the end of an era

ast night I picked-up my final load of cabinets for this account. I'm taking it to Colorado and then heading to Omaha, where I will set in motion the things necessary to become an owner/operator. This cabinet account is all I've known for the past three years - all I've known of trucking. The future is uncertain, new, and crazy-looking which makes me excited and nervous. It's an adventure inside an adventure. I'm one of those weird people who loves change; welcomes it and thrives on it. Here's to the future.

I'm going to visit with

justamy for a few hours here in Kansas City. I should already be doing that, except Robert misunderstood me this morning. I had driven all night last night and was taking a nap while he drove this leg of the trip. When I woke up, we were in Topeka, a good 60 miles beyond my desired rendezvous point. So we turned around. No sense in getting to Denver too early and just sitting all evening.

This should also be Robert's last week on the truck. He's going to be taking his mid-training break and going home for a week, so he will likely be getting off the truck when we arrive in Omaha. Hopefully I can acquire another student while I'm there.

Tags: training, truckgeek

11 comments — :

( 11 comments — Leave a comment )

welfy

2006-03-13 05:40 pm (UTC)

Aw, you snuck online without telling me. :^P I miss you.

mxpwr

2006-03-13 09:19 pm (UTC)

Mid-Training Break? I am interested.
I didn't know there was such a thing.

I have 30 days left with IBM and 34 days till trucking school starts, so I am interested in the Werner schpeal!

What kind of truck are you going to get?

soopageek

2006-03-13 11:28 pm (UTC)

erner's training consists of 275 hours behind the wheel for rookie drivers straight out of trucking school. The company allows the student to take one week of paid time-off anytime between 140 and 210 hours. If the student chooses NOT to take the PTO, they receive a $500 bonus at the end of the training period.

If you wanna come to work for Werner, I'll train ya. :)

I may not get the truck I want right away, but I want to eventually end-up with a Freightliner Century.

2006-03-13 11:35 pm (UTC)

That would be kick ass if you were my trainer. After reading some other people's stories about trainers doing crazy shit, I have been a little worried. I think I read one of them in your comments about the trainer who would drive naked and jerk off behind the wheel.

I am still waiting to hear the pitches while I am at school, but Werner sounds like it has the most pluses and least minuses. I really like the idea of the electronic logs. The other thing that I am looking for is well maintained trucks. I don't want to drive some accident rebuild or some truck that is falling apart.

Thanks for the info. You are a well of knowledge!

stormodacentury

2006-03-14 03:12 am (UTC)

Werner's a pretty decent company. The only real problems I had were with Canadian loads (Werner's Canadian Dept. sucks) and being told I'd have no problem getting on a home-weekly account (which turned out to not be anything like the case).

And Soopa's a great trainer. Actually the whole reason I went with Werner - if you know you're going to be dealing with a good trainer who's not too weird, then everything else about the company (in terms of training) isn't all that important.

2006-03-14 04:44 am (UTC)

That actually is something that I wanted to know. I really want to drive into Canada. Why do they suck?

2006-03-15 11:56 am (UTC)

Well, the biggest problem for me was Werner's in-house Canadian Department. They're basically a middle-man - when you get your customs docementation, you fax it to them. They fax it to the broker at the border, who faxes it to the actual Customs Agents, who clear the load before you ever get to the border. Every problem I had was with the Canadian Department - I never actually had a problem getting into or out of Canada. In fact, if I hadn't gotten so incredibly frustrated with how they handled those, I would've gotten a <a href="http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/commercial_enforcement/ctpat/fast/us_canada/>FAST</a> card. I actually loved being in Canada (besides the ridiculously inflated cell-phone rates and the lack of any good signage anywhere I was delivering). But the problems I had a) getting through to the Canada dept. and b) getting them to fix the mistakes they'd made when I finally got a hold of them were enough to make me not want to cross a border for them. I once sat an entire day on hold with them to find out that in that department, in a company with about 9,000 power units, there had been one person on-duty. That kind of said it all, for me.

2006-03-15 11:58 am (UTC)

FAST card. In fact, I loved being in Canada (despite there never being any real signage anywhere I delivered or picked up). But the problems I had a) getting through to anyone in the Canadian Dept. and b) getting them to then fix what they had screwed up the first time I got a hold of them were enough to make me not want to cross borders anymore.

Good luck!