Comments By Boots&Bludog

DAY ?? My apologies, I've lost track. Funny how the time is flying by and yet it seems as if I've not learned a whole lot. When it gets down to it I've come to realize I can now do the majority of the pre-trip with out messing up. I've been able to practice the straight back up, side by side backing up and the alley dock. One of the biggest revelations was that I did not have a clue how to properly use the mirrors. Once I got that better understood things started going better.

Our school currently has only one running truck. This is getting frustrating. Happily 6 students obtained their CDL's ...however about 8 more have signed up. Due to the heavy rain we've had more class time. I am doing well in that thanks to The High Road from here. I've got a lot more studying to do as I want to get as many endorsements as I can. Just seems like the best approach.

I am out of words for the night.

Congrats to you Jopa! I hope your back is feeling better. Maybe the driving will take your mind off it? When I read about the TV selection my first thought was "note to self; bring earplugs for training!!" I often see little fans in the top sleepers, maybe that could work for some "white" noise.

Boots

One other thing I want to mention is that this school will let students come and go as they please. Very often the day starts out with a handful of students and throughout the day many come to get behind the wheel time or practice pre-trip and T-salt tests. This is kind of fun but also contributes to less one on one time.

B&B you sound like me in so many ways and I haven't even started school yet. I love the fact that you heard about the program at TT and put it in your tool belt. The HIGH ROAD program is wonderful!

I look forward to your future posts. I need all the inspiration I can get from a fellow Trucker in training.

Cole

Well thank you Cole! Happy to oblige, lol. The High Road has helped me daily as well as the videos and well just everything on this site!

DAY 5

Woke up late but managed to make it on time to school ...6am. And I drove there safely. I have to admit I am much more conscientious of my driving after all the reading here there and everywhere to get my CDL. First thing we (5 of us) start the pre-trip with instructor. Today we decided to break it down. First the passenger side items...10 in all. Each of us got to repeat it until we got it correct with out help. I really liked doing it that way. Unfortunately I only got to the other side and then had to leave for my drug test and physical for the dmv. That would be a basic urinalysis and pretty basic physical. I barely passed the eye test so that means getting my behind to the eye doc for an updated prescription. I kind of thought that might happen.

Back to school I go. DISCLAIMER. Now here's where I want to say upfront I LIKE my school. It is humble and in my eyes having some struggles right now. The owner is doing his best to handle it so I by no means do I want to sound as if I am bashing anyone. This is a tough economy for most of us so I understand and am OK with what is going on. I just want to point this out as some might not be able to handle a school like this and should be on the look out for it if it would not work for them. When I signed up there were three running trucks and one parted out. "White" ...street legal and the one that goes to DMV for testing. "Blue" ...stays in the yard but used for and by all for any and everything but seems to be limping along with quite a bit of leaks. "Pink" ...stays in the yard and used like Blue. "Red" ...dead but handy for the pre-trips and provides good shade and parts? Now unfortunately some how some one damaged the hood on Pink so it has become very limited. Blue somehow has just up and lost the tranny use? At first they thought it was the clutch. Fixed that and turns out it is more likely the tranny. So in order to save money ??? They are pulling the tranny from Pink to put into Blue. I probably have some of this not correct so I'll just get to the point. And that would be basically we are down to one working truck for hopefully only a week. This severely limits the students on practice. Most everyone has previous albeit limited experience with truck, trailer, class B or military except me :-( These last two days I no sooner get behind the wheel take 5 minutes to attempt the task (today was alley dock) and then it's over and out for me and on to the next student. I am not very good at learning this way. I'm the sort that needs to do it over and over and critique what I did right and what I did wrong to get the skill down. Now this sounds really bad but I'm laughing about it now. My first attempt at alley dock went smooth as butter with the instructor coaching me all the way. Now after watching 6 other guys get it pretty well with hardly any coaching it's my turn again. The instructor is no where in sight. I am STRUGGLING. At first a couple try to help me but next thing I know I'm almost jack knifed and look around and all the guys are yacking it up WAY across the yard or on their cell phones. Geez! Finally the instructor appears and helps me out but by then my clutch leg was toast! WE decided I just need to work on straight backing up and getting familiar with the handling of the truck next try...hopefully tomorrow. I really hope I improve quicker than today suggests. I also look forward to the day when I'm driving newer trucks.

All in all a good day and looking forward to the next day "on the range.

Deb, I also am not mechanically inclined but what I am learning is I don't need to BE the mechanic I just need to identify the issues. Redgator nails it when she says you will be taught. So much of what you learn will make more sense once you get in school and are more "hands on." I am just starting and just today the parts are starting to come a little more in focus as in they all don't look the same, haha. Seriously though you will get a chance to go over and over it and it really does have a bit of a flow and a LOT of it is repetitive so it starts to sink in with practice. I also stress to keep plugging away on this site with all the valuable information and support. Cheers to us treehuggers! ;-)

DAYS 3 & 4

I am tired. LOTS of information overload going on here. I am especially grateful to be able to come home and digest and look things up online that I may not have understood so well. This is EXACTLY why I wanted to start with a private school before the fast paced company schooling.

I thought I was struggling with the air brakes but that is nothing compared to the pre-trip. I do not have any experience with mechanical things so it's a whole new beast to learn. I have to admit it IS fun to learn. At first it all seems so jumbled and nothing really made sense. By the end of today I am finally able to recognize some things. And with that it is starting to connect how it all flows together. A lot of the pre-trip is repetitive. I am thinking I heard there are 47 different things to identify but there are over 200 items that have to be pointed out to DMV in order to pass. By the end of today I was able to go from start to finish with out nearly so many hints.

Not sure if this is of any help or interest but for my own sake I'm going to write about the following. So far we've had one instructor besides the owner. They each have very different styles of teaching. At first I found it difficult to retain much since everything was so new. Just as I'm feeling like I'm getting the hang of identifying things yet another instructor is brought in. I ended up with the latest instructor. Not being too happy about it I managed to learn even more! What I am most proud of is that I was able to adjust to the change and benefit from it. I find this to be my biggest accomplishment for the day. I figure if I'm going into an industry that is full of things changing up with little to no notice than I better get used to it and learn to deal.

It would be really sweet if someone did a bit of video to post here on this "party." You know so we don't feel left out. ;-)

I hear ya Bill! I had the same experience just today myself. Humble Pie nails it, and the challenge feels addicting. I am hoping that will outweigh my frustrations with taking so long to get it right. Good job! Boots

DAY 2.

I did a straight back up with a couple of pull ups. It was the short trailer which gets really squirlly but I did it. The rest of the day was class time. Aced the General Knowledge thanks to the studying the High Road on here. Air Brakes managed an 82%. I wish I would quit struggling with the wording about the air brakes. Only 5 students and lots of questions but also a LOT of interruptions by students coming in announcing that they had passed. Thursdays and Fridays are the drive test days at DMV. It is good to hear that there is a good success rate coming out of our humble school.

Day 1. Not too eventful. Filled out paperwork. Went to do a pre-trip inspection but was interrupted by my funding counselor to sign even more paperwork. Had a school BBQ which happens every Thursday. The rest of the day was going over how to fill out manual log books. Boy am I ever thankful for the technology that makes it unlikely I will have to keep a manual log. It was still very helpful to get the knowledge in my head about driving hours, off duty hours, sleeping berth and such. Also it was good to visualize on paper how ones day is spent on the road. Lots of interesting stories came up about a whole variety of things in driving. There were only 5 of us so it was all very casual conversation. Actually 4 as one guy didn't have proper eyewear so he kind of checked out. I swear he was napping! Note to self...dress in more layers as classroom time gets cold.