Profile For Eggman

Update:

I can’t believe it’s been 3 years since I got my CDL. I still see people commenting about the five month program I participated in. I enjoyed it, and used my gi bill (or a portion of it) for that program. It helped with my mental transition. I won’t argue that it’s worth it, because now I realize nothing beats experience. I made some good friends in the process tho.

Covid caused a break in my driving career until I knew the full extent of this virus. After a little while, I started going crazy not having a job, and jumped into a wholesale food distributor local route. Delivering groceries to restaurants wasn’t what I intended to do when I picked up my CDL, but I got to say- I’m enjoying it. Lost 15 pounds since I started and it’s super nice to sleep in my bed every night and have weekends off.

Who knows where the future will take me, but wherever it is- I’ll be sure to post a little update.

Thank you for everyone who has given me support.

Really good to see you stop back, Jesse! Shame you had to leave that FX/LH job over Covid. My guy did that same job for awhile (teams, too..same deal) back in his OTR days; he's gone local/dedicated now, too. He's just a bit too 'old' to do foodservice.

You should read PapaPig's and Rob T.'s diaries; those are our 2 foodservice MASTERS up in here!

Wishing you all the best; thanks for stopping back!

~ Anne ~

Links to those diaries?

Update:

I can’t believe it’s been 3 years since I got my CDL. I still see people commenting about the five month program I participated in. I enjoyed it, and used my gi bill (or a portion of it) for that program. It helped with my mental transition. I won’t argue that it’s worth it, because now I realize nothing beats experience. I made some good friends in the process tho.

Covid caused a break in my driving career until I knew the full extent of this virus. After a little while, I started going crazy not having a job, and jumped into a wholesale food distributor local route. Delivering groceries to restaurants wasn’t what I intended to do when I picked up my CDL, but I got to say- I’m enjoying it. Lost 15 pounds since I started and it’s super nice to sleep in my bed every night and have weekends off.

Who knows where the future will take me, but wherever it is- I’ll be sure to post a little update.

Thank you for everyone who has given me support.

Update: Foodliner was an amazing company. They made sure I was trained proficiently and effectively in maneuvering a tanker. I had a lot of issues tho with home time, mostly staying out for over a month and only getting two days home. I tried resolving this issue to no avail, so I relocated to team driving with a buddy as a fed ex contractor pulling doubles. I am much happier here, as I get home time weekly, make the same amount of pay, and never have to worry about finding parking for my 10 hour break! Lol hope everyone here is doing well. Stay safe out there with this COVID19 going around, and protect yourself and others. Peace.

Hey everyone! So- I wanted to go ahead and report my updates on this school. I took my cdl exam Wednesday and passed! It was nerve wrecking- I even stalled the truck to a dead stop once near the ending. The state trooper was very kind and understanding and that helped a lot with the test.

I am excited to say that I have a job lined up with Foodliner. Hopefully I will get started within a couple of weeks.

In regards to the school- I was more or less disappointed. I was expecting a more structured approach to the learning materials- rather than just handing out a packet to read. Five months was a long time and I spent most of it twiddling my thumb day dreaming. I feel it could had been more beneficial if my instructors cared more about the classroom time than the drive time.

Fortunately I was able to clear up all issues on my MVR - which was the main reason I decided to pick a five month course. Idk how many of you actually attempted to contest stuff on your driving record- but it took me 4 months.

I had a ton of issues with finance and so on- but outside of that- it was nice to spend three hours a day for five months practicing ore trip and maneuvers as well as shifting.

Could I had learned all this in four weeks? Yes. However- I’m grateful for the five months. It also showed me how much I didn’t know. How easy it is to make a mistake. I also made some good friends. I’m grateful.

Maybe I’ll start a thread with my Foodliner training if anyone is curious.

I hope everyone is doing well- and thank you for all your input!

-Jesse

I'm starting with Schneider myself next week they seem pretty promising as a starter company.

Schneider is probably where I’m gonna start once I have my CDL- as I can transfer into the tanker division once I have some experience without switching companies.

Hola,

I’ve been in Mod2 for the past two weeks. The six hour days are split, three hours classroom and three hours application. We did bob tail straight backing for a week, then did straight backing with a trailer this entire week. Next week is driver side off set. The classroom portion has been a joke, to say the least. Lots of “down time” for one reason or another. We are not allowed to pretrip when we are out on the field because that time is “scheduled for maneuvers only” but they have been failing to let us pre trip during classroom time on a truck. Sure- we did in cab with a picture projected on the screen, some practice is better than none.

Fortunately, since I’m on the afternoon scheadule, I only have one other student training with me and we challenge each other on the pre trips every 30 mins. One time he challenged me to do the in cab backwards. Gotta have fun, right?

I also have some updates on my MVR, aparantly Washington State issued two people (myself and another bloke) the same ID number- and we have been sharing records for a few years now. They are “investigating” further and trying to take off the items that will prevent me from getting hired and some companies (Maverick already told me they wouldn’t even bring me to orientation till I fixed it). It’s been tedious as I’ve been trying to get this fixed for two months now. Thankfully, I still have a few months left of school to sort that jazz out so I’m not just sitting around with a CDL I can’t use.

All in all, it’s a slow, snail paced process. I take it for what it is, and enjoy my home time while I can. I enjoy being able to focus on maneuvers a bit longer.

I’m excited to start my career next spring.

Hope everyone is staying warm. -Eggman

Sorry I haven’t posted In a couple days. Tho not much to say , I had a few highlights of the tandem days.

Studied pre trip on equipment we won’t be tested on, and we will have to learn pretrip on another truck, of a separate brand and motor.

(We’re in the process of transitioning trucks -old to new-, a down fall of a 5 month program.)

Bright side? This way will allow me to recognize parts rather than patterns. (I am not mechanically Inclined. )

I got to drive a bobtail KW. Learning how to double clutch. Circled the yard with a team, restricted to 15mph (Tho the instructor’s 15 whas our 10. “Mission first, Saftey always!” He’d bellow).

I’ll tell ya. I’ve never learned how to drive a clutch. I literally Killed the engine first clutch attempt. I progressively got better through the rounds, and something kept nagging at me.

*Even tho I’ve studied it- that means nothing without application.

Continuing:

I finally got my permit! (Yay!)

I procrastinated on my HAZMAT Final and had to sit my practice time out to answer each question and provide the page number in the cdl handguide, even tho I passed the hazmat with a 92 for the permit. This basically reduced my practice time to 2 hours. (Moral of the story? Don’t procrastinate kids- or you’ll have to play catch-up.)

Over all- not a bad couple days. I’ve been reconsidering my rookie year company. Should I really do dry van/reefer my first year, or could I accomplish the necessary experience safely in a flat bed? Because specializing in a load helps narrow down prospect companies (Whicn they all typically carry dry van. A smaller selection helps prevent being overwhelmed by all the possible choices available to start my first year).

With that being said- next week starts Mode 2.

Happy Thanksgiving! -Eggman

Began Pretrip today. Not being mechanically inclined, it was head scratching reading it and doing it initially. I have always heard of the alternator- but never knew what it looked like until today.

Since it’s a short week- it looks like we will be doing this for three days.

I’ll keep ya posted.

-Eggman

Thank you for you advice, Old School.

-Eggman

G-Town

Thanks for that thread. I appreciate the advice.

-Eggman