New Hire - System Transport (Spokane WA) - Flatbed - OTR Lower 48

Hi All,

Great news - I've just been cleared to begin orientation/training with System Transport at their headquarters in Spokane, WA next Tuesday (09-05-2023). If you've followed my previous posts, you know that I've been taking personal leave to care for a family member for the past year. That said, I'm not worried about my pretrip/road test skills; my DMV tester called me a 'natural' behind the wheel of a big rig. I take this job seriously and I have a lot of passion for what I do. I enjoy thorough inspections, learning everything I can to keep the truck running properly, and maintaining a safe driving record. I love long hauls and I'm absolutely thrilled to be getting on-board with the company that I identified more than a year ago as my first choice in the industry for a novice trucker like myself. To boot, I'm moving into flatbed from refrigerated, which was my dream when I first started this career.

That said! If anyone here has any advice/wisdom/knowledge to share that will help me get off to the right start with my new employer, I welcome your input. It's been a year since I've been behind the wheel, does anyone have and reminders/recommendations that will assist me with the onboarding process with this particular company?

Specific questions:
1. Has anyone here gone through orientation with this company (with prior trucking experience) to offer insights into what I should expect? Any advice regarding securement training or road test or any other evaluations? Note: I treat my Commercial Driver Manual like a Bible and read it religiously, and I also read everything I can from the FMCSA website for further education. I'm also a member of a really great Facebook group: Flatbed Safety and Securement Group -- I highly recommend you join, there's a wealth of information there. It's honestly the only trucking group I follow on Facebook; it's a rich gold mine of information for newbies like myself.
2. Anyone have recommendations or advice for a new Flatbed trucker like myself? I originally applied to Prime Inc as Flatbed driver and I received a lot of great information from Turtle. If anyone has any insights specific to System Transport, I would greatly appreciate your insight.

Thanks so much and I'm thrilled to be getting back behind the wheel. It's been way too long.

Sincerely,

Chris

 

[End of thread - post discussion followup]

Hi all,

I went thru orientation this past week for Flatbed. In the final days of training, I realized that I'm no longer the agile cat I used to be, especially tarping 15' off the ground. I spoke with the Director of Corporate Training and he was happy to pivot me to their reefer company TWT (part of Trans-System, Inc). This made me happy. They're a good bunch of guys. I learned a lot about properly securing loads. I now have a lot of respect (more than I had previously) for folks who do flatbed fulltime. Definitely a good job when you're young and limber. I'm looking forward to working with them in their dry/reefer division. I'm getting a little additional 'tune up' training starting today. Just what I needed after an extended hiatus from trucking. Couldn't be more happy with the outcome. This is solid company, I highly recommend checking them out.

#Safetrucking and thanks to you all for your input/support.

Cheers,
Chris

 

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