Quality Drivers/ Celadon,,,,, Earl Henderson

Sorry for the long hiatus guys I've be quite busy to say the least. I'll try to fill you all in the best I can on what has happened so far.

During week one after the contracts... All we did was go over air brake checks, in-cab inspections and our pretrip. We had to recite our pretrip and that was our test. If we could do that we were put out on the range.
The range has 5 parts to it. Range 1 is the straight line back, Range 2 is Straight line back, off-set and parallel with full instruction. Range 3-5 are all the same as range 2 but the level of instruction decreases as you move to range 5. By the time you get to ranges 5 and 4 your doing the straight line back, off-set and parallel all by yourself.

When I first did the straight line back I was pretty bad at it to be honest, and I had no idea what I was doing. That being said by my second and third try I had it down with no problem at all, except one time I forgot to put the truck in neutral and another I forgot to set my brakes. That was on Day 1 Week 2, I was then left on the straight line back until Friday of that same week.

During week two the school put me on my first drive on my second day on the range. It was raining pretty bad and I was scared and nervous out of my mind. I did pretty bad on my first drive to be honest, I grinded almost all of my gears and hit a couple of curves. It was my first drive though so I didn't expect perfection.
It was during this time in week 2 that the school got it's trucking simulators. We have four of them and during week 2 I was practicing my shifting and down shifting on them, and it helps alot. I now can up shift and down shift without much problems thanks to the simulator.

On Friday of week 2 they moved me to range 2. Which is where you do the straight line back, off-set and parallel. Everyone seems to be stuck on this section of the course so I only have had one try to do it, and I nailed it on my first try in about 20 minutes. It really was not as difficult as it seemed, everyone else however was struggling just to complete the straight line back and almost everyone took about 30-45 minutes to complete all of the maneuvers.

They do have some instruction on the weekends, and that following Saturday they had me practicing on the simulators. In the simulator they had us go onto the highway, where it then started a thunderstorm. Next thing my tire blew out and the whole simulator started to shake. I was lost to say the least, but I knew not to hit the brake and I pulled onto the shoulder and turned on my hazards. That was pretty much it for that day, we only get about 20 in the simulator.

Monday of my third Week I didn't do anything, the instructors had alot of people testing out and stuff like that so I wasn't able to get on the range, simulator, or drive unfortunately. That however, was the first day that I was here and was NOT in the truck so I'm not very upset. Today 11/3/2015 I went on my second drive and I think I did great. The simulator helped out quite a bit, I did my airbrake check and didn't miss any points and also did my safe start as well with no issues. I did hit a curve once, I pretty much ran a red light, and when we were pulling back into the school I stalled the truck unfortunately. But as far as my shifting goes I really didn't have much of an issue, I was checking my mirrors like how I should have (perhaps I could have checked a bit more), My breaking was great, and my confidence while driving the truck has really increased.

So far I'm really enjoying my experience with the school and I'll continue to try and keep you guys posted as i go along.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...hreads/celadon-update-day-2-contracts.298026/

 

@freightwipper you start out, after your contract, at .33 and you receive a .1 increase after every 120,000 miles you complete with the company, there is no cap.

 

@Ownerlease029 the pay while you are training is .18 and thats for 10,000 miles after you complete that your pay will go to .27 for your first 120,000 miles after you complete that your pay will be increased to .33 and for every 120,000 miles you complete you will receive a .1 increase with no cap. The class they say it should take about 4-6 weeks but I disagree. It will probably be 6-8 weeks not including the time with your trainer.