Well, I have some time on my hands so let me vent a little, been a long month. First, it has long been a dream of mine to follow in my fathers footsteps and become a truck driver. So, after being laid off in January, I thought that would be the perfect oppertunity to do so. After talking to my wife and kids, it was agreed apon, so away I went, well, sort of.
Keep in mind this was January, I did not go to school until May (pretty long talk with the wife and kids). I decided to go to school at Roadmaster in San Antonio. I guess this school is what you make it. The hotel was OK but a little out of the way. The 3 weeks went by pretty fast and we were in class 6 days a week. I just love the instructors I had, patient and very experienced. The draw backs lay with the equipment (they should have newer trucks now). We had old Volvos with ten speed trannys, very, very sloppy. Made alot of friends that I hope I can stay connected to. Alot of recruiters came in, only paid attention for the free pizza lol
. I made my decision and I was going to go with Arrow trucking.
Orientation with Arrow was 10 days away so I had time to spend with the family before I left. After a few laughs, many hugs and kisses, and a few tears I was off to Tulsa, OK to start my new career.
I arrived in Tulsa in the middle of a thunderstorm (not fun on an airplane). I got to the hotel and I think I threw up in my mouth, what a dump. But, you gotta do what you gotta do. Got to the room and to my surprise the air conditioning worked, the tv came on, and there was a clean looking bed, so things were looking up. I pulled out the old laptop and was ready to relax and realised, i must have warped into some old west hotel with no high speed internet, started freaking out sweat pouring, pinched myself to make sure it was not a nightmare. Come to find out the particular building I was in was the only building not to have internet. I have to go outside or to the breakfast area to get online, whew, what a relief.
Orientation was a long drawn out process. Coming from school, I had no idea what to expect, in my mind I was going to have a physical, pee in a cup, fill out paperwork, and go to work, WRONG. Day one was physical drug screen and road test. There were almost 40 people at orientation so this took a minute. When I got my test, I was ready, shoot, I could drive those Volvos at school like a pro, no problem, yea, wrong again. You see, the truck that I am now in is nothing like what I learned how to drive in, when I stepped on the clutch you could actually feel a deffinate difference when you ran out of free play. In the trucks in school, 4th gear was in the passengers seat, in the Arrow Freightliner, it was right next to second, couple inches of difference between gears as apposed to a foot or more in the trucks at school. Needless to say, I wasn't in Kansas anymore, so to speak. I done a horrible job shifting gears but other than that it went ok.
The rest of the week they split up the experience drivers from the new drivers. There were 12 new guys who all wanted to work, but as you will later find out it would not work out for everyone. The best part about the rest of the week was mirror class. They taught us how to adjust the mirrors where there is no more blind spots on either side of the truck. We also worked on backing and had a second road test on Thursday. All this time everyone is stressed out knowing that at any time they could send you home, because they are evaluating your every move. But it wasn't until Friday morning that they started weeding everybody out. Right off the bat 3 people were given bus tickets home, by noon 2 more were gone, and when it was all said and done, there were 4 of US left standing. I was relieved to say the least.
They gave each of us our trainers, only catch is none of them were in Tulsa. 2 people got bus tickets to meet there trainers in ohio, 1 went to Georgia, and I guess I was the lucky one, 1078 miles and 18 hours on a greyhound to Fargo, ND. The other kicker is, all 3 others left out Friday night and my bus does not leave until 1930 Sunday night.
Well, to sum up the way I feel about my situation in one word, EXCITED. I am not looking forward to the bus ride, but I am looking forward to the experience that I am about to have. Until next time
Tags: Arrow Training Roadmaster
. Well that's all for now.