Estes | Estes Knoxville Questions

steercrazee

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I've been out of a Class A truck for 13 years, driving a Class B oil tanker. I still have my Class A license with all the endorsements. I drove a couple years OTR before my Class B job. Looking to move to Morristown. I am just wondering if you have a refresher course and would I be able to start off in LTL after the refresher? What's involved in driving for you? Is it no touch freight? Thanks for any help.
 
We have a driver school. It generally it's for dockworkers who want to get their CDL. If you've maintained your license, you might be able to go straight there upon getting hired.

Linehaul is no-touch freight. All terminal to terminal. You'd start off extraboard being out 5 nights (sleeping in hotels) and off 2 days. After some time (probably a few years at a smaller terminal like Knoxville) you could get a scheduled run being home daily.

There are also hub positions that go to a terminal, work the dock for a few hours, them back home daily.

P&D is all local work picking up and delivering at customers.

Combo drivers fill in wherever is needed. Might work in the city, cover Linehaul runs for drivers on vacation, work the dock, drive a hostler truck...
 
I'm currently a jockey but I have my class a and drove in the past. I asked a manager a similar question and this is how she explained it.

Estes also has an apprenticeship program which is for people with their CDL but no recent experience. Basically you just skip the school part but you'll still go out with a trainer. You'll work the city for about three months (1 month with trainer, 2 month solo). Then you'll go out with a linehaul trainer and learn that side (about a week or two). After that you'll be officially a 'combo' driver until next bid. What you do is more dependent on the terminal. I'm at a bigger barn and our combo guys basically either do city straight or they cover runs on the linehaul, very rarely flipping between them. Nice thing about combo is your seniority carries over. So you can use that to bid linehaul or whatever later. Now how many are avaliable depends on your terminal. You might only have the option of going extraboard outside of combo.

She did say whether they let you skip the school is basically up to safety and the like. Some people still go through the school or some only go for the one week where they do the driving stuff.

For the record, since you're not with Estes now. They'll probably want you to work least three months there (most likely dock or jockey) before they'll even let you in the program. They don't typically put people through it right off the street.
 
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