Comments By firemedic2816

To help them have her buy a map of the USA, and EVERYNIGHT when YOU Shut down, call them and tell them where you are at, so they can place a pin or something on the map to follow where you are going. Also if you have the capability Chickie mentioned a blog but you could also do a personal VLOG for just them, or you can post it to you tube or FB for others to follow. I was only on the road for a week (long story for another time) and I have a special needs son, So when I entered a new state, I would buy a little magnet for the fridge, with the state on it, and they would also pin on the map where I was. My Son's MOST prized possesions are the goofy little magnets daddy bought OTR. He loved going to school and updating his friends where in THE USA his dad was driving his big rig. LOL...The hardest part is to FOCUS. When your behind the wheel you have to not think about them, concentrate on getting your freight down the road safely. Then when you STOP CALL AND SAY how much you miss them and love them. And like they said be excited when the kids tell you stuff, even if it seems mundane.

Be safe driver Hoping one day soon I will be able to get on the road again

Hi y'all. So I've been solo for about a month and a half, and it's been going pretty good for the most part. Pretty much what I expected. I have a wife and 2 little girls 4 and 5 at home and I have been able to get home probably a lot more often than a lot of folks. My problem is how do you deal with life going on back home while you're away trying to make a living? This change is one I wasn't quite prepared for. And I'm starting to have second thoughts about my choice to drive otr.

Did you contact Millis Transfer? They don't have anything close to you that I am aware of but AWESOME School and 95% of their trainers are cool.

Yeah, I'm not taking it personal. It was just funny because the email from Knight's recruiter had a line about their CDL training, but here the girl on the phone is telling me they don't train. What can you do, right? Their decision. But, I agree. Werner is the only one so far to actually give me an approval. They're willing to give me an opportunity to prove myself. When the time comes, if their offer is still on the table I'll remember that. Good luck at Stevens!

I talked to Knight the other day and they told me they provide CDL School BUT you had to get there yourself, pay for your own hotel and living expenses and they would train you????

Don't feel bad, Knight told me the same thing and I have been a teacher, government employee, for the last eight years. Seven at the same school. My first school was only one year as I was an emergency hire after their prime candidate backed out. And, I was employed at the same company, uninterrupted for twenty years before that!! I have seen the lettering on Knight's trailers for years about "Come work for us, we're the best, we rock, you are exactly what we have been waiting for!!" Absolutely flawless driving record for the last 15 years and yet without any vetting whatsoever, the recruiter told me on the phone that they are not doing any training, even though I have read posts on this site from students going to their school. Oh well, I am experienced and this will be more a re-certification than a beginning education. Oh well, their loss. Stevens jumped on it and I am a person who places a lot of credence in loyalty to a given extended opportunity. I will bust my backside for them and we will both prosper!! You missed out Knight! Probably don't care, but that's a mistake on your part!! Hope for your sake that this is not a regular occurrence for your company.

DSTURBD

Turned 39 on 5/26

Oops! Happy Birthday!!

You too, Phoenix!! May babies are the best babies!!!

DSTURBD

Grab your ankles tuck your head and kiss IT good bye....Really get into a LOW spot, find a Ravine, Drainage ditch (be careful here though usually before a Tornado there are torrential down pours and your drainage ditchs FILL FAST) Just GET AWAY from that 80,000# Paper weight. In my 20+ yrs as a firefighter/medic I have responded to my share of POST tornado runs, and have PERSONALLY Seen what a Tornado will do to a CMV, the places we have found semi's would blow your mind, I SAW IT and I DIDN'T Believe it

So, what should you do if you are in the truck and see a tornado coming your way? I've run all sorts of escape scenarios in my head, but is there a for-real best practice?

In my case, there was a rest area nearby I almost stopped at, but that's a really good question. What have you done in the past?

Fishing in Pot HOLES???? Sounds like INDIANA Roads (former Hoosier my self) I would make sure you stop and get a fishing pole and some good bait, sometimes there are good catchin in them there pot holes

Yikes! I was planning on running out my drive time today but ended up stopping a little early due to the wind starting to pick up. I could feel my trailer dancing around in the lane so I decided to play it safe. But I'm still going to be early.

We are in Hershey, Nebraska tonight. I passed up the Loves and Flying J in North Platte in favor of a smaller truck stop a few miles down the road. When we pulled in there were a whole 2 trucks in here. There's room for at least 50, maybe more if people get creative! An hour later, at nearly 7 pm on a Friday, there's only about 10 trucks.

Only downside? It's a dirt lot and the potholes are deep enough to fish in! I hit one that was a LOT deeper than I expected!

We will be in WYOMING tomorrow! New state! Plus another new state, COLORADO after that. I'm delivering in Cheyenne and picking up in Fort Morgan CO tomorrow.

That is the purpose of CDL School, whether it be through a company or a local private school you learn a lot there. When I was a fire instructor I use to tell the Cadets we don't train you how to be firefighters in the academy...we teach you how to not get dead, you learn how to be a firefighter by doing it day in and day out and always looking for a way to learn and improve. The day you learn it all or think you know it all, bring my your gear and move on. Same thing with Truck driving. They don't teach you how to be a truck driver in school..they teach you how NOT to get dead, and be some what safe, you LEARN how to be a truck driver through the REST of your career, Always look for ways to learn or teach.

The Best thing an OLD FIREFIGHTER can teach NEW firefighter....IS HOW TO BE AN OLD FIREFIGTHER

I am 28 years old and I threw my back out working at a warehouse this winter. I am sick of living in poverty and I am dying to make a living wage. Truck driving is something I have been considering for a while, and I am now serious about it. I got the manual last year but decided I would need classes to really get it. When I read it, I see things like emergency air lines, and I have no idea what they would even look like, so it's tough to learn by just reading the words. I would rather have an instructor explain these things and show me in person.

I signed up for a local driving school CDL B package. I have a study class on June 9th. I initially considered local delivery jobs, but now I think I may want to go full on tractor trailer. I don't mind being away from home for long periods of time as I have no girlfriend or kids.

The problem is, I am intimidated by certain things. Driving a tractor trailer through heavy traffic just sounds tough. Learning all of these procedures I haven't even heard of, taking tests for the endorsements that each consist of 50+ questions. I read forums here written by people who went off to be trained for weeks by a company, and I think I might want to do that.

It's worth mentioning that while I am intimidated by learning to drive a 25,000 pound vehicle, I am a very good driver and have had no accidents in the 13 years I have had my license.

Does anyone have any advice for me? Should I apply for an on the job training if I pass my permit test? I am sure a lot of others went into this career and didn't know anything at first.

If you are not wanting to be AWAY from Family, or they can't handle YOU being away TRUCKING ISN'T For you!!! May I ask WHY you want to get into this field?

Wow, even though they have you doing a 48 state thingy. you didn't have to go to far from home. did you have to stay on the road for weeks at a time? so, you got your cdl through Swift company? I would hate to leave my family, if one have to stay out on the road for 3 or 4 weeks at a time.

Friendly advice I use to tell my students at the fire academy, You don't learn how to be a firefighter IN CLASS, you learn how NOT TO GET DEAD. You learn how to be a Firefighter BY DOING NEVER stop Learning the day you don't learn something is the day you turn in your gear and go else where. Don't see it as a failure, but a learning opportunity, it only becomes a mistake when we FAIL TO LEARN ....Same thing with trucking. You don't learn how to be a Commercial Vehicle Operator by sitting in a training room or training truck. You become a Commercial Vehicle Operator by doing it day in and day out.

So here I am waiting to get into a door and be unloaded at a reciever (again) and thought I'd jot down some thoughts on my training thus far.

Orientation week at Prime in Springfield, Mo. was just a flurry of busy, busy, busy. I was particularly stressed by the fact that I'd found out I'd lost my license on the bus trip and had to somehow scramble and get a reissue sent from New Hampshire so alot of the things I was supposed to be doing had to be put aside until it arrived on Wednesday. So I crammed in all the computer time I could to get those classes done and of course, the sim training. After Wednesday, now a full 2 days behind the rest of my class, I spent on the shuttle going to and from the dmv for my tests (which I managed to pass first time, thank goodness - so no return trips there), offsite physical and drug testing, and finalizing paperwork, TWIC, etc. The next day I get a panicked call from home asking why I took all the money out of our account with my atm. Well, I hadn't. At some point during my 39 hour bus ride down my card had been scanned remotely and then used across the country for cash advances. So now we're broke and I'm halfway across the U.S. with no money coming in until I get on a truck and start getting the cash advances to live off of while on the road. I somehow managed to get down to Prime East on Saturday for the 2nd round of psd/trainer matchups and latched onto my first trainer for my psd stint of 3 weeks. That went well for the most part. I was only completely terrified for the first 3 or 4 days of driving in the real world... After that was the litany of "ALWAYS go wide if you can. Even if you're not pulling a trailer. GO WIDE!" That phrase will come back to haunt me... Jump ahead 4 weeks. At about halfway into my TnT training, been all over the lower 48 a few times, learned how to sleep in a moving truck and feeling pretty positive about my choice of careers and my driving ability, thinking to myself "Wow. You can actually do this." Well, I was on the driveline while my trainer slept, going into my 10th hour, looking forward to some chow and shuteye, and was just pulling into the receivers when I cut the corner, DIDN'T go wide and ended up jacking the trailer up onto a high curb, leaning at such an angle that the corner of the bulkhead was jammed down on top of the tractors rear tire (probably the only thing keeping the trailer from rolling over). In other words, I wasn't going anywhere. Now I've had moments of bonehead moves out here but let me tell you, that was the worst feeling when my trainer gets out of the sleeper, looks into the rear view and says, "Shut it down. You're not getting it out of there." That just about said it all. I let him down, I let the company down and I let myself down. Talk about feeling like an idiot. I beat myself up for hours, days, heck, I still look back and kick myself for being so stupid. So I got an incident. Called road assist and a tow truck dragged it out. Luckily there was no damage done, save for a few ruts in the landscape. It was quite an event for the locals. The whole crew at the receivers came out to see and take pics of what the bonehead trainee did. Ya. All I could do was lower my hat brim and keep a stone face while just wanting to explode. So here I am. Nothing eventful has happened since. Looking towards the last 5000 miles before going solo and wondering if I can do this by myself. I know how to do all the things I'm meant to do but not very well. My mind races with all the "what ifs" that might occur. What if I get lost and can't get turned around? What if I can't find a place to park? What if a dock is so tight I can barely maneuver? But then I tell myself, look what you've already overcome, a 39 hour bus trip from hell, scrambling to replace your license, getting through your bank account being hacked, tests, tests and more tests, driving all over the USA in a big rig seeing parts of the country you may never have been able to see, jacking a massive trailer into a precarious position... hey you've got your cdl (the golden ticket!), you're almost through your training, in another week or so you'll be in your own truck! So ya, I've made some mistakes, will definitely make more, but I've learned from them. I've done something I'd never thought I'd be able to do. I've taken a challenge and succeeded. Just roll with it. Now on to worrying about something more tangible... like winter driving in thr Northeast.

You got this go in with a positive attitude and will be fine

With great help from all you gals and guys I learned how hard it is to operate a truck. Tomorrow is test day. I need everyone to say that little prayer for me! Does everyone feel I can't do this before test? I understand not everyone passes on first try, but I sure would like to be one of those that do.