Training With TMC At Their Columbia SC Training Center.

Thank you for all the info. Have my orientation starting next week. How’s it going btw are you still with TMc?

Well I just finished up orientation. Man what a quick two weeks. I can’t get over how great TMC treated us. They are truly a top notch company.

I didn’t want to post until this week was finished. This was the big week. The entire time was spent in the truck. I must say this really wasn’t communicated well by the recruiters. No biggie, it went well but Others were surprised by it too.

We were graded on our driving and poor performances could definitely get you sent home. We started with 14 and lost 2. Both due to shifting issues. One also got into it with an instructor that didn’t help.

The days started at 7 am the driving instructor coordinator talked for about 30 minutes, and it was off to the trucks. It was two students per truck, a couple days it was 3. Some students stayed on the backing yard. We came back for lunch at 12 then back out at 1 instructors would change and other students would go to the backing yard. The day ended at 4 and then some stayed for evening and more backing. I stayed 2 out of the 4 days.

Overall the instructors were great. Mac the backing Instuctor knew backing inside and out. There was really only one bad one. Guy was really sour, and none of the students liked him. He would just be a jerk even In The break room.

The driving was a mix of highway and city driving. They had us do some tight turns where we would dump the trailer bags to get the trailer to turn better. We also parked the truck at truck stops.

The backing was learning how to do a 45 Degree back, since you can’t do a 90 with the flatbed trailer. They had a figure 8 course setup up, and you would take the truck through the figure 8 twice. Pull out get in line to back. I want to be perfect at everything I do and I definitely don’t live up to my standards when it comes to backing. By the end of the week I was able to do the maneuver without assistance, but it’s not perfect.

Now I was told they never send students home just because of poor backing. They feel they can train anyone to back. What gets you sent home is if in a manual if you can’t get shifting down, or if you do something dangerous while driving.

One funny thing that happened was one of the guys that got sent home couldn’t do a figure 8. They gave us no instruction on this. I mean we all have our CDL so we should be able to go 5mph around some cones. Well we are on the backing yard and I’m talking to the instructor and we both look over and this guy drives the truck over a 10 inch high curb and is 6 inches from hitting a light pole. The instructor took off running. Not 5 minutes later he takes out about 3 cones and drives right into the backing hole by running out of the figure 8 course.

If you made it past Wednesday you were safe short of wrecking or doing something real dumb. Everyone was definitely more loose at the end of Thursday. We all stayed to back Thursday night.

Friday started at 8am we were given an extra hour to get out of the hotel. All we did was go through drop and hook , and then we had to clean the interior of all the trucks. They are definitely picky about the trucks but it’s easy to understand why. The training trucks all have over 400k in miles and look brand new. One more free lunch then we went over our instructions for meeting our trainers. Given our fuel card, given a tee shirt and were sent on our way.

Again the whole process has been great. I hope and pray I am successful on the road. I know bad things happen quick out there, but TMC seems like a great place to stay for a career. Thanks for reading

Thank you for all the info. Have my orientation starting next week. How’s it going btw are you still with TMc?

Jay doesnt post frequently, however he is no longer with TMC. 2 weeks into training he said the trainer kicked him off the truck due to frustrations over his backing progress. Rather than going out with a new trainer he quit and took a local dump truck or concrete mixer truck. He said that he's happy with the decision and holds no grudge against TMC for how things played out.

If you have time I'd love to hear how your journey goes. Are you a CDL holder or are you going through their school? I report to work about a mile north of the main school in Des Moines and see the students around very frequently. It seems like a great program. Good luck.

This is/was a great thread.