Comments By Sun King

Here it is

Also, it looks like prickly pear cactus season down here in the southern desert states. I would Google how to know they are ripe and how to prepare. I will be trying my first one shortly. All this late summer wild bounty has become a pleasant bonus of truck driving :)

I am not sure I would eat anything that grows within easy reach of a truck stop parking lot. Diesel and oil run off with the water and soak into the ground.

Ever wondered why the parking lot smells like pee? Yep some drivers use it as their toilet. So add that into the oil and diesel run off.

Noted. At the same time I can walk a quarter of a mile and avoid those concerns. The berries I was scarfing down I found a short walk away.

I found it worth the effort :)

I have been at a truck stop in western Oregon for a few days and wild blackberries are rampant. There are some even overripe on the edge of the truck stop.

If you are in an area where these run wild, opportunity awaits.

Great. Thanks for the Info. I'll keep those in mind. How long was your schooling? And from the way you talk I assume you passed and are working as we speak. How are things?

It took me 3 weeks and a day. The inspector could have failed me, I was that close. If you notice in the state CDL manual, the inspector can take into consideration your attitude and how safe a driver he feels you will be, and I feel that saved me from going to plan B.

Plan B was to head home, buy some road time at a trucking school, then pay to use their truck to test out. Cost would have been $350 for four hours and $60 for the CDL Inspection.

I don't know how many road hours you'll get at swift, but don't expect a lot. Mine was minimal.

I have been on the road with a trainer for about 1 1/2 weeks. He's getting much needed home time right now. I have about 40 road hours and my shifting is much improved. I am leaning towards an automatic though. There's enough things I have to deal with, taking shifting out of the equation will just make me safer.

Bump

I haven't been out long, but so far every railroad crossing has had lights and guards. I didn't hear any horns but I would think it would be in the best interest of the conductor to use them when traffic is approaching the RR crossing

With the knowledge you have you should be just fine! When testing out, there was no slack on the pre trip. Study hard and it should be no sweat. We could miss 20+ points, but with being prepared missing more more than 5 points would be strange.

Here are some automatic fails to be aware of:

- rolling backwards or forward

- running over the curb

- entering an intersection when it has turned yellow or red. If your tractor is in the intersection before it turns yellow you are fine.

- shifting over railroad tracks or in a 4 way intersection with lights

Be prepared and you will have this!

Though I went with a different company, my schooling was 2-3 weeks. Programs like this are super accelerated. My suggestions:

- it didn't help me to work on the pre trip before hand. My school took a different approach to what I found online. If swift has a video of their pre trip that could be helpful.

- I found getting backing practice, etc. was sort of like puppies feeding on mama. The more aggressive gets "the milk". If you feel you need more practice at something let the instructor know.

- The chapter in your state cdl Manual discussing the road test should be studied. This is what the inspector will be looking for. If you are from a different state you may be able to test out in Utah and bring back paperwork to your state. That's what I did. If that's the case know if there are any differences. For example the state I tested in did the straight back, standard parallel and offset back left. In my state it added three other maneuvers they could choose from.

I barely made it through because I was struggling getting the backing and shifting. Time solves these issues, but time is limited in company training. It is important to work hard, even out of class, to get it down.

when approaching a railroad crossing, you may see a large yellow sign with lights that say "train ahead when lights flashing."

If you pass this sign and the lights are not flashing, but when you round the corner and red lights are flashing at the crossing, you might be thinking: Are they always on?

No, the lights are NOT always on and you better hoof it over the tracks before the guard crashes down on your trailer since you are past the point of no return.

This can be verified when you look behind you a few seconds later and the train is where you just were.

The next step is to change your shorts