Well for those of you who didn't know, I was laid off from my job at WestPro Machinery in April where I was doing Quality Control work on manufactured mining equipment. It got really slow and I found out later that after they laid me off, they ended up shutting down the plant. I applied for Employment Insurance the day after I was laid off. I'd never been on EI and figured I'd paid into long enough, I should use it for once. I was looking for work while on EI and took the time to get an air brake endorsement and take a professional driving course so that I could get my Class 1 license and possibly create some opportunities or open up some doors as far as jobs go. I past my Class 1 ICBC road test July 12th and continued looking for work. I applied to an ad in the Morning Star paper requiring experienced Class 1 drivers needed for local work. About a week later I got a call from Rick Nickel Trucking in Armstrong who I faxed my resume and cover letter to. I went for an interview on Tuesday, August 14th, and they got me to hook up and drop off trailers from their trailer lot to shipping bays for a couple hours to see how I did driving. I got hired and had orientation the next day for four hours. My first day on Thursday was nerve racking and I went through a big learning curve. The lot/office is in Armstrong and I had to take a loaded trailer to Merritt, through Kamloops and over the connector into Merritt. I knew the road well and all the hills I'd have to climb and descend on the way so I was a little nervous. I knew it'd be a challenge figuring out the gears to be in going up and down the hills to get there safely driving by myself. I'd only really driven in town and hadn't done any mountain driving so there was a lot to learn for the first time. And to top it all off, I had to drive a 10 speed transmission which has a different shift pattern and way of shifting with a splitter valve than the 13 speed I learned on in the course. It was my first trip and all I wanted to do was get to Merritt and back without getting into trouble or an accident. Once I got to Merritt and dropped off the trailer and picked up the empty one to take back, I felt much more confident with driving the mountain roads and with the truck. It was an exhausting first day. My second day was really long. I started at 6:30am and didn't get home until 10:30pm. Another trucker and I started from Armstrong, drove to Kelowna to pick up an empty trailer each and took it to Grand Forks. Then we had to go back to Kelowna and pick up a second trailer each to take to Grand Forks again. Before we got back to Armstrong, we had to refuel and fill out our paperwork before heading home. I asked the other guy if it was normal to work long days like that and he said it was pretty rare but that it had to be done. I was glad to hear that. I'm enjoying it and getting more confident with every day.
Here is the truck and trailer I drove to Merritt. I'm at the brake check before heading down the hill into Merritt (coming from Kamloops)
