My Millington Expierence

Hey everyone, been reading for quite some time but not really had much to say. Thanks for such a great forum it has been really helpful. Anyways just graduated from Millington today and got my CDL so I have orientation in Gary on Monday. Overall so far I would say the Swift experience has been great with the exception of the way they taught us the alley dock. I was very impressed with the road instructors but that can vary depending on where you get sent for that part of training, I was in Gary and both Tom and Chuck were awesome. Anyways if anyone has any questions about Millington and what to expect let me know.

 

The problem was the way they had it set up is nothing like the state test is. They taught us to pivot around the front cone on the left side of the box. The problem with that is you will go outside the box on the right with the back of the trailer every time and that is an automatic fail on the IL skills test. The only way to pass the test is to pivot about 15' in front of the box so you are squared up going into it. Basics are the same really just need to line up further out. Also for the state test you have to pull out way farther than they had us do and you are not allowed to stick your head out the window. The way they had us do it, you were so close to start that you could just start bending it almost right away, no need to judge where you should start the cut at and you could stick your head out the window all you wanted. In the end its the same maneuver but you have some bad habits that will cause you to fail if you don't break them.

The road instructors were well aware of this and kinda retaught us the move the right way so no big deal and I passed it but would be nice to have been practicing it the way i need to do it on the test all along. Funny thing is I watched everyone taking the test in a school bus fail the alley dock simply cause they all tried to pivot on that cone and every time they broke the right side of the box (our instructor even called it a "Millington"). I don't know how other states do it but in IL if you bring any part of your vehicle over the line of cones its an automatic fail, even if you don't hit one and the wheels stay in, you just backed your trailer into a brick wall.

 

yeah I agree test is dumb, in real life i would stick my head out window, hang out door ect if i needed to. Oh yeah if i were not sure I would get out and look not just blindly back up. It probably has to do with the fact they got caught selling CDL's years back so they felt like they had to make it harder. Sad part is the PTI and road tests are a joke. PTI took 5 min, they asked me to go over steer wheel, brake components and then 4 point brake check, road test was 5 miles long altough it did have a couple points that were meant to trip you up like diagonal RR crossing with a stop sign so you better check both mirror before you shift.