I'm Off To Schneider Orientation

My over the road training went well. Only spent 4 days OTR with my TE because they routed him back early to drop me off. I drove about 1400 miles in 4 days. I'm NE regional. I was told I would adverage 2000-2200 miles a week. I guess we will see when I'm actually out on the road. I'll keep you posted.

How'd your training week go? Are you going with ne regional? I'm wondering how many miles/wk they promised. That's what I originally signed up for, and they told me 2000-2250. I ended up in "lightweigh solutions" which has been great, and that's about what I average. I'll be interested to hear how you do in ne regional.

I was ne regional right up till they assigned me a lightweight truck on friday. But i thought i'd give it a shot, and i'm glad i did (although to be honest, i don't have anything to compare it to). And one thing about the miles/pay, if i were only getting paid my rate times the miles, i'd probably be making like $750-800, but lately i've been making more like $900+ because of other things like short haul miles, live loads, etc that pay extra. Also sign on bonus and quarterly bonuses add to it. Not quite what some others here are making, but it's better than i thought i'd be doing when i took the job.

Anyway, i'll be interested to hear what ne regional is like.

Finished up all of my training and testing on Wednesday 11/23, passed everything! Now the real journey begins. I was assigned a truck and start on Monday 11/28. After almost 3 weeks of training I'm really enjoying my home time but to be honest I'm excited for Monday. I'm also a little nervous, I won't have a trainer to help me out. Although the training at Schneider was good I feel like I still have a ton to learn. To all of you experienced truckers, help the noobs out if you see us struggling. :)

I think most of us felt the way you do after completing road training. You never really stop learning. It's okay to be nervous.

Be careful, the northeast is congested and not always trucker friendly, especially this time of year. I delivered two Walmart store loads yesterday...parking lots were chaotic and the shoppers more impatient than usual. Tis the season...

Take your time. Never allow anything or anyone to rush you.

Good luck!

Picked up my "permanent" truck today and I'm hoping it's not to permanent. I think it may be their first truck. Lol well it's not that old, it's a 2013 frightliner columbia. I guess us new guys get the bottom of the barrel. At least it was clean on the inside. Picking up my first load as a solo driver tomorrow at 0700. Hopefully all goes well and my truck is up to the task.

Congratulations on starting solo. I'm somewhat familiar with that model of truck. I was disappointed at first, now I kind of like it. Do you know what you're picking up tomorrow?

A lot of companies give new rookies an older truck that is getting ready to be put out to pasture. For one thing if you mess up and total it, they have already got a good portion of their investment back on it. For another, new people are harder on transmissions, clutches, etc.. same thing applies if you eat the transmission to pieces, then they are out less money, then if you are in a newer truck that they need to keep. I am in a cascadia that was manufactured nov '11. She is not a bad truck. She has her quirks, but I have gotten used to them. I am sure once I get her to 500,000 miles I will be given a newer truck. Even then I know I will miss her. She was my first truck. I am sure there is not a truck driver out there that doesn't get glassy eyed and nostalgic when talking about their first truck. I am positive Not a one will ever forget their first truck either.

To test this theory. Brett, what was YOUR first truck?

Actually I decided to make the first truck into a post.

Congratulations Jay!

Do well, and you'll likely be in a much newer truck soon. I was on my third within 9months and it was a brand new automatic with 31 miles on it.

Be safe and be assertive. A good driver can develop a good DBL. :)

Got my truck upgraded today. :) When I pretriped the first truck yesterday the windows would not roll down so they routed me to Carlisle and gave me a different truck. Much, much better. The first trucked smelled so bad from the smoker that had it before me. I'm not a smoker. The new truck is a 2013 Cascadia, freshly cleaned and looking good. This one has the active cruse control that I like. Tomorrow I'm headed from Carlisle to wellston OH so I'll find out if she runs as good as she looks. As for my first day solo, all went well. I struggled a little with some backing but overall uneventful.