Adventures at SAGE
 

9/4/07

Wow, what a hectic day. I arrived at SAGE early this morning to get my paperwork for the DOT physical and drug screen.

I get to the occupational health place at 7:45am and am the first one there. No wait, which is nice. The physical is pretty standard. First thing you do is pee in a cup. They just asked my height and weight, no measurements. Then to a vision test which I pass. After that I am told to strip down to my underwear and put on a gown. The nurse pokes around my belly, check my hearing, etc. Then she checks my blood pressure. It was 130/98! Another nurse comes in to check and it is 132/100! She told me I passed everything else but I can't get my card. They need evidence from my doctor that the condition has resolved or I have done something to correct the problem (medication). They give me a referral to the family doc and send me out.

Needless to say I am steamed!! :twisted:

I go back to SAGE and talk to Diana and told her that I didn't pass my physical b/c of HBP but I will get it worked out.

I zoom home and schedule an appointment with the family doc at 11:15am. I get there and get my blood pressure checked. It miraculously reduced to 124/78!! Whoo hoo!! :D

The doc printed a letter to the occupational health place that all is well. I take the letter to them and I am approved for 2 years.

By the time I get back to SAGE I have missed most of the first day. They gladly accept me (and my $4200 check) into the program. I walk into the class and am introduced to my 3 classmates and the instructor. The instructor is a retired lady with 25 yrs experience. Her husband sat in on the class as well. They ran as a team. For the next hour we go through the CDL testing booklet and she is basically telling us what will be on the test. After that we watched a video. While we watched the video, the instructor went through by CDL booklet and marked the things thatI missed. We will have a quiz tomorrow.

Anyway, off I go to study. I will periodically update this thread as I go. I hope you enjoy or at least get something out of it!

Keep em coming and good luck :lol:


I start Sage Missoula Mt next Monday. Interesting to see how similar our experiences are


Rick

Thanks rj. Good luck at SAGE. If it is anything like it is here in Indy you will like it. :D

9/5/07

Testing testing testing... seems to be the theme here in the first few days.

First thing we did this morning was a test on general knowlege. Thes test was fifty questions. I got 47 out of 50 right. :D Most answers are pretty obvious, just gotta use some common sense.

After the test we stated slamming our way through the CDL manual and watched videos after every section. Today we took tests on airbrakes, combination vehicles, and doubles/triples. Glad to say that I aced every one. :)

Our instructor said that we will be getting our permits on Friday (2 people in the class already have theirs). On Monday the 10th we will go to the range to check out a tractor and practice coupling to the trailer! I am pumped!

Wife and I have done the DOT and Pee in the cup thing. Paid a deposit to Sage to ensure our place in class on the 10th.

Had to call them today as we never rec'd an admission acceptance letter. Got one by email- their organization skills could be better. We live about 130 miles from school and will have to find a place to stay in a college town full of fall semester students. Working on renting a 26 ft. travel trailer. Guess we will get some early practice towing :lol: :lol:

Because we have a home, my one problem with Sage so far is I am unable to get a schedule except for the first 5 days or so. I "think" we might go seven or more days in a row. It would be nice if we knew so we could make accommodation arrangements. :oops:

Want to get this thing going.

I don't think that there is really a set schedule. Since my class is small and everyone is catching on pretty quickly we are ahead of schedule. You will learn more when you start.

Good luck!! :D

9/6/07

More of the same today. We finished up tankers and hazmat in the CDL manual and watched the corresponding videos. Lew Grills is the guy in the videos. The video had to me made in the 80's. Pretty funny.

Tomorrow we are filling out 'pre-hire' applications in the morning (wast of time) and then at 9:30 we will be released to get our CDL learning permits. We will take general knowlege, airbrakes, doubles/triples, tankers, and hazmat exams. After that all that is needed to obtain the CDL is the skills test.

Anyway, off to study before the Colts game! GO COLTS!!!

9/7/07

Today we filled out pre-hire applications which took quite a while to do. Of all of the apps I filled out (6 total) I am only really interested in one of them.

I was done by 9:10am and was released to take my CDL permit test. I ran over to the Social Security office to apply for a card since I can't find the one I got 2 years ago. :evil:

I was in and out of there in 5 minutes. The piece of paper they give you verifies your number and is as good as the card itself. So off I went to take my tests.

I told the ladies at the license branch that I was going to take the tests for all of the endorsements. They looked at me like I was crazy and told me good luck.

Well, I took general knowlege, combinations, air brakes, doubles/triples, tanker, and hazmat tests. I passed them all on the first try! :D

After they gave me the permit I had to go to another branch to do finger prints and background check for the hazmat endorsement. Got that done rather quickly so now all I have to do is learn how to drive a rather large vehicle! :)

I am happy that SAGE prepared me so well for the testing. Monday we go to the range to do brake test, slide trailer tandems and couple/uncouple.

Congrats :lol: !!!!

Seems like not all Sage Schools stick to the same schedule. We start Monday and take the test Wednesday!

Your lucky....In Montana, there are only two places in the entire state that will process your fingerprints for Hazmat.

Colts Fan, would you PM. I don't have enough posts.

Rick

PM'd you.

Moved this to newbie land, per OP request.

Hey Colts Fan,

I just came across your thread and wanted to say good luck. I too attended Sage but in San Antonio, Texas and although I can not compare it to any other school, I can say that I was EXTREMELY pleased with them. If you are familar with my thread (Highseas to Highways in the "what about this company" section), you can read/compare my time at Sage to yours if you want. Anyways, again I wish you the best of luck and look forward to reading how things go for you.

Hey DD,

I have read your entire thread and always read it as you add posts. Thanks for sharing your experience and keep em coming. :) Your posts are truly inspirational for newbies entering the industry.

9/10/07

Got to school a little late today due to a vehicle fire that clogged up !-70W heading into town. When I got there we started the first of multiple videos on backing.

This video had to be taken in the early 80's. The cars were old and the tractor doing all of the backing was an old Peterbilt cab-over. I think we watched 2 hours of video on backing which is good. It drove home the point that although backing is 1% of our total driving time, it is the most diffucult thing we will do.

After that we went over a couple chapters in our text book and left for lunch.

After lunch the class met at the range. When we arrived there was a guy from another class getting ready to take a drive. His driving instructor invited us to partake in the wonder that is the pre-trip inspection. This guy was a machine! How are we supposed to remember all that stuff! I guess practice makes perfect.

Our classroom instructor summoned us over to the other tractor/trailer. Ours is a white International with 350K miles. We were taught how to slide the trailer tandems and the fifth wheel. I got behind the wheel for the first time today! :D All I did was stay on the clutch and move back and forth to get the pin to pop in the tandems. It was still cool though. The fifth wheel was a pain to slide because it was dry as a bone. It was difficult to get the pins to pop back out.

After that she showed us how to uncouple and couple. At the end she loaded us all end and drove us around the range for a bit. Can't wait to get back in there and drive that thing for real!

:lol: :lol:

Glad you are having fun!! I remember the first time I let 80,000 lbs run up to 85 mph going down a hill in montana, I never new my butt cheeks could actually grab a seat like that!!! One other time that happened was a big gust of wind on the high plains of wyoming which I swear put that rig on 9 wheels instead of 18.

Anyway,, was just wondering why some one would pay $4200 for a driving
school.. you going to be driving a nuclear powered truck or something??
I paid $ 1500 @ Dootson truck school here in the L.A.

Best of luck anyway, hope you have a good experiance!!

ALSO-- something to watch for in training-- hopefully they will take several
people along in the sleeper on training runs-- watch the guys lean way over in the drivers seat when making a right 90 degree turn. Funny sh*T--
i THOUGHT THIS ONE GUY WAS GOING TO IMPALE HIMSELF ON THE GEAR SHIFT NOB!!!!

You answered your own question about the pricing difference Fuelman. Sage training is one on one. No one else in the truck during training but one student and the instructor. When they say that you will get 40 hours of "behind the wheel" they don't mean 10 hours driving and 30 hours falling asleep in the rear of the cab. A much better way to learn IMO.

And in my case that 40hrs behind the wheel turned out to be more because our class was so small......in fact towards the end, there was just me, a "one-man" class and I got a ton of personalized training.

oops, sorry, i didn't clarify.
my training was one on one but for only 10 hours, you could pay more for extra hours if needed by the driver. i had been driving for 27 years before getting into trucking so it only took 10 to pass the driving test.

I could see that it might take some people 40 hours to get to that comfort level,, anyhow,, must be a great school seens how my last name is sage.

the driver leaning thing was on the road test with CRST who i was with for 3 months. (whole nother story there)

was just rambling on at 2 in the mourning after work.
like i said i'm a little dumb not stupid ,, there is a difference you know.

Appreciate the posts. So far, SAGE has been worth its weight in gold. I can't wait until I actually start DRIVING!!!

9/11/07

"Let us never forget this day."

Again more and more and more videos. We watched a bunch of videos on shifting and pre-trip inspections. All of these videos were made by the different engine manufacturers, (CAT, Cummins, Volvo?) Does Volvo make their own engines?

Yeah, the recruiter for CR England came in today. The first thing he told us was, "Don't even think about getting a local job, because there aren't any." And, "Average length of haul in 1600 to 1800 miles." And you will get 3200-3700 miles per week as a company driver." Oh yeah, and they are "revamping" their lease program to "make it better" and "make sure drivers make money with it". I had to bite my tongue the whole time.

In the afternoon the terminal manager for Boyd Bros. came by. I was impressed by him. He seemed pretty honest. Unfortunately, it won't be a good fit for me.

A pretty good day, can't wait for tomorrow! :D

9/12/07


More tests, more videos... dozing off... waking up! :sad:

9/13-14/07

Yesterday we watched more videos and covered more chapters in the textbook.

This moring we had a recruiter from Schnieder talk to us. He seemed like a decent guy. He was straight forward let us know the opportunities. They are changing their pay structure. He told me they pay HHG, not practical miles. He said they have always done HHG. Don't they pay practical miles now?

Later we watched some more videos, mostly on making turns and a long, very repetitive video on jake brakes.

A recruiter from Averitt brought us lunch and talked to us for a while. He seemed like a very nice guy, but I would never want to work there. You have to pay $200 out of pocket for uniforms! :shock: Yeah right! Wear a tie to orientation?!? LOL!

Near the end of the day we went over log book and trip planning. We have an assignment over the weekend to go over our trip and make stops for fuel, sleep, and a reset if we have to. This was definitely the most interesting part of the day.

We will be done with the classroom portion of training next Thursday by noon. We will get our range schedules by Wednesday. :D

Hey, my classmate Randy says he has a friend on this board that he used to die cast with in Kokomo!

Hi there. A friend of Randy's is a friend of mine.

Hi Colts Fan,

Yes I worked with Randy in Kokomo, but don't hold that against me!! lol
Randy is a good man and likes to get the job done. Sounds like you guys are doing well in school. He stopped by the plant Thursday on his way to school and I got to talk with him a little while. He was telling me he's really pleased with SAGE and said you guys will get behind the wheel next week sometime. I use to drive before but it's been about 16 years ago. Just listen to your instructors and don't get in a hurry with anything, some things will come easy and some things might not but try to keep from getting frustrated. Sounds like you have some wonderful and experienced instructors there and I'm sure you guys will do just fine!

I've really enjoyed reading about your training and I too might go back to driving if something goes south with the company I'm at. I would have to go through schooling again if I return to driving since it's been so long since I drove and I told Randy about SAGE and that I thought it was probably the best school in our state to get trained.

Good luck to you both and keep it safe out there !

Colts Fan

As I write this, my wife is on her first truck session at the "range". The Missoula Sage seems to run on a different schedule than yours. Our schedule is generated at the corporate office for Sage in Missoula Montana.

I get in the truck tomorrow :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :lol:

Rick

PS You're right Hazmat was a piece of cake :mrgreen:

Hey friend,

Randy and I get along well. It looks like he is leaning towards doing flatbed with TMC. I can definitely see him doing well with flatbed. If you decide to go back to driving school I would recommend SAGE. Mary is a great instructor. :D

Hey rj, congrats on getting past the Hazmat. You did better than I did, I missed 2! :wink:

So how did it go on the range? How did your wife do? I hope everything went well. We start on the range later this week. Our classroom side ends Thursday :D Yes, our schedules are completely different. We did all classroom first and will finish the next 2 weeks on the range.

So anyway, as far as class is concerned we have been blazing through the textbook and working on a mock trip. We had to log a trip from Indy to Dallas to Ft. Worth to Chicago and back to Indy. I finished that today. So all we have left to do is finish the textbook and take a final exam over the FMCSA book (an open book test). That takes place Thursday morning and is supposed to take 3 hours! :shock: I'll be glad when that's over and I can get to the range and drive a big truck. 8)

Hey Colts
Glad to hear all is going well with Sage in Indy, and RJ and wife are in Missoula.
My wife (Wingz) and I start Sage here in Salt Lake tonite!
Will be interesting to compare notes as we go along. We will be taking it a little bit slower as I still work a full time job, tho get off at 2pm. Wife and I have a motorcycle busines we are in process of shutting down, but she still has a few reservations to honor. SOOOO, we will be going some in afternoons, and some in evening, and weekends. SAGE is being great so far and says they will totally work with whatever time we can put in.
I will start my own thread also, and you and us and RJ's as well as any other interested can compare notes.
BOL there!
Cheers

Good stuff Roadie, BOL!

9/19/07

We finished our texbooks today and got our range schedule! I will start on the range on Saturday!!! :D We have a final exam tomorrow over the FMCSA book.

Just for everyone's information, instruction at the range is one-on-one and consists of 11 four hour sessions.

RJ, how has your time been on the range?

Wife did great and came back stoked :lol: :lol: The next day- Sunday she didn't do so well. Frustration set in when she tried the 45 degree offset backing dock. I have a bit of trailer towing experience and did OK. We both are set to go again to the range Thursday. Friday am we go on the streets :oops: :oops: Look out Missoula!!! :shock:

We have done the trip planning exercise and had a course on backing today in class. Did our first couple and uncouple too.

Did you know Sage started in Billings Montana. Missoula was the #2 school in their system.

Rick

Hey everyone, been slacking on the updates here.

Well on 9/22 I finally got behind the wheel. :D The first thing we did was go over the pretrip inspection. It is pretty thorough, takes a solid 15 minutes to complete.

After that we did coupling, uncoupling. My instructor uncoupled and it was up to me to get hooked up again. Before I coupled we bobtailed around the range a few times. This range is very small and is mostly gravel, which makes for a rough ride. The instructor asked if I had ever driven a standard transmission before. I answered no and he kind of smirked and said this should be interesting.

The first time around I shifted using a single clutch. Once I got the hang of that we went to a double clutch which was messing me up a bit. After a few laps I got the hang of it and was shifting pretty smoothly. 8)

Then I bobtailed back to the trailer, got lined up and started backing. I was backing extremely slow and didn't even hear or feel the lock click. But I got her hooked up.

Then we moved on the the backing maneuvers that are on the state road test. There are 3 maneuvers:

1. Straight line backing
2. Offset backing
3. Parallel parking

There used to be more but the rules changed in June of this year. You know, it all looks so easy in the videos because those guys are seasoned pros. When you start doing it for the first time it is tough!!!

Even straight line backing was tough. The key for me is to get the setup right. After getting through the cones moving forward I wanted to drift to the left for some unknown reason. But after practicing a few times I got it down pretty good.

I ended my first day at the range continuing to practice the offset backing. Again, my setup was the killer. I would get so close byut end up way too tight on my left side.

I got to the range yesterday morning (9/23) at 7:40am ready for my instruction to begin at 8:00am. I waited until 8:30am and still no instructor. So I left a note on the door and left. Got a call from my instructor at 9:00am after I got home saying he had problems with his truck. Pretty disappointed I wasn't able to practice yesterday.

I'm looking forward to my range time today at 12:30.

Congrats on the driving! Can't wait till we get there. Glead we're finally done with the Lew videos, at least for awhile,,lol.
Got our permits Fri. I got all 3 endorsements, and Wingz missed the hazmat by 1 question two times. She is retaking it this morning.
BOL keep the updates coming!
Cheers

I plan on attending SAGE at the ivy tech in Lawrenceburg, IN sometime in March. Reading your thread has helped me to know what to expect when I get there. It's been an interesting read so far. Look forward to more.

Hi all

As you may know, my wife had a couple of problems on her first drive test and we have been working through them. There are folks at Sage who listen even if an instructor may also had a problem. I cannot say much more now.

I just finished my second road trip- this one at night. Did 134 miles. We go down I-90 getting off at every exit practicing down shifting then up shifting as we go back on the entrance ramp. I'm starting to get IT ! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Made beau coup mistakes but better than before.

On my 3rd road trip tomorrow so I better get some sleep

Rick

Glad to things are starting to gel for you Rick. Sorry to hear your wife is struggling a little. Not everyone can be a teacher that try to. Not sure of the problem there, but have seen to many that didn't know how to communicate.
We are still in classroom mode pretty much. Have watched a couple of pre-trips so far and got out and adjusted brakes last nite.
Good luck on your next drive and hope things smooth out for the wife!
BOL
Cheers
Steve

HEY,,,how's it going out there??????? :roll:

Hey guys. Glad everyone is enjoying the posts. Rick, your wife will get it with practice! Hopefully I can get a nice long drive in sometime soon. Glad to hear you're doing well.

Foxoreo, you will be happy with SAGE. Best of luck to ya!

9/24/07


More practice on the backing. I have the straight line backing down pat, and I managed to nail the offset backing about 50% of the time. Luckily, I have plenty of drives left (9) to get it everytime. 8)

My drive time today is 5-9pm. I wonder what I'll do when it gets dark! :shock:

Maybe I'll be able to get out on the road to practice shifting. You can only shift so much on the tiny range. Another challenge for me has been the pre-trip inspection. There are so many things to remember. But when I did it myself the other day, I was suprised how much info I retained. I should have it down pat after a few more times.

Hey Roadie, you miss Lew yet? LOL!! You'll be more nervous than a virgin on prom night that first time out on the range, but you will quickly become comfortable and enjoy it!

Thanks Colts!
Nah,,whenever I miss Lew, I just pull out the homework book!!! lol
Enjoy your trip tonite!!
Cheers