Comments By Key City

I only have CLP and a Illinois drivers lisence. I am going to get my Hazmat fingerprints tomorrow. ( I set up an appointment) it takes around 30 days to get through the system. After I Pass my pre-trip (May 2nd) my backing skills, (May 10th) and my road test (May 17th, I can go to the DMV to get my CDL applied for so they can send it to me in the mail. While at the DMV i will take the endorsement test so it can be put on my lisence that day.

Have you thought about going to a company that will train you to get your CDL? A lot of companies will do this but you have to work for them for a year. I’m sure someone will chime in soon and explain this route more thourghly. Good luck!

Gladhand

I wouldn’t be worried. Alcohol metabolizes at 1 “drink” an hour. So theoretically you would pass a breathalyzer after an hour or so after drinking one drink, depending on body weight. If you worried just drink a bunch of water.

I think he meant Yankees a people from the north who weren’t slave states during the civil war. I’m drawing that conclusion because he claimed the trainer was racist.

Yes. We get 20 hours of road driving, an hour at a time. 20 hours of offset backing, straight line, and parallel parking, an hour at a time. You just keep pulling up and back up as many times as possible in that hour. Then you sit in the passengers seat and observe another student for an hour. We kept taking turns every 20 mins so it didn’t get boring or overwhelming.

Sometimes they will mark you down for more hours. When you catch it you just complain that your not getting your moneys worth and they fix the “error”.

I finally got to try out my backing skills today! I’ve driven on the city streets of Chicago for about 4 hours. I kept thinking, when am I going to get to start backing up?

Today was my chance. I got called to a flatbed truck at school. At first I kept hitting the lines and wasn’t straight at all. I kind of figured this would happen when I first signed up for classes. I was over correcting way too much and kind of going too fast in my opinion. Then a student who I was assigned the truck with, who is about to take his exam told me to ride the clutch to slow down. He started helping me figure out if I was straight to begin with before I started backing. I felt like I started getting the hang of it.

The instructor started talking to me after and he said I had a great attitude about the whole process. He was saying that people start yelling and get frustrated like the instructor is supposed to teach us. They can only give us advice with what we’re doing wrong and it’s up to us to keep practicing and figure it out. I can’t wait to get my 19 more backing hours in!

I am still in CDL school so I am not a trucker yet. I have always been a line cook for a living. The low pay and never being able to get ahead in life brought me to going to a private school to get my CDL. I worked at an ACE Hardware as a delivery guy / lumber yard worker for a few years. I would unload flatbeds with a forklift and do delivers with a F250 and an 18 foot enclosed trailer. Eventually they bought a F-450 landscaping truck so I could start dumping lumber. There was another guy who drove a straight truck that dumped lumber. They wanted me to obtain my class B to drive that vehicle but didn’t want to give me a raise so I just never did it. Kind of regret that now but I was younger and didn’t think the way I think now.

With technology it’s not like I would have to find a pay phone to call friends or family. I could lurk their facebooks to see what people are up too without even communicating with them. I could use FaceTime to talk to my girlfriend. Instead of just hearing her voice on the phone I could actually see her new haircut and things like that. I just think with cellphones it would make the aspect of being lonely a little easier.

I expect to get a few more pre-hires. My last job is being kind of ridiculous not confirming my employment. A few companies just tell them to e-mail my W2 from that job. A few companies are still investigating my background. I’m not to worried about finding a job. I’m pretty confident it will happen.

I’ve applied at about 10 major carriers so far. I’ve been rejected from a couple. I received a pre-hire through Swift.

I think I want to do OTR for at least a year to learn as much as I can. Home time isn’t a major concern at this point. If I could get home every 3 weeks or so for a day or 2 I would be fine with that. My girlfriend and I agree being gone for a year isn’t that big of a deal to start a career I will hopefully be doing for the rest of my life. I understand it won’t be a walk in the park but with modern technology it would be a little easier to get through it.

I’m pretty much just throwing darts at this point to see who will give me a chance. I haven’t looked into local jobs because I would rather be OTR to try and prove to myself and others I will have what it takes to be sucessful.