Beginnings Of A New Adventure
Topic 11886 | Page 1
Good luck to you Steve!
Well todays driving and parking/backing went way better than yesterday. I think it helped that todays instructor could speak proper english and not backwoods, farmboy, swampman dialect. He was a nice guy but he used words and acronyms that no one knew had a clue what they meant.
I got to drive about 50 miles and got my up and down shifting working pretty good. I still struggle with old bad habits such as using throttle as i feather out the clutch, 2 hands on the wheel, not resting hand on shifter, keeping truck in gear till it almost stalls then once clutch is used stop almost immediately. These were all a result of driving a standard 4 wheeler for many years. I know some or most of these rules can be tossed out the window once i have my license but till then its annoying.
As far as backing and parking, we started off parallel parking and after a few tries and some good explanation i caught on pretty quick. I then went back to offset parking since i struggled yesterday and now find it very easy since its a parallel park with alot more room. 
I now have confidence that i will be able to grasp the actual driving of the truck before my actual test. The pre-trip is another story. It just got changed about 1 1/2 weeks ago and went back to the old, super detailed, name every part on the truck and use correct wording version. While i know what i am looking for its difficult telling someone else exactly what part you are looking at and how do you know its in good shape. It turns a 10 minute pretrip into a 45 minute ordeal.
Oh well, just keep telling myself i just have to get through this and i am home free. Already have several prehires though i am unsure where i wanna go at the moment.
Prehire:
What Exactly Is A Pre-Hire Letter?
Pre-hire letters are acceptance letters from trucking companies to students, or even potential students, to verify placement. The trucking companies are saying in writing that the student, or potential student, appears to meet the company's minimum hiring requirements and is welcome to attend their orientation at the company’s expense once he or she graduates from truck driving school and has their CDL in hand.
We have an excellent article that will help you Understand The Pre-Hire Process.
A Pre-Hire Letter Is Not A Guarantee Of Employment
The people that receive a pre-hire letter are people who meet the company's minimum hiring requirements, but it is not an employment contract. It is an invitation to orientation, and the orientation itself is a prerequisite to employment.
During the orientation you will get a physical, drug screen, and background check done. These and other qualifications must be met before someone in orientation is officially hired.
Prehires:
What Exactly Is A Pre-Hire Letter?
Pre-hire letters are acceptance letters from trucking companies to students, or even potential students, to verify placement. The trucking companies are saying in writing that the student, or potential student, appears to meet the company's minimum hiring requirements and is welcome to attend their orientation at the company’s expense once he or she graduates from truck driving school and has their CDL in hand.
We have an excellent article that will help you Understand The Pre-Hire Process.
A Pre-Hire Letter Is Not A Guarantee Of Employment
The people that receive a pre-hire letter are people who meet the company's minimum hiring requirements, but it is not an employment contract. It is an invitation to orientation, and the orientation itself is a prerequisite to employment.
During the orientation you will get a physical, drug screen, and background check done. These and other qualifications must be met before someone in orientation is officially hired.
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Well, after 15 years of being an electrician i have decided to make a career change. I started my CDL training at a 4 week school on Nov. 30th. The book work and tests were easy for the permit and the endorsements.
Today i got my 1st opportunity of actually driving a truck. I must say it did not go as well as i had planned in my mind. I found that double clutching is much more difficult than i had assumed. While i did start getting the hang of up and down shifting after awhile, I probably ground a few years off the life of the transmission before i figured it out.
During the afternoon i got the chance to start doing some backing maneuvers. Before this i had NEVER backed up a trailer other than attempting to back up my little tractor trailer with a very low success rate. I started out with straight line backing over a 200' lane. This turned out to be pretty simple, though it was just at idle speed.
I then was set up for offset backing and that's where things got pretty ugly. I would either start off to sharp, over correct to much, steer the wrong direction or whatever else i could possibly do wrong. We are allowed 2 pull ups with no point deduction and that makes it very easy. But trying to do it in 1 move is still beyond my skills.
I just hope over the next 2 weeks i can get these backing moves sorted out. I feel i could spend the next 3 days solid practicing before i feel comfortable with this 1 simple move.
Will keep ya posted
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
Double Clutch:
To engage and then disengage the clutch twice for every gear change.
When double clutching you will push in the clutch, take the gearshift out of gear, release the clutch, press the clutch in again, shift the gearshift into the next gear, then release the clutch.
This is done on standard transmissions which do not have synchronizers in them, like those found in almost all Class A trucks.
Double Clutching:
To engage and then disengage the clutch twice for every gear change.
When double clutching you will push in the clutch, take the gearshift out of gear, release the clutch, press the clutch in again, shift the gearshift into the next gear, then release the clutch.
This is done on standard transmissions which do not have synchronizers in them, like those found in almost all Class A trucks.