My CR England Adventure. Getting Ready For School.

Ok so your going to truck driving school and your wondering what to bring. Somethings to take into consideration when packing. First. You and you alone will be hauling your stuff around. Think light. Second think long term. While I can't speak for other schools. It appears the average stay at the CR England school is about 14 days as a student and roughly five to seven days waiting for a trainer. Once you do get a trainer there will be limited space on his or her truck. So here is my list of items I packed

8) pairs of pants

14 pairs of jeans

21 pairs of socks and underwear.

Jeans and shirts can be worn several times between washes. A single pair of jeans can worn for a week easily. While if need be you could wear the same socks and underwear more than once, even several days in a row. Think about your trying to get a job where 10hours of your day is spent driving a truck. The other 14 sleeping eating, showering and getting ready for driving. While it would be nice to do laundry every couple of days or at least once a week. You might go two weeks before washing your clothes. Rotate, rotate, rotate and oh yes febreze.

Shoes. I recommend a good sturdy pair of work boots, steel toe, water proof and a second pair of shoes tennis shoes. I generally wear my boots during class and range time. Once class is over I switch to my tennis shoes.

Okay. I am at CR England in Salt Lake city. Actually I am not. Technically speaking CR England, Swift and Pride trucking schools which are located close to each other reside in West Valley city Utah.

If you come to Utah for truck driving school, bring a light jacket with a hood. The weather here is best described as bi-polar. In one hour I saw it go from being sunny and nice 77 degrees out with no clouds to be seen, to a dark over cast a moderate down pour, blue sky's and Sun shine to snowing. Not just a few flakes but snow that covered the ground and trucks. It was winter in May.

You never know what the weather is going to be like once you get on the road. Sure there are weather forecast but there are are freak storms. So be prepared out on the road and at school. What's the old saying cleanliness is next to Godliness???😊.

So after gathering clothes shoes and jackets. The next item I planned for was bathing or showering. Hate to say it but once you get to your school and on the road but your days of soaking in a bath tube are few and far between. Seriously you make money for being on the road. I have read and heard about women and men taking an hour long shower or even a two hour shower. Okay some times its nice to relax and let the hot water wash away the stress. Generally speaking though with showers I believe you should be in and out as quickly as possible.

To speed up shower time and to save space. I bought a 3 in 1 body wash, shampoo and conditioner. I know some might need special shampoos, conditioner, and other items for their hair and body, I like to keep it simple.

If you shave bring plenty of razors and shaving cream.

I packed a pair of scissors and a beard comb. I trim my beard and mustache once a week. Other items I bought

Tooth brush

Two small travel size bottles of mouthwash.

Two toothbrushes

Two tubes of toothpaste

A towel

A bathball for washing.

I saw the bath ball in a what pack to bring on a truck. After using it you rinse it out place it in a zip lock bag but don't close it and you let it sit out.

Flip flops or shower shoes. Here at CR England they have janitorial staff that keeps the place pretty clean.

However when it comes to showers at your school or on the road, your feet should not make contact with the floor.

Sun Screen. A majority of classes you attend while going through school are held outside. 90% of the training for CR England is out side. Your going to be standing on a hot black top or in dirt lots. Bring Sun Screen or you will get burnt

Also bring a ballcap or some other item to cover your head.

So we have our clothes, shoes, jacket, hygiene items, hats and sun screen all ready to go. Now you need something to put them in. I brought with me one duffle bag (28 inches in length and one backpack. Every thing I brought fit into those things. Remember there is limited space in the dorm and on the trucks. I saw people with multiple duffle bags, brief cases and over size suite cases. I was blown away by the amount gear some people bought with them. Once again limited space, in the dorm and on the trucks and do you really want to be hauling around all kinds of luggage?? I know I don't.

Everyone has a cellphone. I would recommend brining an extra charger and cable.

Phone case. I know that there are people who don't use cases because they want to show off their $1,000 dollar IPhone X special edition phone or whatever device they have. I have kids so all phones and tablets in our home have cases.

As a trucker your going to be climbing in and out of the truck or trailer or under it sooner or later your phone is going to drop do you really want to be in the middle of no where when that happens and several hours away from your carriers nearest store?