Week 1 @ Ohio Valley Truck Driver Training School:
5:50 a.m.: Van picked me up at my house in Athens, OH.,for 1 hr. 10 min ride to the school in Williamstown, WV. O.V.T.D.T.S. is a 5 week PDTI certified course. It's really nice that they transport, especially with the price of gas. Van was full of stereotype wanna be truck drivers; 4 from class starting 2 weeks earlier, 3 of us from the new class.
I had expectations of the campus (lol) from studying driving schools online. 7:00 a.m.: Arrived at the school. The campus was one very small trailer (with a classroom and an office in it) on a small dirt lot with one porta-toilet. It was not what I envisioned.
During the week I got to know all of the instructors, the school owner and the school manager. We spent the first week skimming chapters in books and watching videos. We took test after test after test. Half of what we learned was from what we missed on the tests. On day 3 we went to the bureau of motor vehicles and tested for our permits. Of the 5 of us that went, 3 passed, one failed and one was rejected because his license showed that it had been revoked in CA (2 days later that person brought in a letter from motor vehicles saying it wasn't him). I passed the test but failed an endorsement I wanted but since passed that too. I'm the only one in my class that went for any endorsements (I got a tanker endorsement).
Overall I had a blast in my first week! Everyone was hilarious! At the end of the week I am overwhelmed at how much I learned in the classroom and even more overwhelmed at what we didn't learn. Many schools are only 2 or 3 weeks so I have no complaints. We even had a recruiter come in and there'll be many more. I already have one job offer and they say there'll be many more. Come Monday we will start learning maneuvers on the lot and will spend eight hours a day driving straight (only a little, very small lot), backing and turning.
Other than my initial disappointment of the campus (lol) I give this school an A rating for week one. (However they have no simulators and that's very disappointing). Overall a great first week!
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