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Pike's School Journal Male, 42 years
Continued from Page 1
Fifth Week
This past weekend everyone in the class went out for their 5th and 6th practice drives in the road diesels. I was in Sherman’s big blue Mack 02 with fellow students Mr. Clint and Mr. Danny. During week five we completed our training on the Forward Exercises, were introduced to the Backing Exercises and jumped feet-first into keeping our Driver’s Daily Log books. Next week our classroom work will be map or atlas usage and trip planning; followed by Recruiter Day on Thursday and everyone’s “qualifying” rides begin with our 7th drive, in either the 9-speed Mack or the 10-speed Freightliner. Week number five came and went very quickly. As I’ve discussed previously, the Forward Exercises are generally straight forward (sorry) and include as a component Straight-Line Backing practice. Now we’re beginning to apply the basic skills we learned in that backing component to more complex backing exercises, the 100’ Alley, Zigzag (parallel parking a tractor-semi-trailer) and the often-encountered angled Alley Dock maneuver. In my journal entry next week, I’ll know more about these backing exercises and I’ll write about them in detail then. We completed a practice log everyday during week five. Mostly the logs were very basic as we weren’t driving in the road diesels until Saturday, so for most weeknights, our entries were either simply “On Duty Not Driving” (classroom) or “On Duty Not Driving” (practice field). Logs became more interesting however during our weekend drives. We logged time in Smithfield, Kenly, Wilson, Rocky Mount, Gold Rock, Sharpsburg and Selma, NC. We logged our own time behind the wheel as “Driving” and our time riding in the sleeper area as “Sleeper Berth” time. When we stopped for lunch or breaks, we logged those times greater than 15 minutes as “On Duty Not Driving” since we were away from our “home terminal” and couldn’t log it as “Off Duty.” This was all quite zany, but in an odd way for someone so unhappy as me about logs, kind of fun, too. At our stop in Kenly, we were shown the CAT Scales at the TA Truck Stop (I-95, MM 106) where drivers can stop for certified weight measurements. I volunteered the $7.50 so that we could drive the Mack 02 with its trailer across the scales and have our axle weights measured so that my fellow student drivers and I could see an actual scale ticket. The gross weight of our rig was only 36,000 pounds; basically 12,000 pounds each on the steering, drive and trailer axles. The important CDL topics of weight, height and length were also covered in class this past week. Along with a lot more information, we learned about national routes and the 13’ 6” height “limit” for commercial vehicles, the 80,000 lb gross weight limit on five axle commercial vehicles with the first and last axles no less than 51’ apart, as well as the technique for unlocking and sliding the truck’s 5th wheel for moving (shifting) weight between the steering and drive axles and sliding the trailer’s tandems for moving weight between the drive and trailer axles. You don’t so much “slide” the 5th wheel or the trailer tandems as you back-up or pull-up the tractor and trailer while either system’s locking mechanism is disengaged to allow the trailer itself to slide forward or backward. It was all very interesting; including the tidbit where Ann told us her reply to a dockworker’s timeworn question, “ … how do you want it loaded, driver?” Ann says, “Load it legal!”
So back out on the highways on Saturday, we drove on the U. S. east coast’s most heavily-traveled, north-south Maine to Florida interstate highway, I-95, personally my first time ever in a big truck out on the big road. What a hoot, out on the highway, foot mashing the accelerator all the way to the floorboard, the truck roaring flat out in eighth gear and the speedometer holding steady at the engine’s governed rpms running a not so blazing 70 mph! We drove to the NC DMV’s scales on I-95 NB/SB at Gold Rock near Roanoke Rapids. Even though the scales were closed for the weekend, we still got a sense of what to expect when we have to go there for real in our new jobs. It was an interesting combination of high-tech and low-tech equipment. The vehicle lane equipped with these huge scales reminded me of the locks at each end of the Panama Canal; each laid out in a precise straight line with its steel and concrete ready to do its work, here so that each axle or tandem has its own scale pad on which to rest and there so that each ship or boat can be raised or lowered to meet the water level of the grand old canal itself. Overall, it was a great day of driving. I missed a few skip-shifts and I cut a few corners too short with the back of my trailer, but I believe my driving actually did improve yet again and I continued to feel a little more comfortable behind the wheel. This I consider to be good progress given that my first drive ever in a big truck was just five short weeks ago on July 6. But back out on the training field on Sunday it was hot; real hot, too hot, hot like a cat on a hot tin roof hot, hot like newly laid asphalt in the summer sun hot. Jeez, it was hot!
We spent the early morning with our skilled lead instructor Paul demonstrating the backing exercises in good detail. At first, my own feeble attempt at backing down the 100’ alley was an exercise in mashing rubber balls and running over the yellow lines painted on the ground outlining the 9-foot wide alley. But by the end of the day, I could back down that narrow alley without hitting one ball or rubbing one yellow line, keeping the “drift” of the back of my trailer to a minimum with steering corrections and correction chases. Sometime that afternoon something clicked somewhere in my understanding and now I can back with a little more confidence. I’m satisfied with my progress for this day too, so I’ll take it for now and come back tomorrow to go at it again.
In closing, please allow me to briefly “plug” the program I’m attending, the Johnston Community College NC Truck Driver Training School. “In 1949, the North Carolina Truck Driving Training School was established on the North Carolina State University campus. It was the first school of its nature in the United States and has been recognized by the American Trucking Association since its inception. The North Carolina Trucking Association has endorsed and co-sponsors the program with the Safety Management Council of the Association acting as an advisory board to the school. In 1974, the University system transferred the program to the Community College system with Johnston Community College being selected to administer the program. The program remained in Raleigh until 1983 when it was moved to Smithfield. In 1986, a roving class component was introduced to provide on-site training to all 58 community colleges upon local request. A schedule of classes held around the state is available by calling 1-800-691-2220 or (919) 989-7007. The class is typically eight weeks (384 hours) in length and meets Monday through Friday for eleven hours each day. Night and weekend courses and half-time classes are offered at different times throughout the year. The class is divided into three components; classroom, driving range, and highway driving with the objectives being to teach skills and safety on the highway and light preventative maintenance.” (From http://www.johnstoncc.edu/academics/tdt/tdt.html.) Thanks for reading and please drive safely, Pike (pikehockman220@yahoo.com)
Sixth Week
The following companies sent representatives to our school on what can be best described as Recruiter Morning: Swift, Werner, Howard Transportation, Huss and Coastal Transport. That’s it. So, since I am primarily interested in team long-haul opportunities, I spoke with the Swift and Werner recruiters and filed applications for employment with both. The “highlight” of the morning occurred when the Swift and Werner recruiters got into a little tiff letting verbal barbs fly at each other over the heads of the startled but amused students. The Swift representative became upset when, during his presentation, a clamor arose from across the room at the Werner table that was then being swamped by students with questions following Werner’s presentation. The Employment Security Commission person quickly broke it up and accepted full responsibility for allowing the commotion. Tempers gradually cooled and students went on about their business of sizing up all the companies. And guess what! When I arrived home the following Monday evening after class, I was pleased to have a voice mail message from Werner approving me as a pre-hire for a driving position with their company as of August 12. Yes! Finally, after nearly six months, a job offer! I was ecstatic to see a faint glimmer of opportunity at the end of this long unemployment tunnel. To-date, I’ve not heard back from Swift (http://www.swifttrans.com/ and I’ve also sent applications via web sites on the Internet to Frozen Food Express (http://www.ffeinc.com/ J-Mar Trucking (http://www.j-martrucking.com/ Roehl (http://www.roehl.net/ and FAX and U. S. Mail applications to Covenant (http://www.covenanttransport.com/ and Schneider (http://www.schneider.com/ respectively. Plus I’m still waiting to hear back from several other companies.
The Werner opportunity looks good to me for a couple of reasons: 1) company paid insurance effective on the first day of the month following your first full month of service, 2) monthly bonus miles paid after 20,000 miles on all miles driven, 3) paperless logs (did I mention that I hate time sheets?) and last but not least, 4) well, they’ve actually offered me a job. OK, that’s enough about Recruiter Day.
This past week we started learning all about our commercial driver’s road atlas in our first session on map reading and we also had two tests; one on the information covered in the General Maintenance & Operation class and one on Size & Weight Limits, covering all the various aspects of truck weight, length and width limits, tandem sliding guidelines for weight distribution and general questions on weight and size laws pertaining to commercial vehicles. The rest of week six primarily focused on two areas: 1) Backing Exercises, 2) Qualifying Drives. On Saturday we all received a demonstration ride of the qualifying routes around Smithfield, one for the Mack 02 and a separate route for the Freightliner 08. The driving routes are very simple, until you actually get behind the wheel and start your qualifying drives. During qualifying, one “X” on your evaluation sheet equates to a Needs Improvement and the qualifying portion of that ride is “over,” but you continue driving the route to its finish back at the school for practice. Once you’ve qualified on two different trucks with two different instructors and after a couple of cursory CDL-related tests, you’re awarded a CDL-1 Form that you then take to any NC DMV office and (trumpet fanfare), you’ve got your NC Class A Commercial Driver’s License. Of course, qualifying isn’t easy. As I mentioned there are two different routes, one for each truck. The Mack 02 route takes you left out of the school, down through the snug streets of a small neighborhood bordering I-95 S. and then up and over a single set of RR tracks to a traffic signal light intersecting with US 301. Then it’s tightly right at the light onto US 301 N. back to Market St. in Smithfield and then very tightly right in a blocked turn down and under the RR underpass, back past the entrance road to Johnston Community College and then left onto an I-95 access road running parallel to the great North/South interstate highway. At the end of this 45-mph access road a right yield turn and then it’s down and onto I-95 S. for about a mile when you exit off the interstate and turn right back onto what will become Market St. in Smithfield and then left back to the school. In the Freightliner 08, it’s right out of the school, left onto Market St., down under the RR underpass, right at the light onto US 301 N., then right again up and over a small hill and then right back onto the I-95 access road. At the end of the 45-mph access road, turn right back onto what will become Market St. in Smithfield, under the underpass again, then left onto US 301 S. calling clearances and follow-ups all the way down to a left turn up and over the RR tracks and then a left and a right back into the school. Whew. It’s tiring even writing about the routes, just like it is driving them. I had two qualifying rides on Sunday, but did not qualify on either try. My first ride was a doomed exercise in missed skip-shifts and my second ride was another ill-fated excursion when I stopped to exit the school and put the truck in Reverse. Duh. From there on however, I made all my skip-shifts, but at the end of the ride I buggered the turn back into the school by missing the appropriate gear, so lots of “X’s.” Maybe I’ll do better on my first two qualifying drives in the FL 08. Next week I’ll try to give all the details about the Backing Exercises. The thrill of the 9’ wide 100’ Alley, the deceptive 90-degree Alley Dock and the hellish Zigzag or big truck parallel parking exercise. So, drive safely and have a great week! Regards, Pike (pikehockman220@yahoo.com)
Seventh, Eighth and Ninth
Weeks
Tenth, Eleventh & Twelfth Weeks
Thursday, September 26, 2002 School is over and now it’s time to look ahead; in other words, aim high and steer straight down the open road. Tonight it’s Thursday, September 26, 2002, weeks ten, eleven and twelve are now complete and this is my last training school journal entry. By the close of school this past Sunday afternoon, three more of our classmates had left the program and we ended with nine graduates out of 16 originally registered students. My wife and I finished fifth and fourth respectively. I came close to an “A” but had to settle for a “B” when my rank points pushed me over the limit during my Final Road Test on Saturday. These past three weeks went by very, very quickly. As I mentioned in my last post, most of our time was dedicated to practicing Backing Exercises, Forward Exercises and taking lots of tests. I finally qualified on the Mack, but it took that elusive perfect drive to do so. Once I’d qualified, next came an avalanche of tests; first for my CDL. The school’s instructors are certified third-party testers for the NC DMV, so students don’t have to take a tractor-trailer to a DMV office for testing; we take the tests at the school meeting the same standards as those at the DMV, and when we’ve passed the school issues us certified paperwork to take to the DMV. For CDL testing purposes, a Pre-Trip (Inspection) Test, two Backing Tests and a Road Test are administered. Fail any part today, and you don’t get to retry until tomorrow. While the school will let you chose whether or not to apply your CDL Pre-Trip Test score for your school Pre-Trip Test score, there’s no such option for the backing tests. At the DMV office, I took the computer-based tests for Tanker and Doubles/Triples, so my new Class A Commercial Driver’s License is now safely in my wallet and for my first employer I even come complete with Hazardous Materials, Tanker and Doubles/Triples endorsements. And I kept my Motorcycle endorsement too from when I was in my “Born To Be Wild” stage. Total cost at the DMV, just under $100 for a Class A CDL with endorsements valid through December 2009. As I wrote before, during these final three weeks, we took a lot of tests. Let’s see, two tests covered material from several DOT FMCSR sections, Pre-Trip, Logs, Maps, Skids, CDL Backing (alley dock) and CDL Backing (100’ alley), CDL Road Test. And for NCTDTS Tests: Backing (alley dock), Backing (100’ alley), Backing (zigzag), Coupling/Uncoupling, Forward Exercise (zigzag, curb, offset alley, 100’ alley, stop line), Final Road Test (all rank points) and a 100 question Final Written Exam. On the CDL Pre-Trip my score was a 0, keep in mind at school that’s 100% correct! On the CDL Backing 100’ alley, a 0, but on my first try at the CDL Backing alley dock, I just couldn’t get the feel for the trailer and blew it big time, taking more than 7 repositions and failing for that day’s meager effort. The next day, I took these CDL tests again, this time scoring another 0 on the 100’ alley and a 1 on the alley dock. Whew! It seems everybody in the class had gotten rusty on their backing skills over our vacation break, and it was my unlucky fortune to be the first to try CDL tests just after we’d returned. After a full day of practice, along with everyone else also realizing they needed to brush-up too, we all got back in the groove of backing. Mostly I am pleased with my grade point test scores. Over the course of the course, I only missed 4 test questions, earned 17 Backing Exercise points and 0 points on my Forward Exercise tests including Pre-Trip and Coupling/Uncoupling. So going into the final weekend of class, I had accumulated only 21 grade points. On the Final Written Exam, I missed 6 questions. The class low score for the Final Written Exam was a 3 and the high score was a 40. On the field exercise practice days and evenings for twelve weeks, I’d managed to nearly avoid rank points but for 2; however, my score on the Final Road Test was to be my undoing for my stretch goal of an “A.” For whatever reason, lack of focus, lack of practice, lack of something, I racked-up 80 rank points on my Final Road Test in the FL08 ten speed. This was abysmal. I missed a turn signal to change lanes for my blocking turn (moving left to set-up for a right turn) as well as a couple of skip-shifts. On another nasty turn, I rubbed a curb with my rear right trailer tire and worst of all, forgot to verbally “call out” overhead bridges as I passed under them on I-95 ringing-up a big 10 points with each omission. So, 21 + 6 grade points PLUS + 2 + 80 rank points was my final class score. To get an “A” one’s grade points can’t be more than 60, check, AND, one’s combined grade points AND rank points can’t be more than … 100. Therefore, a “B.” So, after a day and a night of griping, I let my stretch goal of an “A” pass on by, and settled for the “B” I’d earned with my poor road test driving. Anyway, I’d come here to graduate, find a carrier to hire on with as a company driver and I had accomplished those goals! The NC Truck Driver Training School held a very nice graduation dinner and ceremony for us at the Golden Corral in Smithfield. A NC Highway Patrol officer spoke to the graduates and their families and guests. It was actually a full room, given that there were only 9 graduates. Diplomas were presented to each graduate and the top three graduates were recognized individually for their achievements. There was only one “A” earned by the top student, a really nice fellow who intends to go into the hauling business for himself after he purchases a dump truck and gets hooked-up with a broker. As for the other students, some don’t have concrete plans as to where they’ll put their newly acquired skills to work, but most have at least a good idea about what they want to do and I’m sure this group of folks will do great at whatever they choose and will make very, very good employees and safe, professional drivers.
As for my wife and I, we’re off to drive for a large, national carrier that hires and trains student graduates and serves the lower 48 states, Canada and Mexico. We chose Werner Enterprises (www.werner.com) for several reasons: good overall reputation in the industry as providing decent training opportunities for new drivers, apparently a financially stable company, reasonable cents per mile pay scale (and comments from others that we’ll get lots of OTR miles), short waiting period for insurance eligibility (~30 days+), paperless logs (did I mention that I hate timesheets?), a division focused on teams (Team Werner) and last but not least, a pet policy! The company is headquartered in Omaha, NE and we’re getting ready to go out over the road with a trainer after 2.5 days of orientation in Springfield, OH. In conclusion, overall this has been a wonderful experience for both of us even though it all started as my up against the wall, rock and a hard place back-up plan in the event that I didn’t land a job related to my experience and education before my severance pay ran out (yikes, that’s next month!). Now I’m actually very happy to have the opportunity to spend the next special period of my life in the cab of a big rig, teamed-up with my wife right there driving with me and the adventure of seeing the country through the windshield of a Freightliner tractor-trailer bringing something new and different to us everyday. And yes, yes, I’ll not let the romance of it all keep me in rose-colored glasses, because I know it’ll be hard work. So, this brings my training journal to a close. Thanks for reading it and for your comments and wishes. Going out on the road as a trainee, I don’t anticipate much time for new entries for a while, but I’ll stop back by here from time to time and update ya’ll with my latest adventure. Thanks again Rachelle for this great web site, (You are most welcome, Pike, and I thank YOU for this awesome and detailed journal! I look forward to your next entry and hearing about how life on the road has proven to be.) best of luck in everyone’s own trucking adventures and here’s wishing we all return home safely. Best regards and Godspeed, Pike (pikehockman220@yahoo.com)
Six Months Follow-Up Hello again and thanks to everyone who's taken the time to read my newbie journal. It's been six months since my wife and I graduated from NC Truck Driving School and started driving for Werner Enterprises. So I thought now was a good time to capture a brief account of some of my experiences.
Orientation with Werner Enterprises in Springfield, OH was relatively painless. The folks running the new hire program keep things rolling at a good pace and in good order. By the way, for goodness sake, don't forget to get your Haz Mat endorsement with your CDL! OK, the two-day procedure was mostly an exercise in completing forms, forms and more forms; as well as reviewing a good introduction to the company via a manual for new hires. This is also the time when new hires receive their driver physical from the company doctor. This was primarily a basic health and wellness check, coupled with a few additional forms to fill out and a brief set of flexibility exercises to prove mobility. Werner runs new hire orientation in their company's terminals across the country and subsequent placement with a trainer after orientation takes place out of these terminals. The company headquarters terminal is in Omaha and is the best one of the bunch. Actually, all the behind-the-driver services provided by Werner's HQ office have been excellent; so far some of the departments we've interacted very successfully with are Safety, Road Breakdown, Payroll, Fuel, of course Dispatch, Driver Relations, Permits and Risk (e.g., Wreck) Management. My wait time for a trainer out of Springfield was brief, but other student drivers waited longer or were sent to other terminals.
Luckily, my trainer was a good one. His name is Ed Z. and he was new to Werner too, as well as to its training program. He is a Midwest Regional driver so we spent most of our time running between St. Louis, Chicago, Louisville and the entire states of NE, IA, IL, IN, OH and PA. Occasionally we went to N. VA and MD, but mostly our time was spent in the Midwest delivering loads in his 9-speed Peterbilt. I was his third student and we hit it off well right from the start. I had trainer home time twice during my stay with Ed; the company put me up in a nice motel both times for several days of very welcome rest.
My approach to my time with a trainer was to really try to listen, learn and practice as much as possible while attaining the required 275 driving hours. When you're with your trainer he/she is responsible for you and this affords you a reasonable period to learn in a relatively controlled environment. While training you basically do the entire job that you'll be doing once you've graduated to a qualified driver; learning it a few steps at a time. You receive loads via the Qualcomm, work directly with shippers and consignees, and handle the paperwork and other miscellaneous details of the job including Haz Mat and High-Value load requirements.
You'll learn through real experience things such as: backing into docks, sliding tandems and checking axle weights for upcoming stops at DOT scales, the many electronic messages necessary to communicate with your dispatcher via the Qualcomm, living in the confined space of a tractor trailer (no small learning curve), sleeping while the truck is rolling (easy once you're exhausted), fueling do's and don'ts, rolling on in rain, fog and snow, if you're lucky driving across a variety of landscapes all across the country, mountain driving, city driving, locating the shipper or consignee from occasionally sketchy directions, driving all night (after your first two weeks), maneuvering around truck stops and into rest areas, using the fifth-wheel restroom, lots of backing, backing, and more backing, making almost no money, experiencing what people mean by "it's a lifestyle" and the joys of your first truck stop shower. So, your time with your trainer is very important and my comments here merely just nip at the tip of the iceberg.
To have a decent experience, I can suggest two simple things: strive for thorough, honest, and polite communication with your trainer and work hard, don't ever just sit there in the cab, get out and help every time. Remember that you're there to learn the next level of education after your basic driver schooling, so get all you can during training, because sooner than you think you'll be in the middle of the real thing out there on the road. I went straight through Werner's training program without taking the break the company offers after 140 driving hours for hometime. If you take the break, you'll be assigned a new trainer when you return to work, and my trainer was just too good to lose. Just before Thanksgiving '02, I completed my 275 driving hours, and was promoted to qualified driver status from the Indianapolis terminal -- a pit.
It had taken me about 12 weeks to get through training, which is just about average, most newbies take longer, a very few take less time. I earned the groovy $500 bonus for going straight through Werner's training program (paid after delivering my first load on-time) and was assigned my first truck. It was a doosey; a Freightliner Classic XL Super-10 with nearly 500,000 miles on it. Yikes! I ran this truck for a month, but then was pulled (red-flagged) for major repairs to the transmission. This was where I parted ways with my first truck; but only after I was stuck in a motel in Atlanta for 14 days over both Christmas and New Years. No fun at all, but I can report that I did make some good runs while on my own with my first truck, such as one especially good run to Laredo, TX, Werner's local Mexican interface terminal there on the border. On Christmas Eve, my wife was promoted out of training to qualified driver status from the Allentown terminal, given the only available truck that day, a Team Werner truck, and sent on her way to eventually pick me up in Atlanta. Since early January, she and I have been running steadily with minimal downtime and a great dispatcher who keeps us rolling -- thanks Mark! We spent a full winter driving across the US in all kinds of weather. We've both driven through snowstorms in the West and East, frozen at subzero temps in Fargo, ND, sunned ourselves silly in sunny Miami, dashed up the green, green valley from LA to SFran, crossed Donner Pass in CA and over the snowy Twin Sisters in WY, driven through, around and between most of the country's major cities and many of its quaint small towns.
However, the driving is not the hard part of this career; but rather, the rub comes over that whole lifestyle thing. When you drive over the road, especially as a team, the truck just hardly ever stops rolling. You find yourself cranking down a trailer's landing gear, into the mud of another dark drop lot, at 3:00 AM in the cold and you realize what everybody really meant when they said: "it's a lifestyle." Oh, I see now, they meant that you have truly no other life at all. Yep, from my perspective, sadly that's true. For 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while you're on the road, that's it, there's nothing else, no friends to go see, no yard to putter in, no car to wash, no office to go to, no drive home, no couch to nap, no hours in front of the TV, no pizza from your favorite restaurant, no quiet time, ... , nothing, just trucking, shippers, trucking, consignees, trucking, shippers, trucking, rest areas, trucking, consignee, trucking, truck stop, fueling, finding a hole to back that trailer, dirty lot, dirty shower, stupid CB chatter, expensive food, expensive snacks, walking by the lounge TV hanging from the wall showing a glimpse of the real world, cleaning out the trash piled-up in the truck, trucking, bad weather, good weather, trucking, shippers, trucking, consignees, trucking, and on and on and on.
Very occasionally you get home, but with Werner for example, it's one day off (home or elsewhere) per each seven days on the road, not two days off after five days at work like everyone else. But you do get to see the country, it's just that you see it from your cab as it goes flashing by at a governed 65 mph. And I recommend that you don't take every hometime at home, but if you can, stop by Las Vegas for example, park in Lot M behind Sunset Station, and then enjoy your time-off away from it all. Or take that valuable break back in that small town in New England you passed through last month and thought was pretty, friendly or just different. For example, we drove through the Black Hills National Forest in SD during a break in February's snows, it was beautiful there's a lot to see there in western SD, so maybe we'll go back there sometime for "hometime."
There was an Indian casino in NM that looked interesting, the Ozarks were beautiful and worthy of a return trip, as was the central valley in CA. OK, so, what else might you be interested in reading about from my meandering experiences? For sure, buy yourself a satellite radio as soon as possible. It's a definite mental survival tool; as the static buzz and your endless seeking-search for any AM or FM station worth your time, or even at all in some parts of the US, are worth avoiding at the price of the monthly subscription of about $9.99/mo. for XM or $12.99/mo. for Sirius. We chose Sirius because it has a good selection of channels, streams, that are also some of our cable TV favorites, such as Discovery, A&E, Court-TV, various news and weather channels. XM does offer a good selection of channels too, including NASCAR and Coast-to-Coast, so pick a radio and a service and roll with it. It's not necessary to buy XM or Sirius in a truck stop, as there are good deals out there at places such as Best Buy or Circuit City, where they can also install it right into your truck while you wait. What a country! OK, Wal-Mart has become much more important in our life than it was previous to this lifestyle change. Be careful of "No Truck" signs in some Wal-Mart lots, but otherwise it's a great place on the road to buy food and other provisions, get your medicine prescriptions filled across the entire country, maybe even walk to a real, non-truck stop restaurant nearby for an occasional meal out of the truck.
Now back to one of the basic reasons why we're all driving, the pay; the past three months, we've gotten 14,000, 12,000, and 14,000 miles driving as a team for Werner; not Team Werner, even though our truck's paint scheme says otherwise. This isn't a lot of miles for an experienced team, but plenty for a rookie team. At 14,000 mi. Werner pays a +0.04 cpm bonus that brings the three-months qualified newbie driver's pay rate to 0.285 cpm, at equity with most other carriers. On a positive note, Werner's Payroll team is superb and our checks are always on-time and have not contained any errors to-date. And since we're discussing $, just as an FYI for any of you second career folks considering trucking, being new at this job is NOT meeting my/our previous lifestyle's financial requirements at all; so to us soon this is going to mean foreclosure on our house, Chapter 7 bankruptcy and a huge new tax bill to Uncle Sam since we had no deductions late last year combined sadly with a big 401K loan that we defaulted on because we couldn't repay it either. Ack! <<Exit whining commentary.>>
Regarding Team Werner, their flat pre-bonus rate is higher than Werner's van flat pre-bonus rates, but the work is more stringent, more time critical and just really too tough for newbie drivers. Be careful of those too easy cash advances from your next pay check; during your training period, a $150 cash advance really chews up that $325 per week gross check, and dual $200's blowout a qualified driver's net pay just as fast, too. Get signed-up with TA's, Petro's and Flying-J's (coming soon Pilot's, too) loyalty programs as fast as possible after becoming qualified, because this is where those free (occasionally clean) showers (those, oh you can get a shower everyday if you want one, one-liners, HA) really save you some money.
As to the experience of team driving versus solo driving, there are some interesting things to note. The stress of being constantly on-the-move is tremendous and can lead to disagreements, tension and arguments, even among the best of team mates. The "rules" of the truck become very important as each person pulls his/her share, and then some, only to still have more to do with the feeling of being overwhelmed constantly bearing down right along with it all. Ever tried to discuss differences of opinions over routing directions during a family road trip? Well, try that daily, oftentimes multiple times per day, day after day after day. Please do take your trip planning classes and live training seriously, because trip planning is the unsung hero or goat of over the road driving. Time AND miles ARE money here!
OK, to wrap this up, notwithstanding the positives I've described herein, regretfully I need to honestly state that personally, overall I am disappointed with truck driving as a mid-life second career choice. Foremost, the lifestyle is indeed detrimentally all consuming, the pay is very low, the positives you think you'd like about "traveling" are not the reality of the driver's day-to-day-to-day experience, the work is overly stressful due to the necessary weight of government regulations, and of course the responsibility you bear for your own, your team mate's and for other drivers' safety while behind the wheel is simply tremendous. This is serious stuff, so take special care and Godspeed to one and all.
Arrive alive, Pike
Note from Webmaster: Wow, Pike.. What a time you've had. Your journal is excellent and insightful. You're most definitely past the honeymoon stage. For what it is worth, the first year is the hardest. Other things about it won't change, of course, it will always be a "lifestyle," but it does get a great deal easier. I hope the best for you and your wife and hope you will continue to update when you can. Best of luck and I hope to see you on the road someday! Rachelle
Year 1.5 Update Hello again! These days there isn't much extra time to post from the road, but here's a brief update of our story. First, a special thank you to those who've graciously taken the time to read this journal and moreover to those who've written e-mails to express support or to inquire if we're still with Werner Enterprises (http://www.werner.com Yes, we're still with Werner, driving dry van in the48 state Team Werner division. The company has treated us very well in the past year and a half. The pay in Team Werner is a little higher than running team in the regular dry van division; after 1 year we're now at $0.33 per mile and mileage bonuses on all the miles we run in a month paid at $0.02 and $0.03 for over 17000 mi/month and 18000 mi/month respectively. There have been absolutely no problems with our weekly paychecks, we received our annual bonuses and vacation pay as promised, and the various benefit deductions come out the first check of the month. On the "better idea" front, Werner offers a plan to smooth out the deductions via weekly deductions versus the standard monthly. Werner is also now rolling out a plan to increase drivers' net pay with a "per diem included" per mile pay plan, and has also offered solo drivers a pay increase to keep pace with the industry practices of coping with the new Hours Of Service rules through pay increases. Speaking of the new HOS, running as a team we have encountered no trouble continuing to work like we want to under these new rules, but when I ran solo for a month while we dealt with a family emergency, the affect of the HOS on a solo driver was clearly felt. Trip planning became even more important, especially to ensure my 10 hour break at a decent truck stop, rather than in a less desirable, remote, lonely location. One observation we've made in the past year is that as an OTR driver you occasionally "see sights" as you drive along, but you can not go "sightseeing." Driving an OTR truck, especially as a team, keeps you rolling, busy, dealing with shippers and consignees virtually 24/7 with barely enough time for showers and meals. So don't assume that any loose talk out there about "see the USA" means sightseeing, but actually what you'll see is lots of Interstate Highways and the occasional rural route that makes you long to be back on the Interstates. Another thing that is glaringly different from school is the rigorous focus on the daily, thorough, 22-25 minute Pre-Trip Inspection. While our company encourages PTI's, the truth from the road is another story. You can figure out the reality yourself. On another topic, Werner's Paperless Log System is fantastic. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I was appalled at the paper/carbon paper logs introduced in school, but Werner's Qualcomm-based logging system is great, especially for new drivers. The system keeps track of all the basic HOS rules, monitoring 11 Hr/14 Hr/70 Hr real time status, keeping track of the past 8 days' hours and enabling the driver to input various Line 1, 2, 3, 4 changes. It's a really civilized alternative to carbon paper, it's wonderful for DOT stops and inspections, and Werner will mail you a quarterly paper record at your request. Did I mention that I hate logs? OK, so far to-date I've been to all but 1 of the lower 48 states in the past 1.5 year; that one state being Maine. We received our Team Werner truck in January 2003 with 135000 hub miles and now we have over 385000 hub miles. We really do get around, in the past month we've made two or three coast-to-coast roundtrips from LA to MA and other eastern locations. Werner gets us into one of their terminals on a regular basis for service on the truck at least every 3500 gal of fuel and also for quarterly, computer-based safety meetings. Of course, their best terminal is the HQ site in Omaha NE, great facilities, lots of amenities, immaculate showers, but the only drawback, especially in the winter, is that you are in cold and snowy Omaha. The Phoenix AZ and Laredo TX terminals are very nice as well. Atlanta and Dallas are always crowded with trucks and drivers, the Indianapolis terminal (and its muddy yard) is not top-notch, and Werner's Fontana CA, Allentown PA and Denver CO terminals (as well as micro-terminal in Lakeland FL) are OK. We spend a lot of money on the road for meals and incidentals. Also, while a little expensive, our satellite radios (we now have both Sirius and XM) are a God-send, keeping us sane and entertained all across America. Typically, we work 3-3.5 weeks per month and then take off 3-5 days anywhere in the USA we request. Never any problems with our "home time." Moreover, recently the family emergency I mentioned required us to ask for special help and consideration from Werner, and Werner helped us rapidly with no problems at all. My co-driver was able to take a 30 day Leave Of Absense with very minimal paperwork, none of which we ever saw, and I was able to go solo for that month running in a region to stay close to family and be off the road weekly for a day. Nice job Werner, thanks. The return to Team Werner for both of us was easy as well, with the company routing me to the other coast to pick-up my co-driver. As to my wonderful co-driver, my lovely wife is having an even better time at this new career than I am and our relationship has grown stronger and closer within the closeness imposed by the less than cubicle-sized confines of our Freightliner Classic XL. So in closing for now, overall I am very pleased with my experience with Werner Enterprises. They pursue new technologies, keep the human touch alive, and are an excellent choice of company for any newbie training school driver graduate. Please feel free to keep in-touch with me over e-mail at pikehockman220@yahoo.com. Have a safe trip and may God Bless the USA and the hardworking professional truck drivers that keep it all rolling. Still On The Road Hello everyone! Yep. We're still out here truckin'. Just thought I'd drop by and post a quick note to say a special "Thank You!" to those who have taken the time to send an e-mail. It's great to hear from you and I appreciate the feedback very much. We're not only still truckin', we're still truckin' with Werner. (www.werner.com) Things have definitely gotten easier as our time out on the road has gotten longer. I suppose familiarity does breed ... familiarity. We still drive in the Team Werner division. This means lots of JIT freight with its JIT deadlines. If you see a Werner tractor pullin' a Forward Air trailer, well, that could be us too. We pull dedicated for Forward Air (within Team Werner) as often as we can. Why? Because Werner pays their Team Werner Forward Air trucks a baseline amount for every week, or prorated portion thereof, while on the account. This is good for us in that even when our overall month is slow, we still receive a decent "milage pay" per week, kinda like a salary. I personally like this better because I think this "salary" style of payment is the way of the future for this industry. I'm not sure when drivers will catch on and realize that they're/we're on a hampster wheel when it comes to being paid by the mile. Hey, the more miles the more pay, well, that's all well and good except you can work yourself nearly to death chasing that elusive ... just one more mile. In my opinion, the salary method, supplemented with a good bonus program for high mileage producers per month, is a humane approach to paying truckers. And what with the new HOS and the eventual implementation of electronic logs throughout the industry, it seems to me a logical next step toward modernizing drivers' pay plans as well. On a new subject, as to driving team, well, I recommend that new drivers discuss the "when" of their daily driving preferences. We settled on a kinda 12 on 12 off plan, whereby I do most of the driving at night, and my partner does most of the day driving. And even when an unexpected break happens during one of our "shifts," we still mostly stick to this schedule. It keeps things running better if you have an idea of when you're next supposed to work. Lastly, just want to warn drivers about the "new" Hazmat licensing rules. We are going through changing our CDL's from one state to another. Be advised that your Hazmat endorsement will not automatically transfer, so you'll need to take the Hazmat test in the new state of residence AND now apply (with hefty fee) for a basic criminal background check. This retesting and background check will likely also apply to CDL renewals as well, so here's the rub, BE SURE to begin the process of seeking your renewal with Hazmat at least two months before the expiration date. We're now on our third trip in as many months to our new state's DMV and are still waiting for notification (by mail) of our security background check to be completed. Don't plan to just pop in and out with a renewed Hazmat endorsed CDL, with ease, on the first try, with no money! Please check into your own state's requirements before you go; and read up on your Hazmat stuff. That won't hurt nothin' anyway. OK, be safe out there, thanks for writing. Pike Epilogue Well, the time has come to update my Trainee’s Tale, in fact, to bring it to a conclusion, to let those of you who have read this far into my journal and journey know where my wife and I have been in our trucking career since August 2005 and where we’re going from here. But first, again please allow me to offer my sincere “Thanks” to those who have taken the time to read these rambling thoughts and sometimes odd observations, and especially to those of you who even sent an email in return. It's always been so great to hear from you and I appreciate reading about your driving plans, experiences and all your feedback so very much. We continued to drive for Werner Enterprises (http://www.werner.com/ through the remainder of 2005 and on into 2006. The work itself seemed to get easier, perhaps more accurately – more familiar, as the months and miles rolled by and we slowly became better and better professional truck drivers. I must reiterate here once again that the education and experience we received from the NC Truck Driver Training School, at Johnston Community College, in Smithfield, NC, (http://www.johnstoncc.edu/academics/tdt/tdt.html prepared us extremely well for our career in trucking. We owe a large part of whatever success we achieved in this endeavor to those patient and skilled teachers. And what a trip it’s been! Overall, our truck driving work was steady, hardly ever truly dull, and there was little chance that I (we) were ever going to be laid off from this job. For this I was very thankful that things had worked out as I’d hoped and planned. The money for driving with Team Werner was slowly improving, and while we were saving a little money and we were covered by excellent health insurance and other benefits, we were never going to get rich or even make a significant amount of money, as some people seem to think that all truck drivers do. Ha! The richness of the job for us came from our freedom and the shared experiences. We could also take our time off, this thing called “home time,” anywhere in the USA, and this was a real benefit to us. Most of my wife’s family members live in Las Vegas, NV; so we could always decide when that time rolled around that instead of coming home this or that month to Virginia, we would visit the in-laws and soak up the Vegas life for a few days. Moreover, in the spring of 2006, the truck broke down once in Memphis, TN, so while it was in the shop we took advantage of the local sights, smells and sounds. What fun! We toured downtown Memphis with its blues music scene and even took a traditional tour of Graceland, a “must do” pilgrimage for all Americans! Yep, it was cool, the home and museum, not the weather, and eventually our purple Freightliner Century was repaired and we were rolling again. In May 2006, we decided to take our home time break in St. Augustine, FL. We bob tailed into town and spent a few relaxing days and nights in a lovely motel, ate lots of good seafood, and did some geeky historic touring of their old Spanish fort and surrounding town. This all really refreshed us too. In between these relaxing breaks, we continued to haul Forward Air loads back and forth across the country; usually airport to airport, always in a hurry. Forward Air’s headquarters terminal is in Columbus, OH. (Actually, Groveport, OH, but who’s counting?) My work shift always started sometime in the evening and I’d run all night through the silence of the darkness to the next morning, when my wife would take over and do the more traffic-intensive daytime driving. This routine continued to work well for us; however, I must admit that when after four years I finally and forever completely burned out and tuned out from listening over and over to the same sycophantic head cases talking nuttily nightly on Coast To Coast AM (http://www.coasttocoastam.com/ on XM Satellite Radio; those identical hours did seem to become a little longer, but far less aggravating. Nonetheless, satellite radio was truly one of the saving graces for us during our driving career. Eventually, we were assigned to an interesting Forward Air dedicated run from Fernley, NV to Carson, CA pulling a J.I.T. load for Amazon.com to DHL. This came to be called by me our “Rabbit Run” because every night I would count all the many jack rabbits casually sitting just outside the shadows cast by my headlights, nibbling at the vegetation alongside our backwoods route down US 95 through the Nevada desert and across desolate US 6 into California. One night I remember counting 150 jack rabbits along the road until both the sun and the traffic began to come up and eventually scared them all away. This was also an interesting run because it was somewhat of a challenge to be able to make the important 9 am delivery in Carson because the loads usually weren’t ready to roll out of Fernley until after midnight local time and that meant a joyous arrival for us in the metropolitan Los Angeles, CA area right at the next morning’s peak of rush hour traffic. (This was especially “fun” on Monday mornings, trust me!) My ever curious wife soon discovered that the DHL folks were allowed access to a wonderful company cafeteria nearby at a defense contractor’s office complex and she would scurry off to bring us back the most delicious breakfasts prepared by what she described as a “wonderful staff.” Then we’d curl up in the sleeper and wait because these trips were usually followed by hanging around in the Carson area to be assigned a load heading out of southern CA usually back to northern CA. On rare occasions, our dispatcher would eventually just give up trying to find something and deadhead us all the way back to Fernley and since it wouldn’t be until the next day’s night that we’d pick up the next load in Fernley, we’d take I-5 back north and then go I-80 up and across Donner Pass and then drop down through Reno and on into Fernley. This was almost a leisurely adventure for us as we’d stop at the T/A across from the yummy restaurant called Pea Soup Andersen’s on I-5 in Santa Nella, CA (http://www.peasoupandersens.net/ and then truck on over to the Boomtown Casino, Hotel (and Truck Stop!) in Reno (http://www.boomtownreno.com/ Great buffet and loose slots, check it out! And while I’m remembering, don’t forget Sierra Sid’s T/A in Sparks, NV. They’ve got a really cool, large collection of handguns on public display, (http://www.nwlink.com/~timelvis/elvisgun.html including guns once owned by Elvis! These trips were what I would consider to have been the gravy days of our time trucking. The routine was pleasant and as always, my wife’s company was delightful and her work ethic magnificent. However, in August 2006, she suffered a sudden and unexpected health problem related to her memory and cognitive abilities causing her to have to quit driving. While I couldn’t say whether or not the problem was directly caused by the continuously grinding hard work and the over-the-road lifestyle, we certainly couldn’t go on together in trucking as we had been doing. Furthermore, I did not want to do this driving job solo. These days, my wife is continuing to see doctors for her care; however, she hasn’t done any driving whatsoever since that time. Needless to say, we needed to be able to come off the road and make a new and more settled life for ourselves. Our cats were so happy! For a while, I had been toying with the idea of returning to engineering or telecommunications, but the job opportunities were very few in our hometown. But as luck would have it, in September 2006, I came across an on-line advertisement for a Telecom Administrator’s position with a small, private university located about an hour away from our home. In interviewing for the job I discovered that my potential new boss would be a classmate from a graduating class two years behind me in our small town high school. Isn’t life funny and amazing sometimes? I had no idea when I applied that there would be this connection, but these coincidences are sometimes not all that coincidental, so I decided to park my big truck and return to the daily 8 to 5 of driving an office desk. Fortunately, I was offered the position, accepted it and have been working at the university now for almost a year. It ain’t truckin’, but it’s a livin’. Of course, there are advantages to a less nomadic lifestyle, for example, “home time” is no longer something that occurs after 21 straight days of work and just in the last few months I’ve already tripled the number of concerts that I’d been able see in my four previous years on the road, up from 1 to 3. (What a wild and crazy guy!) Working in a university also now provides me with a golden opportunity to pursue a Master’s degree; something that my mother had accomplished in her teaching career and that I had always wanted to do too. The exit process from Werner was relatively painless and after giving two weeks notice, I left the company on friendly terms. Our dispatcher was concerned for my wife’s health issues and supported as best he could our need for routing to get her to a doctor and then all the way back across the country to home. He was very gracious and offered that he would always have a place for us to return to work with him on his board at Werner. This made us both feel appreciated, which isn’t something that always comes readily with a trucking job. We cleaned out the truck, no small task, and I dropped it off at the Werner terminal in Springfield, OH in mid-October 2006, right back where this adventure had all started for us in October 2002. Not much had changed there over those years, but we sure had changed, and I believe our changes were for the better. Even though our trucking career had been relatively short, it had been overall and on balance a good experience for us. We got to visit every state in the lower 48 and have compiled a lifetime’s list of shared experiences to remember always. Werner treated us well in our time with them and was an excellent choice for us as newbie drivers; and we appreciated it and in turn repaid that as best we could by not job hopping immediately when the bigger money wasn’t readily forthcoming or when some little thing (or perceived big thing) upset us. If we had been able to stay long term in trucking, we had however begun to consider other trucking opportunities that would have paid better and provided us a more stable trucking routine. One company we had researched was Watkins (http://www.watkins.com/ Their terminal-to-terminal all drop and hook loads appealed to us and in mid-2006 they were offering a sizable pay incentive for teams. Another company we considered was Con-Way Truckload (http://www.con-way.com/ because we had pulled many Con-Way J.I.T. (but often HazMat) loads, and found them to be a very professional trucking company and they were offering a more firmly scheduled driving routine with regularly scheduled runs with longer miles and higher per mile rates. All in all though, Werner is excellent in their support of their drivers, but as a “training company,” Werner is not among the highest payers per mile. Their unique Qualcomm H.O.S. logging had been a great advantage for us and each and every one of Werner’s driver support departments, such as their terminals, road repair, safety, human resources, and even dispatch, had each been reasonable, responsive and professional. Nothing was ever easy on the road, but our experience had been fair. To Werner, I also say “Thank you.” Over the years, I’d kept good track of the tools and equipment we’d been issued, and I was able to return it all in good order and without any charge to my account. Within 90 days of returning the truck, my refund of various deposits and withholdings was paid to me in full. Having dropped off my now passenger wife the previous day at home, I grabbed a cab over to the Springfield Greyhound Bus Station and “rode the dog” back from the end of this great adventure. We rolled past Werner’s Springfield terminal heading out of town and I must admit that I had mixed emotions as to the sum of my experiences; but I was smiling. To those of you still out there or for those of you considering going out there, I can only say – please be safe, always be receptive to new learning, be happy, be healthy and keep on truckin’! Best wishes to you all. Keep in touch. Goodbye. (pikehockman220@yahoo.com)
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