I am officially heading to orientation with Knight Refrigerated in Lakeland FL on Monday morning. Looking forward to getting back out OTR again, and can't wait to start my new career with KNight!

 

Keep us posted on how it goes. Good luck

 

Scary start. Yard locked up till 705 with a 0700 start time. Once we get in, the office looks like a converted single family residence! Hoping for something too get better quick!

 

Monday morning orientation was scheduled to start at 0700. I arrived at 0630 and saw no cars and no activity in the yard. A few tractors and trailers inside a fenced area with a locked gate and access pad, but no activity. I see a very small "building" next to the fenced yard, but no activity there. There are a few of us sitting outside the fenced area with no clue where to go. 0705 a few cars start arriving and going behind the building through another driveway, so we go back there and find a locked door with key card access. Finally got inside the building at 0710, then sat around till 1400 while 1 person at a time did the pee test / hair sample extraction. At about 0900 a driver started doing road tests which took each of the 9 orientation guy's about 40 minutes to complete. Lunch was provided, pizza pizza from Little Ceasar's, and we finally got into a training room at 1400 where we watched powerpoint till about 1545. Pretty generic message from CEO, macro's, sexual harassment policy, drugs and alcohol, and we are issued an employee handbook. Released to the Motel 6 at 1545 and told to be back in at 0800 for day two.

Returned on Tuesday at 0745 for day 2 and found everyone sitting around the "drivers lounge" just shooting the bull. 1 guy is noticeably absent so the recruiter/hr/trainer attempts to call him. Apparently he missed the bus because on Monday the driver said be in the motel office by 0800. He was in the office by 0745, but the bus driver left early and was gone before 0735. So the recruiter/hr/trainer is now running back to the motel to get him while we watch more videos about accident reporting and termination policies. At 1015 we go to a chiropractors office for the DOT physical and fitness/endurance tests. This runs till we go back to the terminal at 1445 where we get some chicken and are then released at 1545.

So after 2 days of orientation all that is left is videos and powerpoint for day 3. The recruiter/hr/trainer is saying that he is going to try and get everyone hired on and assigned a tractor on Wednesday, but it may take some of Thursday to get through everyone. The board shows that 11 people were scheduled for this orientation class, but only 9 showed on day 1. At the close of day 2 it seems that everyone has passed the DOT Physical and I would assume the Drug test since we are all still here and coming back on Wednesday.

So far everything seems to be pretty standard. Since we have spent a lot of time in the "drivers lounge", it's smaller than my Motel 6 room and you all know how small that is, there have been a few drivers coming through. I usually try to stay away from the companies drivers lounge because I get tired of hearing the same old whining about how everyone hates this place. This lounge is no exception and 2 of the 3 drivers that we have had to listen to are griping about what they do to get around the EOBR and how they spend hours on end chasing down an empty trailer! I take these drivers stories with a grain of salt because as we all know drivers love to gripe and complain while not doing a damn thing to fix the problem!

Hoping to get a tractor issued on Wednesday. If all 9 of us get hired they will be a few tractors short. This afternoon I counted 8 tractors in the yard and at least 2 of those have drivers in them. I see a lot of Volvos, 1 International Pro Star, 3 Pete 386's and 1 Pete 387. Apparently they are phasing out the short nosed 386's and getting a few of the 387's. Some of you may recall my experience at Swift once I got into a Pro Star with the stabilitrac malfunctioning. I may just have to request a different unit if they give me a ProStar. I really want to run, not complain and be a good company man, but there is NO way I can be comfortable in a Pro Star after Swift!

I will keep you all updated on day 3, and will give my honest opinion of Knight Refrigerated!

 

Day 3 was some EOBR instruction, all via Powerpoint and absolutely no hands on with a real Qualcom unit. Next we watched the standard Smith System video and were split into 2 groups for Smith System practical application in a Dodge Caravan. This took up the remainder of the day and everyone was released at 1500. I was pulled aside at the end and informed that "we did not collect enough hair". I keep my hair very short and apparently when they collected the first sample they did not take enough. So this time they took body hair from my forearm.

I told the collector to get all he needed, I got nothing to hide! He got a big ball from both of my forearmes and sent the sample in to the lab in Indianapolis. He said it would be Friday morning before we get the results. So Thursday was a really long day of just sitting in the Motel all day, with a few short trips about town. Friday morning the recruiter calls back and said he still didn't get enough hair! I report back to the terminal where the recruiter tells me he needs another sample, but has the ok to hire me on and get me in the system now. Of course, if anything comes back on the test............ I assured him again that I am not worried and he said neither am I!

So this time we take all of my underarm hair, as well as a chunk of chest hair. After about an hour I have my Drivers ID, badge, Comdata card and my DOT Physical. Now there are no trucks available for the refer division in Lakeland. The 4 drivers for the refer side are flying to Phoenix AZ to pick up new Volvos. The travel agent is arranging for airfare, but we will not leave out till Monday am. The DM and Recruiter send us home, or to the hotel and tell us they will send the flight confirmation as soon as it comes in.

So I take the 2 hour drive back home for the weekend. Need to repack for a flight now and decide what I can and can not take! No flight confirmation comes in on Friday, so Saturday morning I call the DM who informs me that he is not getting me a flight until after the drug test results come in. I tell him that this is not what I was told on Friday, and he explains that the company is not gonna spend money on a flight till they have the results!

So, I am getting a good run around. Probably won't get the hair test results till late Monday or early Tuesday, so looks like I am sitting till at least Wednesday!

I really want to get started here, because I really do think that Knight Refrigerated is going to be a good fit for me............

 

Ya shoulda dropped yer draws and said ...take all ya want!!

 

They sound like a screw up company from the start. They can't get a drug test done correctly, and they are already lying to you.

 

Hair sample? really? wtf? And i thought companies requiring a sleep study for sleep apnea was intrusive...

 

It is more difficult to fool the lab with a hair sample than urine.

 

I don't have a problem with the hair sample, and I know for a fact that other companies are doing this as well. This is a new program for Knight, apparently they started it last month.

As for the company lying to me, I think it's a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is saying. The recruiter got everything cleared with HR in Phoenix, but apparently the dispatcher didn't understand that.