Truck Driving Jobs

iowarider · #1 11-11-2006, 01:00 PM

Well here goes. Decision is made, bought a nice heavy carhart coat and pair of good boots for winter and am packing for orientation. Will be meeting with some other folk at North Liberty Iowa. We will share a company rented vehicle to Scottsdale Indian for orientation. Wish me luck and I will do my best to keep you posted.

Because I did not have any experience beyond the 30 days with CRST, I was accepted as recent student and will need to go out with a trainer for four weeks. That seems reasonable to me.

devildice · #2 11-11-2006, 01:03 PM

Good luck

iowarider · #3 11-11-2006, 02:43 PM

oh, forgot, something some of you thinking about this company may want to know. I still ow on my training from CRST, didn't stay with them long enough to work off the school tuition, see CRST diaries.

Transamerica said they would pay off my tuition as well as a starting wage of .29/mile. I did not expect that and Werner, the other company I was looking at, did not offer it.

iowarider · #4 11-13-2006, 07:02 PM

well, not a very good start to report. I was within 20 minutes of North Liberty and got a call from my recruiter. "John what happened, Indiana says you were a no show"? Told him that I had been told I was to meet on Monday to go to Indiana with some others at North Liberty. I was thinking, OK veterans day holiday the trainers were starting Tuesday. Well turns out that was not the case I was to be their Monday and meet Sunday at North Liberty.

A call to the woman that gave me the information, she was very nice about it, very apologetic, re-assured me everything was 100% go and she would get back to me. Ten minutes later find out, I will not need to wait until the 26th and meet at North Liberty to start the next class. Oh well, nothing to do but say yes. They are going to re-imburse me for the mileage so that at least is something.

iowarider · #5 11-26-2006, 04:07 AM

well here we go again. I'm on my way to take a shuttle from North Liberty Iowa on Sunday November 26th to be at scottsburg Indiana Monday for orientation. Wish me luck, I'm nervous about the company driving test as it has been near a year since being in a truck. Hope they take that into account. I'll keep you all up to date.

classicxl · #6 11-26-2006, 11:16 AM

good luck

AmEagleDrvr · #7 11-26-2006, 01:24 PM

Don't worry, it'll come back to you. They won't expect perfection after your layoff--thats what the 4 wks training is for. Good luck and keep us posted.

Cluggy619 · #8 11-26-2006, 02:06 PM

Good luck pal.

iowarider · #9 12-03-2006, 04:10 AM

11;00 PM DEC. 2. Just got in from training. Short note tonight than I'll fill you in after some sleep. First, I MADE IT. Will be out on the road for training as soon as my driving instructor and I can catch each other. These people are great. All the trainer were very patient, yea you get growled at when needed, but all in all good folk. They have done all that I was told they would. No bills for the motel, fed us three meals a day, every other day rotation, backing and road with the other half being class room study and company orientation. Bus picked us up 6:45 am, at the motel, brought us back at 6:00 PM welcome to trucking :lol: I actually got more range and road time here than during my so called CDL training.

First 4 days, overcast but temperatures in the 60s to 70s, than Friday, poor folk on the range worked in rain, snow, 20 degrees and 20 to 40 mph wind. Did I mention, welcome to trucking? Good school, Ill catch you later

iowarider · #10 12-03-2006, 11:13 PM

OK, hear is the breakdown on training.

DAY ONE
, paper work, 12 hrs of it. Just like anywhere. Bring a birth certificate, one that they can feel the embossed seal. Bring a copy of your 10 year work history, doesn't matte if you gave it to the recruiter or company over the Internet and they say all is in order, they will want you to re-write it and you MUST HAVE all street addresses, phone numbers, past supervisors, etc. and it better match what you gave them the first time. One of the guys added additional detail and almost got a trip home for it.

DAY TWO
half the class goes to driving range for backing skills practice. 90 degree dock, 45 degree dock, and double offset dock. All tractors in 1st gear, lights on, hazards on, keep your foot off the fuel pedal. idle only. man on man how slow can you go. But safety first, I managed to mess up all three, but they were their to walk me through. Man I was hoping it would come back. Then again my previous trainer only let me drive dock to dock and I got know backing experience. Well that is being corrected.