Well I made it through orientation. I was very impressed.
There were 18 in my class which they seperated in to 2 groups,experienced and students. There were only 3 of us in the experienced class which made it much easier and quicker to learn "the Maverick way" of doing things. You know how there's always one guy that likes to ask questions and slow down the class? He was in the other class,thank God. When I got there they told me that we would probably lose 3 or 4 guys during orientation because of the physical or road test or something else. We were the first class in 8 mos. that didn't lose anybody.
For the experienced drivers,we had 1 1/2 weeks,the student class had 2 weeks then had to go out with a trainer.
Everything they told me was true. They said they would tell us some things we might not like but would be honest and they lived up to it. They are very big on safety. If there is a safer way of doing something they have figured out. The first 4 days were all classroom. Tuesday we took our physical and agility tests. Wed. we took our road tests. Thursday we got our job offers. Friday,Saturday and Sunday were all load securement(coils,coils and more coils) and tarping. Sunday night we went to the Ft. Smith,Ark terminal, which is across the road from Mac Steel, where we learned how to secure and tarp graybar and shiny bar for 2 days. After the classroom part we went out to the yard and worked on live loads with other drivers. They make tarping easy. They also showed us how to fold our tarps off the rail of the truck,pretty cool. Tuesday we went back to Little Rock and were supposed to get our trucks Wed. Wed. afternoon they told 2 of us we would be flying to Madison.Il. to get our trucks. We flew to Madison Thursday morning and had our trucks that afternoon.I have an 07 Freightliner automatic 10-speed that only has 161,000 mi. on it. I got my first load about 3 hours later. It was a pick up in Hickman,Ky for Friday AM going to Morganton,NC delivering Mon AM. Living in Charleston,WV I thought I was going to be out all weekend but my fleet mgr. told me I could take it home and del. Mon. which made me and my whole family very happy. Anyway,I'm pretty sure I'll be home most weekends like they told me.
I know this is long but I've been gone awhile and had alot to say.
Oh yeah, I missed you guys
Maverick orientation 
. Keep us posted on how it is going.
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