Orientation

Well, day one is complete. We did some paperwork early on, then sat around and waited alot. There are only 9 in this orientation class, quite a difference from our CFI/Conway orientation with 30 something. At Conway there was always pressure on, do not be one minute late for class or you're sent home, don't be late for shuttle, or you're sent home, etc, etc. No where near that here, very nice and personable and respectful so far.
Of the 9, there are 3 of us with prior experience, considered company drivers, and the other 6 are right out of CDL school somewhere, so they are considered student hires. They will go out with a trainer for 3-4 weeks. The 3 experienced drivers don't. We get our trucks hopefully Friday.
We got paired off and did a roadtest this morning, which consisted of discussing the pretrip with the the road examiner first. I was paired with one of the student drivers. He was instructed to drive first, pull up and drive out of the terminal, the drove along the access roads and some larger city roads, then off on some smaller rural roads. After approx 15 min of driving, he pulled over and I got behind the wheel. I have to admit, it felt good to be in the seat again. It was a larger Volvo truck with an AUTOMATIC transmission. Yup, thats right, auto,,so it made it alot easier to get back into the swing of it, I just had to concentrate on driving the truck. Kept it in my lane, didn't hit any curbs, and made it back to the yard in one piece. Drove around and in back of the docks so I would come up to where he want me to dock the trailer on the driver side. He got out and and I set up and docked it. Not bad, a little rusty, but I did it. So I got signed off on the road trip.
Next we went over to the medical clinic, and patiently waited for our turns to pee in the cup, do an eye test, color test, vitals, and see the Doc. After a short visit with him, I have a fresh, shiny new DOT medical certificate good for 2 years.
So much for day one. A few of us are going to meet in a couple min here at the hotel, and go have a little dinner together to celebrate the hard stuff is done.
Tomorrrow is alot of videos, and training on the electronic logs, and communications, safety, benefits, HR, etc.
See ya later, Keep it safe out there drivers!