Comments By Daniel M.

Excellent thread! thanks for posting Thomas!

Reading your posts I'm getting inspired and stressed at the same time! I start my first week Monday for cypress. thanks for posting!

Daniel M,

Thanks for tagging along. My first piece of advice? Take a deep breath and let it out slowly. At times it seems overwhelming, but everyone you meet wants the same thing, for you to pass and become a productive member of the team. Don't be afraid to ask questions if you don't understand what's going on. You can do this. One more piece of advice, take your time and think it out first. This isn't a race, and there is no one who can rush you out here except you. I've pulled off backs out here that in training I would have told you were impossible. All because I stopped, looked at each situation and visualized in my head what I wanted to happen. I'm not going to say it works 100% of the time, sometimes my setup is off, sometimes something changes and I have to adjust to it, but I go back to my first piece of advice, take a deep breath and adjust. You drive the truck, no one else. If someone is trying to rush you, just smile and wave. Don't take it personally, and don't let it push you to do ANYTHING unsafe. I personally have 3 goals for each and every day. #1) I will do everything I can to prevent injuring others. #2) I will do everything possible to prevent damage to the equipment I'm using. And #3) I will do everything in my power to go home safely to my wife and kids. Look at everything with those 3 goals in mind. Ask yourself those 3 questions (Will it hurt someone else? Will it damage anything? Will I get hurt?) If you say yes to any of the 3, don't do it.

Thank you for this Thomas!

Will start by saying that I will try to make this as entertaining as possible still keeping things real.. OK so day one was boring so I waited for day two before I came on here typing.

I check in at the paid hotel Sunday night and my room mate is sitting there on the bed with no shirt on. I meet him and he turns out to be pretty nice and mellow, an older guy late fortys. we talk a bit then go to bed

Monday comes and we go get breakfast in the hotel Cafeteria at 630am. they were out of waffle batter, had no fruit or hot water for the oatmeal and the coffee sucked. they had some warm milk in an almost empty pitcher. me and my roomie just waited for the bus to show at 730,while there came a couple other guys that were here for training too.

so the way the program works is every Monday they start orientation so that when a couple guys about 6 including me start Monday we see about 25 (roughly) guys that have been there previous weeks before us, each group between 2 and 6. a lot get sent home because either failing the drug test or other issues. so about 25 guys all together are all waiting at the front of the hotel when a white van pulls up to pick us up. it's about 15 minutes from there training center which is in the back corner of there headquarters they had everyone except us 6 newbies go to the training center while we went in to one of there mobile home offices for the introduction to cypress. an hour or so go's by then one of the instructors sends the 5 guys out to do there drug hair follicle test and get there medical cards, I had got mine the week before I came to school so he had me wait there in the mobile office watching training videos till noon when I got my lunch break. 1pm roles around and the other guys get back and two of them got sent home because the one guy had high blood pressure and the other one had an issue with some other health problem. there's now 4 of us and we go over to the other school building by the practice trucks, other students  are out and about practice backing when the one instructor leads us inside and finishes the 4 hour introduction and he sends us outside to observe the other students backing up for the rest of the day till 5pm. they drive us back to the hotel and we get some sleep.

day two. same thing in the morning and when we get there this time we go straight to the training center in the corners of there headquarters in the school building and the Instructor gives us some more information about the job and trucking and gives us a little packet of papers and prep trip inspection checklist with some other rules for the cypress training center to sign and then takes away everyones phones for the day except on lunch break, no one cared and neither did I. the 3 newbies (me being 4) watched another 2 week old student do a pee trip inspection and he missed a lot of things! some of the other three week students students were pointing it out and the newbies with me were like "oh ****" seeing all the things you have to check for the pre trip. 2 hours go by and then all the students gather around this cool set up of a landing gear / fifth wheel/coupling and airlines/glad hand (hands on) practice piece. going in a circle we each went through the motions of lifting and lowering the landing gear, coupling and uncoupling the fithwheel/trailer shank and disconnecting reconnecting the airline gladhands about an hour. finally our trainer took us newbies out to one of the trucks for the first time!  and set us up so that we'd rotate out each taking two turns to pull forward and back up the trailer into the cones. the instructor would yell at you If you wouldn't listen to him/ if you screwed up which more than half of everyone was screwing up, turning the wrong direction because no one was used to backing up a trailer. 😂 lucky me I had previous trailer xp, just not 53 ft trailer only a lawn mower trailer. we did that for the rest of the day with a 15 min break at 3. 5pm everyone rides the van back to the hotel and I feel like an x con who's in rehab since everyone is wearing orange safety vests squishing in a white van... so far so good! time for some rest!

Daniel, just keep 'swimming.' I put my guy through this over 20 years ago; he's still 'swimming' at times. The day one 'knows it all' is the danged day, they'll find out they didn't.

Want to read an encouraging scare of a thread, if you've not already?!?!?

Life, Death, and Resurrection of my Truck Driving Career.

As a trucker's wife for LONG LONG times, I DO believe in the terrible twos.

We just might start a thread on that later, ... I should. All encompassing, Tom (mine) is coming up on 22. Years.

Best forward!

~ Anne & Tom ~

Anne, thanks for sharing this link! it was a very good read!

Anne and tom, thank you for sending these links, I greatly appreciate it! will keep everyone updated on the first day tomorrow. very excited!

These are funny thanks! 😂

Reading your posts I'm getting inspired and stressed at the same time! I start my first week Monday for cypress. thanks for posting!

I'm starting Monday July 18 2022 for paid cdl training at cypress truck lines in Jacksonville FL. is there anything particular I should /might want to bring besides clothes? it's a paid hotel, they drive me to class from the hotel and back each day mon-fri 8-5. thanks!

Congratulations Richard!

Last time I was at a dealership in the DFW area for a breakdown (DEF/DPF/Derate) it was for 5 days. Cheer up!

Today they said the fuel pump disintegrated and small pieces of metal went through the fuel system. They expect to have it fixed by next Tuesday, but I’m skeptical. Company told me to stay at the motel tonight while they figure out what to do with me. I think it will either be in another truck or a nursing home. Might come down to a coin toss.

man I'm terribly sorry about that. what is the breakdown policy, do you still get payed? congrats on the anniversary.