My wife and I were ready and willing to go trucking. The pay looked good, and, having that totally useless degree in accounting, after running the numbers several times, I was looking for somebody to sign on with.
The problem is, to drive a 70' long vehicle, you have to have training (expensive), and a special license...Class A CDL (which requires you show up with a truck for testing).
After a lot of research, about 6 months, we decided to go with Schneider National Carriers out of Green Bay, Wisconsin. They offered free truck driver training, and, if you graduated, a job. They also had a good safety record and attitude, and this was of paramount importance to us.
We met with a recruiter and joked with him about his last name, "Swift". Swift is a major competitor of Schneider's. We also received some informational materials from Green Bay, including a short video. As it happened, we later met many of the people in the video and even got to work directly with them, but that comes later.
Finally, we passed all the intial tests, including taking a written test in our home state of Texas so that we qualified for a training permit. We also had to qualify on a HazMat test before things were a go.
After a little back and forth, we were notified that we were accepted for training. One drawback was that the training was going to be in Green Bay. Since we lived in Texas, and were going to have to quit our jobs to even give this a shot we began to have cold feet. We were not even sure how we were going to get to Green Bay and survive the two weeks of unpaid training.
However, Schneider informed us that transportation would be provided from Dallas to Green Bay and all lodging would be provided as well. With all that resolved, we took our minimal savings, paid off the monthly bills, left our girls in charge of the house...and the dog...and set off from Austin to Dallas to catch the bus...yep, bus...to Green Bay with enough cash in our pockets to allow us to live on less than $10 a day each for the next three weeks...we thought. More on that later.
Next episode: The longest bus ride of our lives!!!
Friday, October 19, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Who's Idea Was This, Anyway?
How My Wife and I Became a Truck Driving Team
Back in 1997, my wife and I had only been married for about three years. We had each come out of a bad marriage and it seemed that we had each found the right mate. Life had tested us a little and we had gotten through it...and then we decided that "normal" was not enough.
We were on our way back to Texas after visiting relatives in Arizona. We were eastbound on I-10 in the Deming, New Mexico area when a nice looking truck and trailer went by in the westbound lanes. It's still up in the air, depending on who's talking, about who said what first. However, we both agree that one of us said, "I've always wanted to do that.", and the other replied, "Me too."
That might have been the end of it, but, right about then, we exited to gas up, and do other things, at the Savoy Truck Stop.
As I entered the building, one of the first things I saw was a rack of booklets about truck driving jobs. On my way back out, I grabbed two or three. It was my wife's turn to drive, so I looked through the books and relayed the info to her as I read.
Page after page contained ads from truck driving companies offering big bucks, and castles and dragons, to any who wanted to wander in off the street. One thing that caught my attention, and hers, was that "teams" seemed to make more per mile and the companies either implied or stated that these teams got the best loads.
One phrase which we both liked was "no-touch freight". Of course, at that point we were not exactly sure what "drop-and-hook" meant, but it sounded a lot like no-touch freight. Having loaded and unloaded many trucks in the back of a grocery store, the wareroom of a discount store, and out in the field with the Army, no-touch freight sounded good to me!
By the time we got back home to Texas, we had decided to at least look into this new world a little more. It sounded good, but it also sounded like a big leap for a government clerk (her), and a retired soldier turned optician (me).
Next time I'll be telling you how we finally got into trucking.
Back in 1997, my wife and I had only been married for about three years. We had each come out of a bad marriage and it seemed that we had each found the right mate. Life had tested us a little and we had gotten through it...and then we decided that "normal" was not enough.
We were on our way back to Texas after visiting relatives in Arizona. We were eastbound on I-10 in the Deming, New Mexico area when a nice looking truck and trailer went by in the westbound lanes. It's still up in the air, depending on who's talking, about who said what first. However, we both agree that one of us said, "I've always wanted to do that.", and the other replied, "Me too."
That might have been the end of it, but, right about then, we exited to gas up, and do other things, at the Savoy Truck Stop.
As I entered the building, one of the first things I saw was a rack of booklets about truck driving jobs. On my way back out, I grabbed two or three. It was my wife's turn to drive, so I looked through the books and relayed the info to her as I read.
Page after page contained ads from truck driving companies offering big bucks, and castles and dragons, to any who wanted to wander in off the street. One thing that caught my attention, and hers, was that "teams" seemed to make more per mile and the companies either implied or stated that these teams got the best loads.
One phrase which we both liked was "no-touch freight". Of course, at that point we were not exactly sure what "drop-and-hook" meant, but it sounded a lot like no-touch freight. Having loaded and unloaded many trucks in the back of a grocery store, the wareroom of a discount store, and out in the field with the Army, no-touch freight sounded good to me!
By the time we got back home to Texas, we had decided to at least look into this new world a little more. It sounded good, but it also sounded like a big leap for a government clerk (her), and a retired soldier turned optician (me).
Next time I'll be telling you how we finally got into trucking.
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