Comments By David K.

Week 3--June 16. Thanks Anne.

In the morning, we drove the truck south of Atlanta, primarily practicing tight turns, but getting some highway driving in, also. In the afternoon, we spent some time on the driving simulator, mainly driving through construction zones. Early tomorrow, the first truck in our group will drive to Chattanooga, TN, for their CDL test. They are leaving at about 2:30 a.m. They will have three trainees from our group testing. On Friday, I and another trainee will make the same trip to TN for our CDL tests. I believe that Roehl has, at least, a 95% pass rate on the CDL, so the pressure is on to perform successfully.

Week 3 --June 15th. We spent about an hour on pre-trip in the morning; then, we practiced backing the rest of the day. The trainers were grading were grading our backing, and I passed every attempt. However, I remain very inconsistent with my straight line backing. Sometimes, I do well, but at other times I have to make a pullup or two. On the last attempt, I ran over three cones during the straight line back. That was the first time that I ever had hit a cone, but because I lost only one point on the offset and alley dock, I still passed that last set of backing maneuvers. I believe that only one person in our group is not passing the backing maneuvers. We are scheduled to test on Thursday and Friday. I'm in the Friday group.

Our group, in week 3, still has five trainees. The group in week 2 lost two trainees, so they are down to four. The new group in week 1 started with only three trainees .

Week 3, June 14: Today, we spent a lot of time on pre-trip inspections, and we did some driving around Atlanta. My instructor told me that he was confident that I would pass the CDL test on Friday. I believe that Tuesday will be crunch day because we are going to spend all day Tuesday on the backing maneuvers. Consistently performing those maneuvers well will be necessary to proceed on to testing day.

On Saturday, June 12, we had a half-day of in-class instruction on trip planning.

Week 2, Friday, June 11th. In the morning, we practiced the in-cab part of the pre-trip, including the complete air leak test. After that, we spent the rest of the day working on the alley dock backing maneuver. The instructors gradually reduced their level of involvement in training, and in the end, they were only correcting our mistakes, when we made them. Most of our group was progressively improving on the alley back procedure. I am on-pace with the skills development schedule.

The two guys who were in their third week, the group that is one week ahead of us, tested today. Both of them passed and received their CDL. Our group is the second-week group, now. So next week, we move to the third-week group, and we will have a few days to continue training before we take the CDL test at the end of next week. We started with six people in our group. We are down to five. Before test day, we could be down to four or fewer. Although, I hope that all five of us will continue on successfully.

As long as I can remain on pace with the skills development expectations, I think that I will be in a good position to pass the test. At this stage in the training, any regression in skills development would be difficult to overcome, so everyday I must be able to demonstrate that I can retain what I have learned and further demonstrate some improvement upon that. The Roehl GYCDL program is a fast-paced program. The first day of class is only 17 days from the last day of testing. For our group, today, was ten days from the first day, but that first day seems like a long time ago. In seven days, I will test, which I expect will seem like a long time from today.

Over the weekend, I intend to have the pre-trip fully memorized. Next week, I expect to continue development of my backing and driving skills, taking each day as new challenge, and not taking prior days' success as a reason to relax.

Week 2, Thursday, June 10th. This morning, we practiced our pre-trip inspection; then, we spent a few hours driving through an industrial area with many difficult turns. Some of those turns would have been near impossible for me, or any novice driver, without guidance from the instructor.

After lunch, we practiced backing. I was able to complete the maneuvers well enough to put me back on pace with the program. The instructor told me that I had made great improvement. So I was glad to have finished the day with success. Tomorrow, however, will be another day with new challenges to meet. I am scheduled to take the CDL test on Friday, June 18th, but if at any time, between now and then, the instructor believes that I am not prepared to pass the test, he can cancel my test.

Week 2, Wednesday, June 9th. Today, our group practiced pre-trips and backing. The trainers switched up the backing so that we were backing from a different direction through a different set of cones. I managed to pull that off successfully, initially, but at the end of the day, I was making three pull-ups simply for a straight back, when I was not doing any pull-ups before that. My problem may be simply a matter of overthinking the change-up. However, if I cannot get back on pace tomorrow, my career at Roehl likely will be a short one. They will not tolerate much backwards movement in skills development.

Roehl fired one person in another group because he was not able to consistently perform the backing maneuvers.

David, don't you think that is an odd reason to fire a person in training? Who gave you that information? Did that come directly from some of Roehl's personnel? If you only heard it from some other students, I don't recommend repeating it.

Old School, yes, it is true that I do know for certain the reason that Roehl decided to fire that person, but I talked with that person, his trainer, the other people in his group, and other trainers, and without exception, all of them discussed backing as the problem. He had a day or two of extra training and that was it. He was trying, but he was not improving fast enough. And yes, we are only a few days into the program, but that's all the time that we have to demonstrate our capacity to learn to drive heavy-duty trucks, as novice drivers. If Roehl does not believe that a trainee has a very high probability of passing the CDL driving test after less than three weeks of training, then that trainee will not be allowed to take the test as a Roehl employee. One trainer that I spoke with explained that everyone that he sent to test passed the test. That is a 100% pass rate. And one of the reasons for that success rate, according to the trainer, is that people who cannot demonstrate the capacity to pass the test are not allowed to take the test as a Roehl employee.

And yes, we all have different levels of fear of being fired in the first couple of weeks. We see it happen. The best novice driver in our group is taking vacation time from his previous employer and has not officially left that job, just in case the Roehl job does not work out (his explanation, not mine).

Thanks, Anne. Week 2, June 7-8. This week, we are alternating between one day of road driving and one day of backing. One person in our group quit, so now we are down to five. Roehl fired one person in another group because he was not able to consistently perform the backing maneuvers.

Days 4 & 5 June 4-5 In the morning of June 4th, we started driving on city streets and practicing turns. In the afternoon, we went back to backing. On Saturday, we had a half day of in-class instructions. I spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday working through about 40 videos that we were assigned to watch.

Day 3 -- June 3 We spent the entire morning going over the pre-trip inspection. After lunch, we started to practice straight backing.

Yesterday, somebody in another group was sent home for failing a drug test. All six of the people in my GYCDL group received clearance, today, to proceed with on-the-road training.