Welcome! It’s starting ….

(Author’s note: the title of this blog was borrowed from the tag line of www.pumpkindriver.com.  Many thanks to Orange Boy, site administrator for kind permission to borrow) 

For those of you who might know me, yes, I am really doing this.  And I am excited about it too!

For those of you who don’t know me, this blog is a simple journal of my life and career change to that of an Over The Road truck driver.   I spent the last 29 years of my life (my entire adult working life) “driving a desk” in a variety of white collar jobs.  Most of that time was spent in the financial services industry, most recently with a well known national financial advisory firm.  I was feeling a bit burned out and things were beginning to feel more and more like a J-O-B.  It was time for a change.

So now, I am on the road (well, only figuratively speaking at this juncture) to starting a new life in a totally different kind of work.  The purpose of this blog is to merely replicate and imitate what many other folks are doing in recording the day-to-day aspects of the training, learning and experiences of being an OTR trucker.  It will probably be boring.  I have been accused of such in my life (“dry white toast” as one woman referred to me).

But what the heck – if I get too boring, the internet is filled with much more interesting and fun things to do.  I am sure you will find them.

March 31, 2007 – Day 1

To begin, happy birthday to my brother Brian.  Wow – 46 years old today.  I still remember when Mom brought you home from the hospital.  Thanks for being one of the best brothers anyone could ever hope to have! (Of course, it goes without saying that I am the other “one of the best brothers” anyone could ever hope to have!)

I am sitting in my hotel room in the glamorous and tastefully appointed Baymont Inn in beautiful Green Bay, Wisconsin, on this, the first day of new driver training for Schneider National, Inc.  If you travel America’s highways, you are no doubt familiar with Schneider National – one of the nation’s largest trucking firms.  Schneider runs the decidedly orange trucks and trailers you see everywhere, which units are affectionately called “pumpkins” on the highways, and the drivers are commonly referred to as “Pumpkin Drivers.”

I arrived yesterday afternoon (3/30/07) on a chartered bus that picked me up in Indianapolis, IN.  Schneider operates an Operating Center in Indy – one of many they have scattered across the U.S.  Several of my fellow students boarded at 8 a.m. for the 7 hour excursion to Title Town, the corporate HQ of Schneider and where they run one of the 5 Schneider Training Academies (STAs).  Not much to do yesterday but check into the hotel room, unpack, relax from the not-so-relaxing trip up, and scrounge around for dinner.  Tadaa! A Hardee’s just down the street to feed my hedonistic desire for cholesterol in its many delicious manifestations.  I was all set.  Get some sleep and start the journey in the morning.

The STA shuttle bus picked us up at the hotel at 6:45 a.m. and took us to the training facility.  We shuffled into the classroom, all of us caught somewhere between wide-eyed anticipation of the next two weeks that are designed to prepare us to drive the Big Rigs, and that of fighting to keep our eyes open at that early hour.  Our group is not terribly small, 48 in all, and they split up into two groups of 24 each.  I like how these people think – instead of making a big issue of how they would split us up, they just cut the list in half alphabetically.  I mean, why complicate matters unnecessarily?

My group, the top half of the alphabet, moved into an adjoining classroom where we met Tom, our classroom instructor for the next two weeks.  Then it was down to business – PAPERWORK!

Yes, we filled out some paperwork.  Then more paperwork, then paperwork and paperwork, followed by more paperwork.  After a brief restroom break, we reconvened in the classroom and did some paperwork, then some paperwork, then paperwork, paperwork, paperwork, and finally, some paperwork. 

THEN we got to watch a video! I won’t bore you all with the details of the video, it was an interesting subject, but like every other “industrial” video I have ever seen, it lacked some of the finer aspects of great movie making to be found on MST3K reruns.  After the hour long “cinéma sans pop-corn,” guess what we did?  PAPERWORK!  We wrapped up the morning session by starting a “Check For Learning” (aka “test,” hereinafter abbreviated “CFL” ) about Department of Transportation safety regulations.  The upside was that it was all open book, so if anyone messes it up, well…(on a positive note, scouring for the answers in the 596 page Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations manual kinda made one learn a few things!)

Our time expired before we were able to finish all 49 multiple choice questions, so Tom (the instructor, remember him?) passed out our lunch vouchers and told us to take the books back to the hotel, finish it up tonight and bring it back tomorrow.  For now, it’s the end of today’s session and lunchtime!

Now keep in mind that Schneider is a trucking company, and the STA exists to train potential drivers in the safe operation of 80,000 pound vehicles – it is NOT Le Cordon Bleu.  Schneider has an excellent reputation in the industry for providing some of the best training in the business, albeit intense and demanding.  Having said that, lunch was, well, “provender.”  And provided at no cost to us.  

Upon finishing our midday fare, we congregated outside the facility to wait for the bus driver to take us back to the hotel.  While waiting for the driver, we got to observe several 2nd-week trainees practicing their backing skills on the driving range right in front of us.  None of us were critical of their exercises, for who knows how well any of us will do a week from today when a new class gathers to watch us as we stage a similar show for them?

Presently, the driver shows up, loads us on the bus and heads back to the hotel.  The rest of the day to finish our DOT regs CFL, relax, contemplate what in the world have we gotten ourselves into, and figure out if it is Subway, Hardee’s, Wendy’s, Olive Garden or pizza for dinner.

Tomorrow the real push begins. We’re excited.