Profile For Ginger Twist

This is Bourbon. We adopted her from a local rescue 2 weeks ago. She is home with me getting trained to go on the truck with hubby and I. She got her first taste of the truck today when we dropped him off from his home time. She did good at the truck stop, didn’t seem skittish of all the noise and big rigs. She sniffed around inside the truck and in no time was laying down and falling asleep with the vibration as he warmed up the truck. Hoping by September she will be ready for the road, she is just shy of 3 months right now. Anyone else take a young pup on the road and how did they do? I think until she is older I will have to be on the road with them, drivers have enough to deal with without having to worry about a puppy crawling under his feet while driving.

This is Bourbon. We adopted her from a local rescue 2 weeks ago. She is home with me getting trained to go on the truck with hubby and I. She got her first taste of the truck today when we dropped him off from his home time. She did good at the truck stop, didn’t seem skittish of all the noise and big rigs. She sniffed around inside the truck and in no time was laying down and falling asleep with the vibration as he warmed up the truck. Hoping by September she will be ready for the road, she is just shy of 3 months right now. Anyone else take a young pup on the road and how did they do? I think until she is older I will have to be on the road with them, drivers have enough to deal with without having to worry about a puppy crawling under his feet while driving.

Rainy you mentioned looking at the reviews for shippers/receivers. Where do you find those? Also, does anyone dealing with Tyson (window appointments ex: 12:01 - 24:59) wait till the end of the time window to pick up (23:00 - 24:00) Have found they notoriously don’t have the product to load until the deadline at the end of the window. Clocks always running out when get there at beginning of window time and have to sit, running out the 14 hr clock. Do you call ahead and ask? We have, been told load is ready only to start the clock, get there and told nope not ready. 🤷🏻‍♀️

“or find ways to encourage the dock workers to get things done a little more quickly than they might have otherwise”

So what is the trick for this. We just did a live load with a 3pm appt time and we didn’t get unloaded until 4:30 am this morning and next load had a 10 am pick up this morning. Basically took 10hr break at the dock sleeping a few hours here and there.

She could get out at any Truck Stop, call the Non Emergency Police number for that area and they will help her get home. She would be considered Homeless and since there is a shortage of homeless beds/ shelters they will most likely give her a bus ticket home or hook her up with an organization that will help her.

National Human Trafficking Hotline phone number...

1 (888) 373-7888

USE IT when you see a POSSIBLY underage and TRAFFICKED young girl (or boy) at a truck stop.

Dave

I worked with teenage girls who were victims of Human Trafficking for years. I can assure you that 99% of these girls do not choose to sell their bodies to strange men for sometimes 30 times a day and then hand over every dime to an abusive pimp. Most of the adult “Lot Lizzards” have been being trafficked since they were in their young teens and are still being forced. There is most likely a pimp somewhere watching her every move and keeping track of how much money she had better come back with or else. These women, and yes sometimes Men and Boys, are trapped in this lifestyle and are usually what is termed as “throwaway kids” from within the Foster Care System. They don’t usually have a family who they can turn to for help and eventually feel that the Pimp is the best they are gonna get as far as stability goes in life. They end up with Stockholm Syndrome which is why they stay in The Life for so long before they get the chance or the courage to get away from it. So Yes, Please Please Please call the Hotline if you see anyone who seems underage or if you feel they are being forced to do this even if they are over 18, which they will all claim to be if asked. Follow your gut and call, only takes a few minutes and can be anonymous.

My Hubby just went through a bad trainer with Prime this week, very unhealthy and unsafe. He hesitated just like you are for 3 weeks until he finally got out of the truck when they went to Springfield during a trip. Everyone he spoke to could not have been nicer about getting him a new trainer. The head of the Fleet managers, current Fleet Manager and the new Fleet Manager all met with him within hours and were very apologetic about the working conditions and the bad trainer. They were grateful someone came forward with how this trainer treated trainees. Again they could not have been nicer, gave hubby all of their contact infos and told him to contact them anytime if needed. He met his new trainer within an hour of the meeting and could not be happier, great guy. He now wishes he had requested a new trainer in the beginning. This guy you have is definitely crossing the line over into your personal life, I would absolutely let them know what he and his buddy are up to ASAP. Good Luck

I used to live on the ridge top of a mountain a mile high in elevation and some of the tricks we used when things would freeze over, which it did often in winter. Keep a pray bottle with 3 parts vinegar/ 1 part water in it, spray outside of windshield and windows and it will keep then from getting a layer of ice on them overnight. Wipe windshield wiper blades with alcohol wipes, it will keep them from sticking to the window. Keep a small bottle of hand sanitizer in a spray bottle. If door and locks freeze spray sanitizer in it to unfreeze. Keep a small bag of kitty litter, if stuck on ice throw some under the tires to give traction to get rolling. It will save you from having to ruin your car mats. Spray Cooking Spray along the rubber and the cracks of your doors to keep them from freezing shut overnight. Rub headlights with toothpaste and rinse with warm water, keeps headlights clear in cold weather. Rub in car wax after to keep snow and ice from sticking to the lights.

Good news, hubby got off the truck last night and will be speaking with Fleet Manager today to get a new trainer. Night dispatch manager was very cool about it. I want to Thank those who gave good advice and were a positive help. Some apparently think I am the crazy spouse at home. I can assure you I am not, I am currently getting my CDL to join hubby and know I will also have to go through this training process. Let me just set a few things straight and fill in a few gaps. He DID call and spoke to Dispatch last Saturday and informed them of the conditions and they told him with the holiday they would not be able to get him on another truck. He then called his Fleet Manager on Wednesday and left a detailed message but never got a return call. He knew they were heading to Springfield after picking up the current load so figured he would talk with someone face to face. He is ex military special forces so is not a stupid or weak man. He is smart enough to know that the way this guy was is not the way he should be trained. Can’t train someone if you don’t speak to them from day one right? like I said earlier things were very unsafe and unhealthy. From what I am gathering from being in school and reading on here it’s all about the safety of yourself and others. I’ll let hubby give the details if he chooses. I just posted in hopes others may have had similar situations and how they handled it. He really likes the company and wants to continue on with it. He did great handling things on his own from the start, thank God for YouTube videos. He was able to anticipate what he would need help with and would watch the videos ahead of time but that is not the way it should be. He should be able to have someone he can rely on when he goes out on his own that he could call in a pinch for advice, right? Someone started a conversation on here about the best things they learned from their trainers. Those are all the things I imagine are important for a good trainer to teach. If you can’t teach the basics then don’t be a trainer.

So I'll take a guess... he's at Prime and came with his CDL so he needs 40,000 team miles. He has 3 to 4 weeks left. Most likely he came in with unrealistic expectations of training like most students. He's already done a couple of months which means its not an absolute emergency of him not feeling safe or comfortable.

As a Prime Team Trainer, I know Prime would swap him out if he requests it. But he needs to understand companies do not know what is going on in the truck unless you tell them. Prime will not see him as a troublemaker or fire him. Now, if he swapped trainers four or five times, then yeah, the problem is with him.

I currently have a trainee who does all of the work. He does the trip planning and all the computer and paperwork...because I know how. He is the one who needs to learn it. We now have 15k miles left and i told him i am now in "ghost mode". He needs to figure things out on his own and have me as a safety net. Many companies only offer 7500 miles of training, and so it is not unheard of to expect a new driver to be doing all of the work.

I recommend he gets the phone numbers of experienced driverd for when he goes solo. Most people do not understand the REAL training starts when you go solo. I can lecture and explain 200 pages, but it doesnt click until the driver gets into that situation.

Once he gets his own truck he can do whatever he wants.

Yes he is with Prime and I get how he needs to do things on his own eventually after you show them how to do things, this guy hasn’t shown him anything at all, he doesn’t even talk to him. Hubby has tried to ask questions like “What are some of the most important things you learned from your trainer.” The answer was a ****y “ I’m self taught, no one taught me ****” and that is how this guy is with everything. He is smart and has read a lot and watched a lot of videos so is teaching him self as he goes. He went there right out of school. I don’t think he had an Un realistic expectation at all, our son is a driver so we had an idea of what it would be like. My son is appalled at the stories, like I said way too many to list, and is urging him to get out of the truck and get a new trainer.