"The recruiter has sent us the email, and she has confirmed our orientation date for the 25th of this month," I told my wife Kamala, who was in the kitchen cooking us dinner.
"That is a piece of very good news. This company is very fast in their recruitment process," Kamala responded happily.
"They must be really in need of drivers; I read an article where the US has a huge shortage of semi truck long haul drivers. The attrition rate is very high in this industry," I said to Kamala.
We had been fired from the IT industry a few months ago because of the slowdown in the US economy. Initially, we tried to get jobs but lost them to the cheaper younger generation of workers.
So we decided to change our careers from IT professionals to semi-truck drivers. It was not a sudden decision. I have always been fascinated by big rigs, ever since I first came to America from India.
Let me start by giving you a short introduction. My name is Jai, and I was born in Pune, India. After graduation, I came to the USA on a student visa for post-graduation studies. I got a job after completing my post-graduation at a big IT company in Silicon Valley. Kamala was also born in India. She too came here on a student visa like me, and after completing her studies, she joined the same company as me.
We joined the company at the same time and worked in the same department. We became good friends first, then fell in love. We got married and settled in the USA permanently. We eventually became naturalized citizens of the USA.
When the COVID pandemic hit, we were working from home. I used to watch a lot of YouTube at that time. One day I watched a semi-truck YouTube video when it showed up on my timeline. I liked the video, and more videos started showing up on my timeline. I got sucked into the YouTube trucker's lifestyle. I loved how they drove the trucks during the day and then had to sleep in the truck itself during the night at the truck stop, or sometimes it used to be vice versa. I even joined a few trucker's forum websites for just information and to learn about their lifestyle.
I even got my wife addicted to different YouTube trucker channels. She liked the life on the road videos. We had lived in the USA for 15 years, but we hadn't seen this big, beautiful country at all. We lived in California (or, as truckers like to call it, "commiefornia") all those 15 years and had only visited three other states (Nevada, Hawaii, and Florida).
When we lost our jobs and were not able to get any other jobs in our fields, we decided at the age of 40 to try to change our careers. Kamala and I did a lot of research on how to become truckers, how much it pays, etc.
The first thing was to get a commercial driver's license (CDL). We went to a good PTDI-certified school and got our CDL license. It took about three weeks to get the license. After getting the license, the big task was to get hired by a company that hires new CDL holders.
No trucking company will hire a new CDL driver and hand him the keys to the truck. The new driver needs to undergo second training with an experienced driver who will refine the newbie's driving skills as well as teach him other skills such as dealing with shippers and receivers, pre-tripping trucks, using Qualcomm, e-logs, etc.
We were planning on becoming a long-haul team driver, which is two drivers taking turns driving one semi-truck, so we were looking for companies that would hire a husband and wife team. There is always a huge demand for the husband and wife team, but we were looking for a company that would give us the second training together.
We found one such company that offered to train us together. We applied at the company, and after our background checks came back good, the recruiter sent us an email inviting us to the orientation.
We arrived at the company location for orientation, and the orientation lasted 3 days. After we passed all our physicals and drug tests at orientation, we were introduced to our trainer/driver, Donald, by the recruiter.
Donald was an experienced guy. He was around 50 years old. He was African American and had 25 years of semi-truck driving experience. He was a big guy, about 6 feet tall. He was a bit overweight, but that is standard with all the truck drivers who haul box trailers. He had been working with the company for 15 years and had specialized in training husband-and-wife teams.
After the introductions were done, Donald took us to the semi-truck and showed us our home for the next four weeks. The semi-truck was a Volvo 860 model with a 77-inch sleeper. It was spacious and had a mini-fridge and a microwave. There was space for keeping our clothes, too. At the back of the sleeper, there were two beds, one at the bottom and the other at the top.
The bottom bed was bigger, so Kamala and I were given that bed. The upper bed was to be used by Donald. Donald gave us his basic rules of privacy and cleanliness to follow for all of us to live in the truck for the next 4 weeks in peace and harmony.
The first week went well. Donald taught us all the basics of truck driving as well as trucking. It was on-the-job training, so we were picking up and delivering loads for customers.
Donald could only work 14 hours a day as per DOT regulation, and he needed to sit beside us when one of us was driving, so Kamala and I were driving for 7 hours each. Once Donald's 14 hours were done, we had to take the mandatory 10-hour break.
On the 10th day of our training, we were about to finish our duty as the 14 hour mark was approaching, so we entered the truck stop to start the break. It was dark outside, and truck stops are also not very illuminated. The truck stop was already full, so we were looking for a vacant stop. Kamala was driving at a very slow speed. She did not find any vacant parking spots in the first row, so she took a right turn at the end of the first row to go toward the last row of the truck stop.
As she took the turn, we noticed that there was a truck parked illegally on the driving portion of the truck stop. She cleared the front portion of the truck, but as she turned the truck to enter the last row, We heard a crunching sound, and the truck jerked a bit. Kamala stopped immediately.
We all got down from the truck and went to the back of the trailer. Kamala had hit the illegally parked truck's trailer with our trailer. The other trailer was an old flatbed steel trailer. There was hardly any damage to the other trailer. Our box trailer had a bit of damage at the very back. The damage on the trailer could be easily repaired at a very low cost.
The other driver had now come out of the truck. He was examining the damage on his trailer. As the other driver was checking his trailer, we saw a truck pulling out of the parking spot. Donald and Kamala went into our truck to park it in the now vacant spot.
I spoke with the other driver. It turned out he was the owner-operator of the truck and trailer. I told him we were trainee drivers, and he was sympathetic to Kamala's mistake. I asked him if he could consider taking cash instead of involving our company's insurance, as using the company's insurance will require us to report the accident, which in turn will put a record on Kamala's CDL.
The other driver was an old white guy who must be in his sixties. He had been in this business for years and knew what an accident would do to a newbie's driving record. He told me to pay him $200.00. I agreed and Venmoed him the cash. I was happy, and I went towards our truck that had just finished parking.
I told Donald, who was walking towards me, "Hey, I took care of the problem with the other truck."
"What do you mean you took care of the problem?" Donald asked me with a surprised look on his face.
"I paid the old guy 200 bucks, and we shook hands," I said cheerfully.
"Why did you pay him? The company's insurance could have taken care of the problem," he asked me with an annoyed tone.
"Yes, but this way we do not have to report it to the company, and Kamala's record does not get a blemish. I will also pay for our trailer to be repaired at this truck shop," I replied to him.
