Here We Go....

Hello everyone. Long time stalker, seldom time poster. Anyway, my wife and I are beginning the journey. Well, we actually began the journey when we started getting the house ready to sell. At this point we sold the house, loaded all of the belongings we had left (which is still more than two people should be allowed to have lol) into a 26' box truck, loaded the car on the trailer and pulled it behind the truck from Marquette to Cincinnati.

Longer story short, we got our medical cards Monday and we start training the Monday coming up (October 5th). Five weeks, private school. I plan to share our experiences with the process/journey if anyone would like to follow along. Wish us good fortune and feel free to ask questions. I just didn't want to make this too long and bore y'all with info you didn't care to know.

Scott and Maggie

Brett, if you think this would be better suited to be in the training diaries section, feel free to move it there. Thanks

Congratulations Scott and Maggie and I say howdy neighbors (sort of). I'd love to follow your journey!

What is the name of the school?

Thanks Sue D! At least we know we'll have one follower, lol.

Anchorman, it is Napier, in Hamilton, Ohio.

Ok, Day one in the books. Well, almost. A lot of reading/studying to do tonight for tomorrow. Today was all classroom. Starting out with 16 class members. Fill out some school forms, take some "tests" to get us used to how the test questions and answers are presented. Don't fall behind or you will be in the school a lot longer. I like the instructor's policy of "early is on time, on time is late. Don't be late or you owe me that time." Nothing earth-shattering the first day. I felt fairly comfortable since I went through the High Road training. At least I have been exposed to the information so I'm not completely in the dark right now lol.

Trucking company recruiters come in about every day and it is required to sit in on the presentations. Not a bad thing in my opinion. Exposure to different companies, get to hear other students' questions for the recruiters. First one for us is tomorrow I believe.

This week is all classroom getting us ready for the permit test. We can go on Saturday if we feel we are ready, or wait until Tuesday which is the actual scheduled day to go (BMV is open for a few hours Saturday mornings). If we go early but fail a portion of the test, we can get help with the area(s) so that we can go back and pass on Tuesday, therefore not falling behind. Hazmat is frustrating to me so I might need a couple of shots at that one.

Well off to more reading/studying.

Scott and Maggie

Good luck you two, you're gonna do great! !!!!

Thanks Dragon... the encouragement is very much appreciated.

Day 2. Is it only the second day? lol We sure don't put any time to waste here. Went over air brakes and HazMat today. Studying combinations, doubles/triples, and tankers tonight. Maggie is plugging along very nicely. She is an over achiever, though, so no surprise there. The classmates so far seem to be a nice group for the most part. Everybody was on time today and even the class clown (c'mon you know there's one in every class) is not too vocal/over-the-top.

It's interesting to note for all of the folks on the site that our instructors seem to be a lot like our Trucking Truth leaders. A few comments and helpful hints I've heard have made me think, "Is Brett, or Old School, or Daniel B. here?" Kind of comforting to know that it seems our school has our best interests in mind as newbies, just like our fearless leaders here at Trucking Truth.

Two recruiters today: US Xpress and ISupply. One in the morning, one in the afternoon. Us Xpress had a slick (and I mean that in a positive as well as a be wary way) presentation. Definitely a salesperson. Gave a lot of good information, but felt like some information was held back. Well, can't tell everything there is to tell in a half hour presentation to a group I guess.

ISupply was interesting. Nice presentation. It's a restaurant food/supply delivery company. Said right up front - you will be off-loading, via a hand truck/dolly, 1000 to 1300 cases a load. So if you're looking for drop and hook , this is not the place to get that. Seemed pretty open in his presentation. I was intrigued.

Other than that, again not a lot of exciting news. Tell ya what, though, our brains and eyes are tired! Back to the books. Until next time...

Scott and Maggie

Day 3: Started out with a bummer - 45 min stopped dead in the middle of the interstate. Middle lane, between exits, no movement for 45 mins. Oh well, nothing like a jump start on our future lol. School was understanding - hey these things happen - nothing you can do about it. However you owe us the time :-).

Lots of learning again. My eyes and brain are worn out, but still more reading and studying tonight. Maybe the book work/test stuff should be longer than a week? No worries - permit test is pass/fail. Actually doing better on endorsements than GK and AB. We are just the perfectionist types. We expect ourselves to know the stuff inside and out. So just keep plugging along. Gotta go.

Scott and Maggie

Ok, it's Friday. School is over for the week. Wow that's a lot of information to cram into one's brain in one week. We both are going tomorrow morning to the BMV to take the tests for our permits. So.... more studying tonight. However, I think we are ready. Amazing how tired we both are - and just from sitting around all day lol.

My take on the school so far - they are very conscious of the state's requirements for them and make sure we are adhering to the policies. The instructors have made it very clear that their jobs are to get us to pass the tests so we obtain Class-A CDLs. We will not be truck drivers when we graduate. That is when we start learning to be truck drivers. Sounds like something I've heard before... I believe that the school is doing just what they promised so, so far, I am happy with our choice.

It's clear to me that, had I not found Trucking Truth and all of the excellent education I have received through it, I would not feel as comfortable as I do with the knowledge that I think I have at this point. Don't get me wrong, I'm comfortable but not over confident. There is so much to know, there is no way I feel like I know enough yet. Hopefully it will be enough to get the permit and move on to the next stage.

So I haven't had a lot of exciting things to report yet, but it's been satisfying to relay what I have in the hopes that someone might get something out of it. I will say, when it is time to get into the trucks, I'm going to be excited and nervous at the same time. More to come later.

Scott and Maggie