Knight Transportation, Flatbed

Went to orientation for Knight Mon Nov.1 in Carlisle PA. I drove to the hotel Sunday night ready to get started on a new career. It's an 1hr and 40min drive from me so I decided to take my car instead of a bus they offered.

Day 1. Woke up Mon morning at 6am, orientation started at 8. Took a shower got dressed and went to the lobby for a disappointing hotel breakfast. A microwave breakfast sandwich lol. Ate that and waited for the shuttle to take me to Knight terminal. Shuttle leaves at 745am and I was in the lobby at 715am. Other students were in the lobby and we started talking about trucks and football. 8am comes along and I ask them when the shuttle was going to come. Was told that it already left and to my surprise they weren't there for Knight, they were there for P&S doing training. Talking with them I thought they were in the paid cdl school for Knight. They were not lol. They told me who to talk to about getting to the terminal and eventually got to Knight at 820am. I don't like being late for anything especially my first day at getting a job but the orientation teacher Melissa said don't worry about it, it's fine.

In orientation there are 4 ppl including myself. 2 were brothers from upstate NY, the other guy from Pittsburgh. The 2 brother's were there for team Reefer driving, the other guy and myself are there for flatbed. Got set up with the laptop to watch module videos and did that until 10am then we left to get our physical and do a lift test. Came back and Melissa did our drug testing, Hair and urine. After that we continued to watch modules on the laptop. It's 40 videos to watch ranging from 10-20min long. About 7hrs total. They offered Papa John's pizza for lunch and the terminal manager Howard came in and had lunch with us. Asked us about ourselves and told us a little about himself as well. Very nice guy, seems like he is very interactive with the drivers at the terminal. Howard was excited to hear that 2 of us applied for the flatbed division. They are low on drivers and are desperately trying to expand that fleet. After lunch we watched more modules and went back to the hotel at 430pm.

Day 2. Woke up same time at 6am dressed but today drove to Waffle house down the street for a delicious breakfast. 2 big waffles scrambled eggs and bacon. This time I drove to the terminal because it is literally down the street from the hotel. Less than a 5min drive with traffic and the Waffle house is a block away from the terminal. Arrived on time! Today there are only 2 of us in class. Me and the other guy that is there for flatbed. One of the brother's failed the eye exam and was not issued a long form so they both went home.

We watched more modules. Have to complete all the videos and take a quick quiz at the end of some of them before we leave orientation. Also had a zoom meeting with the president of the company and the other terminals across the US. Arby's was for lunch and Howard came in and ate with us and talked with us more. Just getting to know each other personally. I like that he had lunch with us. He could have spent his lunch break doing whatever else but chose to come and socialize. Very cool. Then modules, modules, modules.

Orientation was only for 2 days but I stayed another half day just to be a kiss a$$ lol. Talked with Melissa about Knight, was informed I passed the urine test and the hair results should be in by Friday. Today is Wed. Also went out in the lot and a driver gave me a quick tutorial about putting on tire chains.

This process was quick and easy. Just had to show up, pass the drug test and watch videos. Nothing complex at all. Howard will call me Friday about more info

Friday Nov. 5th. Howard gave me a call telling me I passed the hair test and would be moving forward in the hiring process. Let me know that my DM would give me a call Monday Nov. 8th. He thanked me for the interest in Knight and was pleased I chose flatbed. I told him I couldn't wait to get started and be a part of the team.

So Monday comes and goes and no call from the DM. Now Tuesday passes still nothing. I call Howard on Wednesday and ask him when will I hear from the DM. He sounded shocked that I haven't received a call yet and said he will get back to me. 10min later the DM calls. His name is Llyod. Tells me they are looking for a trainer and pretty much hangs up on me. Ok that's weird. I call back because I had some questions. He tells me he will get back to me. Lloyd calls me Friday morning Nov. 12th and asks if I can come in Monday to pick up my badge and get coded, I say sure what time. He said he will let me know by the end of the day. Sounds good. Well he never called back so Monday morning I call him and ask what time I should be there since I'm less than 2hrs away I can come in no problem. He changes it to Tuesday between 9-10am. Great, see you then.

I show up Tuesday at 910am and greeted by Melissa. She takes my picture, gets me coded and goes over any questions I have. She tells Lloyd I am here and he tells me to wait. I sit in on the class that she is giving for another orientation, have lunch with them and Howard is there again. After lunch I go into the drivers lounge and watch TV. 2pm comes along and Melissa comes in and asks if I met Lloyd yet. No I haven't, so she takes me to go meet him. He is in Howard's office talking and laughing. Melissa knocks on the door and asks Lloyd to come meet me. Lloyd comes out the office and his demeanor is unpleasant. He seems very uninterested in meeting me. No eye contact, vague answers and short with the introduction. Melissa seems to notice and as Lloyd starts to walk away very interruptingly, she says "Hey, don't you have something for him" he says oh yea, goes to his desk hands me paperwork to give to the driver trainer and says "give this to him when we find a trainer for you." Melissa smiles at me and says we will be in contact with you soon.

On my drive home Llyod calls and says he found a driver out of the Indiana terminal that will be close by Carlisle on Thursday Nov. 18th. He said I will have to stay out for 28 days until training is complete. Which means missing Thanksgiving dinner with the family. I agree because he didn't know when another trainer would be available. Now I'm excited that things are coming together but concerned about how the first impression went from the DM Lloyd. Hopefully that will change. I get a "I don't want to be bothered by you " vibe from him. I'm not taking it personally but if this is the person I will be working closely with then it didn't go smoothly in the first meeting.

Wednesday Nov. 17th I received a call from the driver that will be training me. I ask him about his rules for his truck and what to bring. Rules are no **** bottles, drive responsibly. Bring enough clothes for 2 weeks, will stop and do laundry and food is allowed as long as I don't bring the whole kitchen lol. The trainers name is John and we talked for about 30min over the phone. I find out John drivers dry van , I applied for flatbed. Wondering how that will work out I call Lloyd and ask him about it. He tells me I will do my driving training with John, then when I go solo I will shadow a flatbed driver. What is shadow? Following behind a driver to the stops and he will show me how to strap loads on site. I guess that will work, would have been nice for Lloyd to explain that to me before I talked to the driver. No biggie, it was just a surprise

John will be at the Carlisle terminal 730am on Thursday. Knight set up the hotel for me the night before so I wouldn't have to leave my house at 430am that morning. I pack and leave Wednesday night to the hotel. I'm ready to get started!!!

Two Sides, I'm so happy for you. GIT'R'DONE!!!!

Will be eagerly following! Was gonna reply yesterday . . . but was waiting for more, and you gave it~!!! Wow..... You have the power of the pen (well, keyboards now .. Lol!) and are a delight of an author, to follow.

Your diary will help SO many, choosing to follow in your footsteps.

I wish you NOTHING BUT all the best, good sir.

Always;

~ Anne (& Tom!) ~

ps: Yeah, I believe Davy (or another Squire chap?) mentioned the 'shadow' effect. I didn't really want to 'mention' it ....hearsay, haha! It's something they seem to be known for; kinda ideal, imho!!

Thank you Mamma Anne. I really do appreciate your responses and well wishes.

Lol. My English teacher once told me I could have a future in story telling. Never followed up with writing though.

Thursday, the big day! Arrived at the terminal at 7am and walks in with my new badge ID. I feel like an employee now that I don't have to buzz in the front door. Went and talked to Lloyd and he told me hang tight the driver should be in shortly. Saw Melissa and she was excited for me to get started. I'm also super excited and nervous. All types of scenarios running through my head. Not sure what to expect so I calm down and wait for the real thing. John was running late, got held up picking up a load out of Missouri that we will deliver to Pittston PA. I hang out in the lounge talked with Melissa and Howard and I must say those two alone give me high hopes for this company.

John arrives at 1pm. We greet each other, I walk over and load my gear into his blue 2020 Volvo. He is a million miler and has been with the company for 13yrs. Driving for 20. John tries to log me into his truck so we can get going but there is only one problem.... Lloyd didn't set up my fuel card or assign me to the truck. Smh come on Lloyd, you seriously had all day. We go talk to Lloyd and it takes him a half hour to get me set up. Finally ready to go John tells me to jump in the drivers seat. Ok now it's real. Gives me a tutorial of the truck and I feel comfortable enough to start.

Leaving the terminal we immediately got stuck in traffic. Not even 10min in yet lol. I keep patient and wait for it to clear. Now we are driving for real. I'm nervous but stay focused. Remembering the training videos and YouTube videos I feel like I'm off to a go start. I'm keeping a good following distance, scanning traffic and checking mirrors. Got to Pittston did a drop and hook and deadhead about 50 miles to do the same at another location. From there we deadhead to Mifflinville PA, I'm pulling about 12k pounds and really can feel the difference between a loaded trailer and an empty. It's getting dark now and it starts to rain heavy in route to the next stop. Very nervous at this point but made it in one piece.

Only did 3 stops 5hrs and some change total and drove 187 miles but I'm beat lol. I'm in Mifflinville PA for the night. Got a drop and hook tomorrow in Monroe Michigan.

Wednesday Nov. 17th I received a call from the driver that will be training me. I ask him about his rules for his truck and what to bring. Rules are no **** bottles, drive responsibly. Bring enough clothes for 2 weeks, will stop and do laundry and food is allowed as long as I don't bring the whole kitchen lol. The trainers name is John and we talked for about 30min over the phone. I find out John drivers dry van , I applied for flatbed. Wondering how that will work out I call Lloyd and ask him about it. He tells me I will do my driving training with John, then when I go solo I will shadow a flatbed driver. What is shadow? Following behind a driver to the stops and he will show me how to strap loads on site. I guess that will work, would have been nice for Lloyd to explain that to me before I talked to the driver. No biggie, it was just a surprise

John will be at the Carlisle terminal 730am on Thursday. Knight set up the hotel for me the night before so I wouldn't have to leave my house at 430am that morning. I pack and leave Wednesday night to the hotel. I'm ready to get started!!!

Best of luck to you. Sounds like you are going to be set up for great success. Make the most of it and forget to take time to enjoy it. I am right behind you with my own start at a company (orientation 11/29) pulling reefer with Dutch Maid Logistics.

Just taking a moment to think and realizing that I miss the days when I was physically capable of doing flatbed work. Those days long since past.

Good luck. Keep your chin up and before long you'll be in your own truck hauling the flatbed loads like you want.

Thank you Mamma Anne. I really do appreciate your responses and well wishes.

Lol. My English teacher once told me I could have a future in story telling. Never followed up with writing though.

Most welcome, 2Sides! Ya should've listened to him/her, but ... here you (we) are!! I love your writings.

One would never know I went to Community College for 2 years on a scholarship, for journalism! My teenagers have groomed me otherwise; more towards the 'Urban Dictionary' leanings, haha!

Regarding your DM and all the travails . . . as soon as you are 'shadowing' in the flatbed fleet, Lloyd will be a distant memory. Stay tough!!!!

Best ALWAYS!

~ Anne ~

Day 2. Nov. 19th First full day of driving. Left Mifflinville PA around 730am with a 28k load of clothes from TJ Max to another TJ Max in Monroe MI. It is cloudy dark and cold. I'm a little intimidated driving through the mountains and make some speeding mistakes. John had to tell me to slow down multiple times. Didn't realize I was doing 72mph downhill. He said I shouldn't be coasting going downhill. I definitely wasn't though. Had the service breaks damn near to the floor but the truck wasn't slowing down. I told him this and he says use the Jake brake. On his trucknit can be set to auto which it was but the truck was still going too fast. He tells me to put it on high when I'm going over 50mph while applying the service brakes. That does work better. Kept it between 35-45mph downhill after.

I was relieved when we got out of those PA mountains. We enter Northern Ohio and it is a nice view. No mountains, flat wide open land and the sun came out to smile on us with clear blue skies. Arrived in Monroe backed the trailer into the dock easily in one motion and Wham! Hard smack into the bay. John laughs and says almost perfect. Uncoupled and picked up an empty. Went down the street to the TA and this time my backing was horrible. Wrong setup, kept cutting the wheel the wrong way and couldn't get the trailer to cooperate. Took forever to get parked. Took a break and checked to see if I had enough hrs to pick up a load from Napoleon Ohio going to Fayetteville NC. I did and he left the decision up to me. Decided it would be a good idea to get it tonight, so off we went.

On the way there I took a wrong turn. The road splits and goes off to the left or stays straight to the right. I kept straight instead of steering to the left. I was in the middle lane ready to go left but John said keep right. Huh? The gps says left, John says yea keep right. So I keep right then when I miss the turn he says why did you do that. Of course I said because you said keep right. He said I meant keep in the right lane, smh. It was 3 lanes and I was in the middle lane coming up to it and would have been in the right lane when I made the turn so I don't know why he said keep right...

Get to the Campbell soup plant, dropped the empty and pick up a 42k lb load. This thing is heavy. I definitely can feel the weight difference. We headed over to a Pilot to shut it down for the night and again backing was horrific.... finished the day with 517 miles. The seats in this Volvo are not comfortable. My back is killing me!. Time for sleep and getting ready for the next day.