Comments By Johnny 3

Day 18:

Today was an interesting one & a mixed bag of results.

I got off to a shaky start.

After our routine pre-trip inspections, It was time to go over 45 degree backing maneuvers again.

Today I did get functional equipment to work with :).

On my first practice run....I didn't get it lined up very well & instead of repositioning myself, I opted to make an overly aggressive effort to correct it. This was the wrong move.

What ended up happening as a result, was me briefly jacknifing the trailer. which caused a slight amount of cosmetic damage to one of the gap reducers on the back of the tractor.

As a result, I was asked to take pictures and fill out an accident report form which was given to me on our next break. I was also asked to email these pictures to the school's senior instructor.

After I did what was asked of me, I was told in short that since it happened on school property & the damage was negligible, it wouldn't have any real impact on my schooling unless I made a habit of damaging equipment & wasn't learning from my mistakes.

The day did improve after this break.

I was given a little bit more time to practice 45 degree backing when I returned from break. I started to get the hang of it & was asked if I wanted to try to test out on it after a couple of practice runs. I said yes & passed on my 1st try :)

I was then shown a demonstration on blindside backing & given the opportunity to practice...I backed it in on my 1st try after getting out & looking and doing a couple of small pull up adjustments. I also noticed that there was a straight line in the pavement that stretched clear across the concourse. The passenger side parking cones just so happened to be placed right on this line. I decided to make a mental note of this so I could use it to my advantage.

After a successful blindside angle practice park, I was asked if I wanted to try to test out on this as well, I decided that I should go ahead & do it since I had a visual observation I had made that I could use to cheat a little.

During the test, I had a near perfect set up (with the help of the pavement lines) I got out & looked once and backed it right in & parked it, boom another test passed.

All of this before lunch & all of a sudden, I went from being behind the majority of class to being ahead of schedule.

After this was an afternoon of road driving. This went so-so. There were some quirks but I am getting better at downshifting, I did stall the vehicle once due to difficulty finding the right gear & am still grinding some gears here & there but the instructor seemed content with my progress & I have gotten pretty good at taking tight turns & watching my mirrors. I am getting to the point now where I am not frightened by the thought of driving a semi & can actually see myself doing the job with a little more polishing. I'll take that with 2 weeks to go still.

This is all I have for now. More to come tomorrow.

Agreed.. These were still useful experiences even though the day didn't go quite as planned.

Johnny...you actually got some real OJT today. Everything you experienced, including the newer gearbox happens and usually at the worst time possible.

Day 17:

Today was a bit unlucky...nothing that made me look bad but a few equipment hiccups that were no fault of mine caused some delays throughout the day which shorted me on much needed practice...

The day was supposed to start with in-town driving with my partner & an instructor... We had a vehicle specifically assigned to us that we did a pre-trip inspection on...It was discovered during this time that this vehicle had a newly faulty air compressor which deemed it unsuitable to operate. As a result, we had to wait for another vehicle assignment to be determined & do another pre-trip & got started driving anout an hour & a half later than anticipated. This made for a condensed version of the route I was supposed to drive... I was also having some issues with the new vehicle, it had a tighter shift pattern than what I had become accustomed to & as a result, I started off a little rough. I had a hard time distinguishing 2nd gear from 4th & 7th from 9th due to the tightened shift pattern.....causing me to kill the truck a couple times right out of the gate...I adapted & the drive went smooth enough after the 1st couple miles that were rough...Today was a graded road evaluation & I did pass even though it seemed to me like I did brutal.

After lunch, it was my turn for concourse backing maneuvers again. I discovered today that it was decided that I passed the other evaluation that I thought I would have to retest on again (blindside parallel) I guess I performed well enough yesterday on sightside parallel that the instructor overseeing the concourse this week thought allowing me to catch up on angle parking would be a better use of time.

There were other students who were already testing on this. This was my 1st day practicing it due to last week's setbacks & I was having a hard time with it. After my 1st miserable attempt, another instructor who was helping the one overseeing it walked me through what I was doing on & how to correct it. I was also having some perception issues due to large amounts of cones in a small radius, some behind the ones I was aiming for & on courses setup for different exercises, this was really throwing off my ability to focus on my target...

Anyhow, I did think I about had it figured out & was attempting it again.....Along came more equipment issues.....this time with a trailer that wouldn't hold air causing the combination vehicle to stall. I had to show this to an instructor who agreed that it was a faulty trailer connection and decided we should drop the trailer...this was time consuming. it took several minutes just to lower the landing gear because it was so cold out & the grease was partly frozen. By the time this was done...it was time to call it a day. Hopefully tomorrow I have better luck with equipment & master another backing maneuver... More to come :)

Thank you for taking the time to write G-town... I do see value in learning to parallel park. I think it help you prepare to learn orher backing maneuvers & it is good to have some competence so that on the seldom occasions it might be used, it can be done .. I was just frustrated at how the test was administered before...but it's behind me now :)

Well day 16 arrived today, finally.

The wait was much anticipated. The last day I was at school was 12/23/2016 , so 11 days ago.

The last day I was in class I had to go into the extended break on a somewhat sour note... I was failed on both blindside & sightside parallel parking and had also had a personality conflict with an obnoxious instructor who had me believing I was in serious jeopardy of being failed out of the class due to 1 bad day.... That is the short version. There is a much lengthier version of what happened in the general discussion thread....

Anyhow, fast forward to today..... I was overly eager to arrive today and face whatever was needed to get the situation behind me. I was under the impression that I was going to have to deal with the same instructor again when testing on parallel parking....

As it turned out, this particular instructor had requested an extended leave & a new instructor (who seemingly had no knowledge of my issues with the prior instructor, was assigned) to retest me & 1 other student on sight-side parallel parking....so no reason to bring up the issues I ran into prior to break the way I saw it.

After a couple of rounds of practice to shake off the rust, I passed, with a perfect score even!

I still have to test on blindside parallel parking again but I no longer see it as an issue. This will happen tomorrow & I will be working with the same instructor as I did today. If all goes as planned tomorrow, I will be all caught up with everyone else.

The previous instructor will still be back on the concourse again next week so I will probably have to deal with him again at some point. I plan to forget our issues ever happened as long as he shows no obvious negative bias towards me in a way that hinders my progress.

Oddly enough, one of the main reasons I chose to do private schooling over company sponsored training was the belief that I would be less likely to run into instructors with personality disorders that could be a roadblock to my success.....I have read a few horror stories of company sponsored training online that lead me to believe this was a stronger possibility if I took that route...but I can now tell you, private schooling is not 100% immune to this either.

That said, the rest of the instructors I have dealt with (7 total) have all been wonderful up to this point, so the one I've had issues with was the exception & he had been fine to deal with up to that point as well...

Back to how the rest of the day went.... The parking practice & test took place before lunch. After lunch, it was more in-town driving practice. I was afraid I would be a bit rusty with my gear shifting after going 11 days without being in a semi & only 4 days of experience in a semi prior to that. Somehow, I wasn't and picked up right where I left off. The instructor that rode along today was the same one who had me on my 2nd day driving & he complimented me on how much better I was at upshifting than the last time he rode along. I drove a 17 mile in-town route with multiple turns with no real issues. I did manage to kill the engine once when I had a hard time finding the right gear downshifting but that was my only real hiccup & I reacted well enough to make the traffic delay I was causing fairly minimal once I turned the engine back on. Overall, today was the most satisfying day of schooling I had so far & really helped pick up my confidence again.

That is all I have for now, hopefully another positive story comes tomorrow!

https://www.truckingtruth.com/truckers-forum/Topic-17264/Page-3/dmacc-des-moines-area-community-college-december-5-2016-january-20-2017-

Old School & G-town,

Thank you so much for taking time to read my long-winded situation...& I appreciate your advice.I think I'm going to follow it.

It will be 10 days( I wish it wasn't) before we see each other again...Hopefully it is water under the bridge by then..I just hate someone thinking I was trying to sabotage their reputation when I wasn't...that really bothers me. Though part of me will still feel the need to smooth things over, I will try to let it go unless there is obvious tension, then I will do my best to smooth things over with him again & try to be the best student I can. I won't take it to the next level after that unless it becomes obvious that he is trying to fail me without merit.

Today was the 15th day of training. The end of today marks the halfway point for this class. Today was a shortened day as DMACC was dismissing all classes by noon. There were 6 of us on the concourse today with 1 instructor & today was focused on us passing parallel parking evaluations..I failed....

I also appeared to have made a new enemy today that I certainly should have avoiding making an enemy out if I want to succeed. I had already elaborated on this situation in great detail in the general discussion thread but the short version is that I spoke out in frustration to somebody I shouldn't have & I said something that got misinterpreted to sound worse tham what I was trying to say....

I now have to pass parallel parking on the 1st day after a 10 day break & if I don't....I will apparently be recommended to be dropped from the course....though I've done well on everything up to this point & had limited opportunity to pick up parallel backing.

My eye is still on the prize & I plan on doing everything I can to stay positive and do what I need to do to get through this, hopefully I get a fair opportunity to do so....

More to come after the new year....

Today sucked, some of this will be in my cdl diary too but I am seeking advice & I need to vent as well.

Today was the day for me to be tested on parallel parking again.

I was given an opportunity to practice & nailed it but that didn't count because it was practice... Well time came to actually test on it, I get in a bad position & start work on correcting it...next thing I know, the concourse instructor is on the side of my truck shouting commands to me..I followed them & ran over the cones (this was the result of me trying to follow his commands, not from what I would have done on my own)....next thing i know, I was told to park the semi & get out so I did...a few moments later, I was handed my paper showing a failing grade.

At this point, I am trying to keep to myself because I am frustrated & at the time I felt that the instructor had steered me toward failure (not necessarily with intent to do so).

Another student had come up & started talking to me about it & I opened my mouth & was honest about how I felt about the situation....not a good idea..as this was later relayed to the instructor...

Somewhere through the course of translation..me saying "It felt like I was set up for failure" was turned into "He is trying to set me up for failure"... I would find out about this until later in the day.....

After someone else tested, I politely asked for another opportunity to test without any feedback or corrections until I was done. The instructor granted it & I parked it perfectly in a matter of a couple minutes with no pullouts or corrections even. (I am guessing that when I was doing this was also when the other student decided to tell the instructor what I said (with his extra spin to make it sound worse)...anyhow, I walked up to the the instructor after parking the vehicle & asked if we could count that one...his answer was"If you can do it again right now"...

so I go & make another attempt, was a bit excited & gave myself a bad setup, but was in the process of correcting it & hadn't hit any cones...Instructor approaches to let me know time is up & to park the vehicle.....

I was frustrated but didn't think much of it at the time...

fast forward a few minutes, we are all in the shop doing end of the day paperwork.

The instructor waits until other students are far enough away from me & confronts me on what I had apparently said.. During his confrontation, I was called a liar & that I was trying to sabotage his reputation...Truth is, I had nothing against the guy, but I was frustrated & vented to the wrong person...

Next thing I know, I am being informed that a remediation form is being filled out on me & that if I don't straighten out instantly on the 1st day back after several days off, he is going to write a recommendation for me to be removed from the course....

I tried to apologize to him & at the same time explain to him what was actually said but he had no interest in in what I had to say & was so stuck on what someone told him I said that it was irreconcilable...wouldn't let me speak, just wanted to yell at me let me know I f'ed up & crossed the wrong person & left it at that.

This instructor is in charge of doing all of the concourse grading with backing maneuvers...& I still don't believe he had it in for me initially, he certainly does now though.

I am trying to decide between going to the transportation school president to explain the situation & ask for arrangements to be made for another instructor to grade my backing maneuvers (this could backfire if I get assigned one of his buddies) or if I should try to set up a conference with this instructor & the head of the driving school to sort it out... I

I certainly don't feel comfortable trying to pretend nothing happened & cross my fingers in hopes I don't intentionally get thrown under the bus by somebody with an axe to grind.... I also don't want to look like a conspiracy theorist or finger pointer either though, what to do?!??!

Also does his threat seem a bit harsh for someone who has done well with everything else so far but still has needs some help perfecting parallel backing after a half a dozen attempts at it over 3 days & no experience before that?

Day 14:

I had a new instructor this morning & was given the opportunity to get more practice on city driving. The route was similar to yesterdays but with more turns.

Today didn't go quite as smoothly as yesterday. I ran into a couple situations where i got stuck in neutral trying to shift gears. It took me longer than ideal to recover a gear and probably had some ****ed off commuters wondering what the helI was doing.

After the city drive, it was time for lunch. To my surprise, a Werner recruiter came in & brought us lunch. This was not announced in advance like the previous recruiters were.

I hung out & gathered more information on Werner & was able to also ask all the questions I had for them. These aresome of my perceived pros & cons for Werner based on information I gathered today:

pros: -run all 48 states -variety of freight types & scheduling options (flatbed, van, reefer) (otr, regional, dedicated) -tuition reimbursement -va apprenticeship -reasonable cost for health benefits -good rider policy

cons-

-during home time i would either take the truck home or find another place to park on my own (closest terminal or drop yard is 100+ miles away -trucks not equipped with inverters & having inverters that hook into battery installed is prohibited.

In conclusion, they would be a suitable option but they aren't at the top of my list either.

Now to the afternoon, more practiceat parallel parking....I'm still a little slow but I can successfully parallel park after getting out & looking a few times.

I'll take it! I feel enough has sunk in that this won't be a real obsyacle to me pulling through.

After this, I turned in my log book & got to leave school for the day on a high note. Tomorrow will be a short day to winter break for the whole community college...Class will be delayed from resuming for all of next week. Hopefully I retain everything that was crammed into my head this week.

More to come!

🖒🏁 !