Quarter Ton Trucking

I passed my medical today and went to the SOS right after to do my written. Studying using this website helped a lot and I passed each of the three tests the first try, General Knowledge, Combination Vehicle , and Air Brakes. I will test endorsements when I go back to get my full CDL after school.

With my medical, I was extra pleased to see that my life changes were working. I previously was Stage 1 Hypertension and it was causing me a lot of anxiety. I ended up 128 over 78 for my BP today, which immediately had me doing mental somersaults.

With the CLP testing, I had to reread questions and take quick mental breaks quite a few times because of the noise. Having the testing machines with not even as much as a divider between them and the main lobby/waiting area seemed really stupid, but I just took it a little slower to work through the noise and distractions to get the test completed. What I learned from this site definitely made a difference. There were very few direct matches in questions/answers between the written tests and the practice/review questions here, but this site gave me the overall knowledge I needed to think through those questions.

This leaves me ready for school to start. This coming Monday would be ideal because it is sooner, but the school is still a person or two short on their minimum to start a class. If it doesn't happen, I would be delayed a week and end up starting the 25th.

I am going into the school Friday to pay tuition and to turn in some applications for pre-hires. When I visited the school earlier, I was very pleased with the setup they have and how they seem to run things. They had new students on day 1 in the trucks doing maneuvers and day 2, when I was there, they were already heading out to drive on the road. They don't waste time getting students into the trucks and that was a big selling point to me. I can study on my own just fine from a manual so the less time they spend on something I can do myself, the better in my opinion.

Right now I am looking forward to the start, which hopefully will be the 18th instead of the 25th. But regardless of the start date, whether it is sooner or later, I will finally wake up one day and be able to say "I am going to drive a truck today!"

Thanks to everyone on this site who has shared wisdom, either in direct reply to one of my posts, or replying to a post by someone else. And a big thanks to Brett and the other folks involved in making this site happen. I can say with 100% certainty that I would not be ready to start school yet without this site.

Best of luck Matt.

A bit late here on an update, but an update nonetheless.

Class ended up delayed until the 25th, so in less than 24 hours I finally start. I believe I have everything I need, except sunscreen. I will pick that up at the CVS around the corner tomorrow morning. We are supposed to be outside quite a bit the first day, and the forecast is sunny all afternoon tomorrow. Definitely want to try and avoid getting burnt and having to deal with that as a distraction in the coming days while trying to focus on learning.

With the extra week, I got some things done. I had the front ball joints replaced on my pickup and the fuel system cleaned. That was quite a big bill, but now it should be ready to reliably get me back and forth from school the next 4 weeks, and make a trip down to Georgia right after I finish school to bring my dog to my sister. Even if I went with a pet friendly company, I wouldn't bring my dog along during training and I would want at least a couple months starting solo without the distraction of a pet on board, so to Georgia he will go.

I did some studying, especially on log books. I believe I understand the regulations well now, have a decent idea at how to manage time, and I think I managed to fully understand the 8/2 split

At the end of last week, when I found out class was delayed until the 25th, I made an appointment with a sleep specialist. I did not believe I had sleep apnea , but I wanted to know sooner rather than later if I did. They were able to rush me in on Wednesday to talk with a specialist. That went fine, and I had a chance to see my weight was continuing to drop and that my blood pressure was excellent, which had both been points of worry when I started planning for a career change to trucking.

The specialist checked me out and said that she could not normally recommend me for a sleep study based on just my weight, without any other symptoms or health issues that could point to a problem. My insurance however allows for a sleep study to be done without doctor approval, so I was able to setup an appointment for the beginning of August at a sleep center.

The day after meeting with the specialist, the sleep center called me and said they had a cancellation. I got to hop ahead in line and had my sleep study done this past Friday night. I won't get the formal results for a couple weeks once the sleep specialist looks them over, but I felt like I slept fine, I didn't have any big issues with wires coming off from movement, and I was not woken up to have a CPAP put on.

I am glad I got it done because tomorrow morning I can go into school without that worry on my mind. I don't mind if I have to do another physical or sleep study now because they aren't unknowns anymore. I can go to a company confidence in my health and lack of sleep apnea, and take their tests without unknowns worrying me.

This Saturday and Sunday I have been trying to take things easy. I feel like I have prepared well and checked all the major stuff off my list. Trying to make myself relax has been a bit difficult, but yesterday I spent the day with family by the lake. Today I have some errands to run and I am going to try and spend the evening with a friend so I keep myself distracted and come home tired and ready to just fall asleep. I plan to be up 2 hours before I need to be at school tomorrow. 30 minutes to get ready, 30 minutes to drive there, 30 minutes for stopping at the gas station on the way and at CVS to pick up some sunblock, and 30 minutes to just be early (or save me if traffic is slow).

I am excited, nervous, confident in my preparation, and ready to go!

Good luck Matt. I think your positive attitude will enable your success.

Day 1 is officially done. I am headed for bed after this so I can get enough sleep and still get up early. They open the doors 2 hours before classes officially begin so I am going to try and head in 1-1.5 hours early and practice pre-trip.

I am burnt. I apparently did not get strong enough (or high enough quality) sunscreen. My face is burnt and I will be seeking a different sunscreen tomorrow at CVS on my way in.

I am sore. As I mentioned in previous entries, I have been working on getting my weight down and getting in better shape. I spent time hanging on the side of a truck, plenty of climbing up and down, lots of standing and walking, and I got past a fear - I slipped right underneath a trailer and moved around. It wasn't pretty, but I could do it and I know it will only get easier.

Seeing how much exercise I will be getting with school for the next 4 weeks, and how much better I did with it than I expected, I have already begun rethinking my choice of looking only at a reefer/dry van job. I had been looking at those for no touch opportunities as I felt I needed a year at least to get into some sort of reasonable shape. Towards the end of school today though, I had a realization.

When I am on the road, in an OTR or Regional situation, I won't come close to the exercise that I am going to be getting from school if I am running no touch reefer/dry van. I think I may be able to seriously consider trying flatbed coming out of school for the added physical work that it could provide me and have it not be physically prohibitive like I had been thinking it would be prior to today. It isn't written in stone but is just something I am keeping in mind and plan to evaluate after my first two weeks when I don't want to waste anymore time before settling on a specific company.

Everyone at the school has been great. My class is four people (including me) and I like them all fine. I have been very happy with all the staff and instructors and I felt like I absorbed everything they were throwing at me, even when I was worn out.

I have some work to do on pre-trip, but I feel very confident in the preparation I have from here at Trucking Truth. Our second week homework will be understanding logs. I looked over the info and feel like I was just reviewing what I already learned here. Having that confidence in knowing so much coming into it definitely helped me focus and get the most of my first day.

Along with pre-trip, I actually got to get into a truck already. I was taught hooking and unhooking and got a chance to do it a few times. I had a little trouble remembering the steps due to the sun and physical activity taking a toll the first time through, but I knocked it out fine the second without instructor guidance.

Then it was on to backing. I did straight line backing and I can officially attach the notice that "No cones were harmed while performing this maneuver" to it. I wasn't perfect either time, but I made it through and was given the go ahead to try offset backing.

The other student I was paired with for backing, taking turns on this truck, went first. He performed a real nice left offset, then pulled ahead for the right offset. Suddenly a loud hiss and it was over before I got a chance to try it. Somewhere the truck was losing air and, with only 10-15 minutes left in the day, I wouldn't have time to get another truck over to the cones and get one in, so something I am eager to try out tomorrow.

While I did unhook, hook, and straight line fine, it wasn't all roses. I have never driven a big truck before today, and I have not driven a manual. I have a problem with braking before putting in the clutch. This ended up with some rocking the truck and one time I managed to kill the engine. We also switched trucks from unhooking and hooking, going to backing, so as I was starting to get the feel for one I was tossed into another one with a different feel.

I did get better though and I know it is just a few more times thinking it through to get in the habit of always getting that clutch in with the brake. I also need to work on getting off the clutch all the way so the engine can just smooth out and move the truck without me getting in its way. I was pleased though with how I did for day 1 and I think I am off to a great start. Plenty of positives, and the negatives were just some learning pains that should be smoothed out with a few days of practice.

Time to get a few things done and then get to sleep so I can be rested and up early enough to get there with time for at least one good pre-trip walkthrough. Tomorrow is coming fast and I want to be ready for another great day!

I was so busy and exhausted last week. I was mentally and physically fatigued and most nights I just came home, ate, then fell asleep. Time now to catch up with this.

I have quite the tan now. Last week was only one day with more clouds than sun. I got nice and burnt during the week and had some seriously sore feet/ankles by the end of the week. Part was being on them so much but I think an even bigger part was from working the pedals. Those trucks take some serious effort until you build up the right muscles in your legs and feet.

Last week I was extremely mentally fatigued once I started driving on the road. Trying to learn a manual while you have traffic around you was draining. Wednesday was the first day off the parking and we stayed just on the industrial park streets where traffic was lighter and mostly straight, dump, and cement trucks. I had a rough time with shifting that first day and had no feel for the pedals.

Thursday was the industrial park again for a couple loops, then out on the city roads since my instructor thought I improved well enough. I was having plenty of issues with shifting, and the stress of being on busy major roads really wore on me. I missed some things because I was so focused on the shifting and had some real trouble teaching my left foot to stay off the clutch while braking. Being a two foot driver in automatics, my left foot is used to being used while braking and it has caused some issues for me with stopping.

Despite being mentally worn out from driving on the roads, I got up extra early Friday morning. I had been trying to come in 30-45 minutes early each day to do pre-trip inspection practice, but on Friday morning I came in even earlier so I could sit in a truck and run through the gears to get some practice in the pattern. It definitely helped for later that day.

Friday was another improvement as I went out twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, each for an hour at a time like normal. It was still very mentally taxing on me, but it went better as I was getting a bit more comfortable with the gears and, while not good at doing it yet, I had a better understanding of how to downshift properly. I was starting to identify key speeds and gears and able to more reliably drop to a safe stopping gear when approaching stops.

I was more alert to what was around as I wasn't spending as much of my focus on shifting. It still was far from perfect, but I was able to relax more and get a better feel for what was going on around me. I did really well with just about everything but the shifting. My instructor was happy enough with my progress that he had me do some expressway driving, driving just a few miles each on I-196, M-6, and US-131.

I seem to identify hazards well. There have been a few times that I have saved myself from having to slam on the brakes by seeing a potential problem and already have been slowing or light-to-moderate braking. I seem to do well at knowing where my truck and trailer are and the better I get at shifting the better I fewer curb scrapes I have had. I do get the trailer tandems in the gutter from time to time, but overall seem to have a really good sense of how to drive the tractor to keep the trailer in good spots while going down the road. I do need to work a bit more on turning, as I tend to either forget to start as wide as possible, or go wide and then don't get up against the curb after to keep the trailer tandems right up next to the gutter. I have had a few times where my trailer tandems have ended up too far to the left after right turns.

Today, Monday, after having the weekend to rest my body and mind, I went back out on the road again for about an hour. I felt so much more relaxed than last week. I was still tense and, while improved, I was still not that great on shifting smoothly, but overall it was much better. I was paying a lot more attention to things other than shifting. I continued having some trouble feeling the clutch well, which is an issue when you are required to double clutch especially, but that is something I expect to improve just fine this week. I found myself shifting without looking at the tach or stick and it started feeling closer to second nature. I was thinking better and it showed well. My instructor told me to make a lane change like he normally does, but instead of making it, I immediately told him I would after the road straightened so I could confirm it was clear. Apparently it had been a test and not just a normal instruction like he had been giving all the times before and my response was what he wanted.

Road driving is getting better and better and I started to enjoy bits of it. I don't have the anxiety thinking about doing it tomorrow like I did all last week. I know I am improving and I can see myself doing well in most areas of it. The areas I still have some concerns should be smoothing out as I do it more over the next 2.5 weeks.

I had a breakthrough in pre-trip inspection today too. I only missed a couple things from the parts that I did and when others did the other parts I was catching most of what they missed. I am feeling pretty confident with it and I think I should be ready for it when testing time comes. After driving on the road today, my instructor sprung a piece on me. I had only done an in-cab once early last week and out of nowhere he asked me to do an air brakes check. I was thankful I had spent the extra time studying and I did it fine.

I ran out of characters on that last post, so here is the rest.

My backing has been going great. I understand how the tractor and trailer move. I have done the straight back, both left and right offsets, and alley docks quite a bit now. I have done them all in a sleeper and can complete each with no points reliably.

I have also done them in a day cab and that is a different beast. I struggled right at the beginning, but quickly picked up on the fact that I turned much more than I had in the sleeper and needed to be careful not to over-turn.

For a couple hours last week they had me in a single axle day cab that was an automatic. It is a tiny little Freightliner that has a Mercedes engine in it. It turns on a dime and, while frustrating right a the beginning, it ended up being really fun to use something that was so touchy but could offer such extreme control over the trailer.

Backing has become my relaxation time. I am just calm when I do it and I really enjoy it. It gives me something in between pre-trips and going out on the road where I can just spend some time having fun and let my mind just go to a happy place.

Anything with controlling the trailer in restricted space I just feel good about, going backwards and forwards. I feel like I just know how tight the truck can turn and how close I can get to something without hitting it. I do really well at pulling into spaces and can do it with the trailer straight behind me because of when and how I make my turns.

The instructors have been great at giving me tips and helping me fine tune my backing. My recent favorite from the end of last week was to serpentine for moving trailer tandems over. With that, I know I can have a poor setup and still stick the back of that trailer where it needs to be with a single pull up.

The info I am getting and all the time in the trucks that I get is really adding up for me after getting into my second week. I can't wait to get back at it tomorrow morning and I look forward to seeing where I am at at the end of week two. This has been a great experience so far and I think I stand a good chance at being in great shape for taking the test in 2.5 weeks.

Congrats to you Matt on all the successes you have been having. Good luck and stay safe. You have a good attitude that will help you through tough times ahead. Enjoy!!