After we arrived and got berated we watched a series of videos and presentations from various folks from Hill Bros. They were, in order:
- Forklift training
- Hazmat
- Accident Scenes
- Highway Watch program
- Qualcomm macros
- Trippak
- Logs & Hours of Service
- Accidents, out-of-service and Disqualification
- Safestat information
- Benefits
Nothing earth shattering in there, really. It was interesting to hear the exchanges between various Billy Big Rig drivers and the lady from Logs discussing various dodges they had used before at various maverick outfits. Some people don't seem to understand that if you are involved in a serious enough accident, a defense attorney is going to subpoena all of your documentation for the past six months or more and the company is going to gladly hand it over. He will then compare your logs against every fuel stop, every GPS location when you use your Qualcomm, every scale time, every Prepass, EZPass, Pikepass or any other electronic system you have on board, everything. As soon as one little chink in your defense shows up, where you say you were at point "A" at the same time it is obvious you were at point "B" then it is over.
On the plus side, the company does accept the DriversDailyLog printed log sheets which makes my job much easier. For some reason you have to submit your logs in different envelopes going to the same location (a processing company called Trippak that I used while I was at CFI) than the rest of your materials, which was never a problem for me before.
On the down side, they want a lot of repetitive information written on pretty much every scrap of paper you turn in so I will probably get a stamp or two made once I get the truck number for my "permanent" truck.
Lunch today was a few blocks away at a local Italian restaurant and pizzeria. I've worked in and managed pizza shops before and the food was mediocre but filling, and not terribly expensive.
Tomorrow will be more of the same as we wrap up most of the paperwork process and finish most of the presentations. Thursday will be spent out on the road taking our hour-long driving tests and going to see the operations side of the operation. Since this is a smaller company they only have one truck tasked as the test truck and it doesn't have seating or seat belts in back for passengers, so it will be done with only the applicant and an examiner each trip.
This afternoon I was given the keys to the driver van so I will also be driving everyone back to the headquarters tomorrow morning. The van WILL be leaving on schedule, as we have to be there no later than 0659.
