Oh My Aching Head

Day 1 at the Werner terminal here in Allentown, or ALLPA as they call it, was interesting. I haven't had to be coherent to that level at such an early hour in months. It was quite a shock, to say the least.

They started out by assigning each of the 12 new recruits ID numbers and taking our pictures for our ID cards. After that they launched right into PowerPoint slides and movies that covered EVERYTHING. I honestly don't remember anything they said. We then moved on to the computers. Oh, the computers. These machines may not have been terribly old, but they were archaic - utilizing a touch-screen monitor that clicked every damn time you touched it. All I hear now are little clicks. We were assigned a rather daunting list of CBT (Computer Based Training) exercises that pretty much covered what we'd had pounded into our heads for the first 4 hours of the day. I really shouldn't complain too much, as I was able to complete the first list of assignments, and got most of the way through the second list. Due to this, I was allowed to leave the terminal at 17:00, instead of having to work until 19:00 or 21:00 when the shuttle van was going to make it's last 2 runs across town from the hotel.

Let me take a tangent here. We (anyone working for Werner and not residing in the general Allentown area) are in a hotel that is a 10-15 minute drive from the terminal. There is a hotel that is 3 minutes drive, and probably a 10 minute walk, from the terminal. It also has a restaurant across the street and a full-blown truck stop just up the street. We have no restaurant, a measly gas station 5 minute's walk away, and a massive car dealer within walking distance. As it is, if we want to go to the shopping center that offers multiple restaurants, we have to rely on the noon or 7pm shuttle from the hotel, and then we only get an hour to eat and whatnot. I know this place is a cheap hotel, and Werner is getting a HELL of a deal, but I also think some things could have been thought through a little more. At any rate, if I'm lucky, I'll only be spending Wednesday and Thursday nights here, and I'll get assigned to a training truck right away. Hahahaha. I crack myself up. What am I thinking? I'll be here though the weekend with my luck.

Didn't see anything unusual today, as I was in a mostly windowless room from 07:00 to 17:00. Of course, I do really wonder how they expect people to sit in "class" for 10-12 hours and retain even half of what is crammed down their throats.....