CFI Tales...

[VitoCorleone99]

First of all, thanks to everybody for the wealth of information on this site. It has proven very insightful and beneficial for me as I've gone through the process.

I will be sharing the experiences as I continue here in Missouri and then proceed out to the road with CFI. The information might not be terribly valuable, but this is about as rustic a place as you will ever find this city boy and I'm bored. If the info is useful to you that's great. If not, that's fine too. I have a pretty level-headed, if not cynical, view of the world at large so you can rest assured that I am not a CFI cheerleader. I also don't go through life thinking somebody owes me something so you won't likely hear any CFI bashing either. I'll try to post at least once a day for the next week so I can capture some of the thoughts as this initial week progresses.

So, I received my confirmation from Christine last Thursday after taking the CDL test on Wednesday. My first lesson learned this weekend was to never travel by Greyhound again. To get to Joplin on Sunday I had to leave Detroit on Saturday. We travelled through the night and on into Sunday, arriving at the Holiday Inn around 5:30 Sunday night. The trip was a nightmare for a number of reasons. The legroom is marginally better than that of an airplane and I stand 6'2" tall so it was tight to begin with. When people decided to recline and sleep it was actually a painful experience. The stop in Indianapolis was okay as I headed over to White Castle and hung out with some local drunks. After leaving there, we hit every pothole on the way to St. Louis. Each time we hit a pothole, one of the air conditioning blades began scraping against something metal. Every seat on the bus was filled. Between the tight quarters and the noise, sleep was out of the question. Then, as we began to board our bus out of St. Louis, we were told that those of us in the rear of the line would have to wait for the next bus which was "just around the corner." We stood in the sun for an hour and a half, listened to various falsehoods from Greyhound employees who didn't bother to coordinate their stories, then got on another bus headed for Springfield. When we got to Springfield, the folks who had left on the original St. Louis bus were being held up pending our arrival. Apparently enough people had ended their trips in Springfield to allow all of us to be jammed back onto a single bus. The hour and a half to Joplin seemed like an eternity, but we made it.

I had big plans to order a pizza and root against the White Sox after hearing that my Tigers had already won. After I got out of the shower I fell asleep. I slept through five phone calls from friends asking how the trip went. I slept through to my morning wake-up call at 5:30.

I went downstairs and checked out of the Holiday Inn and caught the shuttle to the CFI office. We got over there at about 6:15 and were told that roll call would be at 6:45. My first thought was that an extra half hour of sleep would have been nice, but I bit my tongue. The day was filled with paperwork, a DOT physical at a local medical clinic, a quick lunch, more paperwork, some screening interviews (which cost us one of our classmates), some more paperwork, and a bus ride to Booneslick Lodge. We got here around 6:30 or so tonight.

My random thoughts on day one:
Greyhound sucks; The CFI terminal is an impressive sight as you approach on what I would think of as a pretty desolate stretch of road; The size of the new driver class coming in (25) is probably on the borderline of being too big for these guys to handle; The group is as diverse as one could imagine - ethnically, geographically, physically, occupationally, etc.; The majority of fact-finding and disclosures could probably be handled before somebody makes the trek to Missouri only to be sent home the first day. Some things likely incur a cost to the company so they don't spend on them until you show up, but others seem to be unnecessary at this point; I was a little surprised by the amount of CYA documentation that we had to sign today, but I guess it's a sign of the times; Greyhound really sucks; The number of semi trucks on the road in this part of the country blows away anything I've seen in the Detroit area; I was looking forward to some kind of southern hospitality while I was here, but we have a Taco Bell, Burger King, and Shoney's from which to choose; If one were quick to judge by appearance and accent, the stereotype of the redneck trucker would be easy to adopt. Most of the folks here seem to be pretty sharp, but there is a preponderance of the downhome drawl; The insurance is pretty cheap, but the coverage is woefully short of what a person coming from the financial sector has grown accustomed to; The DOT physical was much more thorough than the one I got in Detroit, so it took a certain level of toughness not to let the physician notice my cracked ankle; The atmosphere in Joplin shows that the folks at CFI either really care about people or fake it well enough to keep you around for day two;

Well, I guess that's it for today. We'll see what tomorrow holds.

1) Agreed; Greyhound sucks donkey **** for the people who are riding. It might, however, be a good gig for drivers. You might want to look into that.

2)I hate orientations that start at 6 in the morning etc. In fact, i hate orientation in general.


Definitely keep us updated; Some of us are definitely interested (some due to investigative purposes).

[yoopr]

Does Greyhound suck? :P

[VitoCorleone99]

Does Greyhound suck? :P

Well it's funny that you ask that question yoopr. As a matter of fact, Greyhound does suck.

[Flashmann]

Does Greyhound suck? :P

Absolutely........

[Useless]

Does Greyhound suck? :P

IF YOU THINK THAT GREYHOUND SUCKS IN ENGLISH, PRESS 1 NOW!!

IF YOU THINK THAT GREYHOUND SUCKS EN ESPANOL, PRESS 2 NOW!!

IF YOU THINK THAT GREYHOUND SUCKS IN ENGLISH AND EN ESPANOL, CALL SOUTHWEST AIRLINES NOW!!!

[sweepwing]

.........If you express your opinion that airline travel sucks, immediately step over to the screening area. Expression of opinion has no place in the post 9/11 world.

[apache34]

SURE DO

[Adam9315]

Good luck with CFI. I look forward to reading about it.

[movinit]

some screening interviews (which cost us one of our classmates

I'm curious about the "screening interviews" as most companies do these prior to you coming to orieintation and it is interesting that CFI would wait until you get there. What did it entail?

[VitoCorleone99]

I'm curious about the "screening interviews" as most companies do these prior to you coming to orieintation and it is interesting that CFI would wait until you get there. What did it entail?

This was one of the things that stood out to me as having the potential to be greatly improved. Essentially we went into a room with a member of the safety department who proceeded to ask us exactly the same questions that the recruiters had asked us before we came to Missouri. Any inconsistencies would then have to be investigated and potentially disqualify a candidate from being employed.

I can use my case as an easy example. I have received two speeding tickets in my life, one when I was 18 or 19 years old and another around four or five years ago. I don't remember exactly when I got either one and neither is reflected on my driving record due to the amount of time that has elapsed. I speculated to the safety guy that the most recent one was probably in 2002 and the prior one maybe 1995. Then I had to go to another lady to review my file in the computer system (SSN, phone #, etc.) and get an employee ID number. One of the fields was for past driving violations and showed a speeding ticket with the fine paid in 2001. What that means is that I told my recruiter the same general version but must have, at the time of the phone call, guessed 2001 rather than 2002. So now we have an inconsistency right? I'm speculating that this isn't a problem for me since I made it very clear to both people that I was only guessing at the date. But what if it were something more serious, maybe a DUI or a third or fourth speeding ticket? Then, for 'lying' in the interview, one would be asked to leave. I am not sure that it's okay to subject a person to that Greyhound ride (which sucked by the way) only to disqualify them on the basis of information that could be obtained before they got here.

The guy who got sent home yesterday swore that he told his recruiter exactly the same story that got him whacked after he got here. He could be stretching the truth or he could be completely legit. I have no idea. But if they had any hunch that something on his record might disqualify him, bringing him to Joplin was unethical in my opinion.

[Rev.Vassago]

:::::UPDATE::::


Greyhound still sucks.

[Bugsy]

I'm glad that Christine was able to hire you.

I've had my CDL since 2001 driving Line trucks, Bucket and Digger, plus pulling trailers with up to 50 foot poles on them. Started Sage Tech yesterday just to up grade and get rid of the "O" restriction. Christine said they wouldn't hire me until I get 6 month of experience with another company OTR. I'm 45, just got laid off after 19 yrs on the job, sorry guess I'm complaining. They "were" my first choice but since then I found better.

Good Luck

[VitoCorleone99]

Day two began with breakfast at the lodge then a 7am bus ride to Crowder College. We went into the classroom, got a run-down on what to expect for the rest of the week, filled out some paperwork, and watched some videos. Much to my surprise, mine was one of the few trucking schools attended by anyone in my group to have gone through what is known as 'entry level driver training.' Such topics as log books, defensive driving, proper health and safety habits, load securement, and such were a part of our curriculum but many of the students hadn't gone through that kind of material. I had already seen the exact same three videos at my school in Detroit that we were shown this morning. There are several more in the series so I imagine we'll get to them in due time.

At around 10:00 we headed out to the yard to begin going through CFI's version of the pretrip. Much to our delight, the phrase "not bent, cracked, broken, or loose... properly mounted with no leaks and no missing parts' can permanently be deleted from our vocabularies. The version of the pretrip that we will be expected to know is a much more practical version, based on common sense. If you're doing it every day, you will notice when something isn't right and you'll know how to respond. The little details that the state examiners love to nitpick are not the relevant issue. The relevant issue is whether or not your truck and trailer are safe.

After lunch we went back to the trucks and groups of students began to go out on the range for a quick drive. The folks at the college needed to see where each of us was in terms of driving safety and shifting ability. They went overboard in trying to make it clear that we should not feel like we are expected to be perfect. We are new drivers and will grind a gear here and there. We will take a turn wider than we need to every now and then. We don't need to worry about it, just relax and drive. The Kenworth T2000's seated five passengers and the driver, so groups of five started disembarking. For the second day in a row it seemed like the size of our group was more than the people in charge were equipped to handle. In this case a number of the college's instructors are currently on vacation so we had three instructors, one of whom had to administer CDL tests to some recent graduates of the regular CDL program. The range was interesting to me. My road training was spent on the streets of Detroit during the afternoon rush hour, so this old army base seemed pretty tame. Some of the turns were extra tight, requiring a buttonhook which again was nothing new for me. I went through Greektown with my instructor as he kept picking tighter and tighter streets to see what I could handle. I had to back up once when I came around a one way corner and found myself behind a double-parked van. Today's driving, by comparison, was child's play. It took a few times around to get the hang of the shifting. The KW has a much more sensitive accelerator than the dinosaurs that I had driven. The trans was a 13 speed, which at this point in our training is really just an 8 speed, so the gear pattern was new. The spread is around 300rpm, while I had been used to more like 500. The turning radius was crazy wide. None of this was a big deal at all, a few practice shifts and a few turns pulled it all together and it was easy.

We had dinner at the college at 5pm then headed back to the lodge.

Today's random thoughts:

The people who have worked as truck drivers with other companies seem to be the worst drivers on the range, which is interesting; The folks at Crowder College seem to really run a good program; The cafeteria was about 1/3 the size of my high school cafeteria; People seem to have a hard-on about float shifting, but I learned to double clutch and that's what I'll do until I find a reason to do otherwise; I sleep 100% better when I don't have a roommate; Neosho, MO is on the middle of freaking nowhere;

[thisisamazing]

I've been with CFI for a couple of months, and I suspect I'm one of the few drivers that haven't been through CFI's "boot-camp". I came in with seven months of experience, and I was the only one in my orientation class in Laredo. In a way, I wish I would've attended orientation in Joplin--I was a bumblin' idiot my first month because I had no idea how CFI did things. Ah, well...

Best of luck, fella! You're coming into this with a clear head--I think you'll do well. Keep us updated...

[Adam9315]

If you ever have some downtime, go to Sikeston, MO and eat at the famous 'Lambert's Cafe". i think it's about 300 miles from Joplin. Great southern food, and they throw fresh homemade rolls to you. And they give you huge mugs of your favorite drink. You will get a taste of good o'l southern hospitaltiy there. But be prepared to wait in line. They are ALWAYS packed.

[samael9]

Hey Vito......

Funny. It's cool reading of your CFI experiences. I moved here to Joplin from San Diego to drive for these guys. The odd thing is, once I got here and began to filter into the community, I found that I didn't want to leave. Hence, I chose to open my own business instead, doing home remodeling.

I was really itchin' to drive for them, too. Great outfit, nice rigs and yes, their headquarters does appear like the home to the grail.

On dining: Check out Cheddar's. It's on 32nd on the south side of the street just before you hit Range Line. Turn left (if you're coming from CFI) into the hotel drive. It's back a ways, but you'll see it. The food is great, prices are more than reasonable and the wait staff is wonderful.

Johnny Carino's. Rustic Italian. Simple, marvelous, lots of garlic and olive oil. Their marinara is magnificent; sauteed tomatoes and nicely spiced. Nothing tastes like ketchup. The Caprese salad, tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella with balsamic reduction is through the roof, Godfather..... It's at the north end of Range Line on the right. I practically live there. (I am a New Yorker, BTW) You got a problem wit dat; huh? Oh yes, Boulevard unfiltered wheat beer is amazing. Made in KC, this stuff is light, but not too, crisp and really hits the spot. Of course, they have Moretti and Peroni in bottles, just in case.........

The Colonel's Pancake House. Mid Range Line on left heading north. This is the quintessential Joplin dining experience. It's a dive, but a great one. They do breakfast and lunch. World's finest blueberry pancakes, bar none. Just don't be in a hurry when you get there. It's Joplin's second oldest restaurant.

The Red Onion downtown on Main St. Pretentious (slightly) upscale eatery. Go for the desserts. The entrees try to be Metro, but miss the boat by a little ways.

Jim Bob's. Another Range Line icon. BBQ par excellence. 'Nuff said on that one.

Shakes. Range Line on the way into Wal-Fart. Best soft serve ice cream this side of Carvel's.

In the words of the immortal Julia Child; Bon Appetit!

Clint

[BigDawg]

Lamberts Cafe has a rest.in Springfield,Mo on U.S.65 south of Springfield bout 5 or 10 miles or so and like the other poster said you will not regret it damm good food.WARNING go very hungry like you are starving cause you get what you pay for and more.

[VitoCorleone99]

Thanks for the dining tips guys. I'm just not cut out to live on cafeteria food. Unfortunately I don't have any transportation right now so I'll have to file away that info (I arrived via Greyhound, which completely sucked). I think I really need something fried to get my mind back on track. Apparently there's a place within walking distance called 'Daddy Jim's' or something like that. If that doesn't sound like a real redneck food place, I don't know what is. I moved out of Georgia in 1987 and haven't had a quality fried steak since then, so I guess I'll take a shot tonight.

[BigDawg]

Damm Vito Lamberts has the best Chicken Fried Steak W.of the Miss.and it is hugh also melts in your mouth tough break.