Posted: 6 years, 2 months ago
View Topic:
Just Another Trucker Training Diary?
No, I’m really not angry. I wish I hadn’t shaved...but it will grow back, and I AM growing it back. 🙂 But you’re right, not all recruiters are...inexperienced...it is wise to simply be your own advocate.
All in all I’m excited to be getting back to it. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers.
Posted: 6 years, 2 months ago
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Just Another Trucker Training Diary?
So, the lesson I learned this week is to not trust recruiters. The whole "100,000 gallon" deal should have been a sign, but I sure didn't see it. It was 100,000 pounds, by the way, but either way it took me an hour to figure out this job was absolutely not for me and another hour to figure out how to get out of there while keeping my dignity and job history intact. Why was it not for me? The 12-14 hour per day job ended up being 17-18, and the overall job description conveniently lacked a few important details (the necessity to climb to the top of the tanker one-handed being the main one). All in all I have never been so relieved to be jobless.
And so I'm giving in to the inevitable, I'm going back to Prime. I have never been happy with my decision to quit. I can't stand that I broke a commitment and, you know, I miss the road pretty badly. The biggest thing holding me back was not knowing how to live a healthy lifestyle while on the road, but I've found a plan extremely sustainable and have already lost twenty-six pounds in the last two weeks. So that's that. I should be back in Springfield on the 22nd to go through the rehire process.
Thanks for all of the support. :-)
Posted: 6 years, 2 months ago
View Topic:
Just Another Trucker Training Diary?
Lol on the skin milk
Well, shoot, you guys have a point. I honestly probably misheard, May be 100,000 pounds. Could also be the guy in HR didn’t know what he was talking about. Either way, I saw the tanker and it’s massive. Not a land train, though. I’ll know for sure on Tuesday when I start. Regardless, it’ll be a joke job to most truckers, not much of a challenge at all, and certainly routine and boring as you get, but man it’s cushy all the way around! And home every day is nice.
Even so, I’m missing the adventure of the road pretty badly, but hey we make sacrifices in one way or another no matter what we do, right?
Posted: 6 years, 2 months ago
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Just Another Trucker Training Diary?
Jim, good luck man, you can do it. I’m trying to remember what stumped me. Pretty sure it was offset too. It’s a rough one!
Packrat, that’s a good question! I’m not exaggerating, though. It isn’t street legal and is used just on the farm. It’s a massive farm, but the reality is it’s a pretty tame job and I wouldn’t be navigating anything too rough with it. Again, doesn’t hit those highs that true trucking does, definitely not a dream job for me, but is a good in between to gain experience for that dream job.
Posted: 6 years, 2 months ago
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Just Another Trucker Training Diary?
Jim, I somehow did not see this message! I appreciate you very much and I hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I know I did. I have been conflicted, to put it extremely mildly, over what to do recently. I am not a quitter and it weighs heavily that I began something I did not finish. It's against my nature and my moral code. So I have made plans to go back to Prime, and then the act of leaving my family, among many other negatives, weighs heavily and so I make plans to stay. I'm usually a decisive person. I have found it impossible to be decisive with this. I'm really just being open and transparent here, mainly because you guys have been a great audience and a great source of strength. I appreciate you.
When I first resigned from Prime I put in a number of longshot applications, applying for jobs I wanted but wasn't qualified for. On the 2nd of January I heard back from one, a major family-owned and run dairy farm about thirty miles away with a chain of stores within a three hundred mile radius. It is by far the largest operation of its kind in this neck of the world--an excellent company to work for with a great reputation.
I'm not qualified for most that they have to offer, but they have a job on the farm driving a 100,000 gallon tanker truck full of milk. It's not what I necessarily want, but it is a cushy job--14 hour days, 2 on and two off, home every night, paying a wage comparable to what I'd make OTR. After a year of that I would have experience to go about anywhere or I could upgrade to a regional route with them with something like a $10.00 per hour hike in pay.
The catch, and it's a huge one, was I'd have to shave my beard. I'd be taking milk samples into a lab, and health code rules and so on...
The last time I shaved my beard my four year old burst out laughing, my five year old looked extremely confused, and my eight year old started crying, ran out the door to hide on the swing and ended up falling off and breaking her arm.
My daughter and I wrote a book about it — “My Dad & His Super Powerful Magical Big Bad Beard.” This fictitious version of myself (mildly fictitious) took his daughter on adventures riding on his super powerful magical big bad beard, fighting dragons and sight seeing in exotic locations and battling evil robots and so on. Until, one day, he came out of the bathroom with the beard all over the floor! She ran out to the swing and was thinking of all they had done together when suddenly she slipped and flew off the swing. She thought he would save her…then realized his beard was gone. Down she fell and broke her arm with a snnappp! And yet, here came her dad, who snatched her up and rushed her to the hospital and saved the day.
Know a publisher who’d want to publish that?
Anyway, I'm doing it, shaving off the majestic beard I've worked so hard to perfect. It's worth it.
So what finalized my decision? My wife and I have finally found the will and determination to make this the year we take control of our lives, health-wise, and we've found something that works for us. It's possible on the road but complicated to the point where I don't think it'd work. The reality is if I don't get this right this time around I'm not sure I'll be around a whole long time. I'm that out of shape. So the choice became: Get healthy and live or go on the road and don't.
This'll undoubtedly be my last blog post here, but I'm blogging about my journey if anybody's interested. You can check it out here. Thanks guys for everything!
Posted: 6 years, 4 months ago
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Just Another Trucker Training Diary?
Thanks, G-Town. I am still checking in and reading the forums frequently. I have greatly appreciated your wisdom over the past few months and I imagine I'll be benefiting from it for some time to come. I'm not out of the game completely! I have been of two minds since quitting Prime, and I have to say deciding on a path has been almost impossible. So I've opted to not decide for the time being. I ALMOST chose to go back to Prime yesterday, but ended up postponing the decision. My four-year-old saw me watching an IndianaJack Youtube video (love that guy!) and told me I absolutely COULD NOT go back to the truck stop! She said she would still love me but be really, really mad at me if I went. :-)
Of course, that's not the sole reason I opted to postpone the decision. I DO hate the thought of leaving my family again, but also love the thought of returning. Prime is a great company and I enjoyed the OTR lifestyle quite a lot. The moment I decide to return the negative aspects hit me and I decide not to. So for now I have put in applications at local, dedicated and regional outfits, even if I don't qualify, and am waiting to see if anything comes of it. With my level of experience...well, I'll be surprised if anything good pops up. But, you never know.
After the Christmas season perhaps the choice will be easier. For now, I'm not rushing into anything. Merry Christmas to all of you. :-)
Posted: 6 years, 4 months ago
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Just Another Trucker Training Diary?
Well, guys, I went through an awful lot out there and triumphed over all of it, but as it often goes one mistake brought it all down. It didn't have to, it was my choice, and it was a decision made based off of emotion rather than logic so it may very well have been a bad choice. But it's done, and I'm sticking with it for now.
I got my truck on a Thursday, a beautiful platinum colored Freightliner. I spent hours picking out all I would need from the Campus store, then hours loading up all of my gear. I brought everything with me to Springfield to upgrade: a mini-fridge, TV, Xbox, a wide array of supplies, and so on. Finally, exhausted, I went to sleep in the Econolodge. The next morning I checked out and proceeded to drive that beautiful truck straight into the awning of the motel.
Perhaps I needed to be humbled, because this is an incredibly humiliating thing to do. Over a week later I still have no idea why I would do that. I knew it was there, had gone out of the way to avoid it the night before, but for some reason all I saw was a clear driveway. I tell you, in the 40,000 miles I dove while training I drove through some crazy harrowing scenarios and made it every time. How something as simple as an awning would trip me up I'll never know. But, it did.
This, of course, did not end my career with Prime. Safety simply told me I would need to spend thirty more days in training. I took a bunk room in the terminal and spent a few hours trying to calm myself and figure out the next step.
After the hell I went through for the last two months, very little of which I actually wrote about here, the thought of going through another month of it was gut-wrenching. I knew I may be able to find a good trainer, but I've heard so many horror stories that I just didn't like my chances. I was so fed up with everything, so unsure of myself now as a driver, and so sick of being away from my family that I decided to resign and go home. I felt that when my truck came to a stop under that awning so did my career.
An emotional choice, I know. Perhaps a bad one. It's easy to say I should have sucked it up and taken my consequences, and perhaps you would be right to say it. And I even think it now at times. But the abuse I took over the past two months was absolutely horrifying. It was degrading and humiliating and I couldn't stand the thought of doing it again. So many times I should have gotten off of that truck and reported my trainer, but I knew that if I delayed my training I would miss out on my daughter's birthday--not a small thing in my family--and my trainer knew it as well, which gave him even more leverage. If I felt he was the anomaly in the training system I would have made a different choice. Still, I can't put this choice on anybody but myself.
So, I received a bill from Prime. I knew I would. I accept it and will pay it. For the time being my family is elated to have me back. We've sold all of the "fluff" in our household and all of the bills are covered and all of Christmas is paid for. So I can recover my senses and decide what to do next. Prime has even invited me back if I so choose. There are LTL companies, food service (LAST on my list), even cement trucks and the local bus company. All of it pays well and is local. Not the adventure of OTR, which I DID love, but trading my family for adventure is a good trade.
I still recommend Prime. They truly are a great company. I do believe they could take steps to ensure their trainers are not psychopaths, but my recommendation is to interview the crap out of your prospective trainer and hope they're not lying through their teeth as mine did. And if they are, don't hesitate to get off that truck in the middle of a cornfield in Iowa and call your DM. Unless doing so will make you miss your kid's birthday. I'll never regret that sacrifice. We had the time of her life.
Thanks for riding with me on this journey. For now, and likely quite some time, this will be my last entry.
Posted: 6 years, 4 months ago
View Topic:
Middle-aged Husband & Wife Becoming Team Drivers at Prime
Don't sweat the Sim lab too much, part of me thinks it may be designed to throw you off your game a little bit in order to see how well you handle it. At any time during the day, as long as there are no Sim classes going on you are welcome to practice on the Sims as much as you want. Just walk in there and ask them.
Turtle's right. I took my backing sim test to upgrade yesterday and man I was so embarrassed! I can back really well in real life, but I hit a truck and then just couldn't seem to get it. After I hit that truck and the sim ended I thought for sure I'd have to come back the next day, but no he restarted it and I tried again, still struggling to get the stupid trailer in the hole. Finally the instructor gave me a few hints and I--crookedly--got it in there.
So don't sweat it, you'll pass and be fine. :-)
Posted: 6 years, 4 months ago
View Topic:
Just Another Trucker Training Diary?
Last week was beautiful. We took a trip from American Falls, Idaho and dropped it at the Dallas drop yard. Little did my trainer know there is a rule that when you use the drop yard you have to take a local load from there if one is waiting. One was waiting, going 40 miles and paying 40 bucks. It wasn't due to be delivered--live unload--for 8 hours, and it took four hours to get it unloaded. So 12 hours for 40 bucks. He wasn't happy, but we immediately grabbed a load in Waco and drove it to the Springfield terminal and dropped it, then deadheaded home on Monday morning.
Being the day before Halloween my wife had hired a babysitter and was out taking her sole remaining regular customers (a blind couple) to haunted houses. At midnight she dropped them off and picked me up. The next morning my 7-year-old daughter came in and said, "Mom, it's 6:30!" and when I responded she shrieked and suddenly I was at the bottom of a pile of screaming girls. They had no idea I was coming home, which is always so much fun. :-D
We ended up taking my girls out of school on Wednesday and spending the whole day with them. On Friday we moved my mother into a nursing home, a hard move but a positive one I think. My brother is now in the TNT phase at Prime and my sister just can't take care of my mother anymore on her own, so we accomplished that. I was grateful to be home to help.
Then on Saturday, my daughter's eighth birthday, we woke up early. I gave my girls a bunch of money and we spent the morning garage sale shopping, followed by lunch at my daughter's favorite Chinese restaurant (they sing "Happy Birthday" to her and bring out a slice of cake with a candle every year). Then a party at a park followed by Thor: Ragnorak in XD 3D. I put up with my trainer and all that entailed just so I could be home for that day, and it was worth every single argument, every cussing out, every immature and snide remark, every single thing I had to learn on my own.
Sunday we drove back to Springfield and rented a room in the Econolodge across from the Campus Inn--which was full. I unloaded all of my stuff, then we ate dinner at the Millennium and watched a movie in the room. The next day I had upgrade classes all morning. Safety classes, extreme weather videos, some driving in the sims and finally a backing test. I can back in real life fairly well, but let me tell you I stunk it up pretty badly on the sim. The instructor finally started giving me hints, and when I finally passed the thing I looked around and everybody was gone! Man was I embarrassed! Geez...
Finally, we had lunch and then I sent my family on their way. I had one more class and then I was done. Now I sit in the motel, number 19 on a list to get a truck. But, no worries--I brought all of my stuff! I have a good book--"Nuremberg: The Reckoning"-- my xbox, a 32" flat screen TV, a Ninja coffee bar that will fit perfectly on my truck and save me a ton of money. Truck stop coffee is crazy expensive. I have tupperware containers full of coffee and a mix of equal and splenda, something I've come to like in coffee, along with essentials like silverware, trash bags, coffee filters, a skillet to cook in, small plastic tubs to wash dishes in, and so on. When I get my truck I'll be set for a bit. Lastly I bought a good sized mini fridge from a friend for twenty bucks. It works very well, but I know it won't last long on a truck. Hopefully long enough for me to be able to afford one made for a truck.
So I'm set, I think, ready to get in a truck and get on the road. Training is done and I'm so thankful for that! Hardest two months of my life, but looking back I see how much stronger I am now because of it.
Posted: 6 years, 1 month ago
View Topic:
Being a trainee at Prime is an awful experience.
Hey Banks, first I hope you don't feel too beat up! You were open and honest with your post and I appreciate that. I covered this in my very long, and probably way too open and honest, training diary, but this initial phase can be super emotional. You're leaving your home, your family, the life you knew, and throwing yourself into a truck with a stranger to forge a new life, all the while trying to wrap your head around the ins and outs of operating a class 8, 80,000 pounds vehicle. When you throw into the mix a trainer who is less than ideal, to say the least, the situation becomes even more difficult and can lead to posting a good post that was, perhaps, hastily titled. We forgive you for bashing Prime in your title. :-)
I will say I'm sorry my diary came off as a bad review of Prime (assuming you're talking about MY diary--could have been a different Paul). It was never meant to be a review--reviews are quick reads that sum up an experience. My diary was a journey, not a summary, and taken as a whole I think the picture isn't negative, at least not on Prime's part. I am actually sitting here in the Campus Inn as we speak. Just finished up the second round of orientation and will get back on the road with another trainer in the next day or two. If you want a summary of my experience with Prime, here it is: I was paid $700 bucks a week to train for a career that is stable and profitable. Though the training was extremely difficult, at the end of that training I was entrusted with a nice new truck...which I promptly ran into an awning. Really dumb move. But then instead of facing the music, I quit, leaving a huge debt to Prime hanging over my head. REALLY dumb move. Did Prime call me about it, pester me, threaten legal action? No. They offered me my job back, whenever I was ready, an open invitation. Prime is really one of the best companies around.
Training is hard, for the trainer and trainee. If you get one who is abusive, as mine was, then call your Fleet Manager. If your FM isn't helping, call the training office. But do some soul searching, find the faults you have and clean those up first. You never know, that may fix the problem. If it doesn't, then you're in the clear and have no reason to not get another trainer. In the end, it's 6 weeks of your life. Gone in the blink of an eye in the long run. Just...don't run into an awning when you upgrade. :-)