CFI Training Through Trainco Trucking School

he lack of support I'm receiving at the moment is frustrating me. I don't want to call out the school or throw anyone under the bus but I'm fairly unimpressed with the support staff at this place. You can sit in a truck on the range/pad for hours failing maneuver after maneuver and NO ONE will approach you or even check on you to see if you need assistance

A closed mouth doesnt get fed. I went through that in my school. I would frequently go ask the instructors what I could do to fix problems. Backing for the CDL maneuvers came fairly easy for me, but I wasnt shy about asking questions and trying to go unscripted. (We had written directions for each portion of the maneuver) and to be fair, we only had to parallel one side, so it was the same thing over and over.

Once you complete school and are on the road with your trainer, Its vital to communicate your needs politely, the trainer may not intuitively know if you are understanding concepts or not, much less to check for understanding. The art of asking questions can serve you very well.

Nathan, just ask for yourself. In this industry there is nobody to hold your hand. I was very happy with my school, but still had to ask for extra help when I needed it. Your one on one comes on your finisher's truck.

Ask for the help and do what they say. You will get it. Pay attention to the angle of your trailer to the spot, as well as your tandems. Pay attention to how everything is moving. Now, go get it.

That is exactly what I did today. I took what you and Davy said and slowed down, asked for an instructor to watch and give me pointers, and it FINALLY came together today. I figured it out and had dozens of good-quality parallel backs and alley docks!! Once again, thank you BigScott for helping me through this one day at a time : )

Nathan, just ask for yourself. In this industry there is nobody to hold your hand. I was very happy with my school, but still had to ask for extra help when I needed it. Your one on one comes on your finisher's truck.

Ask for the help and do what they say. You will get it. Pay attention to the angle of your trailer to the spot, as well as your tandems. Pay attention to how everything is moving. Now, go get it.

Day 8 Well folks, it finally happened! On the 8th day, God created a trucker named Nathan. LOL seriously kidding!!

I know I typically recap the whole day but I'm so SO SOOOOOOOOO jacked up about being able to complete dozens of parallel backs on both left and right sides. This is how it all went down.

SO let me set it up. After reading a few responses, and rightfully being told, to swallow my "pride" and just ask for help, I got the info I needed and the HELP I needed and got the parallel back ironed out successfully. So to Davy, and BigScott...THANK YOU, gentlemen!!

I'm the only one in my class that coming into today hadn't attempted the 90-degree alley dock maneuver. The 4 "over-achievers" (lol) already have perfected it and moved on to being bored. One other guy has tried and had minor success, so I figured this is the last maneuver, I'm being told how easy it is, let's get my confidence up and move away from the frustration of the parallel back for a moment. So I started the day with the alley dock. Literally, pulled off 6 in a row with just the one pull-up so I could straight-line back it. I got the trailer 6-8 feet deep each time but found the trajectory of the trailer to be off just enough that I didn't want to force it, so I took the "free" pull-ups and got it in straight and within the 3-foot box in the back. Feeling incredibly good about how that went I moved over to the parallel backing area and immediately rattled off 3 in a row on both sides????!!!! I'm flabergasted at this point because I have never gotten 3 in-a-row. However, I did start to struggle again so this is where I asked for help from a trainer and got a few pointers that improved the consistency and timing of my maneuver. I stayed on it for another 90 mins or so and definitely had some failed maneuvers but found myself being able to correct it, more often than not.

This is the moment I've been waiting for. I didn't doubt that I would figure it out but I DID doubt WHEN it would happen. Truth be told, I was a little concerned it wouldn't happen before I test out next Wednesday.

I have 4 full days still of driving, range practice, and pre-trip practice. I should have NO issues getting myself mentally prepared and skillfully prepared to at a minimum pass the CDL exam and prepare myself for the "real training" with my finisher/trainer at CFI.

This one is short and sweet guys! I hope ya'll have a great night and stay safe!!

Great news. Keep it up.

Day 8 Well folks, it finally happened! On the 8th day, God created a trucker named Nathan. LOL seriously kidding!!

I know I typically recap the whole day but I'm so SO SOOOOOOOOO jacked up about being able to complete dozens of parallel backs on both left and right sides. This is how it all went down.

SO let me set it up. After reading a few responses, and rightfully being told, to swallow my "pride" and just ask for help, I got the info I needed and the HELP I needed and got the parallel back ironed out successfully. So to Davy, and BigScott...THANK YOU, gentlemen!!

I'm the only one in my class that coming into today hadn't attempted the 90-degree alley dock maneuver. The 4 "over-achievers" (lol) already have perfected it and moved on to being bored. One other guy has tried and had minor success, so I figured this is the last maneuver, I'm being told how easy it is, let's get my confidence up and move away from the frustration of the parallel back for a moment. So I started the day with the alley dock. Literally, pulled off 6 in a row with just the one pull-up so I could straight-line back it. I got the trailer 6-8 feet deep each time but found the trajectory of the trailer to be off just enough that I didn't want to force it, so I took the "free" pull-ups and got it in straight and within the 3-foot box in the back. Feeling incredibly good about how that went I moved over to the parallel backing area and immediately rattled off 3 in a row on both sides????!!!! I'm flabergasted at this point because I have never gotten 3 in-a-row. However, I did start to struggle again so this is where I asked for help from a trainer and got a few pointers that improved the consistency and timing of my maneuver. I stayed on it for another 90 mins or so and definitely had some failed maneuvers but found myself being able to correct it, more often than not.

This is the moment I've been waiting for. I didn't doubt that I would figure it out but I DID doubt WHEN it would happen. Truth be told, I was a little concerned it wouldn't happen before I test out next Wednesday.

I have 4 full days still of driving, range practice, and pre-trip practice. I should have NO issues getting myself mentally prepared and skillfully prepared to at a minimum pass the CDL exam and prepare myself for the "real training" with my finisher/trainer at CFI.

This one is short and sweet guys! I hope ya'll have a great night and stay safe!!

I'm still in your corner, too!! Counting the days WITH ya!!! Yep, you got this. As Scott says, 'keep it up.' Success is imminent if ya do!!

~ Anne ~

Thank you so much, Anne!! Doesn't feel so overwhelming when I have people pulling for me!

Day 8 Well folks, it finally happened! On the 8th day, God created a trucker named Nathan. LOL seriously kidding!!

I know I typically recap the whole day but I'm so SO SOOOOOOOOO jacked up about being able to complete dozens of parallel backs on both left and right sides. This is how it all went down.

SO let me set it up. After reading a few responses, and rightfully being told, to swallow my "pride" and just ask for help, I got the info I needed and the HELP I needed and got the parallel back ironed out successfully. So to Davy, and BigScott...THANK YOU, gentlemen!!

I'm the only one in my class that coming into today hadn't attempted the 90-degree alley dock maneuver. The 4 "over-achievers" (lol) already have perfected it and moved on to being bored. One other guy has tried and had minor success, so I figured this is the last maneuver, I'm being told how easy it is, let's get my confidence up and move away from the frustration of the parallel back for a moment. So I started the day with the alley dock. Literally, pulled off 6 in a row with just the one pull-up so I could straight-line back it. I got the trailer 6-8 feet deep each time but found the trajectory of the trailer to be off just enough that I didn't want to force it, so I took the "free" pull-ups and got it in straight and within the 3-foot box in the back. Feeling incredibly good about how that went I moved over to the parallel backing area and immediately rattled off 3 in a row on both sides????!!!! I'm flabergasted at this point because I have never gotten 3 in-a-row. However, I did start to struggle again so this is where I asked for help from a trainer and got a few pointers that improved the consistency and timing of my maneuver. I stayed on it for another 90 mins or so and definitely had some failed maneuvers but found myself being able to correct it, more often than not.

This is the moment I've been waiting for. I didn't doubt that I would figure it out but I DID doubt WHEN it would happen. Truth be told, I was a little concerned it wouldn't happen before I test out next Wednesday.

I have 4 full days still of driving, range practice, and pre-trip practice. I should have NO issues getting myself mentally prepared and skillfully prepared to at a minimum pass the CDL exam and prepare myself for the "real training" with my finisher/trainer at CFI.

This one is short and sweet guys! I hope ya'll have a great night and stay safe!!

I'm still in your corner, too!! Counting the days WITH ya!!! Yep, you got this. As Scott says, 'keep it up.' Success is imminent if ya do!!

~ Anne ~

Day 9

I can not believe how fast time is moving this week. I only have officially 3 more days of class???!!!!

It feels both like FOREVER and not enough time LOL. Let me explain this without coming off like a jackass. When you do the same thing every single day in school, it starts to feel monotonous. Get to class, drive for 4 hours, go to lunch, go to the range for 3 hours, pre-trip for 2.5 hours, go home. Rinse and repeat and it gets a little boring. We have the pre-trip on lockdown. Each of us did it being timed, from start to finish and all passed with flying colors. So yeah..practice makes perfect but you can only say "securely mounted", "not cracked, bent or broken" so many times before you want to hit your head LOL

Driving is awesome and I really enjoy the morning time at school. It's never the same even if we are on the same roads. Each day something comes up that challenges us on the road and we have to figure out how to handle it or how to make this turn safely, etc. It really keeps you on your toes.

Driving on the range actually has become very tedious for most of my classmates. There are only 2 of us (myself included) that actually "need" to keep practicing backing. The others one-shot the maneuvers each and every time they attempt them. Gets kind of boring cause I don't have a "truck buddy" to talk to while I'm out there for hours each day.

With that said, backing was a success again today. So I'm very happy to know that yesterday wasn't a fluke and I CAN and WILL succeed next Wednesday!!!

BTW my pre-trip trial time run was 14.30 minutes with 5 misses. 4 of those misses were me forgetting to say that the lights are "the proper color" For whatever reason I kept saying "not missing" ?? Don't. know where that came from? LOL

So I'm sorry these might be getting boring and not as interesting as they might have been at first but to be honest, these days are getting a little repetitious. The finish line is in sight and the focus is high. I can't wait to share the victory with those of you following along with me!

Have a great night and stay safe!!

Now, once you are doing your pretrips in real life, 14.30 is very short. You will be concentrating on thoroughness not speed.

In the real world no to backs will be the same, learning to fix them is what helps.

The one and dones in your class are the ones who will have the harder time on the test.

Keep up the great work.

All of that is great info!! My plan isn't to burn through the actual pre-trip. I just wanted to know what fast I "could" complete it to know if I needed to speed up or if I'm moving at such a pace that I can slow down and still have time to complete all the tasks within the 30 minute test time. In real-world situations, I want to make sure the truck is totally safe for my fellow road companions and myself.

Thanks for the continual encouragement. It is very much appreciated.

Now, once you are doing your pretrips in real life, 14.30 is very short. You will be concentrating on thoroughness not speed.

In the real world no to backs will be the same, learning to fix them is what helps.

The one and dones in your class are the ones who will have the harder time on the test.

Keep up the great work.