Hogan is my new wagon..

Hi everyone!  A few quick updates for ya :).  So, as I neared the end of CDL school, I narrowed my prospective employers list down from 15 to 2 (yes, I really was that thorough bahaha).  I got my CDL on 6/8, and went to visit the York terminal of Hogan Transports that afternoon.  I had spoken to the ops manager on the phone a week or two before then, but it was my first time meeting her in person.  She's super chill!  The following Monday, I visited my other remaining option, but they only had home daily, bulk material loads, and that was pretty exactly what I DIDN'T want to do!!!  So, I felt really good and a lot of peace about Hogan, and decided to make them my first trucking home <3.

I called my recruiter that afternoon (6/14) and let him know my choice, and he pretty much said I was hired, could I attend orientation the next morning, and could I be in Ohio the following Monday.  I was like, uhhhh, I think so??  LOL.  Apparently, since I had applied to them so early in my schooling process, they'd had time to do all their background checks on me, and were just waiting to hear my final decision.  The rest of that week was a lot of running around!  Orientation, onboarding, defensive driving training, signing disclosures, visiting PennDOT to get my physical license, selecting benefits, visiting PennDOT to fix someone else's oversight, proving I'm me and not a thief, you know, all the usual stuff for a new job...

The following Sunday (6/20) I was off and running driving to Ohio for yard training.  We had 5 days of classroom/yard practice.  Most mornings, we would be in the classroom learning how Hogan's software works, reviewing Hours of Service (so we know how long we can drive before we have to take a break), defensive driving skills, map reading, trip planning (using an atlas), and a few other things.  In the afternoons, we would be out in the yard practicing our 45 degree backs.  These are backing maneuvers used to back into a dock for loading/unloading.  We use them pretty much every day, and oftentimes more than once a day.

I needed an extra day to continue to practice my backing skills, so I stayed over the weekend and into the next week.  I trained again on Monday (6/28), and then drove home on Tuesday.  I gave myself Wednesday to veg, and reached out to my new boss to see when I would be heading out with my trainer to start training on the road.  I thought my first day would be Tuesday, but it was actually Monday!!! lol - that was a surprise, and sent me running around again to buy food to cook so I wouldn't have to eat out as much on the road, a few items I needed to replace in order to have the right clothing, plenty of cleaning, as well as laundry.  Busy weekend!!!

I headed out with my new trainer this Monday (7/5), and we started our journey!  A lot of other stuff happened, but I don't really have the time/energy to talk about all of it right now haha.  Here are some highlights: I got to hang out with Tiff a few times while I was there (she lives 15 minutes from where I was staying), Hannah also visited Tiff while I was there and we all got to hang out one night with a delicious dinner.  Tiff cooked food for me so I could eat leftovers for lunch and dinner and save money, I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express which was very nice and had awesome biscuits that I fell in love with.

I think that's all for now.  Since I've just completed my 1st full week (out of 4) with Hogan, I hope to be able to report on that sometime this weekend.  Next week, I'll be out on the road Tuesday-Saturday (my 1st week was only 4 days, but my normal schedule will be 5/5.5 days out, and 1.5/2 days home).  Thanks for your continued prayers for safety, and for me to be able to keep working hard! <3

Love ~ Amanda