SCHOOLS IN SESSION!
 

Well the wife and I are in school now and got through day 2!...dang there is a lot to learn.
It is coming fast and furious...3 more days of classroom and then a day of pre-trip and getting to know the truck and then 3 weeks of driving.
I was a bit worried about the wife since she comes from a retail background and i have a solid mechanical background...but guess who is the top student via test scores in the class so far..yep..the only woman..go figure!.
The instructors told us she would do best as she has no bad habits/thoughts to get in the way and will learn the right way the first time. I am real proud of her!!

YES it is! At least by after Labor Day, school children WILL be out and about many of the roads WE drive down. Let's ALL pay attention to the signs, and the LAWS! What is 10 mins driving time compared to a child's life?

As the First Shirt of that precinct on Hill Street Blues used to say, "Let's be careful out there, folks!"

[NO... I didn't misread the topic title, OR misunderstand the original poster! I JUST wanted to say this... and this seemed lke a good thread to do so!]

Hobo

good Luck
 

glad to see you are going for it .... my wife and I went to SAGE in AZ a few months ago ... we are now going to drive for Covenant as we want to train together ... hope to see you out on the road soon ,,,, HAVE FUN and be safe

well got through the first week, boy does my brain hurt!!
there is quite a bit of paperwork involved, not sure how you find time to drive the rig LOL!
They gave us a "nightmare trip" to plot for our final written classroom exam. Multiday trip, a couple of trailer swaps, 6 states,3 time zones,
4 load-unload, all with our assistance. 3 tight deadline delivery, and a relay load in the middle of all of it.
had to show a correct logbook, fuel usage, time, mileage, sleeper time ect....did pretty good got everything right except missed my overall milage by only 6 miles!
did take about 2 hours to figure it out!
Now we spend monday on pre-trip with the rig, and then clear the roads..we will start driving (well in the lot anyway) on tuesday....
thanks for all the assistance on here so far!..it has helped a lot!

Good Luck

Yesterday we did the pre-trip learnin' and since we got done early the instructor moved on to drop and hook and a little yard driving. My wife was the first one to go..I sure wish i had brought my video camera...
She has wanted to drive the "big rigs" for over 20 years and now she was driving one...I was about 10 pm at night, but you could have turned off all the yard lights, dash lights and headlights..she was beaming so bright that it would have been daylight anyway!!!
She did great (better than me in fact!)..The other students were excited and proud of her as well. IT WAS A VERY GOOD DAY!
When she was done she was still excited..but her back was drippin in sweat as well...LOL.
I did pretty good to...but i think the instructors lip prints are still on the inside of the windshield..LOL!

I laughed so hard my sides started hurting when I read this .... isn't life good. It's always nice to know we can still get excited about learning. Keep up the good work and know that your life is just about to change forever ....

Oh Boy what a night last night!...it was our first time driving in the streets.
Since we are in the late class they took us down to the industrial part of town where it was pretty deserted and had us drive. My wife went first, the first tight turn she made she was still pretty nervous and as she upshifted just prior to making the turn, she "buried the clutch" and actvated the clutch brake, which made her miss the shift and she slammed on the brakes. I found out that the theory of "an equal and opposite reaction" is true (and the 3rd driver in the back with me can fly! LOL). A few blocks later we came up to a stop light and guess what...a 4 wheeler cut right in front of her to beat her to the light....She made steady and upward progress and ended her 2 hour drive shift smiling wide and no death grip on the sterring wheel!

Me...dang I keep forgetting what gear I am in and either over/under reving the rpms when i shift. I figured out a good double clutch trick that works well for my feet..just have to get the right arm to go along with it!

I asked the trainer who sits up front if they pay him about $500,000.00 per year to put up with us...because that is what it would take for me to do this training new drivers week in and week out!!

It is tough, but we are loving it and already are VERY thankful that when we get to our new place of employment they require 5 more weeks of training!...

Well another interesting night...doing real well on the upshift timing, but still struggling with the downshift timing..think that will take a few more days.
Instructor did a neat thing..took us to the steepest hill in the area (not sure of the grade..but it is very steep). Has us shift into 4th and then had us watch the applied brake pressure gauge. of course we started about 90! LOL, then whole time he was "less pressure...less pressure" we were down to around 5-7 psi and doinf just fine. That was real interesting.

Even though we only haul lightly loaded trailers, I was very surprised just how quick gravity speeds up the truck going down hill.

All of also saw a good lesson tonight...a J.B. Hunt semi laying on its side on a curved freeway on ramp. (guess he's looking for a new job today!)

We were out in traffic yesterday and while the other 2 drove I counted 6 traffic problems of 4 wheelers trying to get around us or dive in front of us. I swear when i get out on the road i am going to mount a video camera on my dash and make a training film!

Hey Benny,

Good job. There was a JB Hunt driver in my area about 2 months ago that flipped onto his side going 55 around an on ramp. When the cops asked what happened he said he didn't get enough sleep.

well we just finished our first full week of driving, boy what a difference practice makes. Not a pro by a long shot, but doing pretty good.
Ran a trailer up on a sidewalk last night.. learned a valuable lesson about "driving the trailer" when going around curves!
Getting the hang of downshifting, keeping an eye on the tach makes all the difference.
The wife finished up all of endorsment tests today, nailed the double/triple test 100%..The whole class was very excited for her (and me to!).

Did my first dead stop big hill today, the guy behind me left me a reasonable amount of room, and then some butthead angled into the lane behind me, part of his car was actually part under the rear of my trailer.
Jeez... it says "student driver" in 8 foot letters. He is lucky I paid attention in class on how to start off on a big hill without any roll back....some peoples kids!....

Well was a hard and a bit streesful week, made solid progress and am looking forward to a relaxing weekend!

Well the weekend came and went ( a bit to fast!)
Had something funny happened to me saturday night, was driving to the ol' saturday night poker game and as I turned on to the street.... I reached for the gear shift in my little kia that has an automatic!.. I even turned my head to look for it when my hand could not find it... had to laugh out loud on that one! Then the first corner...yep... turned way wide.
Geez!
Still having a bit of trouble angle backing so I had an idea. Went to wally world and bought a small semi truck toy. Spent an hour or more backing it up on my table...really helped a lot! (if you do this, use it on the carpet..it works much better)
I spent most of the day in the yard today practicing back ups, the wife went out with the trainer for a one on one session to work on her downshifting.
Just taking two days off made for some real "rust" in everyones skill level, so we had to slow down and get back in sync with the truck.

Both of us our now at the point where we feel we are actually driving the truck and not just responding to one situation after another.
Still lovin the whole thing and still smilin!

Tonight was one of the training days all of were worried about....pulling doubles. Lucky us, we got to go first.
Well I will tell you now that I would rather pull doubles than a 48' van!..
It sure looks intimidating, but it was way easier!
The wife made HUGE progress on her downshifting. The trainer on several occassions was saying "now you need to go down to x gear" and she replied "I am all ready there" with a big smile. She even accidently floated a gear so smooth she was like "what happened there?".

As we spend more time on the road, I just cannot believe how stupid 4 wheelers can be!...How can they not see basically the side of a building going down the road?

Had one guy come racing up to a stop from my right (he had a stop sign) and start to go when I was like 25 feet from him going straight across. I do remember my brain saying "man you are going to mess up that car real bad!" because there was not even enough time to get to the brake pedal let alone use it.

Every time one of us do our daily drive time there is at least one, but usually several similar things.....and that is just 2 hours!

I had said earlier I was thinking of putting a video cam on my dash to make a training video, but now I know I am going to do it for sure!

The company we hope to drive for when we graduate called us to see how school was going, that was nice of them!

:D

well things are going real well now, boy a few days of driving sure has made a difference in comfort/stress levels!
FINALLY the light went on for my backing!...now i can hit the spot about 90% of the time.

They are teaching us tougher moves now (how about a tight right turn added with a very steep down hill that starts in the middle of the turn with rail road track sitting just about where you need to shift).

Next week we will get tested on wednesday/thursday so they will take us out on the test course monday and tuesday.

Boy has the time flown by!...we are trying to ignore the up coming test but it sits in the back of your mind... the instructors have told us all the "problem kids" are now either gone or recycled and everyone left will graduate.. still....

Do you guys have "Student Driver" on your equipment? I noticed when I was in training people drove downright recklessly around us with the ad for the company on the side along with the "Student Driver" on the tractor and trailer. Yes we were slow, we had to downshift sequentially rather than just stopping and finding the right gear, but it doesn't seem wise to me to drive like that around students. When I was training I had cars that would try to beat me around left turns (I didn't take them too wide, they tried to beat me before the gap closed between the median and the truck). All sorts of wild stuff. While this kind of crap still happens on occasion, it doesn't happen nearly as much without the "Student Driver" on the rig.

Driving a tractor-trailer is a lot different than driving other types of vehicles, have to always anticipate someone is going to cut it close. Also there seems to be a myth out there that we can stop quicker because of all the wheels, a lot of people think that when they cut in front of us while stopping that we can easily slow down for them. Just have to keep all that in mind while driving, which I know is hard right now with all the other things you're thinking about like shifting, but after awhile that stuff will come naturally and you can concentrate 100% on keeping stupid drivers safe from themselves.

End of the third week, time sure is flying by!
The BIG TEST is just a few days away and that is all everyone is talking about. Last night at the start of the class they went over the actual test with us, and they have taught us aboout 1000% MORE then what the test will cover. Knowing that helped everyone a little.
They also took us on 90% of the test drive will we use, but did not tell us until the end of the class. They told everyone that if they drove like that next week, we would all pass.
All of that did relieve some tension, but......

Try as I might, I still have apprehension about the test. The wife and I have spent a lot of money and going truckin means an awful lot to us.

We both feel pretty confident, but it is a "test" after all!

Going to try and settle down over the weekend so we can enter next week relaxed.

Well the big day is here for me today...I take my final road test in just a few hours. Spent the last two days practicing, practicing, practicing.
Trying real hard to not get to stressed and look at it as if I am going to just take another instructor out for a ride. I personally feel that I will do well as long as I do not let the "test stress" over come me.
The wife tests tommorow so she gets another day to practice.

WHEW!

I pulled it off!..got my cdl!!!!
Was so nervous prior to the test I probally did not spell my name right on the test form!

Nailed my pre-trip 100%, Nailed my in cab 100%, then pulled out to the road in 2nd, shifted up to 3rd......and then promptly forgot where all the rest of the gears where!..

I actually had to come to a stop and start all over again..geez...

During the drive I drove great had zero faults...but still struggled to hit the gears right...man did that create havoc with my stress levels!

(by the way my "warm-up" drive went perfect!!..of course)

The tester told me at the end of the test that she has been testing for 7 years and she knew from the way I operated the vehicle in traffic ect. that my shift problem was caused by "test -i-ts".

I ended up in the middle of the class in test scores (nailed my backing by the way!)

I AM VERY GLAD THAT I HAVE SEVERAL MORE WEEKS OF TRAINING AT MY NEW JOB!!

The wife will test in the morning..so will follow up on that!

Well the wife did her test this morning. Passed everything but her backing.
She would have made it, but misunderstood one of the directions..she was VERY upset..but I told her to calm down and she just has to do the backing part again tommorow in the morning. She will do just fine.
Heck she even beat my score on the road test!

I was looking for Nancy when I got back off my drive test to see how she did but she was gone. Then I didn't see her over at the DMV either and thought, "oh, no".

She'll get it knocked out tomorrow.

today they took us out and showed us some new stuff since we are now "real truck drivers"...
They showed us how to "float" gears....geez what a great way to shift!
Had just about enough of that clutch stuff!

Also...of course my shifting was great unlike during the test!

Two of our fellow classmates got jobs today..that was pretty cool!
Once the wife does her backing test (and she will do great!) we will take our paperwork to our pre-hire place and set up the start of our training over there.

Was real different to go out and drive today after passing the cdl test, with the exception of the usual traffic crap, it was actually fun!

Tomorrow we take our graduation run, it is about 200 miles and goes through some pretty nice country to the south of us.

I cannot believe how much we have learned in just 4 weeks (trust me I know we have a lot more to learn!).

Congratulations

congrats on your experience.and learning so well..I have been in school about 2 months..from being in the retail world...this is so much different.. i have so much respect for drivers now......I do have all my endorsements..Good luck to you both.

Congrats.... I take my cdl test tomorrow morning. Got to be there at 5:30AM to warm up and testing starts at 7AM. Hope mine goes smooth as butter and I can be an "official" truck driver like you and your wife.

Just got back from our 200 mile graduation trip!
(oh, and yep she passed the back-up test just fine!)

Still have a ton to learn, but we still relish in our new skill set!
The number one thing I gained from this school is to see just how bad people drive... I cannot believe what I have seen so far, and I am sure it is nothing!

My wife has also gained a huge new level of self confidence that will stay with for the rest of her life!

Both of us would like to thank everyone here that have posted comments and the many private messages we have received....they have meant a lot to us.

We have some pictures coming, but since we forgot to bring the digital camera, we have get them developed and scanned first.

When we got home from our graduation, the company we applied with left us a message..."our records show that you graduated today..see you monday!"....that was great!!

I have to close this post with a small plug for our school...it was tough and demanding, but they really helped us when we needed it!

Commercial Drivers Services
Lakewood Wa
1-888-558-7120

I am going to try and do a log as we go through our initial training with our new company.

Our hope with all of this is that people considering this job can have a bit more in-depth view of what to expect from school and the first few weeks on the road.

THANK-YOU ALL AGAIN FOR THE SUPPORT!

Started our week out great... got the phone call, we go to oreintation this monday.......

now the real training begins!!

well its finally here!, we go to orientation in the morning. Then we drive around locally for 3-4 days to get use to the longer trailers (53's)..then off to our 4 weeks otr training.
The great thing is that during our otr training we are dispatched as a solo, we stop every night and the trainer gets a motel room and we sleep in the truck. So instead of being ran into the ground we get some real good training! ( the trainer gets a weekly salary AND A bonus when we pass the final test...great way to train!)..
Looking forward to the extra training, but I have to admit we are both anxious to have our first load on our own....
look out America...here we come!! :)

well we just finished our local training and have been signed off for otr training.
We will be leaving in the next few days. Can't wait..we are both really excited to be going out on the road!

really learned some neat "tricks" during our local training!

Found a new love..... automatic transmissions!.. once you learn how to REALLY use them..they are great! Just as much control as a manual without the shifting stuff!

None for me thanks! Sides what's shifting? Just have to move your hand. I've never driven an automatic, don't you have to move the selector anyway? I'd rather drive a manual.