Swift Diary

Inquiry minds wanted to know... any hint on who those 2 or 3? Sorry I didn't catch up with gossips because I am in San Antonio heading to Miami for my first load with my mentor.

I'm the same way when it comes to helping others. It is frustrating though when you're trying to help a classmate out and you realize they really aren't putting in the effort. We had three in our class and at least two ended up not finishing.

Good work so far. The first finish line is getting close.

The who isn't important. The point is you cannot come to these programs thinking you are going to coast through. You will have to put forth the time and effort and do the homework. Especially in these company sponsored accelerated schools.

Inquiry minds wanted to know... any hint on who those 2 or 3? Sorry I didn't catch up with gossips because I am in San Antonio heading to Miami for my first load with my mentor.

I'm the same way when it comes to helping others. It is frustrating though when you're trying to help a classmate out and you realize they really aren't putting in the effort. We had three in our class and at least two ended up not finishing.

Good work so far. The first finish line is getting close.

Big T replied to Tommy:

The who isn't important. The point is you cannot come to these programs thinking you are going to coast through. You will have to put forth the time and effort and do the homework. Especially in these company sponsored accelerated schools.

Tommy, Big T is 100% spot-on with his reply. The names of the individuals? It's none of our business and irrelevant to the mission of this website and forum. We are not Facebook, or Twitter and do not dabble in gossip or conjecture.

6/2/17 Sorry, don't mean to be rude but won't put any names here in this public forum.

Ok, today came to the classroom and four of us were sent out to drive on the roads of Corsicana, TX. I was fortunate to be one of them. Yay!!!!

When we returned later we found out that 5 of the others failed and are set back to try to do the week over. This was much higher than I thought. 7 of the original 15 are current except us four are ahead by a day to the other 3 as they had opted to wait until today to test. I presume to think they will start driving tomorrow.

I had a good time today as shifting is something I had covered already at Midland College Truck driving. AND lucky me - it's the same shifting pattern. We drove a circle route along I-45 down about 12 miles and back the other side. It was simply to have us shift up and then down. The four of us took turns and the instructor taught me some really good stuff on shifting, double clutching , turns, lane changes, and so on and so forth. We return tomorrow to practice some more and it will be our Friday and then we get Sunday off.

Thank you for reading and please leave a comment or two. It's 7 pm, and I must go to sleep. God bless!

David or "traffic Jam"

Sorry about that guys. Big-T and I are in the same TDA class in Fontana and we both passed DMV test on Thursday so that's why I asked. Big T was the first one to pass and I was the last one in the day.

Still waiting for the donuts from Ms. Kassie.

Anyways sorry about hijacking the thread. But I would recommend to get a mentor with automatic. Down shift = Jake 1 and Jake 2. Down grade = Jake 2 plus 11th or 10th gear. Much easier. The only thing I don't like is when backing, it won't go smoothly like on stick shifts.

Big T replied to Tommy:

The who isn't important. The point is you cannot come to these programs thinking you are going to coast through. You will have to put forth the time and effort and do the homework. Especially in these company sponsored accelerated schools.

Tommy, Big T is 100% spot-on with his reply. The names of the individuals? It's none of our business and irrelevant to the mission of this website and forum. We are not Facebook, or Twitter and do not dabble in gossip or conjecture.

6/3/17

We arrived to the Academy today and there had been a communication problem, so we four were sent back to the motel to take Sat AND Sun off. So that is nice as I am very tired.

As I stated yesterday, four of us were taken by an instructor and we went out all day to practice shifting. We each were able to drive for two hours and I understand that multiples up quite a bit from this time forward.

Maybe its time to talk about some of my fellow students, the four of us. Risky . . . . .

The other three are each different in personality, temperament and abilities.

One is a older fellow, like me, and we both are pretty good at all the backing drills, shifting and driving. This is due to our each having former experience with semi driving. There is a little language barrier but his english is very good and so most of the time his accent, not the language gets in the way. If that makes sense. Yesterday, when the four of us drove and did our shifting up and down we were given a morning hour and an afternoon hour. He and I each improved from morning to afternoon and so that was neat. I can speak for myself in that I had fun and learned some really good skills from the instructor, if that makes sense also. I feel the first time out was very productive and so am looking forward to more driving. This fellow I am describing also felt that way and the way it felt was . . . worth all the work we put into the class studies, and range backing/parking drills. And THAT was a lot of work if you can imagine. It was a good feeling, real feeling, confirming feeling, feeling like we are doing the right thing.

The other two I know less better. One pretty good as he is my room mate and the other fellow not really at all. He has been in the class but distant, always "almost late", breaking rules, etc.

My room mate is a young guy, like us trying to break into this business to make a way for himself. He is positive, very hard working, studies the material with intent and is effective. He listened when he was not getting the parallel parking. He listened to the instructor with greater attention and applied the "principles" and it worked for him. His parallel parking is about just perfect. He is 25 years old and has a wife and little baby boy, lucky guy. Amen. His driving behind the wheel was, well this is how he described it: "That was the first time I ever drove a stick shift!! It was a blast, exciting, fun, nervous at first but got used to it, it was fun. I, always, knew I needed to be cautious also, but it was fun." I think he as each of us, has a lot of potential and will represent the trucking industry in a very positive way. It's been great to make friends like these men. HA, I can say they are all younger than me. Wow, never thought of that till now. I am 64 years young. In the 65th year of my sojourn.

Finally, the other fellow.-We are all supposed to watch the student who is driving, or observe and listen to instructions from the instructor so as to learn. However, this fellow as soon as he gets in the back seat is knocked out, dead asleep. Also, We are not supposed to have or use our cell phones in the classroom, range, and of course, not in the truck. Well, yesterday was sitting behind the instructor, in the back bench seat and took his cell phone out and was texting, etc. I was sitting on the extreme other end of the bench and noticed a 12 volt outlet and pointed to it and said, "Hey, _________, you can charge your phone here at this outlet!" He motioned me to not say anything and to be quiet. I repeated it, you understand, just to be helpful, and it worked, he put his phone away. The other three of us really got a good laugh later about that. The bad side was, he went back to sleep. This hurt him later as his shifting really suffered.

Finally there is the instructor. Wow, I don't know how these types of folks can do this. They must have nerves of steel! How they can sit there and calmly tell you what to do and while this big machine is moving and all and not loose it is really admirable. Each of our instructors have seemed to me like top-notch people, high integrity, terrific abilities to teach, people of much experience, able communicators, effective in what they are doing. It would be fun to work with them. I admire them.

OK. This is it until Monday. I hope someone is reading this and getting a little enjoyment out of it. Please leave some comments and thanks again to TruckingTruth.Com and Brett for helping make this opportunity one I can take a hold of.

-Traffic Jam

6/4/17

I just re-read all my posts. Sorry to everyone for my misspelled words and bad grammar. I am trying to remember to proof read before I post and it helps of course.

Also, to Brett, I accidently hit he wrong button and "reported" my own post. Although there was no reason to. Please ignore. Thanks!

Please leave a comment if you read and thanks!

-Traffic Jam

OK, made it thru another day of driving. We went over our circular route working on shift and then left for Dallas, with ME ....... DRIVING! We got there about an hour later and then the instructor had me driving in a business/industrial area working on stops and turns. I switched out before lunch and someone else had a turn.

Wow, this was a good day and I learned a lot. One thing was on turning a curve turn from a stop one must keep the tandems in the right position (at the high point) so the tandems follow. And, that a driver must know where their tandems are at all times. Thus, one will avoid curbing. Something we do not want to do. We are ready to go again tomorrow and looking forward to it.

I am scheduled to take the evaluations/cdl test on this Friday. Well, we will see what happens days from now.

I must comment again on the quality of instruction I am receiving. The instructor we have is teaching me principles that I never received at the community college I went thru to obtain my cdl a few years ago. They have covered all the stuff I learned at the community college and have not stopped there. I think this is a great school and recommend it to anyone wishing to attend such and obtain a cdl.

There are a new crop of students and then there is the former new students in their second week and us, in our third and final week. It's pretty neat going along thru the process, leaning, applying what we have learned and all. The other two students I wrote about the other night are doing real well also and are right there with me. One is a little younger than me, say -55 years old and the the other is 25 years old.

Take care and read and comment. It's so encouraging to read comments. Thanks!

-Traffic Jam

6_08-17

Tired ... the word does not express it. I passed my backing and driving evaluation today and i am cleared to take my actual cdl exam tommorrow! Yeeeeeeeeeeeehaw!

Tomorrow I am scheduled to do pti, in cab n air brake tests and a driving test for TX -receiving my cdl, and then will drive home and report for company orientation on June 14.

It's been a great 3 weeks. Went by fast is for sure. If I do not make it tomorrow, I am here another week, and then re-test.

-Traffic Jam

Good luck!