Comments By Liz D.

So the family emergency was that my ex had past away and our son an only child needs me. They were doing hospice and my son who is 23, grew up quite a bit in the past few weeks. My ex wanted to be home and with him. All I can say is my ex and I raise him as a team and I have much respect for them. He is a great young man, I couldn’t be any more proud of him. To see what he had done, I have been truly amazed. He needs help with arrangements, cleaning out the apartment, and moving into our home. I can only hope that if I ever have to go through this that he is there for me as well. Oh and cancer sucks!

Actually We were in route to Denver, I arranged to fly out from there. We stopped at the closest truck stop and I had an Uber waiting to get me to the airport. I missed the flight that I had paid for but they got me on the next one.

Hoping everything is okay for you at home, Liz.

Totally agree! Was it difficult getting routed home to deal with this emergency? I'm sure most OTR drivers fear about this exact situation.

Congrats Matt. I had to run back home in a family emergency. I’m waiting to hear from my dispatcher when I can restart. See you out there!!!

Congrats Liz! I knew you’d get it done! I’ll be seeing you out here on the road or at a terminal somewhere. I just tested Tuesday and I’m at the house enjoying some home time waiting on my tnt to get routed through N.C.

Cool. Thank you! You met Howard. We meetup tomorrow. We’ve been talking the past week. He wants to finish his reset and told me to enjoy a bit of time with family. Hopefully we head out tomorrow!! I’ll be up in the am maybe I’ll see ya!

Hi, Liz and congratulations of course. I've been here in Pittston taking trainers classes and relearning how to do the backing maneuvers on the pad and going over pretrip.

Tonight as I was getting ready to leave the terminal (I was standing outside with Richard's sidekick, John) another driver outside said he was here to pick up his student, Elizabeth. I asked if she is from NJ. He said she is. So I assume it is your TNT trainer I met.

He seems super nice. Good luck with TNT!

Congratulations!!

Thank you for the update thats freaking awesome! Lol at the magically appearing stop sign. I mean, it is Halloween time and all so maybe it just did apear? Lol. Keep us up to date when you can! I was originally slated for 11/11, but thats been pushed back for sleep apnea, but I remain hopeful! So in the mean time, I am just living vicariously through all of you!

I think I saw Shaggy hopping in the mystery machine as it was taking off.

I would have passed the first time, if it wasn’t for those pesky kids!!

Don’t live vicariously through me, I’m scary!!! Happy Halloween 🎃

Update

I’ve been quiet for the past week, I passed pretrip and backing on Saturday but failed the driving portion. Ok I missed a stop sign. I retested on Monday (a different route through town and took a turn too tight. Yup whacked the curb.

Crap two strikes and I stink. I was really beating myself up. I had two days to beat myself up, so Thursday I did the first route again. Nervous AF, I got in the truck with the examiner. I think I was feeling shaky, I told him I was nervous, he said he was too. We both laughed. So I go to start after his instructions, release the brakes and poof the trailer brakes are locked up. A great start lol. So he hopped out walked the trailer and hopped back in and said try again, trailer started to move but it felt heavy. Stopped for a second and started again success! So that took my mind off the nervousness. Anyway, I just kept my trainers advice in my head, relax and you’ll be fine. So as we went along I got more comfy. Turning as he asked, maybe a little wide on some but there weren’t going to be any curb shots today. If I have the room use it if it’s a little much I won’t instant fail. I finally got up to where he said the stop sign was on my first try. I swear it wasn’t there on the first go around. Sure enough there it was! The sign that alot of people are missing at least 5 since I first tested. We went around the industrial park. Up and down hills watching my speed and taking the turns wide. I got one warning for speed but we turned off a 35mph road and there were no speed limit signs. I told the examiner there wasn’t a sign but slowed down to 25. Just a note you don’t want speed, but don’t go too slow, one student failed for doing 17 in a 35. When we got back to the training pad he said congratulations you passed! I asked how many points did I get he said 11, which is about average! I’m use to excelling at things but am really happy with average! LOL

So all said and done I passed. So now on to tnt with a new trainer. We’ve talked on the phone and he’s a few days out. We’ll meet at the terminal and see if we are somewhat compatible. He does otr coast to coast and usually gets the mileage bonus. So now the next challenges await. Again, I find myself excited, nervous, thrilled. At least I was able to stop back home for a couple days before going out on the road.

OK got a little crazy and it’s time for an update. Friday I met my trainer and we went out on the pad for a short time. Basically just a straight back. I was a bit rusty and felt a bit bad about my performance. We ended up taking the weekend off and went home for a couple days. We started out fresh on the pad Monday morning. I could totally different person come Monday.Straight line back was perfect. Then proceeded to do the offset and parallel.Just learning the set ups and the particular moves to perform the parking. And then we just quickly did a couple alley docks. I still need a little bit of work on that which we will do tomorrow Friday.

Just to let everyone know especially if it’s somebody new who is reading this. You’re backing maneuvers that you learn and the techniques are just to pass your CDL test. When you go out with your TNT trainers, that is when you will start learning to back and over time will get better.

On Wednesday I went out with my trainer to shuttle trailers around and to go to the dump. Actually my very first load was to the dump. So become a professional truck driver and see the country visit new in exciting places and I get to see the dump, LOL. Funny thing is it smells exactly like it did when I went to one xx years ago. So basically right now I’m building up my hours so I can test out.

Thursday, would like to say it was kind of a day off. Actually, while my trainer took his other student out to drive, I went down to the pad to observe other students backing. It’s actually good to watch so if you do have free time go down to the pad and watch. The rest of my time you guessed it, I pre-tripped.

So now it’s Thursday night I will be meeting with my instructor to go out to the pad Friday morning to finish up my alley dock. Most likely, will go over the offset in the parallel one more time. I should have my CDL test time for Saturday before the day is out.

Welcome to prime..... but all of trucking is hurry up and wait. get ised to.it hahaha

good luck and yes they do want you to succeed. Richard who heads the training there really helped me after i failed the backing. he was at sprimo then but he is cool.... has an adorable little boy too.

Thank you for the big welcome. So far training has been great. I did get my trainer Friday and been working pad and pre-trip and driving tomorrow. Backing is my biggest fear but that is easing. But it seems to get a lil easier the more I do.

Thanks for the update. Keep em coming. Are you in Springfield?

Pittston