02/25/12

02/25/12 - Well, not much to say except this company stays busy! The shortest day that I have worked was 12.5 hours and most are right at 14. This past week I worked about 67 hours.

My trainer rode with me for the first day explaining the ropes. He saw that I had a grasp of what was going on so from the second day forward he was in his truck and I would follow him. He would help me load, strap the cars down and unload on Tuesday and Wednesday. The next 4 days he was still with me but I did all of the work myself with him watching from a distance. After a week and a day I was signed off.

To give you an idea of a day, yesterday I went to Lawton, OK unloading 4 used cars from the auction, back to Ft. Worth to load 4 new Hondas, delivered those to Ardmore, OK then back to Ft. Worth. Im still slow at loading/unloading but that will come with time and Im not in a rush as I dont want to damage and cars.

Before I came to work here I talked to several employees and drivers for other companies. Nobody had anything negative to say about this company. Even talking with fellow employees since I started, nothing has changed. The owners and management is laid back and so far everyone seems to be really nice. I think Im going to like this place once I get used to the hours.

February 07

February 07 - My how quickly things change. I wont be working for Schneider after all.

Yesterday as I was just about to leave the house to take my DOT physical and drug screen for Schneider I got a phone call from a place that I have been trying to go to work for for a long time. They were offering me a job so I took it.

I called the recruiter at Schneider and told her what was going on. She was very nice and told me that I was welcome at Schneider at any time. To be honest I am pretty impressed with Schneider and the way that they operate.

Anyway, I will be working at C.A.R. Transport. They deliver new cars to the dealerships and also deliver cars to/from the auctions. This is more like what Im used to and I think that I will really enjoy this job.

I have talked to people that drive for C.A.R. as well as other car transporters and 100% tell me that this is a very well respected company and a great place to work! This is very encouraging!

He said that I could start as early as tomorrow and as late as Monday. We are just waiting on the trainer to come back into town.

This is the truck (White) that I will be driving and hopefully move up to one of the larger trucks (red) in the future.

January 31

January 31 - Well, due to recent paychecks being horrible among a few other dislikes with Stevens I have been searching for another job. I accepted a position today with Schnieder as a local intermodal driver.

In other words I will pick up shipping containers at the rail yard in Ft Worth and deliever them. This is a local position so I will be home every night with my family. I will be working Monday though Friday with the option of working extra days.

I fly out to Chicago February 12 for training.

January 23

And... soon after I made that post my computer caught a virus and I wasnt able to make any updates.

January 23 - Delivered this morning at 0515 in Clarksville, Arkansas. Got a new load assignment right away that is in Ft. Smith, Arkansas going to Kent, Washington.

I get to the shipper around 0800 and they want to see a receipt for a trailer washout and they also inform me that my company didnt make a loading appointment so they charged me a $100 "fit in fee".

So now I go get the trailer washed out and back into a door at 1000. It is now almost 1400 and they have not touched my trailer.

Life of a truck driver...

January 02

January 02 - Well, it has been quite awhile since my last update. I have to access the internet via my cell phone and the program that I am using wont let me access a secured site unless I register the program. Well, sure enough this blog is a secure site. I finally got the program registered so hopefully I will be able to update more often.

Since I started driving solo in August I have run 45,174 miles for an average of 2259 per week. I guess that not too bad but I would love to see more. I just need to make more money per mile. I have bills to pay and cant do it on this salary.

Right now I am sitting in Liberal, Kansas waiting on a load to get ready. It has 4 drops. First at a Marine base in Twentynine Palms, CA then to Van Nuys, CA then my last two stops are in San Diego at Miramar Naval Air Station.

They sent this load to me yesterday afternoon. According to my load assignment it was supposed to be ready on New Years Eve but like I said, today is the 2^nd and I’m still waiting. The guard told me that the plant is shut down until tomorrow for the holiday so here I sit at a gas station that has truck parking. This isn’t even a truck stop so no shower!