver her a second pass on this one. All said and done my wife was thrilled as she made it all the way through to the driving portion and will simply have to repeat that and the in cab. We go into the DMV afterwards and she is assigned a re-test date of this Saturday.
Now for me...
Some prelude here. As my wife was waiting for her examiner the same lady was busy finishing up another guys test. We watched as she set out for the drive with this middle-aged Hispanic man. Upon returning the guy pulls right into the crosswalk to wait for traffic, without even attempting to stop prior to it. He's squarely stopped with the crosswalk bisecting the middle of the truck and waits for 1-2 minutes there for traffic. (See my previous posts but this is well known as being an automatic fail...ALWAYS). Every instructor, three or more, waiting say's "Oh man, auto-fail". Finally the guy comes walking across the street and my instructor asks "So you failed on the last stop?", to which the guy smiles and replies "No, I passed!". WTF???
Now here's the deal guys, I understand that reading something on the net you must assume it's just some shmuck griping. So all I can say is this. I attended the Divers Institute of Technology for an eight month course in commercial diving including numerous certifications. I was class president and graduated second in my class, being beat by the number one guy by 1/10th of a percent. Years ago I took a multi-week automotive finance school and was ranked #1 in my class. I hold a pilots license. I'm not an idiot! I do my homework and I study! In CDL school it is others who ask me for help!
So today I get my test. I simply need to perform in-cab and do the driving. I proceed to perform my in-cab with a known examiner and do so PRECISELY how I passed it before. PRECISELY how my wife did so yesterday and passed. At the end the guy says "would you perform your low pressure cut-in again". Uh, oh! This is the exact examiner who has failed numerous students on the low pressure for taking it slightly below 100 psi (which all claim they did not do). In the truck we are in you have to be dang careful as one depression of the service brake takes you to 106 and the compressor will not kick in, but two will take you to 95 or even 90. He has told numerous students it is not necessary to drop all the way to 100psi if you know it will cut in at 104-105. I gingerly depress the brake to 104 and the needle begins rising EXACTLY as I've passed previously. He tells me I'm saying everything right but that is not how the test should be performed and he expects a full brake depression and if it doesn't cut-in a second full brake depression. This would DEFINITELY drop the pressure below 100psi in this truck! So he doesn't fail me but gives me a "postponement". I go into the DMV for a reschedule and they tell me the SOONEST possible retest date is June 24th!!! These freaking people are bound and determined to put us on welfare and we have a company waiting on us!
One thing is becoming abundantly clear to those of us watching, it is far less about whether or not you know what you're doing and far more of a pre-planned "I'm gonna make this one quick". Perhaps because they don't want their breakfast getting cold, perhaps because of the color of the students skin! (In my observance it appears both are equally as likely on any given day!)
This is getting ludicrous! At this point I'm starting to check the back of my pants to make sure nobody tagged me with a pro-Trump bumper sticker!
Posted: 6 years, 10 months ago
View Topic:
Could I make money as an owner op with my wife as my co-driver?
Since you guys are on the topic. My wife and I have a decade of running our own company and may consider going O/O at some point. That being said, we've vowed not to even consider leasing or purchasing until we have sufficient industry experience to fully understand what we're getting into. My question is: Is it commonplace for companies to try to pressure new employees into leasing? Is it something where you end up getting punished on miles/loads if you don't eventually lease?
Posted: 6 years, 10 months ago
View Topic:
A Husband and Wife Trucking Journey
No problem Jim.
So no testing for me today as it looks like the afternoon guy is gonna make it for the test. No idea when I'll be testing and, for all I know at this point, I'll just be hanging out watching my wife train until the currently scheduled date of the 24th. Hopefully I can catch a cancellation and get this thing wrapped up.
For those wondering how my wife is doing...
I dropped her off early this morning so she could drive the truck to Salinas for this mornings testing. This is roughly a 50 mile round trip which involves rural roads, intercity areas and freeway. Typically a different route is taken for each direction and usually they get to Salinas early to drive all over the industrial areas. We also had some pretty gusty winds this morning, hitting at around 35mph at some points. Upon returning the instructor said she's doing great and is "out-driving us all".
Posted: 6 years, 10 months ago
View Topic:
A Husband and Wife Trucking Journey
Jim: I'll need to do the in-cab and the drive only. My exterior walk-around and skills are all complete and won't need to be repeated. I'm also told that it will not be necessary to go over gauges or equipment during the in-cab on this next one. Just the basic compressor cut-out, applied pressure, low-pressure light, spring brakes, compressor cut-in, tractor brakes, trailer brakes and service brake tests...then I'll drive.
Incidentally, I'm sitting here right now waiting for a call to see if I'm taking the spot of a guy who may not make his 1:00pm test time today. Aside from that I spent three hours yesterday (two separate attempts) trying to get an earlier test date and they have NOTHING for anybody prior to the 24th! (They were swapping me with a guy on Monday but, while performing the swap, they released the guys test time in the computer and it was immediately booked by someone else!)
Taxman: Thank you for the best wishes. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for you regarding the clutch issue. I'm not completely void of mechanical knowledge but know little specifically about big-rigs. It was just reported to me that the clutch is functioning better right now and will be replaced completely this coming week. I hope so if I end up testing today as I haven't driven it since the last test!
Posted: 6 years, 9 months ago
View Topic:
A Husband and Wife Trucking Journey
Company Orientation Day 2
As stated in the last post, all the critical stuff was completed yesterday so today was far more relaxed. The morning began by meeting the shuttle at 7:50am for the twenty minute ride to the terminal. Upon arriving we sat down in the classroom, with coffee in hand this time as we couldn't have any yesterday, and began watching videos. After watching a couple hours of videos we watched a few more videos, then they threw in a couple more videos just for good measure! Lol! As far as the content they were more training related today rather than introductory in nature. They ranged from very informative pre-trip procedures to training on how to use the Qualcomm. Our company is primarily a team based, hazmat orientated, company. As such we spent the latter part of the afternoon going over the hazmat related aspects of the companies freight. I should probably mention for those just looking into the trucking industry that "hazmat" is often very innocuous, everyday items, such as batteries or lighters. We've always known that the real training would come after CDL school when we finally got on with a company. Today we spoke in detail regarding the numerous clients we may service with this company and one thing became abundantly clear...we have a LOT to learn in the months ahead aside from simply how to safely maneuver a truck!
A Hazmat Issue To Be Aware Of
So if you've read the entire thread you are aware of the issue we had regarding our school requesting we hold off on our doubles/triples and tanker endorsements. Initially we planned on banging them out anyhow but decided against it as we didn't want to chance any further delays in the testing process. Upon receiving our CDL's I e-mailed our company recruiter and explained that we had our hazmat but did not obtain the other endorsements due to the schools request. She explained that we could do them in the future when, and if, we wished. Well today we discovered that is NOT the case. Our company does not run tankers, however, we must have the tanker endorsement to run hazmat. In fact, if I understood correctly, everyone must have the tanker endorsement to run hazmat after this past April. (Someone experienced may be able to shed more light on that.) Anyhow, guess what we'll be doing Thursday? Yep, back to the DMV to hammer out a couple more endorsement tests. Shouldn't be any big deal, but it sucks.
Company Impression Thus Far
I have to say that so far we are both very pleased with our decision to come to this company. We've been treated well in terms of accommodations and they've been providing all meals. Nearly everyone we've met has been great, from the experienced drivers and fellow students to the terminal personnel. This particular terminal is not the main terminal for the company but it is clean in terms of the drivers lounge, laundry facilities, showers and classrooms. From our inexperienced perspective the equipment all appears new, clean and well maintained. From the end of the day yesterday and throughout today we've seen indications that the job is ours to lose and that we hold value as a husband/wife team with clean backgrounds. It was clear today that some individuals are already experiencing issues regarding background related items. At least one has been sent home and it appears two others may be having issues (We mind our own business but can't help but notice). We, on the other hand, brought a mound of paperwork, just to be on the safe side, and haven't even had to show any of it other than the basics. I'm guessing our background checks made it pretty cut and dry.
Incidentally, we were singled out today and it was pointed out that if we "really want to maximize our income" they "really like" husband/wife teams for their long distance dedicated refrigerated runs. We actually hope to go refrigerated as we've heard numerous times that the freight and miles are more consistent. We also happen to know that this company services a refrigerated client just 14 miles from our home, having numerous trucks there everytime we pass by. We're just not sure about the concept of running a dedicated route yet. We know that's likely where the money is, and we see the benefits of knowing our route like the back of our hands. We also want to see the entire country and gain the trucking experience from doing so though. In addition we have friends running a dedicated route with Schneider and, as the husband in this equation, I'm not sure I want to drop my wife directly into the exhausting situation of running out our clock every week with a 34 hour reset at home. I'm sure we'll learn more as our training progresses and determine what's right for us. In the meantime, and as I said before, it's nice to have options!
I'm sure that eventually someone will ask what company we're with and I'm also aware that some experienced folks may very likely be able to guess. I think that in order to have the freedom to convey our experience as it actually happens it's important that I don't make this a company specific thread and withhold that bit of information.