What’s up with the Trucker?

OK, first of all I wish to dispel anyone’s morbid concern about my lack of writing and inform you of the not so obvious, I’m still alive and somewhat healthy. Mentally, it’s hard for anyone to express failure, but I’m sure that after you’ve read the next few paragraphs you’ll have a better picture as to why I took a short sabbatical from the blogoshere.

Let’s start where I left you last and write a little of my journey to Claremont, CA. The trip itself was about five hours of travel, with a short pit stop in Bakersfield. The hotel was only separated by a Micky D’s from the Greyhound Station, and orientation what held right there at the hotel.

I was very nervous, excited, and a little too anxious about getting through the whole ordeal that it cause me an unforeseen issue on the very first morning of orientation. Covenant requires all new drivers to take what they refer to as an agility test. It, like the ones give to firemen, is meant to test the new employee’s ability to perform the physically requirement of the job. The way this was done was to give the recruited driver a few physical tasks and check their heart rate at each. If the rate was over a predetermined limit, the driver was failed and sent home.

Well as you can imagine, I was not in the proper state of mind and got a little too zealous towards getting through this test and failed to take enough time to fully understand what I should be doing. I actually did quite well, until I was given this push pull test. It required me to pull against a spring scale and then turn around and push against it. When I pull the required amount was 90lbs and my max. heart rate had to be less than 153. I pull at about 110 and passed. I then turned around and push at almost 120, when I only needed 70lbs, and this pushed my heart to just a little over the limit, and it failed me. Heck, if they would have told me to walk a straight line, I probably would have tried to do it on my hands.

I thought I was fine, but I was coldly give the boot from this lady named, Mike C., just after lunch and was told I had to check out right then. I had no second chance, but I was informed that I could try again in six months. This, as you can imagine, put me in a bad place, but I knew that AIT would help to place with another company, so I gave them a call right away and let them know that I was heading back home.

I filled out quite a few applications the next day at the Lone Mountain location, but I was unwittingly complicating the issue, by disclosing too much unnecessary information on these applications and did not catch this error until it was far too late. I was however soon contacted by Swift and it look very much as if I would be given a second chance with them, but this proved to be a futile experience after an intensive three week effort.

Swift was the last Class A company I worked for over 5 years ago, and it’s obviously that it takes them forever to get over a couple of minor accidents which never showed up on my DAC. They really had me thinking that I might be re-hired, but I do know that if there is anything derogatory here, it should disappear after 7 year period, and I refuse to believe that I am being rejected wholly on just this issue.

I’ve worked very hard these last few weeks to find a place were I can use my class A driving skills, and have currently scaled back my job search effort significantly due to the present situation with the economy. Not that I’m really looking forward to it, but I plan now to go full bore again in February. Fortunately, I was able to go back to A Cab and was back on the job that very Friday with no loss in seniority. In fact, the boss was happy to see me back, and had not as yet terminated me.

So here I am again in Vegas, doing the same old awful low paying job, but with the additional nightmarishly facts that I’m sleeping on the floor in my own house, taking the bus to work, and dealing with having all my belongings in storage at an add expense to my limited dwindling budget. The bum that I spoke of in a previous blog is about to get the boot, and this should give me a room to sleep in about a month from now, if not sooner. That’s all for now, and to be honest, it’s not all been bad, so you should expect me to blog more positively the next time I write. I don’t know about you, but I really do prefer giving out, as well as getting, the bad news first.

Have Fun and Be Safe.

Onward Towards Covenant Tranport Orientation

Well, I did get the finger printing done on Tuesday, and just did a few more clean-up chores around the house. I talked to the Covenant Recruiter and was told to call back on Thursday or Friday to get the conformation number on the Grayhound Bus. As it turned out, I recieved the number on Friday Morning, and was informed that I would be staying at the Claremont Hotel in Claremont, CA just down the street from the bus station. Everything, including the meals will be paid for by Covenant, and a pay check on top of that, not something that you will ever see from a cab company.

I did a few maps to show what appears to be a long bus trip (over 5 hours). I’m currently scheduled to head out on Sunday Morning at 10 a.m. from the main street bus terminal. Tomorrow, I wll be making pizza for the guys. The least I can usually do is put the frozen ones to shame. Not at lot of excitement for this week, but I shouldn’t be stressing anyway.

A Few YouTube Videos about Trucking

Well, I’ve found a few YouTube clips that may give you a better picture of what I’ve been blogging on.

Passing your CDL Part 1/3 trainee truck drivers in Kansas

PASSING YOUR CDL PART 2/3 complete unedited runthrough

PASSING YOUR CDL PART 3/3

On Covenant Transport, Inc.

Reporting of Weather Problems along the Road on a Trip.

They say a picture can paint a thousand words. So as a visual aid towards understanding my blogs, I will on occation include information from NOAA. The following is example of what you may see, if I were to blog about an ordeal of driving through something like Hurricane Gustav.

NWS New Orleans/Baton Rouge, LA Point Forecast: New Orleans LA 30.08N -89.95W

Cell Phone Weather Link: www.srh.noaa.gov/wml Last Update: 4:18 am CDT Sep 3, 2008 Forecast Valid: 5am CDT Sep 3, 2008-6pm CDT Sep 9, 2008

Hazardous weather condition(s):

Coastal Flood Warning
Flash Flood Watch
Hazardous Weather Outlook

Today: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 7am, then scattered showers and thunderstorms after 7am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 85. South wind between 10 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Tonight: Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 79. South wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Thursday: Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 86. South wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Thursday Night: Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 75. South wind around 5 mph becoming east. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Friday: Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 88. East wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Friday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 76.

Saturday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 90.

Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 76.

Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 90.

Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 76.

Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 89.

Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 76.

Tuesday: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a high near 91.

AIT Trucking Refresher wk 4

Well to start with, it was a really rough week. On Saturday, I received notice from the Nevada DMV that they were planning to suspend my license that Thursday. Why? The only change that I had made was to sell my truck and cancel the insurance. To me, it seemed the DMV had made an error.

So on Monday, I jumped on a bus and stood in line at the DMV near Sahara and Eastern. Since I was early, the wait was not so great, but I was told that since I had my license suspend previously for not having insurance, I was required in this state to show financial responsibility for a period of no less than three years (SR-22). Even though you follow the instructions on the Insurance Verification Program (IVP) web site about surrendering your license plates “before you cancel or drop the liability insurance on any vehicle for any reason“, if you were previously suspended and are required to have a SR-22, it ” must be maintained for three years from the date you reinstate your driver license “.

So I was in a pickle, I no longer had a vehicle, but I had to have my license. You can just imagine what I did next. Since I was taking a bus, I was given a pass to skip through the DMV line and then walked directly down the street to the nearest insurance place (L.A.insurance) and bought the minimum necessary. This cost me $170 right up front cash (no check or CC), and then it’ll take $43 each month until this coming March. I know this sounds a bit ridiculous, but it’s true, and it was money I really didn’t have. To me, it’s taxation no different that when the King imposed the stamp act way back in the founding father’s time. I’m not saying that anyone should take up arms about this one, but I’d love to see someone throw a little tea party.

Well as it is that time of year, we actually had a little flooding on Monday, just as I was doing my on the road driving with the instructor. I actually did very well, for someone who have been doing cab for some time. And I did very well right up to what AIT calls it externship interview on Thursday, which gives their students the repayment requirement on the loans and the addition update requirement for the next eight weeks while on the road with the driver trainer. An then that same day, I was tested to see if I could pass the course. I got an instructor who for some reason had an issue when me not only being there for a refresher, but also because I was an ex-cabbie. I don’t know, but when they start to growl at you, there must be a problem.

Friday, I had to go back to AIT for the HASMAT endorsement, and only stay the a short time while they prepared the forms for the Homeland Security people, but it was too late to make it on that day by bus, so Tuesday it will have to be. And then do a return trip to AIT, to complete everything there.

Does this stuff look like junk to you? But no, it’s truly important and really valuable on the resale market, if you’re a constantly inebriated dumb-ass who claims that they are too valuable to sell (like my former roommate whom I kicked out six months ago for constantly being late on the rent, not replacing items, for generally insisting on rubbing me the wrong way on a daily basis, and on top of all of this, he still owes me $250 on the last months rent and half of the utilities).

Why did I mention all of this? Well, the current roommate, whom is renting the house from me, had came across a dilemma that he did not have the person that he plan to rent to any more, and there this dumb-ass was, just like some forlorn exiled house kitten, begging to get back in. To be sure, the current roommate was not in the dark about the history of previous one, but he really had no other choice. Well, I’ll not go into detail on this, but the “It’s all good” kid again insists on rubbing me the wrong way.

Well so tomorrow, I’ll be calling Covenant to schedule the orientation, and to obtain the customary bus ticket. I’ve spent a good amount of today cleaning and moving. Also, I’m sleeping on the floor tonight, with three other guys occupying the rooms. Yippie, it’s so wonderful. Not!!!!

AIT Trucking Refresher wk 3

Well this past Sunday the 17th was my last day as a cab driver. It’s hardly worth mentioning and not something that I ever expected to appear in the annals of history, but its just another bad experience that I will take care never to repeat. Just calling cab driving an awful job would be a true understatement.

I discovered that on this very weekend A Cab has started a new policy of only allowing 9 hour shifts instead of usual 12 hour ones. So in a period of a few day, many of the old drivers have quit. Facts being as they are, it’s impossible to make a decent living as a cab driver any more. And at a company where you’re severely restricted, that makes it doubly hard. It’s easy being a cab driver? Just try it.

As for class, I did very well the first day on the range, and I was driving on the road the second. I wasn’t sure if I could remember how to sync the gears, and sure enough I was grinding. It is something only time and experience can master. I need the road time if I am going to succeed.

On of the guys that was in my class last week, up and quit. He was with me when I start on the range, but did not even make it past the first day. He had hip surgery, and was walking with a cane. A former A cab employee also, but he was having issues with the instructor, and could not take the constructive criticism.

I’m still having major transportation issues using the bus.

I just hope that next week goes better than this one.

AIT Trucking Refresher wk 2

Well, quite a bit of lesson material was covered this past week. So much so that it simply seems to have been somewhat of a blur now that I try to recall what was covered. One of subjects that sticks out in my mind and which all truckers must have knowledge of is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs). There are alot of rules here that a driver and his company must be in compliance with or he can be declaired out of service and not allowed to drive.

There was also alot material about keeping your log in compliance. First of all, there is a rule that says the diver can only drive for 11 hours max. and be on duty for less then 14 hours before he must take 10 hours of break time, that means off duty not driving or in the sleeper bearth.

I researched the actual wording in the ruling on hours of service (HOS) to find this:

“A driver may remain on duty after the 14-hour window closes or go off duty after the
11th hour of driving, in each case returning to work after 10 hours off duty on something other than a 24-hour cycle. Nonetheless, FMCSA believes that most drivers, most of the time, will go off duty at or before the end of the 14th hour, since their principal responsibility–driving–is illegal after that point. The circadian friendliness of today’s rule is bolstered by the requirement for 10 consecutive hours off duty. This is enough time to enable drivers to get the 7-8 hours of sleep most people need to maintain alertness and prevent the onset of cumulative fatigue.”

There is also a few log examples as well on this site of which here are a few with no violations:

Note in the last example that there is a split of a two hour off duty and an eight hour sleeper berth break. This is called the split sleeper-berth rule (the driver accumulated at least 10 hours of rest using a combination of at least 8 consecutive hours in a sleeper berth and another break of at least 2 consecutive hours).

The hours of service is something a truck driver must be in compliance with or he can be not only be declared out of service and not permitted to drive, but he can also be given very heafty fines amounting in the thousands of dolars.

Also during last week, we were intoduced to highway watch which was set up by homeland security and run by the American Trucking Association which after googling, I could not find an active web site for both the program nor the association. This may have been a good knee jerk type of program to help fight terrorism, but in my opinion, it currently seems to be disfunctional.

I also recieved notice that my final day of training will be on the 28th and I’m hoping that I will be on my way to orientation with Covenant Transport short after this.

This next week it’s on to the range and back to being behind the wheel of a big rig tractor.

AIT Trucking Refresher wk 1

First of all, taking a bus anywhere is the least desirable thing I’ve done in quite a while. I trip that would have taken me less than 30 minutes, has in fact taken me between 1.5 and 3 hours one way.

It’s a very fast pace course, but it’s much easier for me than the rest of my class as they are getting this for the first time. I did not have classroom material the first time I took my CDL training in San Jose, CA, but AIT (http://www.ait-schools.com/), located up on Lone Mountain near the Pilot truck stop, has a very good curriculum and adequately experience instructors.

I truly wish I had this type of program 5 years ago prior to when I first went on the road driving for Swift. I truly would have made far fewer mistakes the first time around. But I did learn a great amount from being on the road, and most of the class were keen to ask me many questions about what it was like.

I choked on a couple of test at the beginning and this caused my GPA to drop enough that I ended the week with slightly under a B average. I was not studying the right way at the beginning, and made a few too many mistakes when taking the test. There was an online class A CDL practice test located at http://www.roadwars.com/otc/ which I should have taken right at the beginning, but didn’t bother and it proved costly to my class GPA. I highly advise anyone who needs to take a refresher to take this online exam first.

Although every state DMV has their own test questions, most of these are very simular. If you what to know exactly what will be on your particular state’s exam, then you need to consult that states handbook. The one for Nevada is online at www.dmvnv.com/pdfforms/dlbookcomm.pdf

I have one more week of classroom study, then it on to range instruction, which includes the backing practice, on the road driving, and pre and post inspections.

Becoming a trucker again

Well, I see that I have not made an entry in awhile. What has happened? Well the very month that I lost the bum roommate, I lost my job at Checker Cab. I can go into to detail, but it’s not worth using up valuable white space. I did get a better roommate, and a new job at A Cab. But because of the current economy, I have found that I can no longer make it as a Vegas Cab driver. After 5 years, I’m giving up and getting back on the road, and I’ve vowed to never do the cab thing again. Once again, I’ve had a very bitter experience that isn’t worth wasting the white space on.

I’m currently packing up my things and putting them into storage. I will be taking a month long refresher course at AIT in north Las Vegas, start on the 4th of August, and expect to be driving for Werner Ent by mid September. This should give me $35K a year easily with little over head.

I’m not selling my home, but will be renting it to my current roommate. This will cover the $14K a year Mortgage. I can’t even do $20K currently at A Cab and my overhead is killing me, literally. I just went for a DOT physical this past month and was diagnosed with hypertension. Time to move on before it’s too late.

Now, I plan to keep my friends and family updated each week on my travels from this blog. I hope you’ll enjoy the reading.