Met my trainer, we leave out tomorrow

[AdamAnt]

Seems like a good person, and has been driving for 11 years. Told me that we wont be driving like a team so he can take the time to teach me well, and told me that I could bring my computer with me, so I will actually get to be online while I am training.

[DJohnson]

Good luck in that big orange truck I am assuming that is who you ended up going with.

[AdamAnt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJohnson Good luck in that big orange truck I am assuming that is who you ended up going with.

Yep, I'm in a big orange truck, LOL.

So far, I am going the majority of driving, and ALL the backing. The trainer actually gets out of the truck with a hand held CB and watches me. He doesn't tell me what to do while I am backing, but he is there to help if I ask. After the fact, he will let me know how I did, things I did well, and things I could have done to help for next time.

I do all the quallcomm stuff, route the trips, all the paperwork, and deal with all the shippers and receivers.

[ShowStopper]

Hey! another Schneider driver!

I think you will like the choice you made. Been with them for 5 years now and have no complaints.

Sounds like you got a good trainer.

[JoeT]

Good luck with the training.

[DJohnson]

Yeah, all trainers should be like this.

[cabinover]

LOL, yeah, that would be better than my old man slapping me in the back of the head everytime I grinded one of his gears. Well, maybe not, I think he was a good teacher, although I am the only one he ever trained.

[rebelrider65]

Good luck with your training. Schneider seems to have a pretty good training program.

[AdamAnt]

On our way to New York City, first time for me there

[LadyD]

It won't be too bad. Nothing fun about it, but it's not as bad as the horror stories.

[AdamAnt]

Been out solo for about a week now. Was really nervous the first couple days, but have since calmed down. They are running me pretty easy for the first week or two, said they didn't want to overload me in the beginning. Ran about 2100 miles in my first week.

Hope to be online here more now that I am on my own and getting comfortable with the job. Thanks for all the help so far, I am sure I will have more questions later, LOL.

[AdamAnt]

Well, a full month now as a solo driver and I don't regret the decision to do this at all. I hear quite a bit of complaining on the CB, and at our terminals by our own company drivers, but I seem to be staying busy and doing pretty well overall.

If I am still enjoying it this much after 6-8 months, I may look into buying my own truck.

[cassiem0221]

Good luck with the job. It is good that you had such a great trainer to teach you the necessities. I know around here it is hard to get a good trainer.. They just think of training as more money and sleep for them and cross their fingers that you don't wreck!

[debrajean]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamAnt Well, a full month now as a solo driver and I don't regret the decision to do this at all. I hear quite a bit of complaining on the CB, and at our terminals by our own company drivers, but I seem to be staying busy and doing pretty well overall. If I am still enjoying it this much after 6-8 months, I may look into buying my own truck.

If you can still enjoy any after 6 or 8 months you're on your way. Although for me it takes me just that long to get settled in. I tend to be a job wanderer, always moving onto the next best thing.

[AdamAnt]

Everything is still going well. We do a whole bunch of drop and hook, which I think seems to save time as opposed to live unloads.

I have XM radio now, so the CB is squelched down to where I can only here people really close to me. I didn't really care to listen to complaining and a bunch of foul language constantly, so XM radio was definitely the way to go for me.

The company has approached me in regards to some dedicated accounts. Told them I might be interested at some point, but for now I want to keep running OTR. I like it out here, and just in case things go bad for any reason down the road at this company, I want to have plenty of OTR experience under my belt.

[Midnight Hauler]

Glad to hear things are going well for you. Knowing what to expect before you got started helped.

[hurgoll]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamAnt Everything is still going well. We do a whole bunch of drop and hook, which I think seems to save time as opposed to live unloads. I have XM radio now, so the CB is squelched down to where I can only here people really close to me. I didn't really care to listen to complaining and a bunch of foul language constantly, so XM radio was definitely the way to go for me. The company has approached me in regards to some dedicated accounts. Told them I might be interested at some point, but for now I want to keep running OTR. I like it out here, and just in case things go bad for any reason down the road at this company, I want to have plenty of OTR experience under my belt.

Sounds like you are doing good, but do go getting your own truck right away, wait till you have at least 5 years under your belt and you talk with a lot of owner operators. Gas prices are really hurting a lot of owners ops right now.

[AdamAnt]

Yeah, I am gathering all the information I can right now. I don't think I will be going out as an owner operator anytime soon.

[cassiem0221]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamAnt Yeah, I am gathering all the information I can right now. I don't think I will be going out as an owner operator anytime soon.

Yea, that's for the best. A lot of driver's don't take in to consideration all the things that it takes to be a Owner Operator. Learn all you can now. It will come in handy later!

[BigRigger]

Before you do buy a truck, invest in an XM radio and listen to trucking business show on channel 171. It comes on every weekend and is loaded with great information. It has taught me to slow down and greatly increase my fuel mileage, and I have also learned other things that put much more money in my pocket, without having to run more miles.