heading to Millington academy 12/13...questions

yea longshot64 new boston is where my home terminal will be ... so we r basically on the same page as experiance goes... an ive watched all the utube trucker videos i could find ..lol

 

Lets see... yes, yes, no, yes, no...

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/swift/121315-my-swift-adventure.html

Here is the link to my thread from my time in Millington recently. It should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from the cast and crew at the Swift Academy. I had a great time in school and met some great people along the way.

As long as you have been upfront about any legal issues or health issues you have had in the past or present and you have all the necessary paperwork you should be good to go. The recruiters are usually pretty good at Vetting you before giving you a start date and a Grey Dog ticket. Most of the people sent home from my class were either medically ineligible, or were lacking paperwork from their doctor that they were told to bring.

It doesn't matter how many DOT Physicals you have had, they will still poke, prod, and make you turn your head and cough when you get to Memphis. As for driving a truck... it will all seem very foreign to you and will occasionally make you want to break something but it is actually quite fun once you get your head out of the way. I have driven trailers all my life so I had a basic understanding of the concept, but it is a whole different world sitting in a big truck with 53' of trailer that may or may not want to do what you are telling it to do.

The instructors in Millington are great. I had Dee and Gary when I was there and you couldn't ask for 2 more fun and knowledgeable people to teach you how to maneuver 75' of steel into a hole seemingly not designed for a Yugo to fit into. There will be times that you will want to scream and other times that you will not believe how easy a particular backing technique is after you have tried in vain to master it for 2-3 hours only to have it finally click.

As was previously stated... help is plentiful on the range. Not all help is helpful but even unhelpful help can sometimes be helpful. Sometimes the best thing you can do is walk away for a while and come back later. I found that just getting out of the truck and watching someone else attempt what I was trying gave me a better perspective on what I was doing wrong and what I needed to do to correct my error.

Most importantly, don't give up. We had 2 people in 735 who could have made it as truck drivers quit. They both could have done it but for whatever reason didn't want to or weren't willing to. One guy made it all the way to road training and quit because he "couldn't shift". In reality he could shift fine when he wasn't thinking about it but as soon as he started thinking about shifting he would nerve up and we were along for a bumpy ride.

 

I plan on reading it too as soon as I get to the hotel or if I'm lucky enough to get wifi on my next Grey dog. Bus to Cinncinatti is running late hope the connecting bus waits. See ya there xeebo.

 

So here are the casualties so far after Day #1 started this morning with 30 students. Did Wizz Quiz and DOT Physical. Lost 2 people do to Medical, one to No CDL Permit, and one unknown. So 26 left and counting. Logs training tomorrow it's been a long day gonna read a few more threads and hit the sack.

 

Sleep is your friend...

 

No casualties today, still 26 people in our class. We covered logs all day today I get all of it til I try to do split-sleeper but, that will come with time hopefully it won't be too difficult a question on the Logs test.

Looking forward to tomorrow our first day on the range, we get learn to do a straight line back should be a piece of cake I've backed a gooseneck or two in my day with just mirrors. My head is spinning cheat sheet for the PTI got handed out today trying to soak it all in.

 

Day #9 lost a couple long the way I think 3, I passed the classroom with a 95% now it's all about parking big truck and trailer in small boxes. It isn't pretty yet but effective long as I can keep under my alotted points I'm GTG work on perfection next week with road trainer. Speaking of boxes, nah better hold that thought.

 

How have they been treating you since going solo? Getting miles? Hometime?