Thanks. A small part of me wanted to fold, but there was no way I could allow that to happen. I am just glad that my 1st experience like that (I know there will be many more) was with an AWESOME instructor in the jump seat.

Driving Day 5 of CDL School 6/22/07:
This was my 6th road drive and I am finding myself feeling more and more comfortable with the truck. Today I drove a total of 116 miles on the interstates and city. The lessons were to learn and get comfortable with entering and exiting the interstates, speed management, sight management, and to continue practicing on up and down shifting, left & right turns from various positions, stops, etc in the city. My shifting was much better than previously and I might even be getting the hang of it…..LOL

Since the truck is not governed, I was able to drive the posted speed limit of 70 mph. I also got my first real taste of….shall we say, “Less than considerate 4wheelers” as I was cut off, tailgated, and had one guy that was lingering just behind my trailer in the right lane and although I had my turn signal on, he would not let me over. I know all of this is nothing to you pros out there as you deal with these things all day, every day, but for me it was once again exciting (and frustrating with the 4wheelers).

I am off this weekend so I get to knock out some more of my never ending “Honey-Do” list. I believe Monday we will be in the school yard practicing backing, parallel parking, etc in order to fine tune our skills. Then sometime during the week we will be testing for the school as well as driving the DPS course in preparation for our road test which is scheduled for Thursday at the DPS office. Boy how time flies.

Driving Day 6 of CDL School 6/25/07:
Well drives #7 & #8 were uneventful as I stayed in the “yard” to play. The order of the day was simple…..backing, backing, and backing. I spent a total of 8 hours today fine tuning all the backing requirements. Straight backing, sight & blind side dock backing, sight & blind side parallel parking, sight & blind side alley backing, sight & blind side off-set backing, and last but not least, my favorite, sight & blind side serpentine backing and I kid you not, my neck is actually a little sore from looking at both mirrors all day.

This is all preparation not only for every day life on the road, but for my “Final Exam” with the school. Tomorrow I think I will be out on the road practicing for the DPS exam which will be Thursday.

I did get a bit of a shocker today when I arrived at school. There were a total of 4 people in my class. 2 of them already had their CDL’s and where there for refresher training and they finished up this past Friday. That left me and a former Marine that just retired after 30 years. He and I have been in class together since day one. Well when I went in today, I saw that his name was scratched off the schedule. I think to myself, “Ok, he must have an appointment or something”. Then as I read the schedule further, I see that every spot where his name was, it is scratched off. Now I am thinking, “Uh oh, what happened, I hope he is Ok”. Well it turns out he quit. With only 4 days left to go, he called it over. I was shocked to say the least. I gave him a call on his cell to ask why……without divulging his personal information, he just decided that this was not for him after all and besides, he was just recently offered an office job that pays well. I wish him the best in his endeavors and know that he will be successful at anything. You don’t get to the 30 year mark in the Marines without knowing how to be successful.

I am now officially a one man class….a “lone wolf” if you will.

You can't get a much better instructor-to-student ratio than what you got! :D

Driving Day 7 of CDL School 6/26/07:
Today was another long day as I completed drives #9 & #10. At 6am this morning, we hit the road and went to practice the DPS route. It was a LOT shorter and easier than I expected. I also found out that for the DPS exam, I am only required to do one straight back, and one parallel park…..that’s it! After running the route a few times and practicing the parallel parking at the actual spot the examiner will take me, I am confident I have it down.

In the afternoon, it was back to the “yard” for my 2 of 3 “Final Exams” with the school. There were 2 separate exams that made up the finals for today. The first one is a pre-trip inspection or T.O.P (Truck Operations Pre-trip) as they call it and I managed to score 100% on that one. The second was the skills test, or T.O.S. (Truck Operations Skills) which included all those backing maneuvers, straight, alley, offset, serpentine forward and reverse, parallel parking and stopping at a set of cones within 6 inches of the front bumper. I was a tiny bit rough on the alley dock but did real well with all the others and the reverse serpentine was the best, guess that just proves that every dog can get lucky once in a while. Overall, I scored a 93% on the TOS. So that was a 96.5% for the 2 test today.

Tomorrow I will be taking my last and final exam for the school. I will be graded on executing the DPS course that I practiced on today. After that is done, the only thing that I have left will be the actual road test with DPS on Thursday morning. Since failure isn’t even an option, I guess I have no choice but to blow the test away.

your doing great, you'll do great and you will do just fine when you get out here with the rest of us.

This is a awsome thread you have going Devildice. I am at the research phase that you went through. These blogs really help to understand what to expect and do release some stress about getting a CDL. Glad to here you are trucking along the course 8) I will most liky be in your shoes someday.

thanks again keep the postin goin

Thank you flood.....I am excited to get the school phase behind me and move onto the next step: "Real Training" out on the road.

OUTSTANDING!!!! I am glad you are enjoying it. That is EXACTLY what I was hoping to accomplish with the thread.....to let newbee's out there like myself know what happens at a CDL school day by day. I know it may differ slightly from school to school, but the basic I would think are the same. Also, hopefully it would help ease any stress or anxiety a person might have. I too found the journals that people wrote both interesting and educational during my research phase.

I wish you the best of luck and will be looking for your posts when you get started. I know I am still as green as they get, but if there is anything that I can do to answer any questions, please feel free to ask.