Comments By Mitchell C.

PSD Day 6 - 4/16/20

Nothing to really talk about today, did pre-trip for 4 hours and was sent back to my room because my trainer knows i know my pre-trip. He said we'll refresh in cab the day before i test but he has faith in me lol. Gotta get that trifecta bonus!

PSD Day 7 - 4/17/20

Showed up at 7, trainer said we'll do the majority of my driving hours today. Got on 65 west or east or south, don't remember, i'm not used to driving on interstates and hit 2 TA's, took about 3 hours total; to and from. Got back to the training pad and did 1 straight back, 1 offset left/right and went for another short city drive where he taught me the safe stop. He told me to take tomorrow off because he's going to be working with Sharon all day because she's still struggling to straight back, it's been 4 days now. Anyways he told me to show up at 7 on Sunday where we'll do more driving and alley dock and some parallel and said that i shouldn't have any problems.

PSD Day 7 - 4/17/20 >Off Day<

Gonna study some pre-trip but other than that, i'm going to relax a bit, wingstop sounds good for dinner today.

About time you got a trainer you slow poke, regardless, congrats man, i know you've been dying to drive!

PSD Day 3, 4, and 5 - 4/13/2020, 4/14/20, 4/15/20

PSD Day 3 - 4/13/20

This was a bad day for me, Sharon and i took turns driving a specific route. She didn't have any troubles except for making turns because she's still driving like a bus driver. When it was my turn however, everything was going smoothly until a 4 way light. I was going about 45 and the light decided to turn yellow close to the point of no return. Me being used to being able to stop in my car did just that at this light in the truck. Next thing i knew Sharon came flying to the front dash because of the hard break i did. After seeing that, i kind of frozed and developed some sort of PTSD for the next 30 minuets. I missed the next exit my trainer told me to take. Then the collision warning came on and scared the crap out of me but my trainer said not to worry about it, it was a "Phantom 309". I was pretty much shaking until we got back to the training pad and they both tried to calm me down. I stepped out of the truck to get some air, then we all went to lunch break for 2 hours and came back at 13:00 for some backing practice. I went first, did 3 straight back and switched with Sharon. She wasn't able to do a straight back for 30 mins because she kept over-steering. After about an hour of her trying, trainer decided to do in cab and air brakes pre-trip. I already knew what to do but didn't have to wordage quite right so i was going over my sheet as Sharon did her pre-trip. She has a hard time understanding the steps and the entire process even with both the trainer and i helping. She's saying a lot more than she needs to and i'm sure that it's messing her up because she's not really saying the right things. Regardless we called it a day around 16:30.

PSD Day 4 - 4/14/20

Same thing as before, showed up at 7:00, today was just pre trip and backing day, no driving. Helped Sharon with her pre-trip since she only needs to do 2 sections. Engine and in cab since she already has cdl. After about 2 hours of pre-trip, we did some backing. He started me doing offset right since it was easier to see what was going on and i was confused as hell as what to look for. I did 1 offset right and 1 left and did straight back for the next 30 mins. Switched with Sharon, she still has problems doing straight back, and everything the trainer seems to be telling her is going in one ear and out the other. 11:45 came by and trainer told us to go to lunch, he waited for her to get some distance and told me to go ahead and head back to my room and study pre-trip. He knows i'm a clicker and says if it was up to him, i'd be testing out this Friday if he could just work with me. He said he'll train me from 7:00 to 12:00 and Sharon from 12 - whenever. Went back to my room and studied more pre-trip, especially the wordage.

PSD Day 5 - 4/15/20

Same as before, showed up at 7:00, we went out to the pad at 7:30 and trainer started me with just straight back, after 2 backs, he started training me offsets and what to look for. The first 10, 5 left and 5 right were not pretty. After a while it clicked and i was able to start doing them without having to get out and look. I always did a premature pull-up on offset left because i kept thinking i was going to hit the cone. After about 2 hours of doing nothing but offsets, he moved the cones and guided me to parallel left, saying the reason why he had me doing so much offsets is because it's pretty much the same for parallel except for 1 step. That step is having your trailer tire a little over the line and then just do a normal offset backing. Everything just clicked and went into place. Did more offsets and parallel and 11:30 came and he told me we're good for today. He told me he knows i'm a clicker and that tomorrow we'll do more parallels and start training alley dock. Got some dinner from terminal and headed back to room, it is now 14:15 as i write this but nothing much will happen. I'll just be studying pre-trip visually while working on wordage.

PSD Day 1 and 2 - 4/11/2020 and 4/12/20

Since training will be mostly the same everyday, i'll give updates on this every couple of days.

4/11/20

6:30-7:00: Headed over to the plaza to start training only to be told to wait by my trainer. He also said he's also training an older lady who had her cdl and now going through prime to retrain.

9:00-11:00: Sharon and I did some straight backs, my first attempt took a little bit but it clicked on what to watch for when your trailer started to turn during my second attempt. We both backed 3 times a piece, she took a little longer because it didn't click for her yet.

11:00: He told us to go on our lunch and to be back at 13:00. Rob and I headed to the terminal for lunch talking about random stuff. He still doesn't have a trainer so we talked about how his pre-trip game will be pretty pro.

12:30-13:00: Arrived back at the plaza only to wait.

13:30-14:30: Trainer is finally done talking and smoking and told us lets go for a drive. Sharon went first, we headed to down the road, near the Hogan? facility and did some turns down that road/path. She did pretty good because she drove for greyhound before coming here. As for me, hmm... i'm not used to the wide turns and it didn't click yet.

14:30-16:30: We took turns driving, she drove a longer path than me, can't really give you specific roads because i don't remember all the roads or the area very well. My turn came up and he told me to get on the interstate, my first and really only mistake was slowing down to try to get into a another lane because i was waiting for a car to get ahead. I do have a weakness and it's turning left, i'm not used to going straight to do a wide turn since i drive a small car. I didn't hit or run into anything except turning to early so i'm not swinging wide enough.

16:30-17:30: Helped Sharon with her pre-trip, she has problems remembering how to say; Properly mounted and secured; Not cracked, bent, or broken. She also forgets the "at both ends" part. So i kept trying to help her different ways to remember and gave moral support. Afterwards we headed back to campus.

18:00-21:00: Rob and i went to the front desk to meet Kearsey, we talked for a little bit and then headed to the terminal for dinner. While eating we talked a lot about trucking and her trucking past. I also met another youtuber, David H and his wife and talked to him for a couple of minuets. Kearsey told us some stories of her past and they were very interesting and entertaining. Stories like Mr. Deer and Dem Tandems! - I'm Actually A Vampire?! After talking for a while we decided to head back and Rob took a picture of me and Kearsey with social distancing in place and then we headed back to the campus. We said our goodbyes and i headed back to my room and to bed.

PSD Day 2 - 4/12/20

The only thing really different from today and yesterday was the drive. Sharon and i drove once before lunch and another drive after lunch. The left turns finally clicked and i no longer have problems doing them. Everything is coming together, slowly but surely. I believe Sharon was trying to kill me though with the path our trainer gave her. The first 10 mins was tight turns where she needed to use the on coming road to turn otherwise the trailer will go near or in the ditch. The rocking back and forth because she kept trying to accelerate and break in quick succession almost made me sick. All in all, today was a good day, i'm still feel a little nervous driving.

Orientation Day 3 - 4/10/20

6:30-7:00: The Big Wait. Went to the cafeteria to eat some breakfast, nothing too grand.

7:00-7:30: Showed up for roll call only to find out there was no roll call. Me and a few others met out by the pre-trip truck to talk and attempt to do pre-trip. Was super cold and windy, i went back to my room and followed a video while doing the pre-trip.

8:00-12:00: Nothing really happened, still in my room learning the pre-trip. Was able to memorized the engine and driver door side and visualize it in my head where each part was. Each section didn't really have a lot of new stuff to learn. Like the trailer has the breaks + tires parts from the engine, the only thing different is the steer tires and driving tires thread dept.

12:00-12:30: Picked up some lunch, some fried cod, mash taters and veggies.

13:00-15:30: This part aggravated the crap out of me; 4 people from my group and 2 from group b was cleared to get badged. So the orientation guy comes in at 13:00 and called the 4 cleared people from my group saying that if our names wasn't called, it meant we were still pending and to wait in the room until he gets his pending list. An hour later, group b comes in and 2 people were called from being cleared. Our group got to talking to the other group about what we think could be holding us up. 30 mins later, the orientation guy comes back in and said he's still waiting for the pending list and for us to go back to our rooms. Some people went to the orientation room because they called their recruiters asking what was holding them up and said it was our DOT forms. I tried calling my recruiter to make sure that it was the same for me and of course, i had to call my recruiter twice because she really doesn't like to pick up. When she did pick up she said the same thing, DOT. So we informed everyone what it was and orientation guy said to wait for a call to get badged. TIP! - If you come to prime orientation, give the people in the orientation office your DOT form the day you arrive.

15:30-16:45: I honestly thought most of us was about to sit through the weekend not being cleared because it was getting to the last minuet for them to badge. Lo and behold, he called most of us into C5 to get our vest and badge. Afterwards i went back to the orientation guy to get the extended weekend meal card and headed to the terminal with Rob D to get some dinner.

17:00-19:00: We took the shuttle to the terminal with some people we knew and Larry from here. It was our first time at the terminal and it was really busy. It looked kind of plain on the outside but whatever lol. In the dinner line waiting to order, my trainer called asking if i was looking for a trainer and i said yes. His name was Tim and told me to be at the pad tomorrow morning at 7:00 and i said ok. During dinner we met the guy that helped us with the pre-trip, forgot his name and he asked us if we wanted to walk over to the training pad. Rob and i said sure and after dinner we started heading over there while talking about what was going on earlier and he asked if we had trainers yet. I said mine called me during dinner line and he asked what his name was and i told him Tim. He knew who he was and nearing the training pad he asked if i wanted to meet my trainer because he was smoking outside talking to another trainer. We bull****ed a little and it was getting late. We decided to call it a day and headed back to campus.

19:15 - 20:00: Visualized the engine and driver's side door pre-trip making sure i made no more than 5 mistakes and did just that.

20:15 - Got ready for bed and then headed to bed.

Kearsey and Mitchell:

I'm telling! That doesnt look like 6 feet of social distancing.

Our heads were half of that so i feel like that counts!

Had no idea that veterans were only required to sign on for 9 months. That’s something I’ll have to consider.

Did the simulator feel realistic? Does it have force feedback of any kind?

Very sensitive controls, no feedback on breaks so you dont know how hard you’re really breaking. You can feel the rumble strips if you’re drifting to the outside or another lane.

Dont listen to PackRat... he is being mean to me.

I got in late last night.... did you meet your trainer?

Yeah i met him yesterday after dinner when a small group of us decided to walk over to the training pad. His name is Tim, an older guy, he seems ok for now lol

Orientation Day 2 - 4/9/20

7:00-8:00: The Survey? Showed up for roll call at 7:00, told instructors all my CBTs were finished and then our instructor had us do a short survey to match with trainers. Of course Mr. Canada said he's already done it but to our knowledge, and the instructor, he did the wrong one. Seeing her face of aggravation kind of made my chuckled a bit because it seems like a common occurrence with the same class mate everyday. I brought up the terminal tour and asked if we were doing that today because our sim instructor told us that's what we would be doing from 9:00-16:00. Turns out that wasn't the case and the instructor had no idea why the sims instructor told us that. So knowing that was the case, me and Rob wanted to try and move our Sims class from 20:00 to an earlier time slot and was instantly shut down. We tried!

8:00-12:00: Rob, I, and a few others brought up the pre trip and came to an agreement on working on it since we had nothing to do for the next 12 hours. We spent the next 8 hours outside just going over pre trip and talking to random PSD and TNT students. One even came to help us and made the pre trip somewhat easier. Like showing us where most of the parts are at and some tips and trick on how to remember stuff.

12:00-12:30: Got some lunch to go from the cafeteria, nothing changed much from what I get. Salad, eggs, and pudding and some free green tea.

13:00-18:30: Biggest Fan?! More pre trip with the fellas and I met Chad Rich, the guy i referred and admired. It was crazy because he was one of the reason why I became a driver and meeting him person and not through a screen was pretty amazing. Had a little fangasm when i saw his truck pulled up to the lot. Also another student kind messed with me a little, asking me if i knew what and where a hose stretcher was. I said no and i got to thinking that this might have been a blinker fluid kind of joke and it sure was. I even messed up the blinker fluid part, calling it a wiper fluid: wiper fluid is an actual thing.. lol

18:30-19:30: Picked up dinner from cafeteria, the same thing as lunch and went back to room and studied some more pre trip.

20:00-22:30: The Sims Test! We started class with a mini story like always and had 3 sims + an assessment to do tonight. Sim 3 was basically taking the off ramp to a rest area while following red arrows: pretty straightforward. Sims 4 was driving in snow, this wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. I slid twice, once trying to switch lanes, and another going up the off ramp at 10 mph. Going 10 mph up the ramp seemed a little slow and may have been the reason why i slid. On my second attempt, i went 14 and didn't slid. You have to make sure you keep an eye on your surroundings during this sim because we hit fog and had some pretty crazy drivers on the road. Sim 5 was city driving and this is where i... killed a dog. Instructor told us to make sure we knew which way we needed to go before turning, i got to the first turn and didn't really see a trucker route sign because it was kind of hidden a little bit. So i went left and killed a dog. From my second attempt and on, no more mistakes was made outside of some pretty crazy turning. Trying to do a proper button hook turn on a sim is a real pain in the ass. We then took a short 10 min break and came back to do our assessment, the assessment was pretty much sim 1 + 2 so it wasn't bad. I did mess up, didn't pull breaks out at start and had 2 hard breaks, 1 in lane because a cop was in the middle of the road and i couldn't get in the other lane because it's hard to gauge how far back a car is in the sim.. The second hard break was at the end, in front of the stop sign. We do get 2 attempts, if we failed an attempt we get another go but I passed with a 77 (i wanted to retake it but he was like nah you're good). Mr. Canada however failed his first, not sure on his second because he was the only one that failed.

23:00: Zzzz's.

I am.on my way to Sprimo 😁 should be there fri/saturday.... truck needs shop

Looking forward to meeting you! I'm currently studying my pre-trip in my room while following along a video. I'm pretty green when it comes to mechanical parts, but i'm good when it comes to heat exchangers, boilers, furnaces, and cooling towers lol. It's been me and Rob and 2 other people pre-tripping someones truck on the lot, but Rob seems to have it down pat already due to his previous knowledge of vehicles. All in all, going steady.