Judgment Day At Orientation

So, day two of orientation came and went today. This was by far the most stressful day yet. I called it judgement day. Why? Well all my research told me that this was the day attrition started at orientation, and students would start getting weeded out. We had some CBT(computer based training) and one by one went down to the little room, where we would all take our physical assessment test. From my research, this is what sent people home the most.

One by one people were called down to the room, but none of them returned. I found out later, that after the assessment, you went to a different room, where you were called down to the companies driving simulator to go through some different scenarios. I was finally called down for my assessment. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I was. Even though I am in pretty good shape, for some reason I always get nervous about things like this. Well, my results showed it. My blood pressure was was higher than normal, but luckily it was still within the range. The rest of the assessment was having us do various squats and lifting things that would simulate things you would be doing in the course of your job. Completing the tasks is the easy part, but after each test, they take your heart rate, and if it is over 90% of your rested heart rate, bye bye you go! My heart rate never got that high, so I passed with flying colors.

The simulator was just a bunch of fun. You drive through some different scenarios and you have to react to what is going on. There was no pass or fail on this, just showing what you should do in certain situations, like a deer running out or blowing out a tire.

After all of us returned to class.....I look around the room to see if anyone had been sent home. Fifteen students started our class, and when we started class after lunch, there were still 15 students in class. Everyone had passed the physical assessment. We had some more classroom stuff and some slides, showing how our company wanted us to shift, downshift, turn and all that good stuff. Much different than the way my CDL school had us do it, so it's back to learning it all over again. The instructor said not to worry, most schools don't teach it the way they want us to do it. They will teach us their way next week.

Tomorrow we get to go out in the yard and "meet" our training truck, do a pre-trip, and probably do some maneuvers! After all the classroom stuff and stress, it will be nice to get in the truck and do some real hands on training! Judgement day turned out to be a good day after all!

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