Orientation & Training With Eastern Freightways

Day 9-10 of OTR (On The Road) Training

Heading to a construction site with the load we figured we'd be there for a while. Get to the site check in with the guard and call the receiver. While we were waiting for an escort we realized this was one of Facebook's data centers being built a 400 acre lot dedicate to Facebook. They are still in phase 1 which was only a few acres big but this was a crazy construction site. 3 years for phase 1. We back in un-tarp and await our unloading. It's done by crane with one bundle of drywall at a time. Man this is going to take forever. 2 hours later there are 4 bundles left and we see everyone coming down from the roof carrying their stuff. Come to find out they got shut down due to their scaffolding not being up to snuff. They luckily unloaded the last 4 bundles and off we go.

Down some narrow Ohio roads in farm country we get to the shipper. 44K lbs of decking heading to CT. Radar showed a severe thunderstorm coming in. Get loaded and after a quick passing downpour it's over. On the road back to CT we ran to bloomsburg, PA and settled in for the night. Headed out the next morning for CT with a quick stop over at the Montgomery terminal. Took a quick look at our potential trucks that we will get this week. 1 Auto and 2 manuals. Older trucks 13's and 14's but they will do as a starter truck. The new class starts Monday and we should be swinging through on Thursday I hope. Drop this load in CT 86* weather, man it was hot un-tarping. Heading out Sunday afternoon from my home terminal in Concord, NH going to Oswego, NY to drop a load for Monday delivery, picking up just outside of Buffalo and headed to Roanoke, VA for a Tuesday delivery.

Day 10-11ish of OTR (On The Road) Training

Last week of training. We headed out on Sunday as planned with the 10hr break scheduled in Syracuse. We hit a lot of heavy rain on the way but finally made it around 11pm. Started the next morning with breakfast at dennys. Headed up to Oswego to drop off the load of Sheetrock at this little hardware store. Raby's I believe it was. Great service. They hurried to get us unloaded and on the road. Up to this point we're still on track for a good start to the week and then.... Message from dispatch. The paper roll load to VA was pulled from us and we were put on a drop and hook in Rochester delivering to Rochester... Never guess where.. A 3:45am Tues. delivery time at Home Depot. Ehhhh This will put us at our 10hr break at 1pm. and then try to sleep early so we're up early after sleeping in on Monday morning. I guess it was a hot load so....

Delivered that this morning and headed to Kirkwood, NY to pick up some plastic pipe heading to 2 stops in Baltimore. 10hr break at 2pm and headed to the receiver for a 6am delivery. No preplan as of yet but I'm hoping to be headed back to Montgomery to get my truck.

I'd like to start a new thread on the adventures of flat bedding with Eastern. Where do you guys think I should start that thread?

Hey Mike...great diary. I think the general forum is a great place for the Eastern Flatbed thread. Looking forward to reading it!

Good luck!

Hey Mike...great diary. I think the general forum is a great place for the Eastern Flatbed thread. Looking forward to reading it!

Good luck!

Great @g-town! Thank you. I hope I can keep it an interesting read

Day 12-14ish of OTR (On The Road) Training

I may have missed a day or 2 here or I just can't count. Anyways We got to the receiver for the first delivery 5 of the 25 bundles of pipe. Extremely tight place to get in and out of. Off to the 2nd receiver and another quick offload. Preplan comes in, Baltimore to Baltimore. HaHa another re-power WTH people. 14 mile run. Load of lumber headed to a large lumber company. About an hour or so of unloading and we get the next preplan.... Picking up in Danville. Pa heading to NY. Yea finally headed back to get my truck. Paul is already there and Yari is on her way as well. We get to the terminal around 7pm. Finish up some training paperwork and back to the hotel where all this started. Get checked in and say my goodbyes to Noel. He was really a great trainer. We worked through our language barrier and had a good 3 weeks. I'll summarize my experience with some thoughts etc. and start a new thread with my experience getting a truck and as a solo. At this moment i'm sitting at the Penn 80 Flying J awaiting my load to get home.....

The end of OTR (On The Road) Training,Getting my truck & A new thread!

Paul, Yari and I met at the hotel and spent a few hours getting caught up with our experiences from the last 3 weeks of training. It was good to get caught up but we were Missing Alan. Our 4th student that went through orientation with us. Family comes first and he has to take care of that before pursuing his goal of getting out here and driving.

Thursday morning rolled around and just like the old routine from orientation, Up at 6am get breakfast, shower, pack and we catch a ride to the terminal with one of the new students. Now we knew this was going to be a long process as we saw the class before us go through it but some time was added to ours as fleet wash could not get there before Thursday and the new class was still in their first week. When we went through this we were in our 2nd week so we had a better idea of what was going on.

We line up the trucks and they had 1 Auto and 2 manuals available. Yari trained in an auto and she wanted one so it was up to Paul and I to choose between the 2 manuals. Not really much difference between the 2. One was a 2013 and the other was a 2014. about 50k miles difference. Paul took the 13' and I took the 14'. They get cleaned out and cleaned up then pre-trip time. I had a few small but important issues that needed to be fixed before rolling out. It was a process to get them fixed but it was done. I think they really need a complete checklist of things that need to be done before handing them out to new drivers.

We get our fuel cards, paperwork, tablets and everything gets called in. We got our first load assignment and prepare to head out. Mine was to drop n hook in Danville, PA and the load was heading to Warner, ME for a Monday delivery. I call dispatch Friday am after spending the night at a truck stop down the road . I get assigned a new load as mine was not ready. This one was going to Attleboro, MA for a Monday Delivery. about 50 miles less but it worked for me as it was already 10am and I had at least a 8 hour ride back to my terminal and I knew rush hour was going to suck. 84-90-495-3 Yea crazy traffic. I finally got back to Concord about 9pm.

Saturday was move in day. I grabbed all my stuff that I had bought throughout the last 6 weeks and loaded up my car. My fiance' wanted to see the truck and she helped me move my stuff in. It's looking pretty good inside at the moment. Coffee pot, Fridge, Lunchbox cooker, 2 weeks worth of clothes and a new sheet set. I made a list of several more things that I needed and picked those up on Sunday as well as meal prepped and got my stuff ready. My plan is to spend $0 during the week.

So the new thread has been started and is linked below. I am still going to add a quick summary here about the last 6 weeks sometime in the near future. So If you liked this thread please follow me in the new one: My Day By Day Experience At Eastern Freightways Flatbed Division