Im new and still working out the bugs in my 'system'...I have had bad weeks, and good...most miles in a pay week was around 3,100. I am headed for my third straight 1,000 mile + load in the morning...BUT...I am ttying to make up lost miles due to breakdowns the past couple weeks. When things work, its smooth sailing, baby. No matter where you go, someone will complain. Every company is not a perfect fit for every driver.
Sounds like Roehl is a pretty good company, my husband and I are really crossing our fingers- compared to the rest we can really appreciate what we 'see'.
If I found out my husband were to be running to Denver I'd be riding with him....hoooome sweet hoooome! He could drop me off for a few days and pick me up on the way back through. That wouldn't be so bad.
Well first day down...morning was mostly drug and physical testing...we got to do some driving in the afternoon. I must say I was hoping to do better with the shifting...more difficult to get used to than I expected. Guess I will see how it goes tomorrow but Im sure I will get better with practice.
Phantom Driver, One thing you will learn as a truck driver. Nothing is perfect. Shifting is a well balanced rhythm that takes time to learn. They aren't looking for perfect, just the understanding of how to shift . Oh and congrats on your first day!! It's alot at first, but you will see how rewarding it is!
I am on week 3 got my cdl and i am still grinding a random gear here and there. All they are looking for is steady improvement. If your not showing some sign of improvement they will talk to you about it. Hell today was 14 times better for me knowing i don't have to stress about passing my CDL driving test. Even got to hook to the flat bed today since everyone in my truck is going flatbed.
Thanks to you both for the words of encouragement, I may not have done too bad for never having driven a tractor before. I did feel like I was getting better with the upshifting, but I had a hard time hitting the gears when downshifting. All three of us on my tractor are flatbed, overall its a great group of guys. We had Joe most of the day, what a great guy. Looking forward to giving it another go tomorrow, getting up early to go over the pretrip before class.
for how much they pound the pretrip through your head in the two weeks before you test out for your cdl, i swear i will never forget it. I could recite that without even looking at the truck or paper.
Yeah, I could to when I was in school. Now, I don't even think about it when I do my pretrips. Takes me between 5-10 minutes every morning. Phantom, Upshifting is easy, it's that Clutch neutral rev clutch gear that gets people on downshifting. Shifting is easy, but it comes in time. Plus every truck is different, each one has it's own personality. Don't get bummed out about it either. Backing is even more fun!
Well day two down, my shifting was much better today, my down shifting is much improved....in the lower gears anyway...track is too short to really get above 6th. We will be doing some on the road tomorrow so I guess I will get to start working more on the high gears then. Got to do straight backing...but mine ended up more like a slight arch, lol.....End of the day kind of sucked though, lost one of our classmates at the end of the day. I don't know what for, but they came and picked him up when I was disconnecting the trailer and that was the last we saw of him....shame I liked the kid.
