Profile For Rhino

I think you have to click go after

Hello, everyone. My name is Chris and, as the subject implies, I am in training with Wilson Logistics. It looks like I'm not the only Wilson trainee currently writing one of these, so hopefully it won't get too tedious with so many of us writing. Either way, it will be nice to have this as a sort of journal of my time in training just for myself.

I'll start by telling you a little about myself. I am 27 years old. I grew up (mostly) in Portland, TN. It's about 45 minutes north on I-65 from Nashville. Most of my family still lives in and around that area. At 18 I decided to go to college at Trevecca Nazarene University for music. Yes, music. I managed to complete my degree and, predictably, found it hard to make a living. My plan at the time was to go to grad school, then get my doctorate, and then teach at the university level. I still think I might do that one day, but probably not in music. More likely history at this point (I know, another non-lucrative career field). You might think I regret spending four years and an ungodly amount of money getting a degree that I don't really use, but you'd be wrong. I loved my time there. I met my wife there (though I didn't know she was going to be my wife until a few years after I graduated), I still have a few friends that I am close with from there, and I do still love music. I can't imagine not having the knowledge about music that I have, if for no other reason than that it's a big part of what ties my wife and me together.

Her name is Cassie and she's a singer/songwriter (I know, how very "Nashville" of her) from Colorado Springs, CO. We were great friends in college, but neither of us ever had a desire to take it farther than that. After college, we sang in a choir together and decided to go get a drink after rehearsal one night. A few drinks, some lowered inhibitions, and three-and-a-half years later we were getting married.

The pandemic has been tough on us (though, we and our families have stayed healthy, so a healthy dose of perspective is necessary here). My wife is in grad school overseas in Ireland. It's been her dream since she was young to live there. We've tried twice since our wedding to make it overseas and both times we've been shut down because of COVID. The last time our flight was canceled one week before we were scheduled to fly out. That was in January. I had already quit my job, our lease was up, and we didn't know where to go next. We moved in with my parents (God bless them) while I tried to find a job. We had a bit saved up, so with fewer expenses my wife was able to focus on her schoolwork. The job search dragged on and on with very little success. Then I saw an ad for a trucking job and my mind kind of got away from me. I had thought about trucking before but it was always an "if was single," or "if I didn't have this-or-that job or such-and-such commitment" kind of dream. But this time I just couldn't get it out of my head. When we finally talked about it, my wife was encouraging. She wants me to do something that I'll enjoy and love even if it will be hard and we will miss each other. It helps that the money is more than either of us has ever made, and it really helps that, once I go solo, she will be able to come with me some this summer. I'll skip the boring details from here, but after some research, luck, and trial and error I wound up on my way to train at Wilson Logistics.

The "a little bit about myself" has gone on a bit long now, so I'll let this post just be my extended "about me" section and fill you in on the details of my first week of training in the next one.

Thanks for reading,

- Chris

P.S. - I can't figure out how to change my profile picture. I went to my profile, selected the page to edit it, hit the button to upload a new photo, selected the photo opened the file, but nothing happens after that. If anyone has any suggestions on that, I would appreciate it. The file is a JPEG, if that matters.

Happy for u Andrey. Best of luck to you.

I started driving for a local LTL company this Monday. So far I am very glad. The biggest difference for me is how there is no need to deal with dock people, always waiting for a door, and then for loading/unloading. I don't know, maybe it is a local New England thing, but 100% of time I drive to the dock, back into any available door, walk in, open my trailer door (yes, it is a roll up door), and then either let someone use their fork lift, or use my pallet jack myself. Stops are therefore about 5-10 minutes each. It does get complicated sometimes to drive through these tiny skinny towns, but why not view it as a free chance to practice? :-) Backing is sometimes tough too, a lot of these warehouses were probably built before first trucks hit local roads... Overall, I like this job much more than my previous regional 5-2.

The first guy I talked to I think was the terminal manager or something and he told me to talk to that guy the ops manager who is dealing with hiring. I can try and see if they have recruiters or if I can contact hr. I wish u did bro lol

What they want and what they can get are 2 different things, I'd try talking to HR or a recruiter if they have one. The opps guy probably wants that so they can hit the ground running instead of training and breaking in a newbie.

Unfortunately, nobody I know has any pull over there since it is well outside our region.

Thanks.

Ya I was surprised I’ve had others there tell me they will consider hiring from school to. The ops manager I talked to yesterday said they were looking for someone with 4-5 years experience I was like wtf. That’s a bit drastic. I even applied to the driver trainer program. I’ve been putting in apps everywhere. I’m still gonna put more in at od. Yes Vegas

Sorry about that.

4 years? That is a new one for me usuallyit's at most a year or a graduate of a approved school. This is the Vegas terminal right? They must have a lot of drivers there because around here they had to drop some of the requirements in order to find people.

Well bobcat talked to od they said they want more experience. He said they want 4+ years but I’m sure after 1 year of experience I can get in

Congratulations!

Hopefully you are able to get in on Monday with OD!

🙏🏼

Congratulations!

Hopefully you are able to get in on Monday with OD!

Hope so boss. They said to call Monday to talk to ops manager to set up interview. Hopefully I’ll b a lucky one lol

Congratulations!

Hopefully you are able to get in on Monday with OD!

Kudos, RYNE !!!

~ Anne ~

Hope so boss. They said to call Monday to talk to ops manager to set up interview. Hopefully I’ll b a lucky one lol

Congratulations!

Hopefully you are able to get in on Monday with OD!

Thanks!

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Thanks g town!

Congratulations !!!

I feel u there I was a class b holder for a while to lol thanks.

Congrats, man! Glad to hear it!

As a class-B holder, I'm living through all of you vicariously, lol!

Congratulations Ryne, now the real learning starts. Hopefully you get a good trainer.

Thanks. That’s true. I’ve yet to decide on a company. Trying for old dominion freight lines

Thank you sir.

We knew you would.

Congratulations!

I talked to od they said to call back Monday to talk to a operations manager. They r currently hiring for line haul and a couple p&d spots.

Congratulations!

Good luck on the test!

Yes that is true. Ya maybe lol but thanks. Well it’s was much easier at this school location then at the dmv. Just glad to be done with it.

Gratz man! Its not how many times we get knocked down but how many times we get back up. Took me 6 tries to finally get it, looks like you learn a tad bit faster than I do lol, seriously grats!

Thanks guys!!

Congratulations

Hey everyone I passed!!! I finally did it! So stoked right now!!

Yes sir. But good news we aren’t doing a alley dock we’ll do parallel which I’m comfortable with. Test is in 2 hours. Getting practice now.

PackRat chips in:

Don't forget to use as many free GOALs as allowed. Things look different from behind the trailer.

This is true. But, Fun Fact: a third pull up is one point, a third pull up after an encroachment means 3 points. "Pay" the extra point and be safer,

Yes sir. Thanks! I got this!

Good luck!

Remember, the license doesn't say how many attempts it took, all it says it you passed!

Yes sir I will this time lol. These instructors and there way of doing it is so much better then in Vegas. I’m feeling good

Don't forget to use as many free GOALs as allowed. Things look different from behind the trailer.

Awesome thanks for that sir! I was just frustrated the first time and wasn’t thinking but looking back if I would of just stopped and took a breath I would of passed it. But live and learn and do better the next time.

Rune, I teach CDL classes.

Just yesterday one student passed the skills alley dock with FOUR pull-ups! The pull ups (first two "free") helped him avoid any encroachments. Remember, pull ups are one point, encroachments are two points plus a pull up.

There are some companies that do that it’s usually in ltl jobs. It’s called slip seating.

RealDiehl and G-Town,

Thanks--and nice! I'm not sure where I got the impression that as a company driver you get put into a different truck for each run, but it's nice to know that's not generally the deal. I'm sure it's nice to get settled in a bit and used to your particular truck and set-up.

And good to know about the options while driving down the road. I know the hours get loooong... but so do my Zoom meetings and spreadsheets currently. Anyway, even apart from career decisions, I always find these kind of actual work life details fascinating... what people's jobs are *actually* like.