Comments By sculpy

Pick and pass sounds just a little scary, Pat!

Here's our load back to Springfield where my student will test out early next week, onions from California and ultimately on to PA.

I bet that was fun to strap down, lol!!!

Whooaaaa.... Now I *would* be interested in hearing from a flatbedder how the heck you're meant to secure a load like THAT! I have no interest in flatbedding myself, at least to start out.... maybe a couple years into trucking, if I feel I need a new challenge, I could imagine wanting to upgrade my man card by flatbedding, but it'd be fascinating right now to know how to keep a giant table of sacks full of spheres from dancing around. Anyone?

I'm thinking tarps, held close and tight with about... oh, two hundred straps? :O

Those are great and inspiring stories Chris L.! That's the sort of community i'm looking forward to joining! Sad to hear from so many truckers that it's dying out, but also it's good to hear tales of road camaraderie like yours. I'll definitely be getting a CB.

That's a valid concern David S., but I agree with Big Scott: unless you've lived an entirely cash-based, membership, subscription and ownership-free, computerless life up until now, everything about you and your life is already in the electric ether. Unless you've got some heinous skeletons in the closet, rest easy knowing that you're lost in the noise of the information of hundreds of millions of other ordinary people. Be comfortable filling in the forms of legit businesses and companies, or else don't use an internet-connected computer for anything at all.

Not a trucker yet, but thread is relevant to why i'm heading for that career. Some fascinating stories in here, thank all of you for sharing!

I'm an "over-educated and under-employed" grown-up boomerang kid. I have two degrees (associates in Philosophy and batchelors in English), and literally wasted over a decade of my life trying to finish those degrees while struggling to get by in various retail and warehousing jobs. Lost most of my savings living in the UK when the recession hit and found myself with cut hours, closed upward mobility, and no new jobs in the area I was living. Moved into my parents' over here to try to restart things.

Anyway, I realized this year (finally!) that what I really wanted didn't include the traditional 9-5 with office politics and the same environment/people day after day, or to teach (for the same reasons DISTURBD and Errol talked about). Realized that i've actually loved working in the "blue collar" world, and the feeling of doing real work and labour for a living, and that my degrees were not going to help me chase anything that'd help me live a happy life. I've been working as a package handler for UPS for the last two years and enjoyed it, but I want to get to driving for real rather than waiting my turn at the Brown: could be another five years at least there! With a CDL off my own back, I could already have the experience I need to drive for whomever I want in the same amount of time. So right now i'm just trying to save the money I need to pay for school and get started.

Bit of a loner, eager to get independent again, no relationships at the moment, big desire to see the beautiful natural vistas across the country, love the idea of piloting a 40-ton industrial juggernaut beholden to almost no-one, and camping out on the road in my little cabin night after night. All the challenges i've read people having in this career are things I know I can overcome.

I can't wait to start a new life. And a huge thank you to this site and its contributors for helping me with the knowledge i've acquired so far!

Since i've joined and while this is resurrected, i'll add my sincere thanks and salute you (Daniel B.) on an excellent job as well. This is a massive help to my studying.

Sorry, minor error. This image is actually on its side. The green arrows are pointing north and the dock is on the east side. I just took the screenshot this way so I could capture as much as possible on my rectangular phone screen.

Thanks for clarifying, just wanted to make sure it wasn't me being confused. o_0

Nine times out of ten, the first person you will meet is the guard at a guard shack. Guards don't just wave you through, they may take your bills, assign you to a dock, etc.

Cheers for that bit of info Errol: that answers a question i'd been meaning to ask.. someone.. at some point.. about the general process of arriving at a receiver/consignee.

Alright, gonna give you veterans a fire to put out here! :P To my newbie eyes it looks like there's a decent amount of space to play with at the fork that splits to the dock, and not many obstacles. To that effect I probably would have gone past the fork and blindsided onto the dock road, then straight backed the rest of the way, to make it simple, if not necessarily easy.

Make the right at the green arrow and sight side back it back onto the road you just came down head back towards the gate and repeat to the dock.

Looking at it again, this ^ makes a lot more sense Cwc, especially if it's actually tighter on the ground than it looks from the air and a blindside would be unsafe. More turns but safer.

I'm eager to hear how it was done!

I'm not sure I understand: enter from a guard shack on the lower left... and follow the green arrows that come from the lower right? What am I missing?

I think you mean this:

Daniel's Pre-Trip Inspection

Thank you G-Town, that's the one. Look at all those hardy industrial-grade truck bits!

Not sure if I'm replying right but why don't you go to a truck stop and see if you can't ask someone to view their Truck- just a thought

Indeed, it's on my ever expanding list of things to do before school. =)

Hi Alexander D. Congrats on taking the step! I hope to be doing the same thing in six months.

DEFINITELY work your way through the High Road Training program; it's the best tool i've found. If you're taking the practice quizzes and reviews after every page, by the time you've read all the way through the program I guarantee the vast majority of the important information, technical info and statistics will have lodged firmly in your long term memory. After reading through it once i'm aceing every single free CDL practice quiz I can find on the internet: even the all endorsement quizzes. Stick to it and you won't have any problems. I'm going to go through it all at least once more before I get to school myself.

The only issue i'm having is trying to memorize and arrange in my head how to approach the Pre-Trip exam requirements. I'm a visual learner and i've never actually been on/around a semi-tractor before, so i'm struggling to remember all the parts because I have very little idea how to find and actually identify the engine components that need to be pointed out to an examiner. It's all fine saying "point out the water pump, PMS it and ABC/free play the belt" but how do I know what it looks like?/where it is? I'm hoping i'll know these things for sure once i'm at the school.

One of the mods here posted a visual guide to the Pre-Trip with photos that was amazingly helpful. I'll try to find it after I get back from work tonight (if someone else doesn't beat me to it.)

Good luck Alexander!

I bought this game a few days ago (American T.S.), it isn't on consoles unfortunately. Thought i'd try practicing the backing principles and mechanics before I drop the money to go to school at the start of next year.

It is definitely fun, and so far incredibly frustrating. I'm forcing myself to stay in cab view, and be fully stopped if I pop into external view for a G.O.A.L., but it's so difficult to see all the way back to the end of the trailer that I can never really tell where the tandems are, and thus when I should start turning. Even when I get the initial back into generally the right area, straightening the tractor back to the trailer always throws the trailer completely off and I have to start all over again, heh. I don't think i've achieved even the easiest parking situation in under half an hour yet!

I've read thousands of posts about tips for backing, and I haven't yet found any one "way of thinking" about it that's clicked for me. It's almost got me thinking whether i'll even be able to get my class A in a real truck. Oh well, gotta keep practicing!

P.S. Shout out to Brett and this incredible website. I don't think i've ever come across a more informative place or such a friendly internet community before, and as a lurker up 'til now I can't even describe how helpful it's been so far. I've almost memorized the CDL manual thanks to T.T. Pre-trip is another story but i'll get to that... =)