The orientation begins...

Just as I predicted, a simple conversation with the Denver recruiting and orientation contact (Tammy) fixed my hotel problem. So all is well there.

Breakfast was unexpectedly good here. Instead of the standard continental fare, we actually had a buffet consisting of biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, sausage links, french toast, and the like. Continental-style eats were also available, but I wasn't interested. No juice though, which was a bit of a bummer.

Since my reservation was messed up, I thought it might be a baaaaad idea to trust that a shuttle would show up and decided to drive myself. It also seemed a bit ridiculous that they'd commit a shuttle to pick up just one person. On my way out the door, I ran into a guy who was starting orientation with Navajo (their terminal is just across the street from the Prime terminal) and he claimed to be a former Schneider driver. A bit bitter, though. Before I was able to get away from him, he had told me how he'd lost his house because of Schneider and whatever other sob story he had.

I'm going to digress now. I've noticed a pattern developing among truckers, and the defining characteristic is attitude. If your attitude sucks, you don't make much money in this career. It's that simple. All the truckers I've talked to that are going broke do nothing but friggin' BITCH BITCH BITCH. And their monetary difficulties are never their fault. I'm sorry, but in a career that requires you to be almost completely independent, you are entirely responsible for how you do. If things start going south, it's up to you and you alone to fix it. Nobody else is ever going to babysit you here. Excuses don't pay bills. If your carrier REALLY and TRULY doesn't have the freight base to keep drivers moving, then move on. If you're not making money but everyone else around you is, then you're doing something VERY wrong. I could go on and on here, but I should probably get back to the subject at hand. Just be positive and have an open mind. Trucking is what you make of it. No more, and no less. It's all YOU.

I drove down to the Prime terminal and was confronted by the locked gate, a keypad for entering the code, a speaker for talking into, but no call button or phone to plead my case for entry. After sitting there and trying a few different code combinations in hopes of someone calling out to me, I drove to the parking lot next door and called Prime's general purpose line. Yes, I should have called the Denver terminal directly, but I left that number back at my room like a moron. Luckily, Tammy is the one who answers and she lets me in.

Now, when I say that this place is small, I mean it is SMALL. There is no fuel there. There is a small row of back-in parking that fits maybe 20 trucks. Not much activity. The building is one of those portable modular things with all the usual safety propaganda featuring pictures of crashed trucks hung up on the walls. There is one shower - in the men's room. Functional, and not much else. It seems to be all they need for the traffic they get there, though. Only a couple of trucks came and went during orientation today.

Just when I thought I'd be by myself this whole time, another fresh face shows up. He's experienced, but less so than me. In fact, I noticed that I was classified as a B-2 seat (3-4 months experience, requiring 60 days of training instead of the 30 days that I was promised!) and I asked the WTF question about it. Tammy promptly reran my motor vehicle, DAC, and employment history and came back with good news: instead of being B-1 (30 days training) like I was promised, I now qualified as an A seat and get my truck immediately following orientation. WOOHOO! I tell you, there's a lot to be said for paying attention to your paperwork and asking questions. Like I said in the last paragraph, you've got to stay on top of this stuff because nobody else will do it for you.

This morning was pretty much consumed by the medical clinic. We went down and got new DOT physicals and drug tests. Pretty standard stuff; was poked, prodded, and molested by the doctor. And thanks to the coffee and water that I started drinking early on, fessing up the urine sample was a breeze. In fact, I was getting rather eager to donate.

After that, we went back to the terminal, watched a couple of "welcome to Prime" videos, ate lunch (they sent out for sandwiches), did a ton of paperwork, and had our integrity interviews. Pretty simple, and really informal seeing as how it's just two of us. We concluded at about 1500 and were told to show back up at 0900. Woot! Sleep in!

That's pretty much it. Tammy gave me a voucher for $8.50 worth of food good at the hotel's restaurant, so dinner is taken care of.