It's been awhile

Well it certainly has been awhile hasn't it!!  Since my last update, I have graduated my training, been through grad fleet, and am now in Alliance (Stevens lease program.)  Everything has worked out quite well for me.  I have had a few hiccups regarding my pay, but they seem to be worked out.

When I graduated my training, they gave me a 2009 Kenworth T2000. It was most certainly a grad fleet truck as it broke down every week that I had it.  It had a Caterpillar C15 ACERT engine in it.  It was a great engine that pulled strong, but was very thirsty as I could only manage a 6.4mpg average.

Here she is in all of her glory:

I gave that up when I went to Alliance, and now I have a 2011 Kenworth T660 with a Cummins ISX 450.  I haven't driven it yet, but soon.

I promise I will attempt to update this more often.

Matt

The Truckers Image

I want to start this post off with an apology for not updating this as promised.  I have been incredibly busy, and quite upside down since the last post.  I have since received a new trainer since my last one didn't like to eat but once every other day, and firmly believed that Febreze took the place of showering.  My new trainer is better...not much...but still.  That brings up a good topic to discuss:  The Truckers Image.

There has been quite a bit of discussion on why truck drivers as a whole have a bad image.  Unfortunately, when you don't shower every day...or every other day...or every other week, you begin to smell.  Quite wretchedly in most cases.  Not only do you smell, but you look like shit (excuse the french.)  Your hair gets really greasy and napy, and your skin starts looking all oily.

Lets face it; You sit on a cloth seat in an enclosed cab with the a/c on recirculate for the better part of 11 hours a day, and then you climb into the bunk for 10 hours before starting the cycle over.  Sure, you get out to fill your 164oz thermos up with Shockwave energy coffee and 12 shots of 5 hour energy, and grab a few donuts and candy bars for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Maybe you'll have to stop for fuel, but that's it.  No bathroom breaks, cause you can pee in a bottle.  Gotta "keep them doors closed to make money!!!"  Riiight...so you sit and sleep in your own stench and filth for days on end.  You non truckers are probably thinking "yeah right," but you truckers reading this are laughing your ass off because you know I am right!  The problem with this is, you eventually have to interact with other people...whether knowingly or unknowingly.  Shippers and receivers; the general public at truck stops; that cute server in the diner.  You get my drift.  These people then, unwillingly, have to look at and smell your nasty un-showered self because that load was just too hot to take a 15 minute shower.  See where I'm going with this?  If you all want the professional truck drivers image to get better, just start practicing basic hygiene.  I know personally, I can't stand to live like this.  I feel nasty and dirty.  I have felt like a homeless person.  I would never operate my truck this way.  Both of my trainers have told me that this is how the trucking life is, and to that I say bullcrap.  There is no load that prevents a driver from taking 15 minutes to relax in a hot shower, or even 5 minutes to stop at a rest area to use a restroom instead of a plastic bottle.  A driver is the only person that prevents a driver from the basics of life.

I will try to get some updates out soon.
Thanks for stopping by!!

Week 1 on the road

It's hard to believe how quickly this First week has gone by!  So far, we have been in the Western states...mainly due to a lot of repowers (when somebody can't make an on time delivery, they give the load to a truck that can.)
Right now, we are sitting in San Diego, CA hoping to get a load to the Northeast.  Dispatch said it might be Thursday or Friday before we can get one.  My trainer feels that it is worth the wait, and I am happy to have a day or 2 to recoup.  San Diego is a really nice city.  Where we are is actually called National City, but it's close enough to San Diego.  We are only about 1/2 mile away from Tijuana Mexico, and can clearly see it from our vantage point.  I have tried to take some pictures.  Unfortunately, somebody stole my camera when I was at Steven's.  So I am having to use my cell phone.

States I have been in:
Texas
New Mexico
Arizona
California
Nevada
Utah
Wyoming

Our routing and loads:
I met my trainer in El Paso, TX.  He had picked up a load of chicken going to Chandler, AZ (Phoenix).  Once we offloaded in Chandler, we dead headed (drove with an empty trailer) to Colton, CA (Los Angeles) to pick up produce bound for Cheyenne, WY.  There was no way we could've made an on time delivery on this one, so they repowered us in SLC with a team that had the hours available to make the delivery time.  In return, we pulled their load to Cheyenne so that they could continue on with it.  We swapped trailers with them in Cheyenne and stayed there for a day.  We then received instructions to repower another drivers load going to Oakland, CA.  With the swap complete, we headed towards CA.  Upon getting closer to SLC, we were again instructed to give the load to somebody else and stay in Ogden, UT for the night.  The next day, we went to Hersheys to pick up a load of candy bound for San Diego.  We delivered that yesterday, and here we sit.

Things I have seen:
A tornado in Ogden, UT;  Snow...in July...in Wyoming;  Mexico;  The Pacific Ocean;  Naval Destroyers and Submarines;  The Hollywood sign;  the Mojave Desert;  The San Bernardino, Laguna, Spring, Phoenix, Wasatch, and Rocky Mountains.  I have been from 20ft below sea level in CA to just over 9,400ft in WY.  daytime temperature differences have ranged from 110° in AZ to 49° in the Wasatch mountains in UT.  I have driven 1,486 miles this past week.

Here are some pictures:

This is the tornado in Ogden.  What a crazy cool thing it was to watch.  It was like it had a mind of its own

San Diego.  Looking Southeast into Mexico

 

Salt Lake City sunset

Near Bryan Head, UT

Cheyenne, WY looking Southwest into Colorado.  What an amazingly beautiful state.  If you look closely, you can see the snow-capped mountains in the distance.  

I'll go ahead and wrap this up for this week.  I will try to update this as I get the chance.  There is no telling where this next week will take me, but I'll be ready nonetheless!!  Until next time, keep it between the lines!

1st day with my trainer

Hi Guys!  After a couple of days sitting, I finally got out with my trainer.  Stevens flew me to El Paso to meet up with him.  His name is Alex, and he is really cool.  He is only 27, but he is very mature for his age.  I think we will get along just fine.  I met up with him last night at 11.  He has been having issues with the reefer unit keeping the freight cool, so it took him a little longer to get to El Paso than he thought.  After I met him, we went straight to sleep in anticipation that we would be heading out First thing in the morning.  Well that didn't happen...

Right now, we are sitting at the Thermo King dealer in El Paso because the trailer temp is 8°F when it should be -10°F.  We are sitting under a load of chicken bound for Chandler, AZ with a delivery time of 11pm.  We hope to get rolling soon, but there are 2 trucks ahead of us.  Welcome to the trucking industry!  Until later!!

Some random thoughts

I wanted to share some thoughts an opinions that I have had regarding the school process and Steven's in general.  I finally received my medical card today.  Awesome!!  Now I can finally say that I am an employee of Steven's Transport, and I can get out and drive a truck.  I believe that what I went through to get it was silly.  It took 6 whole days to get the drug test results back whereas it should've only took 24 hours...48 hours max.  The way that they make us sit here with all of our luggage and wait for a trainer is pretty ridiculous.  I'm sure that there is a method to their madness, but still.  If it was up to me, I would keep everybody at the hotel room until a trainer was available to take them out.  There are currently 97 people waiting to get out.  Rumor has that Steven's school graduates get priority, but we'll see.

The school itself was very organized...almost basic training like.  Keep in mind that they are there to get you your cdl...not teach you to drive a truck.  Yes you get to learn how to shift and parallel park and stuff, but it's the bare minimum to pass your driving test.  The instructors are easy to get along with, but they will not tolerate b.s.  This isn't high school, but you will be treated like a high schooler if you act like one.  It is a rigorous schedule, but it is doable.  Just make sure you get enough sleep, and you'll be just fine.  Don't think that you can come up here and party.  There is a very strict "no alcohol" policy in place and YOU WILL get caught...no if's and's, or but's about it.  There were a few people that came in with the class before me that thought that they could party, and carry on.  Well they learned real fast that they couldn't when Steven's booted them out of the hotel with out a ride and they were stuck begging for money to get home.

The training trucks are older Kenworth T2000's with 10 speed transmissions in them.  They are pretty worn out, but they are drivable.  They have a/c and radios that work.  I didn't see a truck out there that didn't have more than 800,000 miles on it, so not bad.  The 5th wheels were pretty loose so the trailers would slam back and forth between the 5th wheel and the lock.  Nevertheless, they were in better condition than any of the other training trucks that I have seen.

That's all that I think of to touch on.  I'm just going to be sitting here waiting for a trainer...probably for the next couple of days.  We'll see.  I most likely won't update this until I do get out there.  Until then, keep it between the lines.

Graduation!!

Thursday morning was spent on the hill practicing 45° backing.  After lunch, we had a 3 hour safety workshop.  Let me put it this way...3 hour lecture right after lunch=involuntary nap time!  After the workshop was completed, we ate dinner and then went back up to the hill for our final time in school.  We practiced truckstop pullouts, 45° backing and parallel parking.

Friday was our graduation day.  We began the day by taking our final exams which lasted for the majority of the morning.  After lunch we had our payroll orientation and received our fuel cards.  At the end of the day, most of the students received their medical cards and were released to the student planner.  He is the guy that gets us out to a trainer.  Now I said most of the students received them because myself and 2 others did not receive them.  After trying to figure out what the hell was going on, I finally found out that they are still waiting to get my drug test results back...from last Tuesday.  Right now, I am what they call a "pending student."  It is quite frustrating to have come this far only to be stuck waiting.  Oh well...so much is life, right?!

Well that brings me to today...the end of phase I and II, and the beginning of phase III.  I did nothing but sit today...along with 90 other people waiting to get out with a trainer.  Let me tell you all now to not believe the recruiter when they tell you that you will be getting out of school and immediately going with a trainer.  A lot of these guys have been waiting for a week or longer.  One thing nice is that the "Steven's School" graduates supposedly get priority over people that come in from the outside.  They moved us from Crosslands to Americas Best today.  I guess Americas Best is the 'employees' motel.  We also received our ID badges and graduation certificates today. I will continue to update this blog as I continue on my journey to become a professional truck driver.  If there is anything that you guys want to ask, please feel free to leave a comment!

Days 12, 13, and 14

Apologies for not updating sooner.  We have been slammed at school.  I will give you all an overview of what was all said and done over the past 3 days.

Monday:  This was our last true night class.  We started the day off by attending our benefits class.  We also received our Steven's driving handbook.  It's huge!  After the benefits class, we went on the road to drive over our DPS driving test route for the rest of the night.

On Tuesday, we had to be at the DPS at 630a.m for our driving test.  I really don't understand why so early since they open at 8 and they bring us to the front of the line anyways.  Nevertheless, we only got 4 hours of sleep the night before.  When it came time for my turn, I proceeded to start my airbrake tests, but I forgot to turn the ignition back to the 'on' position after turning the engine off.  I caught my mistake, but it was too late.  I failed my driving test before it really even had began.  I was so pissed off that, in my sleepless stupor, I had forgotten something as simple as that.  I also felt very cheated for the fact that I caught my mistake right away, but yet I was still failed.  Luckily,  you get 3 tries to pass it.  After the DPS testing, we all headed back to Steven's to attend some more classes.  We had a class from the fuel department talking about fuel economy and fuel bonuses.  We also met our driver counselors.  They are basically our mentors while we are on the road with our trainers.  Once we were finished with that, we got another drug test.  I was kind of worried about this one since I had recently taken some cold medication...some of which was Claritin D which, I have heard, can pop up as meth on a drug screen due to the pseudophedrine.  I haven't heard anything about it, so I'm assuming that it didn't pop up or that it is a non-issue.  I did the best that I could with the medication.  I tried to ask people at Steven's, but nobody there could give me a straight answer about what was approved or not.  I just made sure to stick with stuff that was non-drowsy.

Today was the First of our 2 loooooong days.  Today was 630a.m-9p.m, and tomorrow is 7a.m-9p.m.  First of today was the DPS again.  I nailed my test today with a 97.  The DPS examiner actually told me that, out of all of the Steven's people that she has ever tested, I received the highest.  Now whether that is the truth or not is a different story...but I like to think it is!  After the DPS, we went back to Steven's for more classes and some skills driving/backing.  The First class was for Alliance Leasing, and the Second class was actually all for filling out our pre-employment paperwork (w4, I9, etc.)  When we were finished with the classes, we went out to start our skills backing.  There are several areas including 45° backing, 90° backing, the serpentine, straightline offset backing, and Hunt's Point.  Hunt's Point is an incredibly difficult dock to get in to in NYC.  So far, I am the only one in the class to get it...it took me 30 minutes, but I backed her in there!!

Well that about wraps up the past 3 days, and I'm tired.  I'm heading to bed now.  See you all soon!