Comments By Dave S (formerly known as KnowItAll)

That's an excellent first week!

Was on us54 Wednesday and Thursday. Had to shutdown for a bit in Liberal KS Early Thursday morning. Roads got a tick too snotty for my liking.

Williams AZ Loves Friday November 28th 2019. Took 4 hours to get from Winslow to Williams after ADOT reopened I40. They closed it again about 4PM because of a wreck at mm 113.

Saturday morning trying to leave Williams AZ Loves. What a mess that was! I40 was still a mess because of wrecks. Took Route 66 from mm 123 (Seligman AZ) to Kingman. First 20 or so miles were a little sketchy but opened up to dry pavement all the way.

CA 58 near Mojave California. So cool seeing snowy mountains in the deserts of California.

My first and only time so far was in the first section. With all the employee's 4wheelers around made it challenging.

Holy Smokes!

Congratulations!!!!

Thanks Brett. I couldn't have said it better.

With the contract, it may seem like a trap but it's not. It is a commitment between you and the company. You agree to give them a year and they agree to give you the training, knowledge and tools to be a successful driver.

I've come across several new drivers in the past year that went through abbreviated training programs. Those folks struggled. Struggled with backing, trip planning and time management. Needless to say, they were very unhappy. With less than a year of experience, they felt trapped by a company that doesn't really have any skin in the game. With less than a year of experience, it becomes very difficult to find another job.

Forgot to mention that you'll be getting paid! You get a guaranteed $600 minimum while doing your C-Seat training and $700 minimum while doing B-Seat.

I-90 Ellensberg WA. Perkins next to the loves. I-90 again, this time a Shari's next to Ernie's fuel stop in Moses Lake WA.

I-80 Morris Illinois, R Place at the T/A.

PackRat approved! I'm humbled.

Outstanding!

Sure PackRat. The term "seat" is in reference to the phase of training. D-Seat is the permit phase and is 10,000 miles (although, this can very greatly depending on circumstances). Next is C-Seat. This is the first 10,000 miles after getting your CDL. Next is B2-Seat and is the second 10,000 miles. Third is B1-Seat and is the final 10,000 miles. The solo week miles (about 2500) are included in the B1-Seat total miles.

D-Seat is used to prepare someone to take the CDL pretrip, backing and driving test with some OJT thrown in. C, B2 and B1 seats are where the real magic happens. A person learns not only how to drive but how to be come a Driver. They also learn how to to the job. Like dealing with shippers and receivers, scaling a load, backing into weird places, navigation, dealing with weather and so much more. In theory, one should have a handle on things by the time they get to the solo week.

Hope that was a good explanation.

On the subject of Wilson Logistics I can give ya some insight on the training there. Coming in with a CDL you will skip the D seat training and go directly to C seat training for 20k miles. Then you'll do another 20k (10k B2 & 10k B1 which includes your solo week). May seem like a lot but it will be dispatched team miles.

Those miles are ballpark, your mileage may vary by a few thousand either way. My training mileage was closer to 45k. 6k D seat, 34k C and B seat and 5k solo week (2 weeks LOL). The reason for the extended C and B seat before doing my solo week was because there wasn't a truck for me. My trainer and I burned through the miles to quickly and they weren't ready for me.

Dave--explain the different "seat" terms, please.

On the subject of Wilson Logistics I can give ya some insight on the training there. Coming in with a CDL you will skip the D seat training and go directly to C seat training for 20k miles. Then you'll do another 20k (10k B2 & 10k B1 which includes your solo week). May seem like a lot but it will be dispatched team miles.

Those miles are ballpark, your mileage may vary by a few thousand either way. My training mileage was closer to 45k. 6k D seat, 34k C and B seat and 5k solo week (2 weeks LOL). The reason for the extended C and B seat before doing my solo week was because there wasn't a truck for me. My trainer and I burned through the miles to quickly and they weren't ready for me.

Sadly no. Altgough, I'm 500 miles west of ya. 15:00 appointment at Walmart DC.

Was at PRISLC Saturday night Sunday morning.