July 31, 2001
I have 2 first choices for local work that sound real good. One is Overnite and the other is FedEx Ground. I called Overnite yesterday and they said that they would be making calls to applicants in a couple of days. I also called FedEx and found they were about to call me. I was asked to bring in some more paperwork. When I got to the terminal I gave the paperwork and was asked to watch some training tapes. I asked if this meant I was hired or not. I was told that there are several driver positions open and that all I had to do was become qualified to be matched up with a contractor. I stated that I still knew nothing about the pay and benefits and I was told that this information would be only provided by the contractor. Well, It’s not the military, I did not feel like I was being tricked into signing my life away. So what did I have to loose? I spent the next 4 hours watching training tapes and completing workbooks on subjects from Hazmat to log book entries and PreTrip inspections etc. After completing the “final” tests, they were graded and I was asked what my size was for the uniforms. I got my picture taken for my Id badge and then I was told that it would take only 2 more days to get my MVR and drug records verified. Then I would be “qualified” and assigned to a contractor and go get my physical and drug test. They sure have a strange way of hiring people. But in the long run, if I find out the pay is fair then it will all be worth it. I will let you all know as soon as I find out. Apparently FedEx ground is solely contracted owner operators and drivers. The main company does the hiring. Then I am supposed to be driving team for 6 months before I can go solo. This is supposed to be home daily type driving, but some overnights are expected while in the team mode. The things I like best about FedEx Ground is that it’s all 100% no touch drop and hook. And as a line haul driver it’s all OTR with no city driving. I would gladly accept a little less pay for those conditions! Add to that the fact that I don’t have to go on the road 4-8 weeks with a trainer like the OTR companies, and I get in with no OTR driving experience. Sure Overnight and Yellow, and Roadway are great companies with very high pay, but I attach a lot of value to not having to work the docks and drive the cities. I am still awaiting my call back from Overnite, I want to try to time it so I will already know the pay and benefits of both companies before I make my final decision. As far as FedEx is concerned, I am already hired.

August 1, 2001
I have been in a quandary trying to decide between Overnite and FedX ground. Today I got two calls on my answering machine from Overnite, they want me to call back to set an appointment for an interview. They pay real good and have excellent benefits, but on the down side it takes longer and is more hassle to commute to their location. Also, I would be working the dock 2 or three days a week until I finished probation and got to drive all the time. It’s not a bad deal, but at it’s worst it just includes some loading and/or unloading, and the best thing is being home every night. But I am at the same time already considered as being hired by FedX. I still don’t know my pay but I did learn today that it is per mile. I will know the pay tomorrow. I was told today to come in tomorrow and get my physical and drug test done because my contractor needs a driver right away. I asked what my route would be. I was told it would most likely be going back and forth to LA. I replied that I thought I was going to be home most nights. Then I was told that is for the P&D (pickup and delivery) division. What I was being hired for was OTR. I was told my route would be Monday through Wednesday. My co-driver and I would drive team to LA and back once a week. I thought about that and I think that would be a great job for me. It looks like I will be gone just 3 nights a week and have a 4 day weekend each weak. I hope that this is how it comes to be. Like I said before, It’s a close choice between Overnite and FedX ground, and I should know enough in the morning to make a good decision.

August 2, 2001
Today I went in and did my physical and drug test for FedEX. They had a message in to a contractor to call me. I did not want to lose my chances with Overnite as a backup so I called them and set an interview appointment for tomorrow. Just after that call I got a call from a FedX contractor. This old guy was very nice, he had only one truck but it was a Freightliner Condo, with Big Cat motor and a super ten tranny. He had a team partner for many years whom recently retired. I asked him about the LA trips as I was told, and he told me that I was told wrong. He said that almost all the FedX contractors that had OTR routes were gone 5 days a week and home on the weekends. He said that he did not have a dedicated route and that he went all over the country. I asked about the pay and he said it was .15 cents per mile. He said this would be $600 and up per week, and that for team driving, I could count on an average of 150.00 per day out. I asked about going solo in six months and he said no, that he ran team only. So I called back the FedX recruiting department and told them that I was not interested, and that I only was going along with the hiring process because I was told that I could get into a driving job that would only have me out a couple days a week at the most. They then told me that every contractor was different and that some do have routes that I want. I was asked if I would talk to another contractor who happened to be in the terminal at the moment. I agreed and found that even with his company of several trucks and drivers, that I would be expected to be OTR 4-5 days per week. I told him that I was hoping to find an OTR route that would have me home most evenings and if not at FedX then I would settle for driving for Overnite. He asked me what I was looking for and so I explained that I don't need the money bad enough to be OTR all week. He then offered me a casual job. He told me that if want; he can keep me as busy as I want to be as a sub driver on various routes.

I could be gone 2-3 nights per week, or more, or I could choose to work all week and then take the next week off. He said that he can’t guarantee any specific routes, but that I could be sure to get some OTR work each week and I could turn down routes if I wanted to. Basically I could earn 500.00 as a team driver for a round trip to LA, or more or less for other routes. (I get paid per mile the truck moves, even when I am asleep!) He said he starts students off at .14 cents per mile for the first month until we stop grinding gears, then a pay jump to .16 a mile, and this could come in just two weeks if we aren’t tearing up the equipment. I really liked this whole deal, and I can work as much or as little as I want. My wife and I talked it over and we both agree that it is just right for us. I know that Overnite has great benefits and home every night, but I don’t want to drive city nor work at the dock, or loading and unloading. This FedX contractor is offering me just what I had hoped to get after school. Apart time OTR driving position. Even working 3 days a week at 500.00 per week I will be making twice what I was making driving my butt off as a school bus driver working overtime and on weekends. So I called him back and agreed to work for him. Now I just have to wait until my drug test comes back next week, then he will call me and I start driving on day 1, with no additional training. I will be driving as a substitute team driver. (casual), so I will never be alone. And I will get to do various routes. The best part for me is that it will be all open road, no backing, no loading/unloading. Just the pure joy of driving. And I am looking forward to having the 3-5 days off per week to play at home and spend my money. I am in a different money frame than most drivers. I already get 1,200 per month retirement pay from the Air force, plus my wife makes about 1,200.00 per month as a teacher’s aid. So what ever I bring in is for fun and profit anyways. And with FedX, if I want to do so down the road, I can buy a rig and become a contractor myself. Or in a couple years I will have the coveted 2 year minimum required for all the nice local jobs. I called Overnite back and asked them to cancel my interview and to please hold on to my application. They said they would hold it for 30 days. So, I feel I got it all covered. If I ever wanted to be out 5 days a week, though, I would just sign up with TMC and drive solo. So for now it looks like I will get my dream of driving OTR a few days per week. Bye for now.

August 8, 2001
Well it took a while for my drug test to get back, but now I am 100% qualified to drive for FedEx Ground. I was told to be at the hub at 6:30 am. I will get issued my cool shirt and start my first run with a team driver. We are scheduled to go somewhere in IL. and be back by Saturday. I will let you all know how it went.

August 11, 2001
Well I had my first Over the Road trip and it was a wonderful experience! I arrived at the FedEx Ground Hub in Shawnee, Kansas at 6:30 AM. I met my new boss; an owner operator with two trucks and 4 drivers. He issued me my cool official “FedEx Ground” jersey, log book, and pay information. I was told that we were awaiting the return of a truck and drivers from Dallas, due in at any time. My co-driver and myself were to take the returning Freightliner Classic with double trailers to the Columbus Ohio Hub and return with two other trailers back to Shawnee. While waiting on the truck and team coming from Dallas, my co-driver and I got their next run ready. We did this buy preparing their truck and hooking up their trailers so they would have a faster turn around. I was immediately tasked to do the driving for this. I quickly learned that backing up a doubles-dolly was very hard. But I did it with a few pull-ups.

The other team arrived and soon were on their way, so we took their truck and got ready to hook up our trailers, but they weren’t ready yet. We waited around for a while and it looked like the second trailer was never going to fill up today. So dispatch finally ordered it to be sealed and we hooked them up and went back around to dispatch for one last bathroom break. Then I was told to do the first 8 hours of driving. Wow, talk about being thrown into the fire! Well, thanks to the excellent training at my CDL school I felt that I was up to it. I pulled out onto the highways pulling my first loaded trailers ever! The big engine pulled the trailers effortlessly. I had only learned the Super Ten transmission in school so getting used to the 13 speed was illogical and difficult for me. But I did an okay job with minimal grinding. Soon we were on I-70 heading east at 70+ MPH. I never had to down shift anywhere on any hill while on the highway! I drove us to Columbia, MO where we were scheduled to stop and have new front tires put on the rig. To do this we dropped the trailers at a little parking lot a block away from the service garage. Had the tires swapped, then went back and hooked the trailers and on the highway again. I had gone over my first scale by now and apparently my co-driver was comfortable enough to get some shuteye. So he allowed himself to cat nap while in the passenger seat. Then after about another hour he was convinced he could get some sleeper berth time. He explained to me that we work 8-hour shifts and 16-hour days. We each drive 8 hours then sleep 8 hours, over and over until the job is done. That’s fine with me.

So I was tasked with driving on through Missouri, across Illinois and just a little ways into Indiana. Just near Terra Haute we stopped for fuel and switch. My co-driver took over to get us into Columbus, Ohio by 11 PM. So I went to the sleeper, (which was plush!) and tried to sleep. I awoke as I heard us coming down the ramp to the hub. We dropped the trailers and went in to dispatch to get our return load. By the way, we never open trailers or even touch freight. We park the trailers out away from the terminal and other personnel are in charge of backing them into the correct dock. But when we got to dispatch our load had just been assigned to another team from Kansas that was waiting there for three hours. We were told they would have another set loaded in a couple hours. I was instructed to go back to sleep while my co-driver would wait on the load, then hook it up and hit the road. At about 4:30 AM were back on the road headed back towards Kansas. He drove until 8:30 AM and we stopped for breakfast at Burger King somewhere. Then I sat up and rode shotgun while he finished out his 8 hours of driving time.

Back at Terra Haute area again; we switched and I was tasked with taking us back across Illinois and Missouri to Shawnee Kansas. He went to the sleeper but was awakened 4 or 5 hours later by a call from our boss. The boss had another small job, which he needed a driver for. It consisted of running some trailers back and forth from Columbia Missouri to Shawnee Kansas. I was asked if I felt that I could drive alone from Columbia to Shawnee. I said yes to the driving but that I had no clue what to do when I arrived. I was told to not worry about it because they would explain it all to me and that it was not very hard. I was amazed that I had performed well enough to even be considered worthy of such a task at my level of experience!

So at about 5 PM I left Colombia driving doubles solo into Shawnee. I loved it. I was very careful and the weather and coaching from my boss and co-driver allowed me to feel confident enough to perform the task. At 8 PM I rolled into the hub, the guards recorded my seal numbers on the trailer doors and I dropped the back trailer off in a row near the line haul dispatch office. There were two rows of trailers and I had to drive around a couple times to find a spot in the rows where there was an open trailer space with the one open in the row in front so that I could pull the tractor and trailer up into the front row allowing the rear trailer to be dropped in place in it’s back row. I put down the landing gear, unhooked the hoses and lines and shut off the air valves to the dolly. I then pulled and pulled on the fifth wheel release and could not pull it out. Just then another driver pulled up nearby and was unhooking his trailer also. I went over and explained to him that I was a newbie and was having trouble unlocking my fifth wheel. He was happy to come over and give me a hand. He pulled and pulled. Then he said the landing gear might need to be cranked down some more. He cranked it down a little more and it still would not release. He then stuck his head in there for a closer look and noticed that this lock required a 1/4 turn before you could pull on it. So he gave it a little turn and it pulled right out. Then I pulled out and looked for a place to drop the dolly so I could then drop the other trailer. I went to the dolly parking area and dropped it, then went around the back of the terminal were the trailer was to be parked for Shawnee destined freight. (The first trailer was parked at line haul because it was going farther west).

I dropped the last trailer then went to the truck parking area and remove all my gear from the truck. I went in to dispatch, signed in the trailers and the dolly and truck and headed to the parking lot for my car. Got in my car and was home by 9:15 PM. It was a great run, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole driving experience! The truck is great, the co-drivers are good people, the boss is cool, and the only work involved is hooking and unhooking the trailers. I am currently hired on as a casual driver (by my choice). I was asked to be full time, but the boss understands that I do not want to be away the whole week. He is very prudent about the drivers being home and getting each weekend off. He is buying a new rig and it looks like he will be putting me on a midweek run. Hopefully I will be out Tuesday thru Thursday each week. This will get me about $500 per week for a three-day workweek. I will know more on Monday afternoon.

So far I love every aspect of this job, and so does my wife. I will write more as it occurs. Joseph

August 24, 2001
I have not written for a while do to a problem with the new link to the input page. I finally figured it out, so here we go. Last week I drove to Holbrook, New Mexico and back to KC. When we arrived I was asked if I would take a run to Chicago so I did. This was all in a new Century Class Freightliner. It was a real sweet ride! But in Tucumcari, NM, along the old route 66, we had some wonderful beef enchiladas!! Just last Monday I went to Los Angeles CA, then to Denver and then back to KC. It took three days and two nights. We drove a new Freightliner Classic LX. with a big Cat engine! The thing I like best about FedEX is that it's all owner operator equipment with really great specs. I drove from KC to Tucumcari again, then switched and when I awoke we were in Needles, CA and my turn to drive. I took us to the HUB in LA and we dropped out trailers and picked up two empties going to Rialto, CA. which as on our way home. At Rialto we dropped the empties and picked up two loaded trailers going to Denver. So we took the southern route, 100 miles further but hardly any hills. We went back up to Needles, and across the desert into AZ. I woke up in Flagstaff where we ate at the best truck stop I ever saw, i.e. Little America. They even had marble restrooms! I was doing my pre-trip and discovered a major hub leak on one of the trailers. The hub was empty. If I had skipped my pre-trip this hub could have overheated and caught fire destroying all the soccer balls (he he he). Well fortunately there was a 24 hour big truck repair facility on site at Little America. But the shop said we would have to wait 4 hours to be seen. So I asked if I could borrow a wrench and take the hub off and re-seal it myself. This I did, and we were back on the road. I drove through the night up into Las Vegas, New Mexico almost to Raton. Then my co-driver took us into Denver. We dropped the trailers and tagged the bad one for repair. We hooked up to trailers that were waiting for a ride to KC on there way to Minnesota. So My co-driver took us from Denver into Kansas, and I drove the rest the way home. We dropped our trailers at the terminal and turned the truck over to the next team that was waiting to take it and a couple trailers to Harrisburg, PA. I was asked if I wanted to go out right away on another run to Ohio, or PA, but i declined. I had already earned my 600 dollars for the week and was looking forward to the next 4 days off. As usual I will get a call from my boss some time Sunday afternoon and he will let me know what day he needs me to come in and make a run. I have been improving my shifting and no longer have any grinds or crunches, now I am trying to perfect the art of skipping gears on the down shift.

September 2, 2001
I have been out a couple of times since the last post. On Tuesday morning the 28th of August I arrived at the Shawnee terminal early in the morning for a run to Holbrook, Arizona. It looks like I am getting into a routine of going to Holbrook about every Tuesday. I really enjoy driving this route. First of all I have a great team driver. He is one year older than me and also does not smoke. We are the only two divers I know of that don't smoke. He has been driving all his life though, and has over 5 million miles and is a celebrity among drivers. So I am extremely fortunate to learn from him. Also the route to Holbrook is very casual and scenic. We start by doing our pretrip inspection and hand the trailer inspection forms into dispatch. They give us our bill of lading and we are off. At the front gate the guards check the tractor and trailer serial numbers and the seal numbers on the trailer doors. Then we head out of the lot and stop in front of my car. I get my clothes and sleeping bags and stuff from the car and load it into the truck sleeper. Then I start driving. We head out of the metro area using uncrowded beltways then on to I-35 southbound. At Emporia Kansas we get off the interstate and onto very good secondary roads, first 50, then 61, then 54. Driving across Kansas south by south west we cross a little section of the Oklahoma panhandle and northwest Texas. The scenery changes gradually to a beautiful desert as we enter New Mexico. We usually stop somewhere in Dalhart Texas or as far as Tucumcari, NM to refuel and switch. Dalhart is almost exactly halfway to Holbrook. By Dalhart, I have driven over 9 hours. The maximum legal limit is 10 hours, and then you must get 8 hours off-duty or in the sleeper. So here we eat and refuel and I jump in the sleeper. My team driver takes over and I awake 9 hours later in Holbrook, AZ. This is not a terminal. It is a super truckstop. We meet here with a crew who came from LA. We unhook our tractors from our trailers and hook up to the trailers that the other team brought up from LA. Then we hop in, my turn to drive and we head back home. At this time it is usually about midnight. I drive east through the night, across Arizona and into New Mexico. At Tucumcari I head north towards Dalhart. The last few hours are in sunlight which gives me an extra boost of energy and re-awakens me. We switch somewhere near Dalhart , TX and I return to the sleeper for the trip home. I usually only sleep a few hours and end up visiting with my co-driver. We arrive back at Shawnee around midnight. We check with dispatch to see if our second load back to Holbrook is ready. But this week the 2nd load was cancelled and they needed us to go to Brazil, Indiana the next morning. So I went home for 5 hours to shower and sleep. Back at the terminal at 6 am. We were off to Brazil. My co-driver drove across Missouri into Illinois, where I took over and across Il into Indiana. We switched trailers again at a truckstop in Brazil with a guy who drives solo from Columbus, Ohio. I had a quick Subway sandwich and continued driving back across Illinois, and most of Missouri. We switched near Columbia and my co-driver took us into the terminal. We were back by 2 am Friday morning so I just went home and to sleep. Because of labor day, next week's runs are set back by a day. So my run to Holbrook wont be until Wednesday morning. I got 5 days off again! I netted 1200.00 for the previous 2 weeks work which was actually only 6 days on the road. Which means I am earning about 200.00 per day! Of course it is all going to bills and needful things, as we have had zero income since June. We have been living off borrowed money and credit cards. Now we can start to pay them off finally. My boss said he will keep me with my current co-driver for a while which is great. And in about 2 weeks I will get a check out ride with my boss to see if I am fully trained and proficient at shifting etc. If so then I will get my 2 cent per mile raise which will bring me from 14 cents to 16 cents per mile. Remember that if you count the fact that I get paid every mile the truck moves, even while asleep while the co-driver is driving, its the same thing as getting 28 to 32 cents per mile.

October 15, 2001
Final Entry- I quit truck driving.... I have decided to quit FedEx Ground and truck driving in general. The several reasons are as follows: 1. My intentions always were to be home nightly; I enjoy my home and farmland as well as my wife. 2. I always strive to be honest and a good steward of equipment and resources placed in my control. 3. I am by nature a kind hearted person, I also like to shave and brush my teeth. While going to CDL school I did have to put up with some social degenerates as classmates. When an owner operator called me to work for him in the FedEx system. He promised me a pay raise in 30 days. My first team driver was a twice-divorced chain smoker, that raced the truck and its engine at all times. He enjoyed using the Jake brake so much, that he even used it all across Illinois and Ohio! One time in California he jumped all over my case for not going fast enough in rush hour. He wanted me to dart in and out of traffic lanes just like he did. After that trip I got another team driver. This guy supposedly had 5 million miles. He was more polite to me but was actually a much worse person to be affiliated with. He could not drive down the highway without honking and yelling at every female on the road. He startled several drivers and could have caused a crash. In fact he is so narcissistic that he would not allow a person to pass him during a road construction merge and laughed as the poor motorist crashed into the orange barrels. He calls other truckers by terrible names if they are not going fast enough in the passing lane. At restaurants, he tosses any food items he doesn't like off of his plate and all over the table. Along with inappropriate comments to female waiters, it was very embarrassing for me. This guy had many more irritating and antisocial habits that aren't worth mentioning here. The thing that gets me the most angry is that all the drivers lie in their logbooks. And since it’s a team operation, I am expected to follow suite. They all tried and tried to teach me the rational behind the lying. I still can’t get it. FedEx gives us 20 hours to get to a certain place. These drivers go as fast as they can, then stop and wait for their logbooks to catch up with them. They can’t get to the destination early or else it proves that they were speeding and then they will get fired. So to make it all work out, they lie profusely in the logbooks. This means that while I am in the sleeper sometimes, the logbooks would have to show me as the one at the wheel. I was not comfortable with all the road rage going on at times I was legally the driver. I tried and tried to explain, how if we just drove the speed limit we would not have to lie in the log books, take extra breaks, etc. But all the FedEx drivers I have run into just cant see it. They actually believe that they are squeezing out hours to have available for extra runs at the end of the week. And then there are the dispatchers. Most are okay. But some will only give available loads to the drivers based at that terminal, resulting in longer and unnecessary layovers for other drivers. I once had to stay 10 hours at a terminal just because their policy there was that the trailer could not go out until 10 PM regardless of how loaded it is. I did not get my raise at the end of the first 30 days, I was told just another 2 weeks. I did not get my raise at the end of 60 days. Then the owner operator changed the story and said I might not get a raise for several years. Then once I made it clear, that as a casual driver I would not do any runs that took me to the terminals with layovers; I got sent out to LA for another layover. FedEx does not pay for layovers. So with the evenings away from home, not being paid to me. I decided I would rather do anything else than put up with these kinds of people. So I returned to school bus driving. I am home everyday, and with extra runs during the day, I am making over 300.00 per week, no layovers, no road rage, no dispatchers, and the kids are easier to deal with than antisocial truckers are. With this now, I close my journal, feeling very sorry for any newbies out there that might have gotten themselves into a contract which keeps them in the same kind of hell I was in. Joseph

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