Comments By Brent R.

Cement and other dry stuff something called ash, they have a lot of windmill farms here and to install one it takes a lot of concrete, that’s where some guys with the company have volunteered to stay out there weeks at a time and are making good money because there are a lot of trips 24 hours a day,

Enjoyed reading this, pneumatic company here pays 25% of load, and with the windmill farms going up in West Texas they say the demand is high right now, they have KW with the small sleepers in them not sure I would fit being 6'3" 300 lbs well see they are at the top of my list though.

Seems like 24-25% is normal for this line of work. Some places like mine pay a differential rate on the weekends but not all do. Hopefully this helps you out a little if you go with it. Do you know what they haul for that job?

Enjoyed reading this, pneumatic company here pays 25% of load, and with the windmill farms going up in West Texas they say the demand is high right now, they have KW with the small sleepers in them not sure I would fit being 6'3" 300 lbs well see they are at the top of my list though.

Wow been a busy week, school is still going, only 2 days left,we get our certificates on Wednesday, been a long 8 weeks but have met some great people and some I will continue to be friends with forever, today we had our final exam, included alley dock backing, driving, steep grades, made a 97, so was happy about that, drove a Volvo last week and that is by far my favorite truck to drive so far as maneuvering, we had our career fair and talked with a lot of companies, Walmart (or a company who contracts with them) was not there, people hiring from everything to hauling cattle, beef, cement, asphalt, Schneider, Ben E. Keith, Budweiser, Sweet Bran, Valley Proteins, some fuel carriers, and many others, I am leaning towards a pneumatic tanker outfit that is local but goes all over Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado. I am also looking at CFI, Knight, Werner, lots of oil field jobs here as well but not really wanting to do that, Got my CDL in the mail now waiting on the new one that will have the Haz-Mat on it, said it takes a few weeks after fingerprints are done, not sure I will ever need it but glad i studied and took the test because I guess you never know. Another company I am looking at is Magnum they are out of the Midwest. Really anyone of the above would be good just want to get a job and learn and get the experience for a few years and stick with them, many have tuition reimbursements so that may be something to look at as well but not that important. I will post a few more times in here, the school has been great though, one thing you got to do is learn from every instructor, some were great to be around and others made it stressful, but take what you can from each of them and learn from it, have a good attitude, be positive, lots of great information these instructors have passed on to us from their mistakes and situations they have encountered while on the road, but know that this is still a learning phase and will continue from here on out,

At our school depends on what instructor you have, some teach us to float and others prefer we don’t because they say some companies don’t want you floating, today I did a little of both, I’m more proficient using the clutch and double clutching right now, it really makes downshifting to me so much easier floating, the key is the RPM’s for me 1000 and 1500, some of our trucks are different so depends on what you drive that day, we’ve driven a 10 speed, 13 speed and a 18 speed, Some won’t go in at 1500 it may take 1750 to get in so really learning the truck helps as well, I think they start out at .45 per mile because you have to help pull boxes off pallets I guess, not sure. Our career day is this Thursday so hoping to see who comes and what some of them offer, time will tell,

Week 7 more in city driving working on shifting up and down, tight turns, watching for curbs, was a good day of learning and perfecting shifting, even floated some without any issues,

Thanks it’s a big relief to get that test over and passed.

Today we did all city driving, working on turning, downshifting coming up to lights, and we also worked on floating the gears, it’s all in the speed and the timing of the RPM’s but I’m getting better everyday, Thursday is our career day, we have burgers and hotdogs and the companies will be there for us to talk to, so far one local company has come and talked to us, it’s a local trucking company, 190 trucks, .45 cents a mile after the 4 weeks of training, 500 week while training, haul meat and refrigerated stuff, either you haul meat and it’s no touch or you haul loads to Allsups gas stations and grocery stores with in about 6 states around Texas, and take the items off pallets and the store workers take it off the truck, he said our job stops at the truck. Curious to see who else will be there, I’ll keep ya updated.

Texas we were taught the applied for 1 minute test with our watch timing it, no more than 4psi for combination vehicle or 3 for single, then the alarm/signal at 60psi, then the valve pop out test at 40psi, it had to be in that order and 3 different steps, then we had the park/ trailer brake test then the 5 mph service brake test

Today was a great day we drove all over, from Amarillo to Dumas, Borger, Fritch, Panhandle, Claude, each student drove around 100 miles, lots of highway, hills, construction, windy also, got a feel for that as well, also had the owner from Jax Transportation out of Amarillo come talk to the class,

Here are a few of the trucks we drive on our road trips after getting our CDL.