Been awhile, but I have been away attending the CDL school at Arkansas State University at Newport. This is the school that Maverick sent me to to obtain my CDL. The school was very good and all of the instructors we very knowledgeable and informative, the weather was terrible, everything from frog drowning rain storms to 3 inches of snow and ice, and a cold wind blowing almost non-stop and no wind blocks anywhere in site. Overall though the school was great, I would recommend to anyone. It has alot of information packed into 17 days, straight through with no days off, with some of the days lasting as long as 17 hours, 6am class, 1 pm range, 5 pm road trip that lasted to 11:00pm. Another day the road trips lasted until 9:00pm. Most days were from 6am to 4 or 5 pm.
The last day was Thursday, and we went back to Little Rock to the Maverick Campus to work Friday and Saturday on load securment since orientation didn't start until Sunday. We were paid an additional $100 per day for these two days, and it ggot us a leg up on starting to learn load securement.
Orientation was fast paced and very informative and they kept talking about how Maverick was like being a part of a big family, and it was visable in how we were treated and how everyone addressed each other by their first names, in fact on the ID badges the first Name is printed in large print just below the picture, and then the whole name is in smaller print underneath. The cadre there were also very professional, and very knowledgeable with out being overbearing. The last day when they extend the offer of employment, you feel as though you have accomplished some great feat, and it feels great, you then shake everyones hand in a long recieving line and you feel you have been accepted into the family. An experience I will remember for a long time to come.
I am now awaiting my driver trainer, whom I have already spoken to, pick me up at my home to train with for the next 3 to 5 weeks. Then it will be back to Little Rock to either take more securement training or to test out and get my own truck.
I'll keep up this posting for the next few days until my trainer arrives, then I will be off line for awhile. If there are any questions about anything I have done up to this point, but have forgot to cover, post a question and I'll try to answer.
Another step closer to being a safe flat bedder out on the road!
:wink:
Back from CDL school and orientation at Maverick!
