What has happened since my last post? Last week passed by slower than molasses it seems, and yet here I am, ready to start another week, and I'll actually be making *some* money! Well, last Monday I signed all the papers, and got my work badge and a nice hat as an additional sign-on bonus. Tuesday I did absolutely nothing but sit around our hotel in Hammond since I had to take my 34 hr. reset. Tuesday afternoon the Fleet Manager (Politically Correct term for *dispatcher*) at the Gary Terminal called and said she got me hooked up with a local trainer who stays on the road during the week, and to be to the terminal first thing Wed. morning, packed and checked out of my hotel room.
After waiting till about 1400 (2 pm) my trainer, Jason, arrived, took me to his truck and we hit the road to pick up a load of angle-iron out of Chicago going to small-ville IN. I didn't drive at all Wednesday evening, but I drove all day Thursday and Friday. I say all day, but I really mean I did all the driving, my two whole days of driving I don't think I even did 400 miles. Since my trainer is local I get plenty of load securing practice, but since our runs are so short (my longest so far has been 200 miles round trip) most of my time has been spent waiting for a load assignment or waiting on loads. Friday afternoon we waited at a shipper in Chi-town for 4.5 hours! Two were spent waiting for the two crane workers two load the guy in line before us- he happened to be a Roehl driver also- the other two-and-a-half we waited on the two guys to load our trailer! That is the frustrating part about being a driver, you have eleven hours to drive, fourteen consecutive hours in which to drive those eleven hours, and it all depends on how long it takes the dock workers to load your trailer, and then you have to strap and tarp it. It isn't too bad though, if you have a lot of patience or smoke.
I actually love this job, though I have no idea how I'll manage those first weeks once I get sent out on my own. I like my trainer, he is definitely new at the training game, but has experience driving, and wants to make sure that his trainees get practice and experience before they test to get their own rigs.
I'm writing this post in a hotel room here in Hammond, since my trainer is "local" he goes home on the weekends, so Roehl is putting me up at the hotel that I stayed in when I came for orientation. It's been a lonely weekend to be honest, all of the other guys that were in my orientation group have OTR trainers, that's what I assume anyway, since none of them are here in the hotel. Trucking isn't for everybody, I've learned that already, as a few guys in my orientation group were sent home, and after two weeks I am ready to be back in my own bed, but there is a price to pay I suppose, to do what you love.
So, it's back to the Terminal, bright and early tomorrow morning to wait for my trainer who will be finishing the load that we started Friday, and by the time he makes it back, I don't expect he'll have any service hours left on his 14 hour clock, so I'll have to wait till Tuesday at best to start driving again, and he will be off Thur.-Sun. this week so at this rate my 13 days of OTR training are not going to be completed very fast.
Until next time! Be safe and God bless!
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