Profile For Hobo

Hello all. I am starting driving school a week from today and I am very eager to get started training and learning. I have driven 26 foot box trucks before, but have no experience driving anything the size of a semi or anything with a trailer before. I'm very excited and eager to get started. Is there anything anyone could suggest that I can start doing now to make sure I am as prepared as possible for when school starts? I want to start doing anything I can now to make sure I'm as prepared as possible for tests as well as for when I get to the yard. Thank you all for your time and I appreciate any advice you all would be willing to provide.

You've received some very good advice from multiple members.

1. Get your home life in order.

2. If you don't already have your CPL then study the High Road on this site.

3. Pre-trip, then some pre-trip, then some more pre-trip. And to finish off the day...some pre-trip.

4. Don't put too much pressure on yourself at school. You'll learn more with your trainer than you will at CDL school.

So? What happened? How's it going?

Yes, it matters. I just got my dream job. The location is right, the money is right. I spent two years with a big company and got head-hunted for this new job. Had my license been restricted I wouldn't have been able to get this job.

Learn manual.

I have heard it a thousand times it will just click thats a flat out lie i have tried and tried i am barely on the acceptable range for backing and nothing jas clicked and yet i keep hearing that if it clicks then why hasnt it? It tales me about 10 to 15 minites to back and get it just right in a dock nothing has clicked and made it seem easier its hit or miss and it has driven me to near insanity and yes i know some truckers have been doing this for years and still havent perfected backing it cant be done but I should be able to do better than this

It's not hit or miss, you're doing something wrong. I've been there and I know what you're talking about...in fact I've been there recently :)

Here's the thing about backing, if you're actually going backwards and the back is still in doubt then you screwed up, the back is all about the set up. Watch the trailer angle and make sure the tractor doesn't need too much correction. Ideally a sight-side back should need nothing but some left on the wheel to put the trailer in the hole unless it's a 90 and even then you give it a little bit of right just to get the trailer turning.

The second mistake is the pull up. 15 minutes? You're pulling up wrong. Don't cut your steers one way or the other, keep them straight, that gives you options on both sides when when you're trying to correct to get in the hole. And take all the room you have.

Backing takes a lot of practice.

Dedicated route is being downsized. Do I have to accept going back to national account where I make less money and home time or can I draw unemployment?

Do you have a contract? Some dedicated drivers do. If you don't have a contract and they offer you work but you turn the work down then you can't draw unemployment. And this is just my 2 cents but this might not be the time to turn paying work down.

Hi truckers,

I am currently studying for my CDL permit, and I am having trouble differentiating between the Applied Leakage Test and the Static Leakage Test, with regards to the maximum air loss rate. Both tests require a fully-charged air system, before the engine is turned off. and take one minute. Is the only real difference that the static test is without any braking measures, allowing the air to escape on its own, while the applied test requires the driver to press and hold the service brake during the 1 minute test?

I keep missing the practice test questions, and it is frustrating because sometimes the correct answer is 2 psi/minute and sometimes it is 3psi/minute for a single vehicle. Is the "Brake Off or Brake On" the important wording in these questions?

Thanks in advance for your input,

Ryann

IIRC the 2 psi drop applies to single vehicles and the 3 psi drop applies to combination vehicles.

DFW is not truck friendly so if you made it there in your first week you'll be fine.

Things can change rather quickly Hobo. Here is Victor’s latest update:

Glad to see things are going well for him. However, the reason I ask was his stated confusion as to why PAM rescinded his job offer. I knew guys who had their offers pulled, 3 in CDL school, 1 had his pulled during his training phase and one actually had his pulled during orientation. They all knew why the offer was pulled although not all of them wished to disclose the reason. I was curious as to why the company pulled offers and I asked my FM when I had a face to face with him. I don't know Victor or his circumstances so I won't engage in conjecture here but I think it's important for people reading this in the future who may be considering PAM that they don't usually pull offers for no reason and they will tell you why the offer was pulled.

Naj R, I don't know your situation and I guess you gotta do what you gotta do but just be aware these licenses can go stale so if you don't get another Group A job within a certain amount of time it may be very difficult to get one at all. The vast majority of people I went through school with and/or went to orientation with either quit or were fired before they had two months on the job and the people I've kept in touch with tell me that after 3 months out of a truck staleness becomes an issue and after 6 months just about everyone they talk to, even the mega-carriers, consider their license to be stale. This is a problem because someone with no experience isn't really an attractive potential hire for many companies so 3 months may sound like a long time to not be able to find a gig but it's really not, unless you're willing to go into training for OTR with an different carrier which puts you right back where you are now.

Little update. Its 10:15am in Pennsylvania and I called yesterday around 3 their time. Im calling him now at 10:17am

Why did PAM pull the job offer?