3 Pedals, 4 Directions.

A start-up trucking blog like this really needs its own film crew.  The scenery of your job changes by the minute sometimes and when you don't keep up with the day-to-day, next thing you know you've done a whole mess of things that haven't been addressed.  Things like getting a new load assignment, crossing 4 states, disembarking at a terminal with all your gear, being whisked away to a hotel with a stack of papers, coming back in the morning with lots of circles on the papers, doing a short pop quiz around a new truck, going for a ride around the block, hearing "good job, take a few days to chillax", get a ride to the airport with a NEW stack of papers, get in a rental car and drive yourself 16 hours back home and wait for a phone call.

Welcome to week 2 of 2012.

Let's back up to Bentonville.  Our assignment came in the next morning, taking some stuff from St. Louis (not too far from Metropolis, Illinois)  to near Tallahassee.  That confirmed our assumption that I would be likely testing in Atlanta, not Gary.  I got the go-ahead to disembark at the terminal, but what we didn't expect was to be going by Atlanta on the way TO Florida, not on the way back.  That stretched the schedule a lot tighter making the end of John's week tougher which wouldn't have been so bad had we not already been planning on a beeline to Florida. 

I was set up to take the test on Wednesday, so we had to punch it to Atlanta where I would almost have to tuck and roll with my stuff.  The fatal flaw was that in order for John to have the hours left to make the appointment time after we parted ways, I would have to drive the whole way to the terminal.  I got there just in time to throw my stuff in the van with the group of trainees on their way to the hotel.  I met up with the training staff there and I got to take the written test to the hotel with me to finish by morning.  

The group of trainees I got to mingle with there were on their second day of orientation, meaning they had prior CDL training with other schools and were learning the operational procedures that are specific to Roehl.  Stuff that I had been applying in real time over the 16 total days I was out.  Some of them being confused as hell, I assured them that classrooms simply can't do justice, it all comes together with application in real life.  If somebody had thrown all the stuff at me when I was in Marshfield sitting at a table, I wouldn't have a clue what they were talking about.  Next time I introduce Halo to somebody who's never played a first person shooter, I'll try doing so without a TV and see how they understand it.

After trying the local cuisine across from the hotel at The Hollywood Diner, I sat down and took my sweet time with the test.  In the morning I got to thrill everybody at breakfast with how RDTC is far superior to any other CDL training you can get.  It kind of reminded me of GDC when you talk with other students about who's university actually produces results.  That being said it was nice to NOT be on the receiving end for a change.  Also got to meet a few others formerly doing IT work; no shortage of good company here.  I also met up with some other graduates I hadn't met, one was my roomie Mark who had been waiting near Atlanta for a truck since shortly after Christmas.   He had gone elsewhere for CDL school and did runs with a trainer like I did.  Turns out they did one from Wisconsin to Phoenix, I was jelly.  Once we got to the office I met Matt, who started RDTC literally the day after I finished.  Go figure, Matt and I we were testing at the same time.

It was a nice 2 hour wait in the drivers lounge drinking coffee and watching Home Improvement, Fresh Prince, and Future Weapons before we went out for our test, which we started with the 45 backing.  I only needed one correction, after that it was laser-perfect.  Well, except for the part I found out what the rear differential lock was for because the yard was muddy after the 4 days of rain which had miraculously stopped literally minutes before we started.  With my weakest link behind me the test became eerily reminiscent of my second road test back in Haverill all those years ago.  For those of you who don't know that means an extremely easy ride around the block.  The hardest part was quickly adjusting from 2 weeks in a 2012 Cascadia with 48k miles on it to 30 minutes in a 2002 Century S/T with 890k miles on it that ran worse than mom's old Mazda ever did.  Probably had more holes in it, too.

With the results good and both of us performing almost identical runs, we were happily awarded... A seat back in the lounge.  The encouraging news was that Mark had already taken off in his ride, maybe we'd get lucky and be on our way as well.  Word around the office is that the southern terminals are short on new trucks.  A few more hours were spent talking with drivers getting their rides worked on, and this one driver Dave lived in Methuen for 25 years and has a brother who's pretty high up at the Market Basket over there.  A bit more G4 TV and halfway through V For Vendetta I got to talking to Jim, who's an Op Manager visiting from Marshfield.  One thing led to another and after getting my quarterly safety meeting out of the way, he was working with Susan on getting me either a truck by Friday, or a way back home because he insisted after all the BS I at least deserved to enjoy my weekend at home instead of being stranded there like Mark had been.

When the truck inventory came back negative, I was offered a flight up to Newark, but I had to politely decline considering I had literally more stuff than I could carry on my own.  The next best thing I got was a free rental from the airport and long story short, I got a 2012 Impala with less than 1k miles on it and drove 830 miles back to Old Bridge.  16 hours of total moving time, and a 7 hour stopover just past Charlotte.  I guess I have been really desensitized to ground travel, because it was over before I knew it.

After a crap ton of laundry, and jump starting my car (which according to my wonderful roomates can't hold a charge more than 2 weeks) I happily slept like a rock last night.  This morning I got a call from Tim, my permanent fleet manager who I had spoken to briefly before the trip.  As of this morning I have a "permanent temporary" truck assignment.  She'll be ready at the yard in Philly on Monday.  The reason for the terminology is because she's in a flatbed configuration, which basically means I have a gun rack on the back that holds chains, tarps, ratchets, straps, and other crap I lack the credentials to use anyway because I'll just be pulling vans. 

However it seems that getting me 52 miles to Philly has been made more of a complicated logistical nightmare than coming up here from Atlanta.  I spent a good chunk of today getting stuff for the truck and trying to figure out the best way to get down there based on their plans, then the punchline came 3 hours ago, turns out Kyle works 20 minutes from there anyway.  Monday I'll say hi to Sheila 1774