Profile For Heavy C

Best advice I can offer is apply to anything and everything. And yes I'm talking about even the companies you've heard were trash. I know you want a specific thing like flatbed but unfortunately beggars can't be choosers. What you want and what you need are in conflict right now. What you need is experience and a solid work history. So whatever company will give you a chance is the one you need to go with and stick with for a relatively long time. Drive safe, get the job done and be professional. Eventually you'll have a choice as to where you want to drive, until then, do whatever needs to be done. Other than that there's not much that can be said for your situation.

Let's also not forget that most of the safety technologies in use today are being forced on trucking companies by the insurance companies. I've had some excellent safety managers but most have had their hands tied with a lot of the technology involved.

I was practicing and did the course probably 10 times successfully.

Was he silent all 10 of those times? If yes then he obviously felt comfortable enough to throw some talking in. And if not, why was it a problems this time?

You need to learn accountability. Let's say you get your CDL and your driving teams with your boyfriend. He's talking to you, you've got your GPS going, it starts raining, you also have the radio on and now your in an unfamiliar area. You make a turn incorrectly and bump a parked car. How do you think the cop will react if you say "I was distracted." It's part of your job as a professional driver to either avoid or learn to block out distractions. This was 100% not your teachers fault. It was yours. And you know what, that's ok. You bumped a rock, backed up and corrected with no damage to the tire. Learn from it and move on.

Take it from somebody who has his fair share of mishaps early in his career. Learn accountability. Accept when you screw up, admit it, and learn from it. If this industry is good at one thing it's humbling people.

Yeah 5/2 is 5 on 2 off. We have many other programs like 5/2 5/3 which will alternate your days off because every other week you get a third day off. There 6/3 and also the rare 5/5. These are the most common. What's available will depend on the operational need of the DC you run out of. You're also not locked in for any certain amount of time. New schedules get posted all the time and if something opens up that you like more then you can sign up for it. It goes by seniority of course.

How's it's going Bird-One. So I work out of 7014 Lewiston, ME. We are a grocery DC and our coverage area is basically just New England. I have 5-2 schedule 10am start time Thursday out. Meaning my week starts Thursday. Really we do the same thing in a day cab as an OTR driver would. Only difference is they don't send us quite as far for our first trips of the day because can't sleep in the truck. So the really difference is miles. While an OTR guy may get between 550-600 miles a day I'm getting closer to 450-500. Now I've had bigger days but depends on how many trips are available and how I'm doing on time. The other difference is the OTR guys get paid $46 just to sleep in the truck every night. But I get to sleep in my bed next to my wife every night. So depends on what you want more.

As far as day cab positions being senior spots. That's definitely not the case. At least not here in Lewiston. OTR makes more money generally so they tend to stick to those positions. Again that's not always the case because it depends on how hard you want to run. Some guys like to do just one trip and shut it down or just go slower. Then you've got guys like me trying to fill my 70 every week.

If you got any more questions about Walmart I'll happily answer them.

Well I'm glad I could at least bring a grin to your face lol. I'm glad to see your still here fighting the good fight.

I've been doing great! Just taking care of the family and trying to keep the rubber to the road. I've really been loving my time at Walmart. Actually I'm kinda mad I didn't make the jump sooner.

My motivation was pretty simple in the beginning. I needed a better paying job and didn't want to dedicate years of my life to a degree. Getting my CDL allowed me to do just that in only a few short months.

I want to touch on the training part for a second though. Are you talking more about training for a brand new CDL holder or for a person with plenty of driving experience going to a new company? Because I'm guessing a lot of times the training between these two types of people will look very different.

I think if you want to learn a lot about what companies are doing right in terms of training you need to start at the top. Research the safest companies in the nation and find out what they are doing. Generally speaking the safest companies are going to be the ones with either stricter hiring standards or have a robust training program or both. For me a great safety record is a great indicator that a company is doing things right.

Hello everyone. I'm sure some of the veterans of the forum will remember me but I'm HeavyC. I was an active member here for a little while before I decided to take a break from socials and the Internet. I'm what you would call a career local/day can driver and for the last year I've been able to call Walmart home. I'll hopefully be becoming a Walmart Mentor here soon. A lot has changed since the last time I was here but I hope I can start again contributing to the conversation about this industry and just be helpful in whatever way I can.

Cheers

Yeah crazy that the baby lived. But another thought I had was the driver and how it's going to affect him. Would you be able to just jump right back into drivers seat after crushing someone like that? Some maybe others who knows. Could be something the driver never fully recovers from.

Honestly I've thought about this. I really don't think I could. Not that it would matter but that's especially true if it killed a baby. I would have a hard time doing anything even if I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt it wasn't my fault. There was a story a while back about a trucker who ran over a toddler in rest stop fueling area and killed him. Totally not his fault he couldn't see him, but to live with that would be brutal.

This is such a terrible story. I feel terrible for that family and the family of the trucker. Just remember to always move over.Horrible accident

It was later ruled a suicide. You just never know.