CDL in hand... Now What ? Decision time, that's what...

Where does my screen name come from?

I am a huge fan of the 70's (and beyond) prog rock band "YES" - I have seen them 20+ times in concert. The name of my first sailboat, a Catalina30, was "Perpetual Change" - a song on one of their early albums, "The Yes Album."

The phrase 'perpetual change' is a fairly accurate way to describe what has been a nomadic lifestyle for me with many forks in the road.

-----------

Perpetual Change
(Anderson/Squire)

I see the cold mist in the night
And watch the hills roll out of sight.
I watch in every single way,
Inside out, outside in, every day.

The sun can warm the coldest dawn
And move the movement on the lawn.
I learned in every single day,
Inside out, outside in, every way.

And there you are,
Making it up but you're sure that it is a star,
When all you'll see
It's an illusion shining down in front of me,
And then you'll say
Even in time we shall control the day,
When what you'll see
Deep inside the day's controlling you and me.

And one peculiar point I see,
As one of many ones of me.
As truth is gathered, I rearrange,
Inside out, outside in
inside out, outside in,
Perpetual change.

And there you are,
Saying we have the moon, so now the stars,
When all you see
Is near disaster gazing down on you and me,
There you're standing,
Saying we have the whole world in our hands,
When all you'll see,
Deep inside the world's controlling you and me.

You'll see perpetual change.
You'll see perpetual change.

There you are,
Saying we have the moon, so now the stars,
When all you see
Is near disaster gazing down on you and me,
There you're standing,
Saying we have the whole world in our hands,
When all you'll see,
Deep inside the world's controlling you and me.

As mist and sun are both the same,
We look on, as pawns of their game.
They move to testify the day,
Inside out, outside in,
inside out, outside in,
All of the way.

 

Thanks for posting! It really comes down to:

- Van

or

- Flatbed

I am leaning toward the latter...


But wait there's more! lol

 

- Maverick
- CT Transportation
- JB Hunt.

Huh? How'd JB Hunt get in this list? They weren't there this morning!

Well they just robo-called me... lmao.

Maverick

I was really excited about Maverick to start with - they were one the first ones I put an app into. But...

Initially they said I was just outside their hiring area... and they have been very ...s l o w... to make the official offer. They say they are still waiting to hear from a previous employer... But that previous employer has responded to the others, so I don't know. At least the recruiter has been calling every few days to keep in touch...

Maverick has auto shift transmissions. Not very excited about that.

I would be in the glass division - hauling big thick pieces of glass all over the place. hmmm precarious load? They seem to have a top notch training program and they also seem to be somewhat the elite of flatbedding.

Starting pay is a somewhat better than Roehl I think... it doesn't seem definitive.

-------

CT Transportation

This is the flatbed division of Comcar. Very little searchable info available about these guys. Some disconnects between corporate and the division. I called the local terminal manager who seemed to know more definitively what was going on. He invited me to come down and have a look around. Training is much more nebulous. I called the recruiter back twice after our initial conversation, and left voicemails, but she has not called. Not a good sign.


Perpetual

 

...as provided by the companies who have offered (or are about to offer) me a pre-hire:

http://www.goroehl.com/inexperiencedDriver/app/whyRoehl.aspx

http://www.schneiderjobs.com/CompanyDrivers/AvailableOpportunities/index.htm

http://www.maverickusa.com/driving-jobs/

http://www.cttransportation.com/

 

...was pretty gosh darn cool.

I had a sudden flash of inspiration in early December that told me this was the time in my life to try my third (last?) less-than-illustrious career. I did a modicum of research and mainly picked a local 6-week college CDL program for its decent reputation, acceptable price, and convenient location. Looked into applying for financial aid, which would have been available had I gotten my act together earlier, but it was too late to get it in time for the 02 January 2012 start date. Looks like I can be reimbursed over time from the hiring company so no biggie.

Week 1 was all classroom work to prepare us for the CDL Learner's Permit. Watched a lot of videos, saw some PowerPoint slides, and took a few dozen practice exams. Friday morning was the test at the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration. Passed the general knowledge, combination, and air brake exams with no problem. I did study the MVA book including answering all the practice questions at the end of each section. This plus the classroom activities made it pretty easy.

Subsequent weeks 2-6 were Monday classroom and Tues-Fri at the range and on the road.

On the 2nd Monday I left class early to go take the Doubles/Triples and Tanker endorsement exams at the MVA. Again no problem passing these.

Tuesday the real fun began. We had 7 students and 2 trucks. We spent the morning learning about the pre-trip inspection and the afternoon pulling straight forward and straight back. Challenging at first but got easier with repetition. By the end of the first week most of us had moved on to the blind offset maneuver.

By the second week we were doing sight side parallel parking.

The three yard skills for the state of Maryland are:
- Straight backing
- Blind side offset backing
- Sight side parallel parking

The parallel was quite daunting at first but once I figured out the feel of the pivot point and the back of the trailer, it got easier. My best advice is to always put the truck in a position where you can make it go straight back for as far as possible during the maneuver. The more you move the wheel and jack the rig, the more you have to undo.

(Side note: I have never done an alley dock skill and don;t even know yet what it is, since that skill is not required in MD. I keep seeing on this forum that it is a requirement in other states and during most employer skills tests. I am looking forward to learning about it. Maybe I'll look for a video of it on youtube.)

The Monday classroom activities included
- Smith System
- Log Books
- Mapping
- FMCSR regulations

I learned a lot during the classroom. I think I enjoyed it more than most of my classmates. I thought the logs were easy, but then I am an engineer with a math brain so maybe that's part of it.

Week 3 range time was split between yard skills and driving on the enclosed range (an old Navy base that was used for training recruits starting in WWII - very interesting history there and my Dad actually trained there in 1952). We learned how to shift and go around corners, etc. I absolutely loved learning how to drive a tractor trailer!

Toward the end of week 4 we started to go out on the road in real traffic. That was a trip. Good thing the truck had STUDENT DRIVER painted all over it.

Week 5 driving was split between yard and road. One day we drove the whole day and ate lunch out. That was really fun. I ended up logging about 300 miles by the time it was over.

Week 6 classroom was actually held at the scales on I-95 near the Susquehanna River bridge. We watched as an officer did an inspection of a tractor trailer. they let us walk underneath in the bay and everything. Quite a different perspective down there. In the scale house we watched how their computer system weighed each vehicle and how they could easily pick one out at random for an inspection. After the visit to the scalehouse we went back to the college and took our final exams. One more practive day of driving Tuesday and then Wednesday 08 Feb was my day to do the road test at the MVA...

 

I thought I would be more nervous than I was.

There were 2 students testing that day (08 Feb 2012).

I met my instructor at the range and then drove the truck the ~20 miles to the MVA. This was a nice warm up. My appointment was for 08:30. Met the examiner inside then we went out to the truck. First was pre-trip inspection. She said I had 45 minutes and could do it in any order I wanted, as long as I covered:
- In-cab
- Air brakes
- Engine compartment
- Vehicle exterior, including lights.

That is the order I did it in. I felt relaxed and confident, having practiced enough times to have the correct terminology. Of course the fact that I have been a sailing instructor for nearly 10 years didn't hurt. I just pretended like I was teaching a class... lmao.

After doing the in-cab, air-brakes, and engine, and just getting to the rear trailer axle saying "I would check this axle just like the rear tractor axle including the spring mount, springs, U-bolts, brake hose, brake chamber..."

"Uh... that's it, you can stop," the examiner says.

I look at her questioningly...

"You have enough points to pass the pre-trip, do you want to continue?"

"Well, it's a little cold out here, maybe some driving skills would be more fun..."

"Sounds good. Great job," she says...

Waaay cool.

So the 3 skills (straight backing, blind offset backing, sight-side parallel parking) were next. They give 10 minutes each for these skills, which is a lot of time in my opinion. In practice I was able to do all three in about 4 minutes total. On test day I really took my time and did one pull up for each of the offset and parallel. Overall it was less than 10 minutes for the three total, including time for the examiner to position the cones for the length of the rig.

Next was the road test. 10 mile course with lots of turns, traffic lights, highway 55 mph down to city 25 mph. One turn required us to go immediately up a steep bridge right after the turn - challenging.

I loved it. It was so fun. 2/3 of the way through the instructor said, "OK you're good, I haven't driven a truck in a while, maybe I can finish the course?" She was kidding but showing how comfortable she was riding with me that the wheel.

It was a great experience and I was mighty proud to walk out of there with the Class A Commercial Driver License in hand

I had to wait for the 2nd student to do his test, and then I got to drive the truck back to the school. I actually ground a couple gears on the way back. My instructor asked, "You didn't do that during the exam did you?" I said, "No I was saving it for now." We laughed...


Thanks for reading,
Perpetual

 

Many times when I am faced with a large decision I will make a simple table with plus (+) and minus(-) columns. The problem with this is that you can basically make it go whichever way want to. There always seems to be an innate subconscious feeling (instinct) that we can sometimes tap into. This decision is particularly difficult because there are things I like about both and not many things I don't like. I need my instincts to bubble up to the surface and guide me.

An example of what can go into both the '+' and the '-' columns underneath each company in this case is: flatbedding...

...but then taking it down to the next level detail might help... maybe putting +/- under flatbedding itself rather than under the company names.

So let's try it.

Flatbedding (with the company in question)
-----------
+ Physically demanding to help keep me in shape

+ interesting variety of loads

- tarping in bad / windy weather

- increased risk of injury

+ fewer cargo bay doors to back up to. mostly forklift and crane near equipment or piles of stuff

+ challenging load securement (i.e., a puzzle to figure out - we engineers like that sort of thing...)

+ ease of getting other types of trailer loads if flatbed cargo is slow (this is a one-way street - flatbedders can take vans but not vice versa)

etc.


OK that helps a little I think.


Will continue to ponder a while....

 

Oh yeah and there seems to be a little more money in it, generally speaking...

The money is important but it is far from the overriding driver for me. The bottom line net income between the two probably won't be that different...

And I've already proven many times that I can live below the poverty level and be quite happy... It's more about what is between my ears at the end of this life than what is in my wallet or bank account.

Perpetual

 

"Time is nothing;
But for the way we feel,
When we are wishing for,
Or wishing away,
The time."