Comments By I-68 & I-79

Day 8: Today was a scorcher, temp on our tractor said it was 109F! Plus humid North Carolina climate made being outside the truck for even a minute unbearable, and one of our three tractors A/C broke, so everyone rotated every 30 minutes, big pain in the @&s. So we practiced all day, two tested out on the 6 maneuvers. Tomorrow the rest of us practice some more and we all should test out by the end of the day. Wish me luck!

Day 7: Oh how the worm has turned! All of yesterday's frustrations are gone, I am a backing machine. Once I got the keys of moving that box around from a YouTube video on offset backing I progressed right through that to parallel and blind side parallel all in one day! Tomorrow I'll start the 90 alley back and by the afternoon, knock on wood, I'll test out, and if everyone tests out (and we should) Thursday we'll hit the open road!

Day 6: Frustration has set in, all my backing skills have seem to be lost over the weekend and I can't seem to master a straight back anymore, let alone today's new maneuver, Offset backing. I seem to be the only one not getting the concept and feel very frustrated and angry with myself, two classmates not only got and then parrell parking but even started on their 90's and at the end of the day I still struggle with lining up to do a straight back and forget the offset, that's a complete joke at this point. My classmates are encouraging and our instructor is patient. I guess it the competitive nature of me that I Hate being last, don't necessarily have to be first, just not last!!! I was told to just forget today and we'll start off tomorrow fresh and put this horrid, debacle behind me. Here's hoping. 😤

Here's the article stating Werner:

http://m.landlinemag.com/Story.aspx?StoryID=29685#.VeJhmcT3aK0

The Rand McNally has Wifi so if you thether it to your phones hotspot you'll get traffic, not sure about weather. Another one some truckers use is the app SmartTruckRoute, find it in you google or Apple stores, it's free to download and use from 1-2 pm or am everyday, but if you want all the weather, traffic and truck spots, weigh station it has it all, with a subscription, so try it out first.

You might want to check out Millis Transfer, not sure if Missouri is too far from one of there training sites for you, but I know they go to St. Loiuis and they do let OTR go two weeks then 2.5-3 days home time. There in the Company- Sponsored Training section.

I think it depends on what kind of driving they are offering, is it OTR or Regional or LTL or local delivery? I'll assume as most rookies will mostly find either OTR or Regional you should except 2000-3000 miles per week (less at first and more as you gain exp.) so 75,000 you mention sounds like for that company the average for one year, but I know there are folks running 150,000 a year too. 120,000 should be a good bench mark, that's 2500 a week, but if you think only 2,000 is more like it for say a regional job, than 100,000 it is. Not withstanding and weeks off. My advice is find out from drivers of whatever company you're apply to, how many miles they average or have driven over the last month or year, as with anything your "mileage may vary". GL

Day 5: Let's go backwards! All day straight line backing, two trucks this time between the 6 of us so not as many hours behind the wheel. All morning I was in the OTR truck as we call it because it has the sleeper cabin (set with five seats) and felt I had it down after 6 or 7 tries, watch my drift and making the right corrections as needed. After lunch, my group of three switch to the shorter day cab tractor and boy did it get going sideways fast, again after 4 or 5 tries I got that down and the two classmates who still weren't nailing it, got to try a lot for the last 1.5 hours solo. It's the weekend now, the week flew by, we have 4 more days of backing with a few hours classroom too until next Friday when we hit the road and start our street/hwy driving, everyone can't wait.

Day 4: today started off classroom up til lunch then, we hit the yard and took turns coupling and uncoupling trailers, then got to drive them around the course negotiating left and right turns. No cones hit! The sun and heat has wiped out, 90 degrees and no shade during the coupling part and one of three tractors A/C is out so we rotate every 30 minutes so no succumbs to heat stroke 😓

Day 3 and the winner of the Millis 500 is??? Yes, that day has arrived, the whole class (all 6 of us) when round and round practicing our shifting for almost 7 hours! So with two to a truck, I figure I drove for 3 1/2 hours. great thing was they were three different trucks we rotated through, all with the same transmission, but still a different "feel" to the clutch and shifter, two day cabs and one sleeper. My legs are a Shakin' after I don't know hundreds of clutch depressions. Tomorrow we'll begin practicing on coupling/uncoupling and then driving with a trailer attached, today was all Bobtailing.