My Prime Orientation / PSD Experience

Day 9 photos

There are three Prime PSD Driver Trainers who have YouTube channels that you can check out if coming to Prime soon.

“Truckin’ Along With Kearsey”, “Twizted Big D” and “Prime Time Fitz”.

“Twizted Big D” puts out multiple videos per week and provides current updates on the training program. He put one up this week about “The over-thinking student”. His point was that college guys come out here and they over think everything when backing. He says to calm down, listen to your trainer, and you will get this. I get his point.

HOWDY!!!!

Nice to MEET YA!!! (Change your avatar TO YOU!) Glad it's all working .. man, I LOVE reading this. I've got a few 'Wilson' guys (trainers, drivers, etc..) that I follow on You Tube, as well. Check out ScottieD67 ... some of his 'whole shift' interactives.... sharing his clock (ELD mechanism, haha!) and interacting with newbies (or the likes of me!) .. it's really interesting & educational. He started with Swift, around 15 years ago; then went L/O with JCT (John Christner Transport) ... and they dropped him like a hot potato when a 'balloon note' or something was due, over a 'violation' that he didn't commit. Happily COMPANY w/Wilson, and shares a bum ton! JReding (Jerry) as well. Great peeps!

I'm always following you; I will check out the other two Prime channels besides Rainy (oops, Kearsey!) I still (sometimes!) follow Junior (Catracho) Honduras, and Tiffany Eichols Hannah.... quite successful PRIMATES, for sure!

~ Anne ~

Day 10 - 02/02/09

Up at 07:00 another beautiful sunny day!

Caught up on news and the Trucker Freedom Convoys activity.

Shuttle to the Plaza, arrived at 08:40, straight to the PTI practice pad. Spent 3 hours practicing PTI until 11:40. Taking a break until roll call at 12:55.

I worked with a young immigrant man who asked me for help. English is his second language and is tripping him up some. We went through an entire PTI, repeating stations that he needed work on. He is not ready for his Air Break test, not started on it yet.

This really helped me today because I discovered that I was forgetting the trailer frame & crossmembers. I got it now!

A big part of my job working overseas was to train National employees to take my place. English was often a 3rd or 4th language for them. We put them through an immersive English training course for a couple months to reach an intermediate level, so could start understanding some technical English. This was very challenging for them, but they worked hard.

Most home born Americans would not do this. I tried to learn enough “survival” local language to get buy. That is all that I needed. Learning English for those Nationals opens up a world of opportunities for them.

Roll call starts in a few minutes.

Has been interesting to look at the various truck models to see the differences in the engine compartment layouts.

Mostly Cascadia Condos and a lightweight yesterday. An old 2015 Peterbuilt. Today saw an International.

Interesting to see the young immigrant strictly following our written script that has “leaf springs” in the engine compartment, even though he is looking at a “spring arm”. The only leaf springs have been in the lightweight. The condos have spring arms.

Day 10 wrap up

This afternoon we were given a fun break from PTI to try our first attempt at a Straight Back.

They had 3 trucks to hold 4 drivers at a time doing a round robin. We each got one turn, no pull-up allowed. There were two tractors also available to practice PTI while waiting a turn to back.

I was in one of the first groups of four. Our first driver had never backed any kind of trailer before. He struggled a bit, killed a few cones, but eventually got done.

I was up next. I managed to keep it straight in the box lane using small steering adjustments “turning into the problem”. Im happy with my first attempt. The next two also did well. We three had prior experience backing smaller trailers.

A pad instructor came over to us during his break. He demonstrated his engine compartment PTI to a small group lucky enough to be near him. He stressed the need to “sell it” to the examiner. He made a great point to turn and speak to the examiner after pointing out the item to be checked. He said too many people talk to the truck and not the examiner.

He also pointed out that our written script sequence for each section follows the layout of the DOT examiner’s scorecard. Makes it easier for the examiner that we follow that script. I’ve made a couple of easy adjustments to get aligned with this advice.

We were told today that Prime is rolling out it’s new process for managing our PTI and straight back skills assessments with our class starting Friday. I think it will be something like this from what the trainers have said on their YouTube videos recently.

We will be divided into small groups. We will be assigned tasks to complete each day. An example Tasks would be to pass an engine compartment PTI assessment. This will continue until all six PTI sections plus a straight back are completed. At that point we become eligible to be assigned a Driver Trainer.

At the end of our day tomorrow afternoon this will be fully explained to us. Possibly be assigned our first set of tasks for Friday.

Day 11 - 02/10/22

Up at 07:00. Another beautiful sunny day with high of 53F.

Arrived at the Plaza at 08:30 and straight to the PTI practice pad.

I put in 3 hrs of PTI practice from 08:30-12:00 with a couple 15 minutes breaks.

An instructor told a group of us yesterday that to pass the PTI you need to score 80% in a section (noting that air brake test is an auto fail risk).

He then pointed out that 70% of the score is contained in the suspension system, brake system and wheels system. Get these down pat. Then if you miss something else you still have a good chance of passing.

I spent an hour working with a young man who asked me to help him. He is still trying to memorize the script. He said that it helped him to follow me through it against the script and then he would try it. I know it helps me just as much.

To have some fun and change it up, I spent 30 minutes running through some sections backwards and I could do it! I’m feeling comfortable in being ready for an evaluation.

Resting now before roll call at 12:55.

It sounds like you're having quite the adventure during training. Also, it sounds like your going above and beyond to help others out. I can see how it's easy for some to stress over PTI because it's such a big part of getting through training and getting your CDL.

Keep studying. And Keep on keeping on.

Day 11 - 02/10/22

We had roll call at 12:55. I counted ~65 people today. So, my previous estimates of 160 were way off. We lost about 100 people from Orientation.

In preparation for tomorrow, we were divided into two groups. A-L (me) start at 08:00. M-Z start at 13:00.

Then we went to the pad for the afternoon. Today I got to drive a trainer’s truck & trailer around the perimeter of the lot making right hand turns. She asked me if I’ve ever driven before? I said large diesel motorhomes towing an SUV, but nothing like this! She said it showed.

Then spent some more PTI time.

Back to my room at 17:15 and a big surprise at 18:00. I got contacted by my assigned OTR CDL Trainer. He plans for us to leave out on Saturday after he checks out my backing knowledge on the pad first. I’ve only done one Straight Back, haven’t even tried anything else yet.

We talked a while and seem compatible. His plan is to be out for +/- 14 days before returning to Springfield for a couple of days backing on the pad, before taking my CDL test.

I’ll be doing 99.9% of the driving. Expected to pre-trip his truck twice a day. We may do some backing practice along the way.

This is becoming real very fast now! Yes!

Good luck! Enjoy PSD while you can.

I got that message Chief, because after that comes the dreaded TNT!

I’m also pleased that my Trainer has been driving for Prime 12 years. He did his PSD with Prime. Having a seasoned driver and trainer will be great.