How long did you spend on logs in School/Training for your CDL?

I still have the sample log dated March 17, 1964 that I completed at North Carolina Truck Driver Training School. After the initial class on Hours of Service, students logged every day including weekends during the four-week course. We were required to "Display Road Progress sheet and log book on clipboards on every road trip." Logs had be "Up to date, instructor's signatures on all violations and when less than 12 hours available."

I chose 31-60 minutes on the poll although logs were probably discussed many times after the first day. The only visual aid that I remember is the basic chalk board. Perhaps log book lines one through four were permanent on the chalk board.

The course of instruction lasted four weeks. Classroom instruction consisted of three 50-minute sessions during weekday mornings on the campus of North Carolina State College. We ate lunch at the college cafeteria before the afternoon sessions and road trips from the practice field outside of Raliegh city limits. Russell M. Haynie, Jr. was classroom instructor. Formerly a high school teacher, Mr. Haynie held a B.S. from William & Mary College. He had been safety supervisor for Virginia Trailways Bus Co.

The school is now located at Johnston Community College, Smithfield, NC. They held their 500th Class Graduation & Alumni Reunion in 2005. Since 1949, they have provided over 20,000 drivers to the trucking industry. I seriously thought about attending the reunion because we were traveling to visit family in Atlanta on that day.

 

i did not vote your poll as i couldn't remember the exact amount of time from 19/20 years ago............. suffice it to say though that more time was spent on logs back then, then i have seen "recent" school grads complete. in fact, when i was an instructor myself, (yard/road mostly back then, only a small amount of time classroom) the classroom instructor spent about 15-20 minutes teaching, because he would say, its the trucking company that hires the student responsibility to teach them that...............

 

I honestly don't think that much time needs to be spend on logs in school. A day or so to go over the basics is plenty. The focus should be on learning to drive the truck, learning to back the truck, learning to constantly be aware of your surroundings, learning how to pre-trip and know what you are looking at, learning to adjust breaks, learning to put on chains (which I was never taught), and last but not least, learning to properly enter and exit a rig (I can't count how many times I have seen someone get hurt entering or exiting a truck.

Focus on the above so you are safe to drive once you go out on the road with your trainer.

The time with your trainer should be spent further refining your driving skills, learning the log book, and learning how to properly manage your time and plan your trips.

I also think that trainers should have to attend schooling on how to train a driver, and this schooling should be a common place for all trainers, not something simply done "in house" by a company. Too many training programs are merely a few weeks of team driving, and that doesn't teach the new driver anything, especially when the trainer doesn't fully understand everything he/she is doing.

 

and to think people say new drivers are rushed out onto the road

this makes me feel a lot better

 

LogsRus, why did you say, "WOW! Teaching logs on the chalk board had to be challenging" ? Some of us actually went to school before pocket calculators and power point, and we got an egikasion.

In 1964, there were three well recognized truck driver schools in the country: Cheney Brothers in California, North Carolina Truck Driver Training School in Raleigh, and a school in the Northeast.

North Carolina Truck Driver Training School is the only one of its kind in continuous operation since it began. It was organized by John Thomas "Tom" Outlaw in 1949. His interest in trucking began with his father, who owned the first dump truck in Columbia, SC. Mr. Outlaw served as executive vice president of the North Carolina Trucking Association, etc., etc. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the monthly magazine, Tarheel Wheels.

In 1968, I was in the drivers' room of a terminal in Roxana, IL. A heavily loaded "covered wagon" pulled in, and the driver deftly back the rig into a tight parking spot. The driver was an older man. He entered the drivers' room and asked me to help him with his log book. He stated that he had always operated two-man, and his lead driver had kept both log books. Now, I think that he may have been dyslexic. There was a complete contrast between his driving ability and his log keeping ability. I felt sorry for him.

 

You must not know any doctors, school only teaches them the books. Doctors learn to be doctors when they become a resident doctor. In Med school they don't see real people until the last year of school. Doctors learn their job on the job.

Mark

 

My school spent around 2hrs total explaining logs to us. The instructor used a blown up log sheet and dry erase markers to show us everything. Also had a set of worksheets to have us fill out the logs for what was written down above them. How long driver drove, where he stopped etc. Also had us looking for violations of the 11 and 14 hr rule, speeding. He was real good at teaching the logging and helped out with any questions. I feel the training was above average for log training.