Southeastern Freight Lines Driver Trainee Position?!?!?!

Wow times have change, if you are speaking of Southeastern out of Columbia SC, didn't know they had driver trainers. I know they used dock workers for training drivers for yard work but not the road. Also speaking of Southeastern I thought they were regional and over the road was from terminal to terminal and they have what they call regional drivers that run out to pickup loads and deliver and back at home terminal before they run over hours. At one time they would run like 400 miles and the driver would sleep in what they called bunk houses and later in the day at about 6:00 pm they would have your load ready for you to return back to your home terminal with maybe a in route pickup at a closed terminal and mostly by the weekend things die. Have they changed?

 

Basically what I see is they are looking for an above averageperson who can project duties in an intelligent manner and give instructionsclear and concise. I guess it's best to explain how freight system works. Citydriver call in pickups and these are for the most part regular shippers. A routersets up loads before city driver gets in. Billing department has made invoicesand routed each shipment to a trailer for road. Most shipment are palletized andas a dock worker you take all the bills of laden's for that trailer and offload with a forklift and that shipment is marked with a door number and youload that pallet into a trailer that's going to Raleigh NC or wherever. You mayhave 40 trailers going to other cities like Charlotte or Columbus Ga.in other doors. You may have 35 or 40 city drivers backed to the dock offloading. At the dock you will have several Atlanta city trailers and you load them atthe same time, it's called cross dock. The router has lined up city drivers accordingto stops. The dock worker removes the trailer as soon as it's full or you havea worker driving a yard mule do it. This worker builds sets when each traileris loaded to keep things going if the yard mule can't keep up you get theproper tractor for that trailer and start building sets in the yard, this iswhere the inspection comes in. each trailer you hook you make sure it's roadworthy, companies want to find defects there where thy have a shop to makerepairs. Unit must be checked out before the road drivers get his truck readyfor his trip city or road, also each truck must be fueled and fluids check plustires and some terminals make the yard help air up tires to company pressure. Mostsets are built with a yard mule because it's easy to pickup and drop even withthe dolly, yes a good yard man can back these units together. Each company doesit basically the same way. Loading the right shipment on the right trailermistakes are made so you must pay attention and when you load a shipment on atrailer you attach that invoice with that trailer and the dock wraps the billsup in a manifest to give to driver when he gets ready to leave. It's impressiveto see how may tons of freight they can handle. You as a yard worker and atruck driver must see that the trailer has the right hazmat place card for thatload if it has hazmat, this is important because lack of right place card or placecards that don't belong on that trailer cost the same when they check you atscales. Each manifest must be placed in a door pocket that way if truck is inan accident the fire department know where the BOL are and this is the first thing they check. If wrong placecards are on the trailer they may stop all traffic due to hazard or assumedhazard. These 28 foot trailers are loaded for the city in another state anddrops are in order. Each worker is supposed to move around 3200 pounds tojustify his pay and that is really not that hard, Companies call driversusually in the after noon and set trip with a 2 hour call time and you areexpected to be there on time to get your unit rolling. A run from Atlanta, Ga to Charlotte NC takes about 4.40 hours andCharlotte turns you back to Atlanta or they may extend your run when you dropand put your trailer to the dock and get a set hooked and it may go to Raleighfor rest, That night they have you loaded back to Atlanta and it start all overagain, I can drop trailers at a dock and pull my trailer out in less that 45min's In 1982 I pulled over load for several lines in Charlotte and othercities like Raleigh, I pulled over flow from Charlotte to Ca for consolidatedfreight in Charlotte but they would not let me get out of my truck, The yardworkers would build my sets and I would pull off property and check unit, theywere teamsters, Other companies I had a chance to see what was going on and wantedto know how they moved so much freight in such a short time. It's really notthat hard once you understand how it operates, hope this helps, I'm not surewhat the pay is but you can expect between 16 and 19 dollars and hour dock,yard, city. Expect local running until they are sure you will make what theycall a line driver also expect over time as the flow of freight does not staythe same. Pay should be from 800 to a thousand is you get hooked up with a goodrun, wow that's long winded but I feel you need to know what to expect. Backingin these tight places drive your rear tires, that's the secret of backing

 

If you need to ask me more question PM me and I will be glad to help.

 

40 hrs a week..... I hope your not getting in to trucking thinking your only working 40 a week it took me a long time to find this good union job I have now but I'm still working 50

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Hey Zeptear, 40 to 45 hours is just for the city dock and yard. Road drivers don't get paid for over time, it's the only job that I know of that can work you 70 hours without paying overtime. On the dock they come out better paying over time than having to many workers that haft to pay health care and all the rest of the benefits. City dock and city have part time workers fill in when work load gets past regular workers. Road for eastern is not that bad as they have turns getting you back home then they have laydown runs where a driver takes rest and if it's a bid he comes back home at around 5:00 am and has the day off until his bid run goes later that night. These are not bad companies to work for as you don't stay out past one day and most important you have a family life. They say you can't back doubles but watch some of the yard help with a yard mule, these guys know how to set up a back and I've see them back doubles, it's like pushing a rope but they do it. My truck has a house number on it because it's my home, the only good thing is I don't have a yard to mow.

 

Ya I get 40 hours whether i work it or not I'm 4 day bid on my 5th day (friday) is time and a half overtime
When I work Saturdays it's at double time
I get all holidays off payed and I make 20 a hr

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