Comments By Thomas D.

Reading your posts I'm getting inspired and stressed at the same time! I start my first week Monday for cypress. thanks for posting!

Daniel M,

Thanks for tagging along. My first piece of advice? Take a deep breath and let it out slowly. At times it seems overwhelming, but everyone you meet wants the same thing, for you to pass and become a productive member of the team. Don't be afraid to ask questions if you don't understand what's going on. You can do this. One more piece of advice, take your time and think it out first. This isn't a race, and there is no one who can rush you out here except you. I've pulled off backs out here that in training I would have told you were impossible. All because I stopped, looked at each situation and visualized in my head what I wanted to happen. I'm not going to say it works 100% of the time, sometimes my setup is off, sometimes something changes and I have to adjust to it, but I go back to my first piece of advice, take a deep breath and adjust. You drive the truck, no one else. If someone is trying to rush you, just smile and wave. Don't take it personally, and don't let it push you to do ANYTHING unsafe. I personally have 3 goals for each and every day. #1) I will do everything I can to prevent injuring others. #2) I will do everything possible to prevent damage to the equipment I'm using. And #3) I will do everything in my power to go home safely to my wife and kids. Look at everything with those 3 goals in mind. Ask yourself those 3 questions (Will it hurt someone else? Will it damage anything? Will I get hurt?) If you say yes to any of the 3, don't do it.

Thank you for this Thomas!

You're welcome, and good luck!

after 1 attempt to put it in the door, security found out I was a trainee and told my trainer to "get him out of that truck and park it, we ain't got all day". Mr. Polite that I am quietly obliged Mr. Security Guard and exited the truck.

I applaud your decision not to push back on the Pitbull. Respect their authority and fear their ignorance… you did the right thing.

One lesson life taught me early on is to pick my battles carefully. He may have been wrong, but it wasn't worth them calling my bosses and saying I was the Ahole.

I'm following along too. Keep us up to date with your progress. Best of luck and hope to see you out here soon.

Reading your posts I'm getting inspired and stressed at the same time! I start my first week Monday for cypress. thanks for posting!

Daniel M,

Thanks for tagging along. My first piece of advice? Take a deep breath and let it out slowly. At times it seems overwhelming, but everyone you meet wants the same thing, for you to pass and become a productive member of the team. Don't be afraid to ask questions if you don't understand what's going on. You can do this. One more piece of advice, take your time and think it out first. This isn't a race, and there is no one who can rush you out here except you. I've pulled off backs out here that in training I would have told you were impossible. All because I stopped, looked at each situation and visualized in my head what I wanted to happen. I'm not going to say it works 100% of the time, sometimes my setup is off, sometimes something changes and I have to adjust to it, but I go back to my first piece of advice, take a deep breath and adjust. You drive the truck, no one else. If someone is trying to rush you, just smile and wave. Don't take it personally, and don't let it push you to do ANYTHING unsafe. I personally have 3 goals for each and every day. #1) I will do everything I can to prevent injuring others. #2) I will do everything possible to prevent damage to the equipment I'm using. And #3) I will do everything in my power to go home safely to my wife and kids. Look at everything with those 3 goals in mind. Ask yourself those 3 questions (Will it hurt someone else? Will it damage anything? Will I get hurt?) If you say yes to any of the 3, don't do it.

I did have quite the adventure at Smucker's today though. Drive all the way there, get checked in, and after 1 attempt to put it in the door, security found out I was a trainee and told my trainer to "get him out of that truck and park it, we ain't got all day". Mr. Polite that I am quietly obliged Mr. Security Guard and exited the truck. After my trainer put it in the hole, we dropped it and I resumed my position behind the wheel and exited the lot. After 5 hours we were told to get our trailer, so I drove back in, recoupled the trailer and drove back out.

I said in the beginning I'd post the good, the bad, and the ugly. And I will. And I fully expect to get roasted for that one! Don't ask me what I was thinking, it's not the first time I slid tandems, but because of some yet to be determined mental defect, I just forgot to release the tractor brakes. I guess if that's the worst thing I ever do I'll be a screaming success.

Parked up in PA, headed to Jersey to Smucker's, then over to Mt Olive (gee, wonder what I'm picking up? 🤔) then back to PA tomorrow. I did something today that was an absolute bonehead move, I'm still laughing about it lol. Does anybody know how hard it is to slide tandems, with the tractor brakes set? 🤣🤣🤣 Yeah, I tried for a hot minute till I warmed up the clutch good. My trainer was outside the truck and just assumed the tandems were stuck. As he walked up to the door, I realized my mistake and told him to unlock the tandems again. I popped the tractor brakes, and wadda know, the tandems slid!!! Oh well, lesson learned. If the tandems won't slide, check the tractor brakes.

Sorry for the long delay, but week two didn't slow down any at all. Most days ran the same formula, drive out on the road before lunch, backing practice after lunch. My driving is solid, but sometimes my speed is a little slow (out of an abundance of caution). My straight line back and my offset is spot on, but my 90 degree is hit or miss. The weather out here is bipolar on a good day. Week three was more of the same, just stepped up in difficulty. More driving during the mornings, but now adding in driving down Central Avenue in downtown Marshfield, and some interstate speeds on 10 East. Practicing 45 degree parking and truck stop pull thrus. Afternoons still practicing offsets and 90 degree backs. Thursday was test day for me. For my pre-trip I drew the coupling and the trailer, in cab and brake test. I got 45 out of 48, then to my backing test. I aced straight line and offset, went out of bounds 1 time on my 90, straightened out with a pull up, put it in the box perfectly on my first GOAL for a total score of 2. Off to the road test. I was waiting for the examiner to tell me to take the truck back and park it, but I kept on. When we finally returned to the terminal, I was certain I had failed. When the examiner told me I had passed, to tell the truth, I wasn't sure if I wanted to scream or throw up. I didn't hear much of what he said after that, except my score, an 8 on driving. I did it, I earned my class A. Three weeks of what felt like at times as pure HELL, but I survived. Saturday was a half day on atlas reading, then driving a total of 16 hours home, arriving at 4:02 am Sunday morning.

Oh shoot, wish I had seen this. I live in Marshfield, probably saw you driving up the hill on Upham! I’d have bought you a cup of coffee. Where do they put up their drivers in town? I hope you keep posting about your Roehl experience.

Craig, They put us up at the Hotel Marshfield, would have loved to meet up with you. I enjoy meeting everyone on here and hope to meet a lot of members on the road in the future.

Onsdag I've run out my clock, doing a 34 in Mechanicsburg, PA. My trainer says that's all I need to do is the workflow on the PC. I've been doing some of it, and adding more each day. Other than that if it were up to him I'd already be in my own truck. Glad to hear from you, keep in touch, let me know what your up to.

That's not too far up the road from me.

For me, that was a 2.5 hour drive from home, and we ended up meeting @ 6am, so I was up at 2:30