Comments By Michael C.

I've had vzw while I was training and got T-Mobile for their unlimited once I upgraded and it worked just fine for me. From Pennsylvania to Texas and Minnesota to Georgia and all in between, I only had a couple of locations where I didn't have signal for Netflix. Those areas were way out in the sticks by seadrift Texas.

I'm sure it varies by person on how long it takes to become somewhat comfortable driving a big rig. For me, it took just a couple of weeks with my trainer to get used to it. Some trainers will slowly ease you into things whereas my trainer said "your gonna have to do it one day, might as well start right now". Given he was a nice enough trainer that I could wake him if I felt I needed him and not get an earful as to why I did. By the time I upgraded to solo driver (5 weeks total with 1 week off for christmas), I could flip that truck around and get into some tight spots that I would have originally not even attempted when I started.

I'm from a small town and my first major challenge came on day 2, Atlanta rush hour traffic. That was a little nerve wracking but just keep watching your mirrors for all of the bad 4-wheel drivers (there are A LOT of them). About a week in I got my biggest challenge for traffic, Los Angeles, afternoon/evening rush hour. I've been to 42/48 CONUS states and so far California drivers are the worst in my opinion. You WILL be cut off left and right, people will drive on the right shoulder to get around you and then slam on their brakes.

The best advice I can give is to keep breathing and just focus as hard as you can on your mirrors and in front of you, eventually you'll know where your trailer is, especially with corners. On off-ramps my trainer told me once you get comfortable you'll have your trailer tandems almost on that white line without trying or looking. Sure enough, I can and do, but I definitely still watch in my mirrors just to be safe.

Oh, don't do like I did, I trained in a 2016 Freightliner and upgraded into a 2012 Kenworth T660. It's about 2 feet longer and takes longer to spin around under trailer.

I know you can only drive 11 hrs, with 10 hrs of sleeper berth and 3 hrs of breaks ect. How can I maximize my drive time? Also it says you have to have a 34 hr reset for every 7 to 8 days, but I want to drive for several weeks at a time. How do I get around that? I'm an owner operator btw and thanks for any advice

In my short time being OTR so far, best way to maximize drive-time that I've found is keep your rear in the seat and the wheels turning. Avoid stopping for minor things, I always kept something within arms reach to drink or snack on. Most miles I've done in one day since upgrading was 683 in 10h 58m. I pulled into the pilot and got lucky to get the last spot, I wouldn't suggest pushing it that far though it is kind of nerve racking, especially if your near a major city.

As far as the 34h reset, if your able to manage your 70 hour clock right you may never have to take a reset. My first month out I didn't "have" to take a reset but I had a couple of resets in due to waiting for my next load within that month. If you can drive around 9 hours a day you shouldn't run out of time before you start gaining hours back from your recap.

I don't mean to be rude, but I'm just wondering how you can be a O/O and not be solid on managing HOS. If you have any other questions I'll be more than happy to answer what I can.

I live in Chicago IL, and i am considering getting my CDL. Although my plans are to move to Houston in the next year or two. What is the difference between a Illinois CDL to a Texas CDL? Is it even worth getting the license here in Chicago? THANKS.

Honestly, I thought the Illinois cdl was almost too easy. In some states you have to go under the hood and explain everything but in Illinois odds are you wont. I'm not sure how Texas does it though.

Thanks! I appreciate it! When I did a tour of the school I was able to climb into a truck and sit in the driver's seat. First time I've ever been in a truck. I'm usually pretty confident in my ability to learn quickly, and figured so many people drive trucks surely I can as well. But those 3 minutes in the seat knocked my bravado (and confidence) down a few notches. Hahahaha

It's definitely a completely different animal than driving a car or even a regular pick up truck. Just remember that you will have bad days at backing. I think of myself as a quick learner as well, but I was humbled when I started practicing my parallel, I got my straight and offset backing with no problems, but it took me 2 weeks to get comfortable with a parallel.

It's all about your setup when it comes to backing.

I'm taking the permit test on my own before I start CDL schooling here where I live. They don't require it, but recommended it as a leg up, and will free up almost 1 additional week for driving instead of studying and testing for the permit. I'm hoping that after I obtain my full CDL license I'll head to Prime and complete training there.

That is a bonus, I was going to do the same but I just ran out of time and didn't feel comfortable testing yet.

Best of luck on your tests and schooling. If you have any questions feel free to shoot me a PM or post on the forums for sure. The pre-trip and backing are still fairly fresh in my brain as I got my CDL on Nov 19th.

It looks as though nothing past Combination Vehicles is going to be needed for the permit?

For me it wasn't, I'm not entirely sure if VA is different though I would think if you can get the standard 3 down you'll be just fine. The High Road Training definitely helped me but since your down to crunch time I would focus on the three (GK,combo,air). General Knowledge was the biggest test I took, it had ~40 questions, air brakes had ~25 and combo had ~20. Illinois has a skip function you can use when taking the test, but there is also a chance they could come back around towards the end if it's a smaller test. I ended up with a 94/92/100(missed a $50 bonus for high score by 2 questions LOL) on mine, I'm sure you'll be just fine, don't sweat it too much just keep studying until game day.

Are you taking the CLP test on your own or with a company? I did mine with company sponsored training and we had computers at the hotel with practice tests on them that helped immensely on top of the tests here.

I'm going to go take my CDL Permit test in VA next week. I've done excellently on the online general knowledge test, but I was wondering if anyone on here knows if I will be tested on air brakes, combo, and/or hazmat info. I've been all over the VA DMV site and I can't find anything conclusive, only what I'll need for the actual CDL written test, and none of the online test prep and mock tests had anything with air brakes, hazmat, etc. in relation to the permit test.

Just wondered if anyone here had gotten a CDL permit from VA and can tell me if I need to study anything else.

If it is anything like the Illinois CLP test, its just general knowledge, air brakes, and combination required for it. Hazmat is an additional endorsement you can get if you choose to.

Hmm, well at least it isn't all in 1 lump sum. I probably heard it but as you know there was A LOT of information thrown at us. I will keep that in mind if I decide to go elsewhere, but I hope it doesn't come to that.

Out of the companies I have contacted so far they have offered the tuition reimbursement of around 3500, which sucks because the contract for Henderson's school is about 4600 without the 12.5% interest.

Have you tried to contact Prime? That would be a good way to go since they and Henderson are connected.

Ernie

They were on my list of companies to contact if this went too long. So far I've talked to Jim Palmer, they offer up to 3500 for tuition reimbursement, Prime I think is only around 1500 I think. I'm not 100% sure but I think if you cancel on the contract and they charge you the amount they expect it in 1 payment instead of over time as it would be if I stay. My thing is right now I don't have ~5k to pay it back all at once.