Y'all Miss Me?

Great to hear things working out for you!!

And Yes!! Another International fan. Love my ProStar Eagle+ 471600 as I sit now, don't give up on Dex too soon.

Even if I have to switch to a newer truck, it will be another ProStar. We do have a few T680s floating around in the fleet, but the ProStars make up the majority.

My only issue with Dex is that I only have one power axle. Combine that with super singles on the drives and it can make for some sticky situations. Wet pavement can be especially difficult to get started on, especially with a light load. I haven't gotten totally stuck anywhere, but I can see how it can be possible to do so!

YES we missed you! It's always fun having your around. Your enthusiasm is awesome. I'm really glad to hear things are going great out there. Good for you guys!

For future reference:

The first couple of months were a little slow due to dry van freight being slow, but since about the middle of January, I have more miles than I know what to do with

It's pretty unlikely that things were slow in dry van leading up to Christmas but then picked up after the holidays. It's quite the opposite, in fact. The most likely scenario is that you were new to the company so they put you on "little dog" status until you could prove to them that you were trustworthy, and once you did they bumped you up to "big dog" status and then piled on the miles. Now you're a full-fledged member of the club.

That's why we tell people that when you switch companies you have to expect to start over from the bottom. No one in this industry cares much about a driver's experience or past performance, beyond meeting their minimum hiring requirements for insurance purposes. Once they get you in the door they're going to test you to see what you're willing and able to do right now. Just because you've done something for a long time doesn't mean you're any good at it, nor does it mean you're still willing to put in your best efforts. You went in there and proved to them that you're both willing and capable of doing this job at the highest level, and now you're a big dog and you have it good.

My only issue with Dex is that I only have one power axle.

So there's no switch to engage the second drive axle you're saying? If that's the case there's probably an automated traction control system that locks in the second axle when it senses slippage, the same way antilock brakes kick in when they sense slippage. I can't imagine a three axle tractor that has no way of engaging the second drive axle, though it's certainly possible. You can probably tell by looking under the truck to see if you have a drive shaft connecting the two drive axles together. If there is a drive shaft between the two drive axles then there's some sort of automated traction control built in.

I need to update my profile pic but Photobucket seems to hate me lately.

Photobucket is a complete mess these days, unfortunately. I don't know what they're doing, and apparently neither do they. You can email me a pic if you like and I can put it up for you. Hit the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of any page and you'll get my email address.

I literally only have one power axle. The back axle doesn't even have a pumpkin on it. So it's a tag axle (I believe). It's a giant pain in the petunias sometimes, but all of new trucks coming into the fleet are going to have two power axles. Too many drivers have spoken up about the dead axle being dangerous in bad weather conditions.

I literally only have one power axle. The back axle doesn't even have a pumpkin on it. So it's a tag axle (I believe). It's a giant pain in the petunias sometimes, but all of new trucks coming into the fleet are going to have two power axles. Too many drivers have spoken up about the dead axle being dangerous in bad weather conditions.

Wow. Yeah, I wouldn't be happy about that situation at all. And with super singles to boot? Oh no........that's no good. That's a really risky attempt to squeeze every ounce of fuel mileage they can get out of the truck and reduce the initial costs, but that's really going too far with it in my opinion. Taking away safety features or the ability to gain traction in the name of fuel mileage is literally and figuratively quite the slippery slope. They're not going to win any safety awards for that strategy.

It's good to hear they're going to get better equipment. Geesh!

Something I forgot to add yesterday:

Because I joined the Calark family with less than a year of experience, they sent me out with a trainer for a few days. They use that time to determine your skills and weaknesses and help fill in any gaps in training. In that time, I did everything, driving, backing, dealing with customers, trip planning and paper work. My trainer has been driving for over 14 years and has nearly a million safe miles with CalArk alone.

She's very much old school. Our Qualcomms do not have any navigation in them and she doesn't use any kind of GPS. So all my trip planning was done solely with a paper atlas and dry erase markers. It was definitely an interesting challenge!

But being out with her really highlighted how little training I had gotten at Transam. She noticed it right off the bat that there were things I didn't know to do and had simply never been told about. For example, that I need to have a supply of fuses and bulbs in the truck at all times.

She also saw the extreme deficits in my backing skills. So we worked on it. We practiced different setups and methods, and also worked on backing in tight quarters. Like the Petro in Atlanta, yikes!

As a result of this training, I have made serious leaps and bounds in my abilities. Everything I had been doing before was just simply what I had figured out on my own. Now I had a new set of skills to improve on. And I have gained so much confidence in my abilities since then. I've backed this truck into parking spots and docks that would have completely terrified me before.

Something I forgot to add yesterday:

Because I joined the Calark family with less than a year of experience, they sent me out with a trainer for a few days. They use that time to determine your skills and weaknesses and help fill in any gaps in training. In that time, I did everything, driving, backing, dealing with customers, trip planning and paper work. My trainer has been driving for over 14 years and has nearly a million safe miles with CalArk alone.

She's very much old school. Our Qualcomms do not have any navigation in them and she doesn't use any kind of GPS. So all my trip planning was done solely with a paper atlas and dry erase markers. It was definitely an interesting challenge!

But being out with her really highlighted how little training I had gotten at Transam. She noticed it right off the bat that there were things I didn't know to do and had simply never been told about. For example, that I need to have a supply of fuses and bulbs in the truck at all times.

She also saw the extreme deficits in my backing skills. So we worked on it. We practiced different setups and methods, and also worked on backing in tight quarters. Like the Petro in Atlanta, yikes!

As a result of this training, I have made serious leaps and bounds in my abilities. Everything I had been doing before was just simply what I had figured out on my own. Now I had a new set of skills to improve on. And I have gained so much confidence in my abilities since then. I've backed this truck into parking spots and docks that would have completely terrified me before.

That's some really great stuff Chickie. Especially the enhanced training about backing and setting up. Backing is far easier, if you setup correctly. It's not emphasized enough in the schools or road training. Barely discussed...unfortunate. I learned the importance of it the hard way, OJT running on the Walmart account. Great success story. Good luck!

But being out with her really highlighted how little training I had gotten at......

Ya know, you could complete that sentence with the name of any company or any school in the nation because training in the trucking industry only teaches you the very, very basics. Just enough to send you out there on your own to learn the rest. And that's by design.

Understandably everyone hopes (or expects) the training process to teach you most of what you'll need to know, and after that you'll go out there and be able to do your job really well, and probably pick up a few tricks along the way.

That's not even close to the reality, though.

Anyone who has spent any time in this industry will tell you that the training to get your CDL is more of an introduction to the basics of maneuvering a vehicle and the basic rules governing commercial vehicles. That's it.

And the training that's done on the road with your mentor is really more about teaching you the very basics of time management, fueling, paperwork, communication, and company procedures. That's it.

By design, they expect you to learn the overwhelming majority of your driving skills and all of the 'street smarts' you'll need to be great at this job once you go solo. The hope is that you'll go slow, take your time, and practice your skills. Truck driving schools and company-sponsored training programs have no intention of trying to make anyone into a skilled and proficient driver through training. You're basically at the level of a clumsy knucklehead by the end of training. You develop yourself into a true professional once you're on your own, after you go solo.

Sounds wacky, but it's the way it is, and none of this was my idea, so don't blame me!

I've said many times that if you did a deep evaluation of a veteran driver of many years who performs consistently at the highest level, you'll find only about 2% of what makes him great at what he does was taught to him in school. 98% of his skills and savviness he learned on his own, and probably 50% of that isn't taught by any schools anywhere. They're life lessons, tips, and tricks of the trade that you pick up over time.

So don't think for a moment that you were any different because you had inadequate training to prepare you for this career. We all did! I went to school for a few weeks and then went on the road with a trainer for two weeks before going solo. That's it. You think I was any better as a rookie solo driver than anyone else? Of course not. You think my training was any better than anyone else's? Heck no. I was a clumsy knucklehead when I got out there, just like everyone else.

But not everyone learns equally from that point and not everyone has the savvy and ambition to run consistently at a high level. You're now at a point in your career where you're going to start figuring out a lot of little things that in themselves are no big deal, but put them together and you'll find ways to turn 3,000 miles a week as easily as a new driver can turn 2,000 in a week.

In looking back on it, I would say it was somewhere between years 3 and 5 that I really, really knew what I was doing and could run with the big dogs in every way. At that point I had mad driving skills, and I really figured out how these companies and this industry operates, and I really learned how to get things done out there. Little things that add up in a big way.

For instance, I would call ahead to a customer to get an appointment time changed, even though my company would tell us not to, and on top of that implying to the customer (without saying so directly) that I'm actually with customer service, and not a driver, knowing they probably would ignore my request if they knew it was coming from a driver. I was able to turn a whole lot more miles and make a whole lot more money by doing that.

What schools do you think are going to teach you that? Nobody. And yet that's the kind of thing that allows you to turn the big miles consistently instead of running into a brick walls at every turn.

So trust me, your training was no less thorough than anyone else's. None of us were trained to be truck drivers. We were trained to hold a steering wheel well enough that we could go out there and learn the rest on our own.

Great to see your post and things really seem to be on the upswing for y'all. Wave, honk or something if you see a McElroy truck 5534 running around.....usually TX, AR, LA or OK. And again congratulations on your success.

Great to see your posts, and better to see you happy at a new company!