Thomas Murray's blog: "My Life"

Finally in July of 2012 enough time had passed from probation where I had another chance to have my dream of becoming a truck driver. I called CR England and I went to Richmond, Indiana to Premier Truck Driving school. It was close to where I lived so I didn't have to take a Greyhound Bus there. My Grandmother drove me to the Motel. I had a room mate named Isaiah from El Salvador he was real nice. I stayed there for about ten days I believe. Every morning at 5:00AM getting up and going to the school where the first week was classroom and the second week was hands on out in the trucks learning backing maneuvers and road training. The first week it was pretty much basically learning procedures of CR England and learning log books and HazMat and DOT Safety requirements and Pre-Trip Inspections and things like that.

The 2nd week I was out learning how to back up. We did our Straight Line Backing, Offset Backing and Parellel Parking. They had this little saying to remember on your Offset and Parellel which was  "Lionel Richie Sings Really Loud"    Hard Left, Hard Right, Straight Back, Hard Right, Hard Left. Those manuevers would take you right back into the Offset cones and the Parallel cones.

The students we would each take turns backing all three manuevers and then towards the end of the program we had an instructor take us out on the road. Each truck had an instructor and 4 students. There were 2 SR and 2 SC.  SR means Student Refresher for those that already had their CDL and the SC means Student Certification which means students without their CDL. I think they did it that way so that the students without their CDL could see how those of us with CDL's shift and turn and stuff like that. I did outstanding on the road. The other SR with me in the truck he told some of the others with CDL's that  "This dude can DRIVE."  The SC students in the truck didn't do that bad but this one girl I felt sorry for her she just choked a lot and her shifting was kind of rough. She would shove it into gear. 

There was a little bit of drama in the truck between my instructor and that one girl. The instructor was a female too and the instructor she had this psycho ex boyfriend and when we drove by his work she would get in the back and hide from him and the girl was rolling her eyes and was like wtf. So they kinda got into it a little bit and there was a shouting match. Anyway I passed the road and backing up test and I was waiting on final confirmation from the head office in Salt Lake City on whether CR England was going to hire me or not and finally I was handed my certificate of completion and my fuel card and my packets and everything and they gave me a handshake and officially welcomed me to CR England. I was then assigned a trainer and went back to my motel room to wait.

I called my trainer and he said he would be there the following day. His name was Eudoro and he lived in Gilroy, California. I was with him for about two to three weeks. He was on a dedicated run from Springfield, OH to Los Angeles, California. I would drive 10 hours then I would sleep for 10 hours while he drove. I remember that first run to LA  I drove from Richmond, IN to around Springfield, MO and when I woke up we were in Eastern New Mexico and I drove from there to the Arizona-California state line and I remember I had like 10 minutes left on my DOT clock and we had to switch drivers right there at the Entry Point to California because I was out of time. I was introduced to Eudoro's family and they were all very nice to me. I even went to church with him one Sunday in Gilroy. Then on fateful day I pulled into Pilot Travel Center in Los Hills, California and I got diesel fuel and I pulled up to fuel the reefer and then I pulled up again just cleared the fuel island so the next truck could get fuel and I went into the Pilot to get some food at Wendy's.

It took about 20 mintues to get my food at Wendy's and when I came back out to the truck, I noticed that it was no longer where I parked it but it was across the street. I wondered to myself why it was over there. I thought maybe my trainer had woken up and had moved so that the guy behind us could get out but as I got closer I saw to my horror that the truck had smashed into another truck's trailer. As I arrived at the scene I was told that I forgot to set the brakes and it had rolled into the trailer of that other CR England driver. My trainer and the other guy were both thrown out of the sleeper bether when the truck hit but they were okay. The entire front windshield was smashed and the truck wouldn't even start. The police arrived on the scene and took my statement. I insisted that I didn't forget to set the brakes because it was on a incline so I figured I would have felt the truck moving even before I got out of the truck. The cops took our statements and then they tried to tow the truck but was having a difficult time since the latch on the 5th wheel was broken and we couldn't detach the trailer. I went ahead across the street and checked us into the Motel 6. I thought my truck driving career was over. 

The next day I waited at the Pilot for this CR England driver to pick me up and take me back to Los Angeles. I called my student coordinator and he arranged for a trainer and his student to give me a ride back to LA so I rode back with them and I stayed at the Holiday Inn where all the other student trainees were staying and I waited to find out if I still had my job or not. The safety man called me and I explained what happened and then finally I got a call and they told me that CR England had decided to end my employment with them. My heart sank. After all my hard work I had been fired from CR England and my dreams of becoming a truck driver were slowly becoming smaller and smaller...

-To Be Continued