My Fourth Week
Topic 8994 | Page 1
I am starting to get nervous. People are failing left and right. I don't know if their not taking it seriously or what, but it makes me nervous. How can six people go to Lodi and all six fail?! Are they taking it seriously. I mean either you know it or not, right? I think I am allowing them to get to my head.
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
Walter, the nervousness probably comes from the backing tests. Most people can't seem to get it in the short time you have at Trucking school.
You say you've pretty much aced the backing & driving stuff. Great! Don't get to big headed (my word of choice here is "c**ky"). Never forget your a$$ is 53' behind you.
Good luck on your DOT exam!
DOT:
Department Of Transportation
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.
Good stuff, thanks. I am doing my best keeping level headed. I try giving advice to anyone I can, and I know being proud will get me in trouble. Doing my best to stay humble. I think there is find line of being arrogant and confident. I want to get into my head a humble confidence!
Confidence: I know how to do this. I might make a mistake, but, hey! I'm just learning this stuff!
Arrogance: I know how to do this and you probably don't. (Famous last words:) Here. Let me show you how it's really done!
Well that's about right...lol. So it looks like I am confident, because I am just learning and know I got a long way to go.
My phrase for my confidence is:
I don't take any pride in my work.
I always explain. No I'm not embarrassed about it. But if I find out or learn a better way, I'll use it instead. In that case "I've always done it that way" has no meaning.
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I can't believe it's been four weeks since I started in the yard at Smith and Solomon. First I would say avoid the Linden location like the plague. Yep, that's where I am at.
I got my New Jersey Airbrakes, and pre trip down good. Straight line backing was pretty simple, and caught hold of the 45 alley docking quickly. They moved me on to the 45 and 90 together and I am efficient. I usually need to do one pull up for the 90. I wish I can get the timing down for one shot.
After lots of pestering I finally got out on the road today. They had me skip the bobtail , and go straight to the trailer. Not sure if it's 48' or 45', either way it was awesome! My face was lit up driving that POS freightliner! I caught on to double clutching and down shifting pretty easily. I just need to get better at knowing what speed i need to downshift into. i did fine but plenty of room for improvement. The instructor said I did really good. So yeah, I had an adrenaline rush! Can't wait to get my license and get on the road! I test on June 29 at Miller. I think I should be fine!
Bobtail:
"Bobtailing" means you are driving a tractor without a trailer attached.
Double Clutch:
To engage and then disengage the clutch twice for every gear change.
When double clutching you will push in the clutch, take the gearshift out of gear, release the clutch, press the clutch in again, shift the gearshift into the next gear, then release the clutch.
This is done on standard transmissions which do not have synchronizers in them, like those found in almost all Class A trucks.
Double Clutching:
To engage and then disengage the clutch twice for every gear change.
When double clutching you will push in the clutch, take the gearshift out of gear, release the clutch, press the clutch in again, shift the gearshift into the next gear, then release the clutch.
This is done on standard transmissions which do not have synchronizers in them, like those found in almost all Class A trucks.
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated