Profile For Jhill365

I have gone through two other years of the "dreaded roadcheck" and every year, it was just business as usual. It is just hyped up by the media or maybe it is just because I basically just stay in the southeastern states. Who knows, but as long as you are doing everything like I hope you are doing it on your normal days you will not have a problem.

Hello, Chris Here are my answers to your questions numbered the way you had them in your post. 1. sorry, but I can't help you as far as the Fed-Ex program, because I don't know anything about that. 2. From what I understand, if you apply for one of the training programs and they invite you to orientation, as long as you don't lie about something on your application and pass all tests and physicals. 3. The best way to find out about the sickle cell anemia is to find a doctor that gives DOT physicals and ask them about it. 4. If your physician does DOT physicals, you can have him do one just to be sure you are good to go, but I know the companies that have their own training programs have their doctor do another physical. 5. As long as you let your dispatcher know, I am pretty sure you can take hometime where ever you want to, but you can always ask the recruiter and they will let you know. 6. Trucks will come equipped with the bare minimum in most cases, so just storage space and a bed/beds depending on if it is a condo truck or a mid-roof. Some companies will install or let you have inverters installed in the truck up to a certain limit on the wattage. Some will have APU's to help with climate control and keeping the batteries charged when you are sitting for periods of time. Some companies do have built-in refrigerators, but I do not believe many do.

Hope those answers helped you some. Hopefully some people with some more experience with the company sponsored will come by to help you more.

I have gone over 2 hours on my 14 before at my old company because I was in Arkansas on I-40 where they have a 20 to 30 mile stretch that they are doing construction in. They have Jersey barriers creating only one lane each direction and someone had an accident in the middle of that, so to clear it, a tow truck had to back up to get to the wreck. I never heard a word about it, I just put in a note for safe haven and went to the first possible place to park.

Hamrhed12, I drove for them for almost two years. As far as the phone interview, it is basically the recruiter going over your application with you and then patching you through to Medical so they can ask you some general questions for insurance purposes. It is not a big deal at all.

Sorry, Starcar, I have been busy lately the way that I have been running since I started with them. I will try to check in more. LOL

Big M Transport out of Blue Mountain, MS

Just figured I would post an update on my new company since I have been with them for a month now. They are very driver focused and they have been keeping me running as much as I want to. I even went home on March 27th and was supposed to go back out on March 29th to deliver the load that I had in my trailer. On the morning of the 28th, I had a kidney stone attack me and made me have to go to the emergency room. It did not pass until last Thursday and the company was very understanding and told me that they would only send someone after the truck if they absolutely had to. They told me to call them when I could come back out and they would reschedule my delivery. Since I have come back out last Friday morning, I have had my dog with me too since they have a free pet policy. I love having my dog with me for company. It is also nice to have the APU that they have on all of their trucks, I have used it for a couple of warm nights and it will freeze you out if you set it on 65. The big push bumper was tested the day I went home last time because while I was getting dressed in the morning, I felt the truck get rocked not once, but twice. As soon as I was decent, I opened the curtain a little bit and watched a US Express owner operator trying to back out of a parking spot that he should have backed into to start with and he was trying to back into an empty spot beside me so he could swing out. He was still trying to get out even after hitting me. I stopped him, got him to park, and called the local police out to do a private property accident report. Thanks to my push bumper, all that was damaged was some dents on the bumper and it broke one of the clips that held the bumper up. Luckily, I was only 15 miles from the terminal, so I just drove it straight back to the terminal and they replaced the clip. If I did not have the push bumper, I would have to have been towed and needed the hood replaced. Oh well, just figured I would give everyone an update. Sorry it has been a while.

That worked great, Brett. Thank you for the help.

Here are some pictures of my truck that I was able to post after Brett put up a link with instructions on how to post pictures from photobucket. Thank you, Brett.

Just an update, since finishing orientation Wednesday afternoon, I had a load to leave out Thursday morning and as of tonight, I have completed about 2100 miles on the odometer since I left the terminal. Headed on my third delivery in the morning in Cincinnati, OH. I got assigned a 2012 Mack Pinnacle with 187,000 miles on it. I am enjoying it here so far, and the best part is I have an APU and a company installed refrigerator so I can actually keep food and drinks cold. I also have a company installed 2500 watt inverter under my bunk so I could probably find a small microwave to bring when I go home if I wanted to. This company is very safety-oriented, every time you leave the yard or come in the yard, you are supposed to take the truck and trailer into the shop and they will do a level 1 inspection on it while it is in there before you leave the bay. They also have very high standards for the drivers, which is a good thing in my opinion. Some examples of that are that if you have an accident that is obviously your fault, you are responsible for paying the deductible for the insurance. Also, if you are convicted of one speeding ticket for 15 mph or more over the speed limit, you are automatically terminated. If you have one ticket for less than 15 mph over, you are put on probation and your truck is turned down 3 mph from 68 to 65, the second ticket, your truck is turned down another 3 mph and the third ticket is automatic termination. I think I found a good landing spot to stay for a long time after leaving Schneider.