Comments By Buster's Buddy

XPO/Conway doesn't care where you live in relation to a terminal. I live in Arizona and the nearest terminal is in Laredo, Texas, over 1000 miles away.

That must be for their truckload division. I'm sure if it was Conway-Freight, their LTL operation, they'd want you close to a terminal. Not sure if they're still calling it Conway-Freight after the merger with XPO.

This leads me to make a comment to the OP. The only time you really have to be concerned about being close to a terminal is if it's a local gig, e.g. LTL work or food service.

You are correct, I am referring to XPO Logistics Truckload (formerly Con-way Truckload). Since the purchase last fall the Con-way name has been dropped completely. Officially. They are beginning to rebrand the trucks and trailers, but most still say Con-way. The signs at HQ and all of the paperwork just says XPO Logistics.

For those who are unaware: rather than lumping them all together or having different divisions that handled OTR, LTL, and Intermodal, Con-way set up separate companies for each. Last fall XPO Logistics purchased the parent company, although it wasn't until last month that they announced they decided to keep Truckload. Say goodbye to the white trucks with the blue stripe and blue Con-way script, say hello the white trucks with XPO in block red letters.

Retested today after failing Tuesday (stupid mistake on the 90 degree backing). Bad, bad case of test anxiety. My 7 scored drives were all in the 86-95 range. I scored 73 on the CDL road test which was significantly easier than any previous drive. You need a 70 to pass. Still, I get the same license as my classmates who scored higher. So very relieved this part is over. Heading up to Joplin tomorrow for Orientation on Monday. With a little luck I'll be out on the road with my finisher on Friday.

XPO/Conway doesn't care where you live in relation to a terminal. I live in Arizona and the nearest terminal is in Laredo, Texas, over 1000 miles away.

Good luck out there and see on the roads soon! (I take DOT test on the 7th)

Best of luck on your test tomorrow. See you out on the road.

WEEK 3

Another unusual week at school and I did not keep a daily diary. I'm so focused on testing Tuesday the details of last week are a little vague and we went way off syllabus. My roommate and I are finally healthy, but now our instructors are both sick. This is a 5 week program that has been condensed to 4 weeks. Our first week was 4 days instead of 5 thanks to Presidents Day. We have only had 1 instructor each day, although the 2 instructors traded off being out sick. 

We spent most of this week practicing backing. One of my roommates insists they should change the name from "Truck Drving School" to "Truck Backing School". There was already quite a bit of backing scheduled for this week, and with only one instructor half the class was always out on the pad backing while the other half was driving. We have only been on 6 of the 9 scheduled drives, and of course the only aspect I am having trouble with is high speed shifting, which can only be practiced out on the road. 

In addition to practicing Straight Line-, Offset-, and Parallel Backing, this week we learned 90 Degree Alley Backing. Of course we've been studying the PreTrip. We also had our final written tests. This course is an accredited College course and after our final exams we lost 2 more students because of their GPAs. By Friday we were down to 5 students from our original 10. One of those fellows has already enrolled in another trucking school which has no written component in a state with an easier CDL exam so he will still be driving, just not for XPO/Conway. 

Our instructor Tim came in on Saturday and spent one-on-one time with each of us, that was extremely helpful. 

As I said at this point I am more focused on next week than last week. Monday we will hopefully be getting in another drive, and will hopefully have 2 healthy instructors. Monday is also our chance to practice everything one more time. Myself and 2 students are scheduled to test for our CDL license on Tuesday and the remaining 2 on Wednesday. 

The test is in 3 parts: PreTrip Inpection, Backing Maneuvers, and Road Test. You must pass each section to move on to the next. The PreTrip breaks the vehicle down into sections: Engine Compartment, Tractor, Trailor, and In Cab. Everyone tests on the In Cab portion plus one or more other sections. We won't know until the test begins which section(s) we will draw. The Backing Test consists of Straight Line and Off Set Backing, plus either Parallel or Alley. Then the Road Test. 

Theoretically we have as many chances as we need to pass the first 2 sections. Missouri State law only allows 3 attempts at the Road Test, then you must wait one year to apply to retest. The word is that Missouri has the strictest tests. In reality we will have Thursday and Friday to retest. There are exceptions but generally XPO/Conway feels if you can't pass by then they don't want to hire you. 

Once we've passed our test we will have some teaching that is specific to XPO/Conway. On Friday afternoon they will ship us back to Joplin for the next week's Orientation. On our way to the  La Quinta we will be stopping at DMV to get our CDL. 

I'm still a big fan of Crowder College Transportation School. They offer a 5 week course for getting your CDL. Conway has used them for years and they have a special 4 week course just for XPO/Conway. One of our instructors worked for Conway for years as a driver and in their Safety Department. The other instructor drove for 18 years, as an O/O and for a number of companies. 

Overall I am doing very well. I just have clipboard syndrome. I'm start driving and I'm nice and smooth and all is well, until I grind a gear. Then I get frustrated and tense and the grinding gets louder and more frequent, until we hit a nice straight stretch and I take a deep breath and relax and everything gets nice and smooth. Until I grind a gear and... My instructor said I really need to find something that will calm my nerves before I take the test. I told him a shot of whiskey usually does that for me. 

I keep reminding myself that if I get a 99 or a 71 I still get the same CDL and the same paycheck. I have confidence that come Tuesday I'll be Good Enough. 

... The reason I do this is because if I hold the brake down too long, the truck stalls out. It'll do that, right? I can't just apply the brake without consequences like in my car. Am I doing it wrong? How do I brake properly without stalling?

Actually, Not right. These modern trucks aren't like normal standard transmissions. I was worried about lugging the engine or stalling out, and I regularly overreved when out on the road. Yesterday my instructor had me slow down to a crawl and then take off again - all while in 6th gear on a 10 speed. I've been driving a wide variety of standard transmissions (cars, trucks, motorcycles, volkswagons, farm equipment, etc) for decades and I've never seen anything like it. He said the computer takes over and it is practically impossible to stall out a newish truck. It won't be smooth or pretty, but you don't have that "oh sh*t I just killed my engine in the middle of traffic" moment. If you are able to I recommend trying to stall out or lug the engine in a controlled environment. Then you will know where the limits are when your out in traffic.

I really liked OS description of the proper procedure. Every truck & trailer in our school and at XPO/Conway has ABS brakes. There is no need to pump them or stab them, just apply pressure smoothly.

The other big thing thing I have to remember is Everything Happens Slower. Much lower engine speeds than what I am used to. I just have to keep all of this in mind when I test on Tuesday. Good luck with your slowing!

WEEK 2

Our 2nd week flew by. I was still sick and I didn't take any notes. We spent hours out on the pad every day practicing backing and learning new techniques. Every time I'd start feeling better several hours in the biting windy cold would change that. 

Monday was a rough day. Bad test scores, issues that made me feel old and worn out. Life improved once I got on the road. 

We learned parallel parking (from both sides) as well as offset backing. I heard a lot of folks *****ing about learning parallel parking when there is little or no real world call for it. To me the whole purpose of this exercise is to learn how to get the tractor trailer rig to go where you want it to backwards. I may never have a call to parallel park but I'm certain there will be days when I realize my whole rig needs to move 2 feet to the left. 

We spent more time driving on real roads. I don't think I'll ever forget that moment driving down the highway when it hit me "This is what it feels like to be a trucker."  I've done well on my drives but there is still room for improvement. My biggest problem is shifting, but it m getting better. 

We had our midterms on Friday, and will have our finals this Friday. Other than the times I way overthought the problems I did very well. This weekend I just stayed in bed and ate pizza. I'm feeling hale and hearty now and look forward to an intense week. 

I've been self employed for 18 years and am halfway through company sponsored school right now. Every recruiter I spoke to assured me that my tax returns with my Schedule C and Schedule SE would be sufficient.

Got to Joplin MO Thursday afternoon after a 26 hour bus ride. While Greyhounds are much nicer than they were in the 80s, I think 10 hours is my comfort time limit these days. Checked into the La Quinta and was told I would have a roommate when anyone else on the list showed up. Spent some time in the hot tub, which was great after the bus ride. 

Friday morning 12 of us went in for urine and hair follicle tests. Since I already had my CLP and my DOT Medical card I didn't need a physical. Got back to the La Quinta and was informed no one else showed,so they were moving me to a King room. I picked up a cold on the bus so it was really nice to have my own room and soak in the tub. 

The hotel provided breakfast Friday and XPO fed us lunch, but we were on our own for dinner Friday night which I wasn't expecting. 

On Saturday morning they bused us down to Crowder College to attend their Truck Driver Training Program. Con-way established a special 4 week training program with the school. Their normal school is 5 weeks. It is an intense program, but I believe one of the best available. There are 10 of us in the XPO program. We are staying in a very nice 2 bedroom apartment, 2 to a room. There is also a much older dorm. 2 of our group are in one of those rooms. Not as nice, but they each have their own room and bathroom. 

XPO isn't paying us while we are in school, but theoretically they are covering all room and board expenses. I say theoretically because we found out upon arrival that the cafeteria is only open for lunch and dinner on weekends and holidays. We brings me to the fact that Monday is a holiday. Now our already intensive program just got more intense our first week. We did get our books and a 4 chapter homework assignment on Saturday, so that helps. 3 of us made a $24 cab ride run to Walmart for breakfast food and items people forgot. Not too bad a price except our recruiters and instructors keep insisting it's a $6 cab ride. So ther than the expectations everything is going well. 

Tuesday we spent time on the simulator learning the shift pattern and double shifting. I've been driving a very wide variety of standard transmissions for 4 decades, and I had more trouble than I thought I would. Up shifting was easy, but down shifting took some learning. We have great instructors who had me running great in no time. I'm glad to have started on the simulator where I didn't have anything else to worry about. 

Our second day was more simulator and then had us in the trucks doing straight line backing. It felt so good to get behind the wheel of the beast. We did lose 2 of our class when the drug tests came back, so we are now at 8 students and 2 instructors, Skyler and Tim. 

Thursday we drove around the back lot. It's 3 blocks long and 2 blocks wide and we drive a figure 8 that's about 1 mile total. Learning button hook turns and straight turns with lots of up shifting and down shifting. Again, I didn't do as well as I expected but both instructors assured all of us we weren't doing as bad as we thought. My very first turn was a right hand button hook that I accidentally took in 5th gear (I was aiming for 3rd). Way too fast but I didn't panic and I didn't hit anything. The guys in the back weren't near as scared as I was. The trucks have the beds and cabinets removed and 3 or 4 passenger seats with seat belts installed. Tim gave a demo drive and showed me exactly what I was doing wrong with my double clutching. Next time I got behind the wheel was smooth as silk (most of the time). A big part of that was just slowing everything down. 

One of my roommates was diagnosed with pneumonia so he will be dropping back a week, so we are now down to 7 students. 

Friday was our straight line backing test. I aced it, although the official verdict was that if the trailer had one more coat of paint I would have been out of bounds. Hey, no contact, no foul. I've really learned to appreciate going slow, and the necessity for Get Out And Look in the real world. 

In between the time behind the wheel we have had some class time and lots of time learning the PreTrip. We have a hand out, a dvd, and access to the trucks after hours and weekends. The cab is locked, so we can't do the In Cab portion, but we can pop the hood and do all the rest of the inspection. Next Friday is our mid-term, which includes the CDL Test PreTrip. 

I am really impressed with this program, and glad I ended up with XPO/Con-way. The school has great staff, and a nice variety of new and fairly new equipment. 

Good to hear things got better for you. The number #1 issue I worry about is getting a bad trainer, or "finisher" as XPO/Con-way calls them. I'm an education junkie (another "Thank You" to Brett for The High Road Program) and there is just so much you could learn from a good trainer. I would be sorry to see such a unique opportunity be wasted. So I hope for the best, and take courage from your experience that I can get through the worst.