Starting Trucking School Dec 14th

So after lurking around here for about 3-4 months now I have finally reached the end of my fall college semester and have enrolled in my college's trucking program through Sage Trucking School.

My first day of class will be Dec 14th and we'll have about 2 weeks of mon - fri 8-5 classroom (death by power point?) training then varying times of driving training, something like 44 hours of actual time driving the trucks. It'll be 1 trainer / 1 student per truck too.

The whole class goes till about Jan 15th ish.

I have to take my DOT physical and drug screen tomorrow. I plan to arrive at LabCorps (for drug screen) right at opening time. Waking up about 8:30 to minimize how long I need to pee really really bad for, hopefully they can get me right in cause that first pee you do in the morning really really hurts when you have to hold it in, after I do that I gotta go to Texas Med Clinic and get the physical done. Prob only gonna get a 1 year card since my blood pressure has been around 143 lately. I'll eat some bananas tonight and in the morning and see if that helps. Going to work on losing osme of this weight over the next few months but until that happens best of luck tomorrow :D

I'm really excited for this.

I won't be starting my career until March though, multiple reasons, one being that I want to wait till most of the winter weather is gone (I know there's still some around in march but not as bad as jan and feb), two i'm taking spring classes, three want to celebrate my birthday for the first time in 4 years (March 15th). the spring classes will help me be that much closer to finishing my degree but also I get almost $7500 from fin aid between my student loans and pell grant, I know loans have to be paid back but that's money I can live off as a trucker till I get a savings built up.

Still not 100% on the company I want to work for, having my cdl first though opens the door to many others. Might still go with prime even just because they do sound like a good company, My biggest issue is that I don't want an eco truck cause I plan to have a passenger most of the time.

Nice I took my physical today start class monday at AIT in colorado 2 weeks class 2 weeks handson 5 weeks with a trainer Im excited too my blood pressure was high too I need to lose weight get off sugar and salt

Steve J

Well I did my drug screen and DOT physical today... Drug screen sucked cause my cat woke me up at 8 am and the labcorp place for drug screen wasn't open till 9.... an hour before I could pee... oh lawd... then I get to where my gps says it is and I can't find it!!! at this point i'm bout to let loose and just **** myself but I was at the right address so I looked it up online and found it had a suite #, eventually I found it... it was inside a tower building with nothing on the outside saying so or on their website. finally get in, sign in, check in and about 20 min later of suffering I get to do drug test... I don't do drugs and never have so no worries there

however... next comes the physical. before I left drug screen place I ate a banana and then ate another when I got there. I checked in online which basically gives you a virtual place holder in line, filled out a little paperwork when I got there and saw nurse about 5 min later, takes my weight, height, then tests vision (I'm seem to be ok in right eye but left eye it was mostly a blurr till she had me read 2 sizes larger, hence why I wear glasses when I drive, which I told her)... now comes the part i was worried most about... blood pressure.. here we go... deep breaths, relax... test is over and I don't know what it said exactly but it was 130 something, looked like either 135 or 139 but who gives a damn it was lower than 140! Then she tells me she needs a urine sample.... wut?!?! lady I just did a drug test maybe 30 min ago, it's gonna be a little while before I need to go again... "that's ok just go wait in the lobby and drink water" *sigh* alright... so I did that and bought a mt dew from vending machine since I did blood pressure test I wasn't worried about caffeine screwing up the test and it's a diarectic (makes ya pee more). after about 20 min another nurse calls me back and into one of the exam rooms, has me take off close except underwear and put on a paper gown (that was pink and to small for me). I keep chugging that soda and about 10 min later a doc comes in and does the rest of physical (listen to lungs, check ears, grabs your junk and have you turn head and cough... yeah the whole deal). still haven't had to pee yet so he says looks like all we need now is the urine sample, just wait here till you can go, we don't need much.

sat there and played on my phone for about an hour (it's now been 2) before I could go again, get them their sample and give it to them, they have me wait in exam room again and about 5 min later doc comes back and gives me my medical card good for 2 years

whoop whoop!!!

So yeah... bananas... saved me from only a 1 year card

Now the next thing I need to figure out... can I laminate this thing cause lets face it... a cardboard card in my wallet is not going to last 2 years, maybe 6 months if i'm lucky. I don't see anything on it that says I can't and the doc didn't say anything... anyone here know?

Hmmm Ididnt get a card they said urine test would take a week

steve j

Hmmm Ididnt get a card they said urine test would take a week

steve j

Can't say much on that... place I went to might do their test in house. I went to Texas MedClinic.

Well I did my drug screen and DOT physical today... Drug screen sucked cause my cat woke me up at 8 am and the labcorp place for drug screen wasn't open till 9.... an hour before I could pee... oh lawd... then I get to where my gps says it is and I can't find it!!! at this point i'm bout to let loose and just **** myself but I was at the right address so I looked it up online and found it had a suite #, eventually I found it... it was inside a tower building with nothing on the outside saying so or on their website. finally get in, sign in, check in and about 20 min later of suffering I get to do drug test... I don't do drugs and never have so no worries there

however... next comes the physical. before I left drug screen place I ate a banana and then ate another when I got there. I checked in online which basically gives you a virtual place holder in line, filled out a little paperwork when I got there and saw nurse about 5 min later, takes my weight, height, then tests vision (I'm seem to be ok in right eye but left eye it was mostly a blurr till she had me read 2 sizes larger, hence why I wear glasses when I drive, which I told her)... now comes the part i was worried most about... blood pressure.. here we go... deep breaths, relax... test is over and I don't know what it said exactly but it was 130 something, looked like either 135 or 139 but who gives a damn it was lower than 140! Then she tells me she needs a urine sample.... wut?!?! lady I just did a drug test maybe 30 min ago, it's gonna be a little while before I need to go again... "that's ok just go wait in the lobby and drink water" *sigh* alright... so I did that and bought a mt dew from vending machine since I did blood pressure test I wasn't worried about caffeine screwing up the test and it's a diarectic (makes ya pee more). after about 20 min another nurse calls me back and into one of the exam rooms, has me take off close except underwear and put on a paper gown (that was pink and to small for me). I keep chugging that soda and about 10 min later a doc comes in and does the rest of physical (listen to lungs, check ears, grabs your junk and have you turn head and cough... yeah the whole deal). still haven't had to pee yet so he says looks like all we need now is the urine sample, just wait here till you can go, we don't need much.

sat there and played on my phone for about an hour (it's now been 2) before I could go again, get them their sample and give it to them, they have me wait in exam room again and about 5 min later doc comes back and gives me my medical card good for 2 years

whoop whoop!!!

So yeah... bananas... saved me from only a 1 year card

Now the next thing I need to figure out... can I laminate this thing cause lets face it... a cardboard card in my wallet is not going to last 2 years, maybe 6 months if i'm lucky. I don't see anything on it that says I can't and the doc didn't say anything... anyone here know?

Yes you can laminate it...

I'm so very very excited to be starting trucking school with Sage tomorrow morning.

first 2 weeks will be 8a-5p in the classroom, then we'll be doing driving after that. I heard it's in blocks of 4 hours, not sure if I can do more than 1 block a day or how many days a week.

not sure if I can do more than [4 hours] a day or how many days a week.

For the first few days you're arms may feel like rubber when you're finished. Mine did. But there's a reason the HOS limits you to 11 hours driving in a day. Build those muscles!

not sure if I can do more than [4 hours] a day or how many days a week.

For the first few days you're arms may feel like rubber when you're finished. Mine did. But there's a reason the HOS limits you to 11 hours driving in a day. Build those muscles!

Agreed. For me in school, the first time I did 4 hours behind the wheel, I couldn't wait to get out of that truck and take a break. I truly felt exhausted and overwhelmed. So much was going on around me and mentally. Granted my 4 hours was all back roads and small towns. I feel it may have been different had it been all highway, somewhat.

Well I had my first day today... gonna start a cdl training diary in the respective forum and keep my stories about it there... but I will say this... it was a long day and one of my class mates made it much longer... kept asking questions that had nothing to do with the current subject that had a 99% chance of bieng answered in a later class (such as "how many hours can we drive for?"), was also an environmental freak... I'm usually the guy everyone hates for asking 600 questions... for once that wasn't me. Kept trying to tell those people that had questions about TT... that's where I have learned a lot of my trucking knowledge... here.

I did sadly learn that TX DPS has different rules on stuff... such as in the high road training program it says you gotta stop and check load securement after 25 miles... well in texas it's 50 miles... and Texas' rule is the one you gotta go by for the rest, if I answer 25 on the test it'll be wrong, gotta answer 50. learning a lot of stuff from tt HRT program but a lot of the dot rules seem to be more lax than Texas... I would think federal dot overules Texas dot rules? good ol Texas... just HAS to be different for the sake of being different.