Well all I am home from orientation from that big city of chicago. Went to Jb's orientation which is really very advanced from the last time I was there in louisville. A lot of it was on the computer. As a matter of fact I dont think I actually signed anything with pen and paper. Maybe I did oh well..... Well Ill give yall the bad news first, I didnt get a truck. Apparently they dont have any available for the account I am going on. So I am sitting back at home making 50 a day until a truck comes open supposedly next week.

the orientation for the dedicated drivers wasnt really that good. In my case I guess ill be more of a OTR driver but running for mainly one account, where 99% of all the other drivers in there were going to be home everyday or every other day. So the orientation was geared towards them and I was kind of left in the dark and having to spend breaks asking questions about my situation. All in all though the orientation was quite stressless other than the above problem.

48 state and canada, home as soon as 11 days and home for at least 3. 35 a border crossing, 20 per hazmat, 38 a mile. As long as they can get me some miles and a truck to go with it I think itll work fine.

Oh well 50 a day to play with the kids and do a little cooking and cleaning and call in once a day to check in and see what my status is. I feel like a underpaid house keeper or nanny. well Ill post more when I have more to post but will check often.

Please keep us informed on how things work for you. :wink:

Good luck.

Well its been a while since I posted so I thought Id give an update. Ive been calling in everyday since orientation and actually got a paycheck on thursday as promised. I got a call on wed. evening from my dispatcher telling me that he was moving me up a few spots because he had a truck left at the Kansas City Yd. by a driver that got hurt. It had a load on it and everything so I said whats the catch? He said he would rent a car that I had to pick up at the Airport and I had to put the gas in and hed reimburse me and drive to KC and pick up the truck and the load on thursday. I said ok no problem. Went to KC in the ICE and SNOW to pick up the truck roads werent too bad I took a little bit of a northern route to avoid a lot of the ice but still got in it. I got to KC yard and got the keys to the truck and it wouldnt start. They had to replace the starter. and they gave the load to someone else to get it rolling beings the starter went out. Well they came out of pocket for a hotel for the night and I went back over friday morning to the terminal and the truck was done about 1030 or so, so I got to move in. Truck runs good and aside from a small bend in the fairing on the driver side it looks good for a snowball.

Well here comes the good part The only two trailers I can take are both routed to go be fixed in the shop. One of which is in the shop setting on jackstands with the tandems off. the other is still setting outside. I waited all day for the trailer in the shop and about 400pm they tell me both trailers are a no go that day. about 2pm they had given me a load to pickup b4 10 pm 106 miles away. so anyway my dispatcher calls the shop and puts a bug up there behinds and tells them one of the trailers HAS to roll (aparently on the dedicated account you can only use certain trailers). to make a long story short, they get the trailer done at 730pm as soon as it was done I hooked to it and was out the gate by 750. (remember Ive been off the road since jul and am still a little slow yet till I get back used to it.) I pulled into the reciever at 955 and thankfully they went ahead and loaded me. Now Im setting at home and have to deliver in Ohio on monday then up to Where all the dispatchers and account managers set in ohio to get a account specific orientation. (Im told it wont last too long) Its basically how to run the heating units and reefers on the trailers and what to do and not to do at the customer.

Well a lot of bull in the begining hopefully this will be the last of it. I think its going to work out good here. No truck payment ins fuel to pay for this time. It sure did feel good putting fuel in knowing I wasnt paying for it. Hopefully after this orientation in ohio is done and I get some drive tires on the truck all the bs will be over. I hate these dang slicks I got on now but at least its not supposed to snow.

One thing Ive learned this is truckin and you gotta put up with a fair amount of bs. things wont always go as planned.

Well for now Im off gonna spend some time with the wife and kids and get some sleep b4 I gotta pull out tomorrow. be safe and keep the shiny side up.