Team Adventure: First Week of School Complete

Monday, November 9, 2009

First Week of School Complete

Well...we made it through our first week of truck driving school. What a whirlwind! Monday and half of Tuesday consisted of taking tests all day long for our CDL permits, good times. Our brains hurt, but we kept our sanity. After 3 1/2 hours at the DMV in Denver we passed our 3 tests plus a tanker endorsement and earned our CDL permits. First hurdle complete.

The rest of the week consisted of more classroom time and some

lab work going over the tractor

on the range at school.

Saturday was our first time out on the range to drive the tractors. We first bobtailed (just driving the tractor without a trailer for all you non-driver folk) learning how to double clutch and shift. Then we coupled up the 53 foot trailer....yes that's right 53 feet and learned how to back it into a cone zone completely straight. It is easier said than done. Jeff caught on much quicker than I did to this task, but with some persistence by the end of our four hour driving time I finally got the hang of getting it straight without mashing any cones!

Sunday....early 6 am to 10 am was our range time (yuck!). We continued to practice backing in the cone zone and Craig our instructor (a very patient man I might add) decided it was time to throw some more challenge into the mix. We started practicing offset backing. This is when you have two lanes of cones which are 12 feet wide and the tractor/trailer happens to be 8 feet wide. You have to pull the tractor/trailer out of the first lane of cones...make a sharp figure 8 type maneuver and then back it straight into the next set on cones that was next to the previous set of where you started. Oh yeah and it had to be straight. I really sucked at this! Jeff got the hang of it and was, as usual, backing and doing the figure 8's like he had been driving a semi for quite some time. I was frustrated but continued to try my hardest.

We have our next range time this weekend so I intend to perfect this off-set backing once and for all! Jeff is going to move on the parallel parking so we will see what next weekend brings.

For only being a week into it, I think that we are doing pretty well for not knowing a darn thing about driving a truck. Both of us are really liking the change and are looking forward to going out on the road next Sunday. Yup, the road next Sunday. Make sure you all stay home where you will be safe and lock your doors. Stay tuned for the next exciting update and thanks for taking the time to follow our new adventure.

- Jeff & Melissa

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ABOUT TEAM LINN and OUR ADVENTURE

We started our adventure 4 years ago. Our first trucking job was with Watkins Shepard out of Missoula, MT. Great company to start with. Gave us fantastic training in their 10-day orientation on top of our CDL training we already had. We stayed with them for a year and half and decided we wanted a change.

We went to work for Diversified Transfer and Storage out of Billings, MT. This was no longer a truckload, it was LTL, less than a truckload. We ran reefer and had a terminal in Denver, so we ran 4 weeks and had a week off. That part was great, but the company was not a good fit for us. Loved the LTL, couldn't deal with working for an owner who was a piece of crap. I wont even go into further detail....

Next...we wanted to go back to full truckload reefer so we decided to go with US Xpress. We were very happy with them for the first 5 months. We ran consistent miles from the east to west coast and loved it. Our Fleet Manager Mike Gibbs was the best Fleet Manager we have ever encountered in this business. We became one of the top Teams on the reefer board with US Xpress. We were called by the Fleet Owner, the VP of the Reefer division and the COO of US Xpress to tell us what a great job we were doing and how much they appreciated our service. But then it all fell apart and our miles started to drop and our awesome FM was thinking about transferring out of the division. Jeff and I saw the writing on the wall and we decided we wanted out of this company before things got even worse. I still speak with many Teams that run with US Xpress and they are having horrible issues. This was a driver friendly company, but since Pat Quinan passed away in January of 2012, things changed dramatically. Pat was the compassionate one that knew the company was about the Driver. Unfortunately after his passing things quickly changed to being about numbers on a spreadsheet, our FM moved on and we turned our truck in at the Irving Terminal and never looked back at our decision.

We then wet to The Waggoner's Trucking out of Billings, MT. Yep, can't seem to get away from Montana based companies. We now ran a dedicated run from Denver to Oklahoma City three times a week. We ran a flatbed, split axle trailer...which is only 48' now, instead of the 53" we were used to. We were met in Oklahoma City by the owner of the company David Waggoner to give us our new truck. We were no longer a number, but we were The Linn's again. We pulled into the OKC terminal and everybody knew our name and we knew theirs. We were part of a family again and it was so nice to be back in the surroundings we have missed from working at Watkins Shepard. We were in a Kenworth W900 Long Nose truck. We were home every other day in Denver and have Sunday and Monday off every week to enjoy our house in Denver again. We really debated on a dedicated run, since we love traveling the 48 states, but after almost 3 years, we have been to every state and it was time to get back to some connection to our kids, grandchild and our awesome house in Denver. It was so nice to be home more often. But on the flip side:

We ran this route for a year, yes dedicated was great, home time seemed to turn into one of us sleeping...even though it was in our own bed....however, we both got tired of running the same route and we only ran our route at night. Although the company was great, working 7 days a week was tiring and we decided we wanted to go back to enjoying why we started doing this in the first place...to see the country and meet awesome people so...this brings us to our next job change.

We now are working for Gemini Motor Transport, which is the trucking company that Loves Travel Stops owns and services their truck stops. We are working in the SW Region, which includes, CA, AZ, NM. Plus CO and WY when we come back home. We are hauling a tanker truck now, which is only 42' long...getting shorter, I'm liking that, and we haul DEF (Deisel Exhaust Fluid) only. We are the first husband and wife Team that Love's has ever hired. I am also proud to say that I am the only woman that works in the SW region that drives a truck. We are responsible for 33 stores and growing, along with one other solo driver in the region. Our job is to make sure that no stores ever run out of product in our region. Since teaming is new for Love's we will be sent to other regions as well, as needed, possibly the NW too. Our first week we serviced 11 stores in Southern California (all the way up to Corning), plus New Mexico and Arizona. It has been a big change, but once again, we are up for the challenge. I know I have never been so glad to run on a different road and see new things. There are good things about running a dedicated run, but I am so glad we made this transition and I think we picked a great company. We get a reset every week and we only work 6 day a week now. Plus we are paid by the day, not by the mile. We will also be home for every holiday...paid. This company is hard to get into and I am so glad they picked us. The Vice President of the SW region flew in to DIA twice to meet with us before we decided to take the position. He is our direct boss and an awesome one at that. We could not have made a better decision making the move when we did. The dedicated account would have been much more difficult to do with the new Hours of Service that changed in July 2013. So once again, we made the jump before it took anything away from our adventure.

We are happy to answer any questions you may have about trucking in general, teaming or any of the above companies we have worked for. We had to start out just like you and had so many questions, but not a lot of people to answer them. Shoot us an email @ hobotruckers@gmail.com we would love to hear your questions or comments. Thanks for following along in our adventures.

Team Adventure

Monday, November 9, 2009

First Week of School Complete

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