Comments By Simon D. (Grandpa)

Thanks Will. That means a lot. Damn it I got dust in my eyes.

Hrrrrmph....errrgh....ummmmm...

Yeah...me too!! 🤣🤣

Keep it up...very inspiring for newbies and a few of us grumpy old buggers too!

LOL

I am so pleased for you! 👍

Cheers,

Simon

Hey Rob. Fantastic! Congratulations on that milestone! Quite the achievement given what you do!

👍😁

Keep up the good work and keep up my bed-time reading posts, would ya? lol

Cheers,

Simon

Brilliant!! Way to persevere!!

A fine example of tenacity and the spirit of 'Never say die!'.

Congratulations and Cheers.

Simon

Popcorn in microwave......

Sits back and waits...

😜

lol

I passed my cdl test on my attempt. Lord the pressure is off for today. I am a lot more tanned, few more gray hairs and now walking with a limp on my bruised up foot but I did it............:A CDL CLASS “A” carrier.

Big congratulations! 👍 Great feeling; ain't it?

Now let the real learning begin! 😜lol

My husband and I are almost done with school. Does anyone know of any companies that train teams together? Thanks,

I have friends that trained as a team together with Covenant....great sign on bonus too! 👍😊

Hi Newbie.

Stevens will not disqualify you for a felony. When I went through their program a few months ago, there were probably more guys n gals in our orientation class with 'records' than not! My roommate had a record that would have looked like the Declaration of Independence if it had been printed out...including 9 years in prison! Lol

What they were sticklers for was accuracy!! Be totally honest with them and they will work with you! In fact, they gave me a much harder time over proof of employment (I had been self employed since 2015) than they did my roomie over his record.! I ended up having to print out reams of bank statements and other supporting evidence....they even researched the sale of my property...

Stevens program is excellent...very intensive and will give you tons of info, training and support. But; be on time....every time! Pay attention in class...James the head classroom instructor does not put up with any crap!

I am no longer with them...for reasons to be explained later but not because of anything Stevens did. As I said, their course is very good and very thorough!

So; quit worrying about the little stuff and get your head in the books! lol

If I can be of further help; don't hesitate to ask 👍😊

Cheers and good luck.

Simon

I wonder what the issue is with self employment? The Maverick recruiter kind of stopped for a second, then asked if I could provide 1099s. I said yes, but that is only a small part of my earnings, I can give you my tax returns. I am a legitimate company. that seemed to satisfy her.

www.wnypcrepair.com, if anyone is interested.

The issue was not really about my self employment; it had more to do with my type of self employment.. Specifically, my wife and I had bought a total wreck of an old Victorian house with retirement savings... I was 'self employed' for almost 2 years, doing a 'ground up' total renovation in order to sell the property on at a later date. During this time I had zero income and was living on savings. Therefore; i had not had to file an income tax return for those two years. In addition, our funds were transferred from England.

Stevens worked with me to basically state that the funds transferred from abroad comprised my self employment earnings and had me download and print out 2 years worth of bank statements showing the regular transfers.

Other self employed folks at orientation merely produced tax returns and their process was very much simpler and completed immediately.

So, like I said, don't sweat it. They really bent over backwards to help me out.

Best wishes for a successful orientation. I'm sure that you will be fine!

Cheers,

Simon

Hi Newbie.

Stevens will not disqualify you for a felony. When I went through their program a few months ago, there were probably more guys n gals in our orientation class with 'records' than not! My roommate had a record that would have looked like the Declaration of Independence if it had been printed out...including 9 years in prison! Lol

What they were sticklers for was accuracy!! Be totally honest with them and they will work with you! In fact, they gave me a much harder time over proof of employment (I had been self employed since 2015) than they did my roomie over his record.! I ended up having to print out reams of bank statements and other supporting evidence....they even researched the sale of my property...

Stevens program is excellent...very intensive and will give you tons of info, training and support. But; be on time....every time! Pay attention in class...James the head classroom instructor does not put up with any crap!

I am no longer with them...for reasons to be explained later but not because of anything Stevens did. As I said, their course is very good and very thorough!

So; quit worrying about the little stuff and get your head in the books! lol

If I can be of further help; don't hesitate to ask 👍😊

Cheers and good luck.

Simon

Not sure what happened there! lol

Apologies....long day and I'm tired!

😜😜

My $.02 here...

we learned and made a few mistakes along the way but we survived.

I'll have to admit, all this talk about hills, mountains, and missing a downshift has made me think I would prefer an automatic, even if it makes me not a real truck driver.

I’m in an automatic now & wish I had the manual back. I had so much better control on the hills & mountains. But I also was in a condo & now in a lightweight. The compression difference is huge. I throw on the jake & it revs to 1800+ rpms. I’m slowly getting it but don’t get enough loads out West yet to really get the hang of it. Cabbage had me so puckered up that I even smoked the brakes at the bottom. After seeing 2 trucks on fire at the bottom of Monteagle, I almost had a heart attack. Like they say, practice makes perfect I guess. Just need lots & lots more practice.

Splitter.....I love ya to death and am so pleased to.see you making your way out here. 👍

But.....I have to call Bulls**t on ya bud!!

This post confirms everything that Old School was saying in reply to your statement about 'needing less than a year to be proficient'.

Please stop with the rubbish about less control with an automatic....it needlessly worries other newbies ..

You have exactly the same amount of control in an auto-shift as you would in a manual. It just takes a small.adjustment in technique. I have been up and down Snoqualmie, Cabbage, Donner, Grapevine, Black Mountain, Tehachapi and numerous other significant grades all over the country...numerous times with 40,000 lbs plus loads and have NEVER even come close to 'smoking the brakes' and having a near heart attack!!

The problem is not the equipment; it's operator error...pure and simple!

So; to all the new folks out there....dont let this stuff scare you off! It just ain't so.