Comments By Stoug Danhope

Yeah, I didn't know if I'd get someone worse than him and didn't want to deal with him while they tried to route me in. I kept getting jerked around trying to go flatbed so I figured it would be more of the same plus the burned bridge of requesting a new trainer. He'd also get a ****y attitude if I did something he didn't like or questioned anything so I just kept to myself and away from him as much as I could and figured it out myself. I wanted tnt done asap so I toughed it out. It helped when he took his little vacation and I did a load solo in florida without him for those few days, refreshed me I guess to put up with him more.

I'm not into gossiping or into drama but that guy was a piece of work, I'll leave it at that. Judging by the way he complained about all the previous students, I'm sure I'll be lambasted to everyone he meets. But it's done and I won't ever have to deal with that guy again thankfully.

Also getting the following for the truck

Seals Comchecks Load bars Door lock Atlas Kingpin lock Cuff locks Tripsheet Extra truck keys Antigel Winter wiper blades

I think I can get all that at the company store or inbound

Tools:

Air chuck/air gauge Glad hand air hose adapter Vide grips Channel locks Lighters Bolt cutters Paracord Broom Leaf blower 50ft air hose Cheapy harbor freight tools kit Jumper cables Bucket Gloves Ice scraper Paper towels Lysol Duct tape Power strip Deicer Blankets

Still waiting on a truck. Guess prime is hiring pretty aggressively right now because when I came in there were still a few rooms at the campus inn and when I got in they were full and sent me to the oasis which was nice. But they booked my room and sent me to a nearby motel where the parking lot is full up with prime trucks as well. Oasis was nice, current place not so much but shouldn't be much longer.

I toughed it out with my trainer but probably shouldn't have. I'll say that probably wasn't the toughest thing I've ever done but it ranks pretty far up there. After talking with some other guys in the tnt upgrade class, I apparently had a less than ideal trainer in a lot of ways. Oh well, it's done now thankfully. Hit 44 states and did 61,000 odometer miles and 53,000 tnt miles. Did it all in one shot after I got my paper license. Trainer took a day or two here and there and I think 2.5 or 3 days at orlando and had me run a load solo to finish it out while he was at disney or whatever which was a nice reprieve.

Upgrade class was 11 people iirc and it was only myself and one other person not leasing day one solo which was baffling but their funeral I suppose, not my business.

Really don't have a whole lot to say on all of it. My trainer made it sound like I'm about to enter into a living hell but I learned not to take his advice on most things. He said my shortest days would still be 12-14 hours a day and many would be upwards of 18-20. He also said I would be pretty much locked into northeast regional and rarely go west of sprimo. Also, home time with prime according to him on company side meant that as long as you had a minute of time off for that day, it was home time. So if a load was finished at 22:00 and you went to PC home, that was your day of home time. Also, same goes on the back end so they could dispatch you at 1 am on your 4th day if they wanted. Not sure if I buy into that but I don't know.

Ready to get home though, been away for 3 months now. Forgot to get my tags renewed also lol. Going to try and get home after Thanksgiving and stay out until the Christmas bonus pays out. I was afraid reefer would fatten me up but I lost about 20-25 pounds since leaving out.

Thinking I'm going to serve my year and go iuoe in a region of the us that isn't the southeast. I miss running heavy equipment and the challenges of dump trucking and moving heavy equipment and all that. Reefer is incredibly boring and the lower 48 feels small and somewhat well travelled already for me. After a year or so I'll have a solid down payment for a house or property, can get a decent vehicle and have some savings to find a good job. If nothing else I could do ltl or northwest regional. Plus work being your entire existence isn't the funnest thing in the world if I'm being honest.

Hopefully I get a truck tomorrow.

Supposed to be getting truck assigned tomorrow or the day after, anyone have recommended tools and supplies? Going lightweight and planning to pull passenger seat and cram and strap down a toolbox in that spot to keep as much crap in as I can and keep clothes and other stuff under bunk.

How are things going Soug?

Yep in process of upgrading atm, will post update when I get a chance. Main point I have right now though, holy **** I'm glad tnt is over.

Seeking some input here, I've kept quiet and not really been the sqeaky wheel to anyone other than requesting flatbed but an issue with my trainer is getting a bit out of hand. See, he uses **** jugs during his 10 hour breaks while I'm driving and since he urinates while in a moving truck there has been some spills. And I guess the last one was of a decent amount because the smell in the bottom bunk is so nauseating I've had about 4 hours sleep in the last 2 shifts. The mold from it is also really starting to smell. It's to the point where after laying back there for 5-6 hours my throat has been irritated to feeling like I've swallowed glass. I can't sleep on the top bunk from the movement but try to anyways. I've been reluctant to ask for a new trainer because the couple few I've met out here seem far nastier but I'm getting close to nodding off constantly during my shift. We were getting so much sitting time I could sleep on the top bunk sitting still and manage because the smell is far less up there.

Advice?

K pins will be a no go anywhere pretty much and no respectable doc will sign off on benzo use while going really anything dangerous. Be careful if you come off clonazepam as well. That is some downright wicked withdrawals, possibly fatal depending on circumstances. I've been on seroquel before myself. Total zombie state but anti psychotics are variable to the user. Can't advise there really on getting it approved.

If you can live on low pay then I'd really recommend DOT state public works or getting on with the city or county. They'll usually help you get a cdl if you put in honest effort and are responsible. Jobs usually are low stress too unless you work paving or mowing crews. Solid waste isn't fun either. City is usually tougher job to land. Counties usually hire often and northern places run seasonal snow plow work and if you're a good performer you can get hired on that way. Joining the paving crews as a temp can land you a full time spot as well but the work is brutal. And I mean brutal. We used convicts trying to get their life back on track to give you an idea. Paving in the South, SUCKS.

I'd really push you towards that route. When you deal with mental issues it is a really solid idea to be honest with yourself. If you even remotely need a support network like family and friends, don't go otr. You'll go insane if you can't take the loneliness and interact with people that keep you grounded. Outside of the pay and if you get on a craptastic crew like paving, county jobs are awesome. In a way I often wish I never left if I'm being honest. Some gigs like sign shop or dirt roads are ones I'd kill to go back to even with the pay but I was a dumb 20 something trying to show I could do everyone's job and being too eager for my own good and got put doing the awful jobs nobody wanted and then being stuck there. Wish I had the wisdom I have now. But that's life, lesson learned.

Another good thing about the county work is the atmosphere is always fantastic. I've worked retail and factory jobs and that horse **** about family or whatever is just that. You're a drone and a number at them. Both counties I worked at I was family and even people I didn't really care for never came close to the people that were even okay at other jobs. If you can take the pay, make that your first stop. If I live long enough to get out of otr and pay for a house and land, I'll be aggressively hunting down another municipal public works job somewhere that isn't the God forsaken southeast us where I grew up. Ymmv but that's my recommendation.

24 of us graduated of which might be 5 or 6 of us left. Others jumped the fence for their " greener pastures" to be left by the fence !! Lol. Finding out breaking that contract aint no joke......

Just curious with crst since I've heard they're lower on the totem pole from some for training megas, do they not let you buy out the contract and then work elsewhere or do they just hold that non compete deal stringently?

Well I was in the local driving jobs before going otr and driving legal. I never sat in an auto shift manual like the megas used until I joined a mega. I've drove a few allison autos which I'm almost certain and typical torque converter autos. And they are utter garbage unless they fixed them a couple years ago and because guys put money into the new autos and got burned on them, in my experience, they are pretty belligerent to the idea of autos. Plus even the autoshifts leave a lot to be desired outside of running highways. I'd get the auto restriction removed and test in a manual and learn to drive them. I'd almost be willing to pay some local truckers to try out something other than a straight 10 you'll likely be trained on. I've driven probably 40 different trucks and maybe 5 of them were autos. Roll offs and solid waste were all manual, almost every dump truck was manual and all needed to be manual in reality, every day cab tractor was manual until I joined Prime, and every bucket truck was manual. The other big truck was a grapple truck which was allison auto and a water truck, also allison auto.

I think a lot of the whole, "the industry is phasing out manuals" is truck stop bs in part and megas going along with it because it saves a ton of money and lowers the common denominator to fill seats. I don't see any heavy equipment guys going all auto, I'm skeptical of tankers jumping ship, dump trucks with autos suck, and really it isn't a big deal once you can float and drive one. There's a lot of hype to manuals that is undeserved imo. It isn't super hard to learn and does give you more control at the end of the day. The automated manuals megas use have come a long way but in the finer details, they are annoying and far less smooth. It is nice though when every waking minute is spent driving to go into manual mode and shift up and down on the steering wheel but I'd still rather have 13 or 15 speed otr and if I'm pulling heavy equipment I want an 18. And in dump trucks or class b vocational trucks I want an 8ll always. I'm not sure how automated megas trucks and all go but I doubt there is the same variety with the new autos that there is in manuals. I'd never want to take a new auto off road or to a quarry ever. Even a 10 speed can be a bit annoying some days for really bombed out off roads.

I'd get manual one way or another if I planned to do something other than be at a mega and drive otr. Even if the "industry is going there" I don't see them vanishing in 5-10 years. I've worked jobs as recently as 2018 still running r model macks, 1980's kodiaks/topkicks, and a fleet of 90-something model Sterling's. Between the emissions crap, old hands in local jobs saying it isn't a real truck unless it is a manual, and those horrible Allison's that a lot of fleets bought into 5-10 years ago and got burned on; old habits die hard, plus you got more job opportunities to boot without that restriction.

Want to visit the moth man museum in PT pleasant wv. Drove by it about 20 times. Never seen no mothmans in wv yet. Here's hoping.