Comments By Sweet Jimmy

I can't agree more G-Man, this site has been invaluable to me before and during school. The people here clearly want to help, unlike many other boards where you'll be ridiculed if you ask a question. I've gained a ton of knowledge here and have even seen classmates using this site for more info on the yard exercises. I'd looked at some other boards and had determined that truckers were the meanest, whiniest, bunch of people I'd ever seen. But TT changed all that, I found a bunch of well meaning mentors here, people that may not have even known they were teaching me. Thank you all for being awesome!

I'm currently in school and this has been a tough one for me as well. The "steps in a turn" that they've taught us has been a huge help for me.

I saw on a trucking Facebook page that some drivers, as retribution for some perceived sleight are pulling the release handle on other's trucks while they are parked. While a PTI would solve this, I know a few people that rarely do a PTI. Does this really happen?

Since testing starts at my school this week, I'm going to say that the actual test has me worried. I feel like I've gotten pretty good at all the skills, but I'm pretty anxious about testing because a monumental brain fart is a very real possibility with me. The alley dock and backward serpentine had me worried, but I learned that a good approach is key. Also, downshifting was a handful. I'd seen people talking about it here and thought "how can that be such a big deal?". Well now I know.

A recruiter from TMC came to see us this past Thursday, sounded like a great company, but I've already been hired with Heritage Freight so I'm sticking with them, at least for a year and see how it goes.

Good morning all! I've done a poor job of keeping this up, but I haven't really had much to say as far as day to day schooling. I will say though that if you're in the Birmingham area, you can't go wrong with Bevill State in Sumiton for school. All the instructors are former drivers with years of experience and seem to really care about you learning to drive, and to drive safely. We are in our last week of instruction and testing starts next week. I've been torn as to which direction to go after school as I already have a job waiting, but several big companies have shown interest in me, so I was thinking of going with one of them. But I decided to stick with first offer since, even though it's a lower rate per mile, I'll be trained by a friend for a few weeks and then they're going to run us as a team after that. I'm usually pretty immature for a 50 year old, but I felt that having a 20 year veteran in the truck for months would pay huge dividends further in in my career. I've seen it said several times here "don't get hung up on cpm", and I'm taking that advice. Again, thank you all for the great advice I've gained from this site. And thanks to Kori for letting that great attitude show in her posts. It's helped more than anything else during school.

Keep us updated, a recruiter from Schneider came to my school last week and it sounded like it might be a good fit for me.

Thanks Werner! I am really digging this thread as I hope to get into reefers in a couple of weeks when I graduate.

After my road trip yesterday my trainer said I did great! I asked if B.J. McKay would be proud. He told me yes, then stopped and said "wait a minute! If you're B.J., that would make me The Bear". My 23 year old partner had no idea what we were talking about.

I'm currently in school at a local community college. I have a job waiting, and the boss said he'd let me use a truck to take the CDL test, but I felt I'd be a better driver if I attended school. And boy am I glad I did! I'll be 6 weeks later getting started, but I'm learning so much that I'd have had to learn the hard way otherwise. It also seems that I have more options due to the recruiters that visit the school almost daily. The community college seems a great value at $1470 for 6 weeks and this includes your permit, physical, drug test and license.