ORIENTATION

I apologize for getting a little off-topic on the last post. I get caught up in a thought and just kind of follow it a little while to see where it's going. Writers sometimes call it falling down the rabbit hole. I'll try to do better, but I know me. There will be times when a thought just has to be followed.

I said I would get to Orientation at a trucking company. I have not heard of a single company who doesn't have an orientation class. They have DOT compliance issues for every student or new hire, including the drug screening, physicals, and reams of paperwork.

If a company says you need a document and you don't have it, please don't get on the bus. Get the documentation and then get on the bus. Speak with the recruiters. Part of their job is to make sure you're prepared with all the information you need to get hired. It's a waste of their time, your time and effort, and the company's resources to get you there just to make you leave and come back again. It doesn't leave a very good first impression of you.

As a student, you have your newly minted CDL permit and all your documents. You're ready to show up at the company for the orientation class. These classes usually begin on Mondays, so they'll have you on the bus to arrive on Sundays.

You'll be put into a dorm at the terminal or in a hotel. Usually, this is going to be a shared room with another student or driver with the same company. Unless you pay for your own room, that's just how it works.

You followed your directions and show up in the orientation class on time Monday morning. You'll be greeted and given a spiel welcoming you and telling you what you can expect.

A new hire and a student will go through all the hiring paperwork, fill out anything they missed on their applications, and do their physicals and drug tests. A new hire will go through a company manual. This goes into pay, policies, benefits, where things are located, contacts, etc.

A student will get to work learning how to drive a truck. This is just like any classroom. You have an instructor, materials to learn, tests to take, and practical applications (driving a truck). The orientation will lead the class and introduce the people who are going to teach you other aspects of the job.

Driving instructors will take you out to the truck and start putting people in the driver's seat. Talk about nerves? Oh yeah!

My own experiences in driving a car didn't prepare me for driving a truck. The shifting is different for one thing. The real difference though was where I needed to drive. I come from a place of less than 80,000 people. My training was done in a very large city, Salt Lake City, Utah. It scared the daylights out of me.

Many of the students I saw were serious about learning and took the whole process seriously. They worked their butts off and still failed to get their CDL because of one aspect of the training or another. For some it's the classroom stuff, but for the majority it's the driving.

In a car, or smaller vehicle you get used to driving within a certain amount of space. It handles like this. It will squeeze through here. It will fit under that.

In a truck, you're dealing with a whole different animal. The controls are similar enough to feel almost familiar. There are more controls, more complexity, and so much attention has to be paid to the ass end of the truck you feel like you're having an out-of-body experience.

Splitting your attention so you cover the whole truck and not just what's in front of you takes time, practice, and an ability to multi-process mentally and physically. When you go through your training they will cover exactly what to watch, when to watch it, and what to do when you don't calculate your moves correctly. It's intense.

Backing...It's a process that is so involved and awkward that it amazes me still when I get it right. Even 2 years as a driver and I find myself setting up wrong and not being able to back into the space I want. I have to go back to square one and really THINK about where I have to have my trailer and when to turn the wheel and how much.

When you think you know what you're doing and have done it right a couple dozen times in a row is when complacency sets in. That will cause you to rush, hit something, and get an accident on your driving record. It will happen. You will call yourself a dozen kinds of stupid and then fix what you did wrong.

The key to backing is set up correctly and take your time. Even then, you will have days when you just can't get that back right. It's a horrible feeling. When you finally get it in the space you need, you'll just feel relieved it's over.

Orientation will be finished when you are officially hired and either get assigned to your truck (for a new hire) or when you get assigned to a trainer.

Trainers are a whole 'nother story.

Thanks for being here...

Renae - The Truck Driving Woman