Comments By David

Looked at the bill of lading and saw protect from heat and cold with no temp listed. When scanning in paper work I noticed they had said to set temp to 36 at the bottom.

The receiver put minus marks next to all the items on bol and signed it, they also took all the freight.

So did no one notice ? Did Jesus bless me this once? Or do the minus marks mean refused/damaged.

I assume the minus marks mean refused/damaged and sent actually check marks.

Should I snitch on myself and call my manager ? Should I hang tight and hope for the best?

The question is, was it refer ever on? Was it atleast in the low 40s? Generally if a load is temp controlled, the receiver will tell you if it's bad, at least that's been my experience in the 10 refer loads I ever hauled.

You saidn36 degrees so it's not frozen just has to be refrigerated... safe temp with food is 35-43 refrigerated. Anything above that and bacteria can start growing..

I pulled on to a road that I DIDN'T KNOW was closed. Cop was pulled over to the curb, but DID NOT have road blocked.

most companies allow you to have 1 or 2 within x amount of years... do the research on which company your interested in,

• Trucker's Career Guide: Choosing Your First Truck Driving Job
• Article Category: Finding The Right Truck Driving Job
• Forum Topics Tagged "Choosing A Trucking Company"

and read these pages.. call a couple some recruiters and explain what happened.. If it's the only ticket within 5 years , then I'd say your okay but still call and see what a recruiter says.

Good luck

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.

I gotta say, I don't miss CA DMV... the only state where you have to show 16 forms of I'D, surrender your first born, and take every test even though you just did 1 week prior... ( I took my General, air and combo test then went back to add tanker and they made me do alll 4 again) good luck to you and the Mrs. Look forward to hearing about your training.

I think most allow riders over the age of 10-12. If they are under 18, you need to show proof of guardianship. Otherwise anyone over 18 can ride with you.

Take a look at Trucking Company Reviews look at the companies you are interested in and go from there..

Pilot Flying J

Happy Father's Day!

Any size (hot or cold), offer valid June 18-24.

must be that time of the year again . lol seems like every year PFJ gives fathers a free drink..

Also keep in mid, employers require 3yrs of recent job history, However DOT law requires 10 yrs of recent employment history.. so the app online might be 3 yrs but when you get to orientation they'll have you do 10yrs...

As Errol said, just be as honest as possible. If need be, and I be done it before, call previous employers and ask then for start/final dates and pay. I now have a file on Google docs with every job for the last 10yrs with dates, addresses, names supervisors, phone numbers and pay rate. I also keep DOT med card issue and expectation dates, along with licence number and expectation dates. Quick and easy and can just copy and paste it over.

Hey OS, does his profile picture remind you of your childhood days?

(Sorry I had to!)

Wow, that actually had me laughing for real.

If I start reading a book it puts me out.

if i look at a book it puts me to sleep =D lol

on the nights/days i couldnt sleep, id get out of my truck and do some kind of exercise to get my mind and body tired. Walk, brisk jog, jumping jacks..

Small bungie cords help.

this right here helped me a lot when i had my cooler... I then switched to an ARB Refrigerator and never needed them.

Flattbed from what i hear and have read is a completely different ball game. It requires quite a bit of physical work especially when tarping. personally, if and when I come back out after my daughters health goes back up, i'll probably be doing flatbed myself. I feel the same way as you, i like to do things with my hands and dry van/refer doesn't do it for me. I say go for it, you are already with a company that supports flattbed. you'll probably go back to one of the training facilities and get trained there. There is also the possibility of going back out with a trainer too, so do keep that in mind.

Good luck to you.