Going to Roehl, have questions and need advice. I'm going flatbed.

The website says 100%.

F yo face!!!



Sorry for using harsh letters.

Ethan

 

Typical noobness.

 

Well since I am at home still waiting on a trainer, I have time so I will post on my experiance with the RDTC program, and give the breakdown as to how it went for us. Hope it will help anyone with questions you may have.

Day 1 I arived at the RDTC location in Marshfield WI at 0700. They had a room set up for our class to meet in. They had us turn over our DL, Birth Cert. SS card, and FED MED card so they could make copies of each. We were issued a ruler pen a genaric looking log book print out that you will use everyday to log in during your entire time at RDTC, and a 33 chapter book that covers all the basics of truck driveing. We were told to read and complete the quizes for 8 chapters per night, wich would have us finishing up the book by Friday week 1. Than we all loaded up in the van and headed over to the clinic to provide a urine, and hair sample for the drug test. Note on the hair test if the hair on your head is to short, you will be providing chest, or arm pit hair, and they need a bunch, so I had some bald spots on my chest after that experiance. Than back in the van to return to the facility, and conduct the physical fitness exam. They will start out by taking your blood pressure and pulse don't worry if your BP is a little elevated, they know you are in a test enviroment and you may be nervous so they allow for that. The key to passing the test is to keep your pulse below the max beats per min allowed for your age. They will show you exactly how they want you to complete the excersize, and than they will check your pulse after you complete each station. For flat bed drivers there will be 4 or 5 additional stations to complete, but they are not that bad, so don't lose sleep over it.

When that was all finished they issued us the ROEHL pre trip inspection "cheat sheet" Note the ROEHL one has about 10 times more stuff on it than the one you use for the DOT exam so if you learn that one, (and you will, trust me) you will ACE your pre trip test for your DOT exam. The instructors than took us over to one of the trucks, and showed us every single item on the pre trip, what it was named, and what we were checking it for. You will become familure with this term- "Properly Mounted Not Damaged, and Not leaking(if it holds air fluid or greese)

And that was it for Day 1 you will get a 45 min break for lunch every day and you will be finished by 5PM just about every day.

 

Day 2

We hit the range!! The range is a huge square shaped sand parking lot, that they have set up with stop signs at every corner. The first thing we did is drive around the range making left turns, while also learning to shift the truck. Now for me this part was a little boring as I had driven OTR for a year, about 4 years previous to coming to RDTC, but the other two guys in the truck were new to driving, so they got a lot out of the range driving. So we spent half of the day doing that, and than in the afternoon we switched over to making right turns, for the rest of the day.

 

Day 3

Ok this is where your ability to drive truck starts to come into play. Our class had 6 people so we had 2 instructors, two trucks, with 3 students per truck.

So on day 3 our instructor felt we were doing well, so we got to take the truck out on the road.

The course for that day was leaving the gate, make a left turn out onto the street and follow that down for about 2miles to a red light. Make a left turn, at the light follow that down about a mile go through a round about(this was under construction at the time so it was a little tight going, but not that bad). After the round about get onto Hwy 10 East wich is a 4 lane hwy, so you get a chance to get the truck up to 55 mph and use all your gears. Take the exit back into Marshield, make a left turn at the ramp, follow that down to another red light. Turn left at the light, than turn left back into the yard, and switch drivers. So that was Day 3

 

Day 4

Same course as day 3 but in reverse, so we made rights at all the turns.

 

Day 5

In the morning we went out and drove around in the country, staying on county rds, wich are narrow, and teach how to keep the truck in your lane.

In the afternoon we started driving the route around town that the guys would be taking during their DOT exam. This route involves more traffic, right turns over rail road tracks, and a right turn that is sharper than 90 degrees, so it takes a little consentration, but you will do it every day from now untill you test out.

 

Day 6

This is Day1 of Week 2

Most of your time this week will be getting you ready to take your DOT test on Friday, You will continue driving on the route that you will take for the test.

I forgot to mention that on Friday week one, we were issued the student work book, that has all the excercises for trip planing. The FMCS pocket guide, hazmat pocket guide, hazmat emergency response guide, road atlas, and the truck stop directory(you will use this for your trip plan excercises along with your atlas. We also were given two print outs to study, The Mountain grade driving procedures, and the emergency road side stop procedures.

Just before lunch we got togeather in the class room and went over all the quiz answers in that 33 chapter book I told you about on day 1

Afternoon was more driveing. They will have you preform the emergency road side stop procedures while you are out driving, and you will tell them the mountain grade driving procedures usually while you are driving into the yard. This is the the way the DOT tester will have you do it during your test.

Back to the range to learn the 45 degree back and the straight line back, that you will need to preform during the DOT road test

 

Day 7

Ok this is where it got interesting for the three of us in our truck. Our instructor had ben involved in a accident in his personal vehicle about 3 weeks prior to us coming to RDTC. He was starting to have some issues with dizziness, and what not, so he ended up being gone for the remainder of our time at RDTC. So now we were an instructor short. So we went down and started practiceing the two backing manuvers, while our other instructor took the other three guys out to practice on the road. Than in the afternoon we switched and they went to the range while we went out on the road.

 

Hey, how's it going? How was securement training? Any word yet on when you'll go out with a trainer? I found out yesterday I'll be heading out sometime Monday, waiting on the call from the trainer to find out what time.