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Day 10-12 (better late then never)

Been very busy outside of school so I'll update before the new week.

The last week was very basic and we practiced straight backing, parallel parking, drop and hook and alley docking.

I had a lot of trouble with the parallel parking after a 10 hour day of screwing up. Let me tell you I wanted to give up but the next day something clicked and I aced it mostly! But I figure I can't get everything perfect in the first week hahaha

I've got my drop and hook down but I gotta keep practicing the rest. Alley docking is easy as long as you get your setup right, same with parallel parking. Straight backing is a piece of cake. Starting tomorrow we should be hitting the road. We will be doing half a day practicing straight backing, parallel parking, alley docking and drop and hook, the other half road driving.

The biggest thing I took away from this last week is not to give up no matter how frustrated and stressed you get. I did a full day of parallel parking failure and it put me down but I woke up determined to get it right the next day and I'm getting results.

I hope you all had a great weekend and a great week to come!

- Tom

Alright that's awesome Mario! Keep studying until you figure out what's best and it's good your planning. Best to take your time anyway. Keep me updated!

And thank you both!

Day 9 (Yesterday)

I had my permit test at 9:00 and aced it! Got my permit with doubles & triples, tanker and hazmat.

The rest of the day was spent at the truck yard practicing straight backing and drop & hook.

Had a great day!

Yea that is a lot to balance. That is one of my biggest hurdles right now is trying to keep living on bare minimum right now. I work weekends and it's just enough to to get by. Plus the amount I paid out of pocket was a lot of work. It's all about what your willing to do and what works best and this just happened to be right for me. Glad to see that you've been mapping it out because if anyone just jumps into things like this a lot is bound to go wrong.

Thanks everyone!

I got doubles & triples, tankers and hazmat.

YEEEEEAAAAA!!!!!

I figured I'd jump on here real quick and let you all know I passed my permit test and got all my endorsements!!!!

Now I'm at the truck yard and hopefully will be driving in a bit!

- Tom

First off, good luck and have fun!

Second, to reinforce Errol, definitely post! I have a thread in the diaries and thought for a while I was just talking to myself on here lol But I have a few followers that post on my diary thread and follow it now.

Also I started my diary thread for anyone who might search "NTI Bangor, Maine" like Errol said because sooner or later someone will look for both to get info. I didn't find any specific info for the Bangor NTI but I did read a 2 year old thread on NTI in Scarborough and enjoyed the story and the info.

Definitely post because people will read it. I read tons of posts and every so often I'll drop a comment. So keep in mind people are probably reading it.

- Tom

Thanks for the info all! I'll start contacting companies this coming week.

Thanks guys! I'm having a blast and I can't wait for Monday lol

Definitely review it, you don't have to remember everything. My biggest suggestion is to not worry about all 31 placards, and really focus on safety and regulations, for example like knowing that you cannot park with 300 feet of any flame with combustible loads, knowing that the shippers are responsible for all proper safety regulations with loads and giving you the proper paperwork and placards, knowing what you need from the shippers for paperwork (missing paperwork is bad juju), knowing what and how to load various hazardous loads, etc.

From experience, just going in with some knowledge is better than none so don't drain yourself trying to get everything memorized. No matter what route you choose to do just knowing the basics of your sections will lighten your workload in any training. But if it comes naturally to you soak up the knowledge. Airbrakes just seemed to click with me and I've got that section memorized front to back, hazmat not so much lol Doubles and triples I have a hard time with when it comes to the Airbrakes which is weird since I do so well with just the airbrake section. I get confused mostly with stuff like what happens when you cross airlines, what's the effects on the trailers, how does it effect the tractor etc. But once I'm in the yard and experiment and see it hands on and visually instead of reading it I know I'll get it.

So I'm curious... what are you two leaning towards doing? Are you considering attending a school or applying to a company to get training through them, or do you have any other ideas on ways you might get the ball rolling and obtaining your CDL?

I was wondering if it's better to contact a recruiter to start an application with companies as opposed to just submitting one through their websites?

Is there any difference to completing an application with or without a recruiter besides obtaining information about the company that you will receive from them?

I want to start putting myself out there for getting pre-hires out of school so I have some potential chances with companies with little experience and a few things on my driving record. I just want to be sure that I qualify without unintentionally missing anything. I feel like the recruiter is my best shot since I'll be speaking to someone but I'd like your opinions.

Thanks!