Pre-trip Inspection Practicing
Topic 18687 | Page 1
Kat, most private schools will have you drilling this thing everyday that you are in school. In a company sponsored training situation your trainer should be having you go through this everyday. Have you seen this thread that one of our Moderators put together on the Pre-Trip?
The nice thing about that thread is that it has pictures that will help you get an idea now of what it is that you will be looking at. Most of us are not familiar with the various parts on an eighteen wheeler, in fact many of us are still trying to figure out how many wheels are on an eighteen wheeler, but these photos are very helpful to total newbies.
They will drill you on the pre-trip inspection. At the school I went to we started each day with a group of three of us pre-tripping a truck together, and we would each do it one at a time saying the lines out loud to the others. That way we could help each other realize when we had made a mistake or missed some important component.
Pre-trip Inspection:
A pre-trip inspection is a thorough inspection of the truck completed before driving for the first time each day.
Federal and state laws require that drivers inspect their vehicles. Federal and state inspectors also may inspect your vehicles. If they judge a vehicle to be unsafe, they will put it “out of service” until it is repaired.
Company Sponsored Training:
A Company-Sponsored Training Program is a school that is owned and operated by a trucking company.
The schooling often requires little or no money up front. Instead of paying up-front tuition you will sign an agreement to work for the company for a specified amount of time after graduation, usually around a year, at a slightly lower rate of pay in order to pay for the training.
If you choose to quit working for the company before your year is up, they will normally require you to pay back a prorated amount of money for the schooling. The amount you pay back will be comparable to what you would have paid if you went to an independently owned school.
Company-sponsored training can be an excellent way to get your career underway if you can't afford the tuition up front for private schooling.
When in school I was doing pre trip twice a day, once in the morning and once after we were done for the day. I also did the brake test/in cab once a day as well. For me how I learned, i just broke it down in to sections and learned each section seperately. I started with the front of the truck from the marker lights down to the bumper and then under the hood. Once i was confident in that, i moved on to from the front door back to the couplings. Then lastly i did the 5th wheel and the trailer. And everytime I started a new section to study I would start the previous sections first and then move on to the new section to learn. For me that worked but everybody learns and retains their information their own way so just find a way for you to memorize things that works for you. But the one thing you want to make sure you know like the back of your hand is the couplings, at the NJ DMV at least they always ask you to pre trip that section along with one other section.
Do you have a checklist to help you with studying your pre trip?
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.DMV:
Department of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Motor Vehicles
The state agency that handles everything related to your driver's licences, including testing, issuance, transfers, and revocation.
TWIC:
Transportation Worker Identification Credential
Truck drivers who regularly pick up from or deliver to the shipping ports will often be required to carry a TWIC card.
Your TWIC is a tamper-resistant biometric card which acts as both your identification in secure areas, as well as an indicator of you having passed the necessary security clearance. TWIC cards are valid for five years. The issuance of TWIC cards is overseen by the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
@Old School awsome- no I had not found that- but have is book marked for sure!
@ChefsJK Great tip, thanks- yes I have a cheatsheet- and, Im not quite there yet! Just checking ahead_ you know- like good drivers do!
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I know this is this covered at length in a school setting. is one given plenty opportunity to practice the knowledge and skills?
I know there are endless videos demonstrating how to do it right. It good to watch these- and I wonder how does one practice the routine. I would like to be able to take a number of "runs" with someone who could test me BEFORE taking that real test.
I apologize if this has been answered, I did not find a direct answer.