Falling behind in school...

As I'm unable to PM reply to a member request to ID the school, I'll do so here. It's Dakota County Tech in Rosemount. They have a web site.

Several instructors, incl the one who coached me last wk, are TCE alum.

 

Some yard (dock) work: it's getting better. I happened to nail a dock with no pull-up, correct angle & depth while an instructor watched. This means I'm scheduled for CDL test Fri. So now to figure out *how* I did that & to duplicate it reliably!

Hmm. To find small carriers has been the goal. Good to know the possible challenges there.

We're not PTDI. I get skid pad & overnight driving like you describe in weeks 7 & 8 (of 8 wks; currently in wk 5).

Impressive- maybe. 4 full time instructors, 2 are CDL testers, all 4 train, 1 does classroom as well. Until this class, they took up to 16-18 students. We have 24. They have been using several retired/part-timers to bring up the daily instructor count to 5 nearly every day & 6 some days. The 2 testers are very busy with testing, near impossible to get coaching with them before testing.

Yeah, I think I heard 30-some trucks. About half are from the 80s (Ford, IH come to mind) & have bald tires all around, flat trailer tires, blow smoke all day. These "yard trucks" stay below 5 MPH & are only used for docking & backing in the yard. At the other end of the spectrum, there's about 4 "quad cabs" made for 4 or 5 passengers. They're from '95 to '03 models. (Ford & Freightshaker) In between, there's day cab road trucks; used for one-on-one coaching & pairing up licensed student with unlicensed. (1 Volvo, 1 Pete, mostly Freightshakers).

 

Passed CDL test on second attempt last wk. <grin> Failed on first try, unable to get into the dock. Stressed out & lost clear mind. Second attempt not pretty, but passed.

Tester/instructor expressed frustration with my practice docking in the week between my first (unsuccessful) CDL test & the second attempt. He feels that by getting out several times during each backing maneuver, I wasted a lot of time. I disagree (tho not telling him). By getting out & looking at blind side, I learned how close I was to the far yellow line. You can't cross yellow lines at any point on test. 1 free pullup, 5 minute limit, no getting out, no body parts out window. Without the extra practice & looking around, I doubt I would've passed.

More to say on progress in school, for another message...

 

Week 7-
Seems to me that the proverbial clutch has been pushed in. More & more time seems to be spent (wasted) waiting for unit assignments, waiting for clearance, for route instructions. Took over 2 hrs today after the alleged start of class to get on the road. (The 1988 Ford w/ Cummins had plenty of snort with our 45' empty). No lecture/classroom.

All but 3 students are licensed. Those who obtained CDL earlier (starting wk 3, through wk 5) have been in big trucks since licensed. These are converted sleeper 2-axle tractors with 53'. 10, S10, 13 sp.

Having obtained CDL late last wk, it looks to me that I won't get any time in the big trucks/learn anything beyond 9 sp single axle w/ 45' empties. (See below for anticipated activity the last 2 wks). I did get to move a S10 road truck across the yard. Got up to 4th, then downshifted into 3rd. Odd & jerky to downshift without clutch. Guessing it's important to precisely bump RPMs after releasing throttle. This is a shame, as I see a significant difference between the 9 speeds & "real" trucks: much longer, higher, different turning radius & shifting. The 10 sp would be most similar to the 9's, I'd guess, as there's no splitter. For downshifting ("double down") I can see where S10 has advantage. Compound shifting S10 is tricky.

We had a demo on triple trailers this wk. Instructor dropped #3, then dolly, then #2, then it's dolly. Re-hooked in reverse order, leaving #1 on tractor. Since I have double/triple endorsement, thought I'd be able to take this on the road. Not so. Though MN does not allow triples, the rig is far from DOT even as a double. So at some point-I'm guessing for a few mins- we get to take the rig in the yard (10 MPH) or maybe on the range (6th gear). Too bad, as I'd think it's considerably different going 65 on freeway. I feel learning about rearward amplification would be useful. CDL manual explains drop & hook; demo reinforced this procedure.

Had demo on load securement. Very basic: both flatbed & van. After verbose demo, had 10 mins to get 25 students through 1 flatbed & 1 van. Only a handful of students (skipped lunch) got any hands-on with equipment.

Skid pad is this wk. Already had helpful videos on skids. Endured rambling lecture loosely related to skids. This full-time instructor is good at moving trucks. Understandable communication (focus & word choice) is not his forté.

While half of class is on skid pad, the remainder gets yard time. Hopefully will get the faintest clue on the more advanced yard maneuvers, for which there is a test. This includes blind-side alley dock, serpentine forward & reverse, and parallel parking. Parallel in this case means putting trailer into a 3-sided rectangle just big enough for it, leaving tractor perpendicular to the driver side. We got 1 demo on this a couple wks ago, when I was still struggling fiercely with alley dock & most of the class had road time (& CDL) in big trucks.

Skid pad is 30 mins ea. I'm guessing that means I watch 12 others skid pad for 6 hours & get my own 30 mins of fame. With 6.5 hrs of actual drive time, it'll be interesting to see how long it takes to get on the pad in the morning. Class is allegedly 7-3 weekdays. It takes 15 mins before any instructor shows up in classroom on the best of days. 15-30 mins to hash out assignments. 30 min lunch. Typically pushed out early # end of day. There's 2 skid pad rigs, both permanently hooked. This should speed up the unit assignment process. Maybe both rigs are used at once...

Next wk 23 students (incl me) & 2 instructors come in for an overnight convoy run. Initially told night run would be split 2 nights, half of class each. I envision using nearly every DOT piece of equipment. 5 or so big trucks, 4 or so quad cabs, about 6 daycabs= ~15 DOT trucks.

May update later this wk or next, as time permits & events warrant. I sure wish I knew in advance how little time here would be spent driving, or at least moving in a truck. I welcome wannabe questions on the school. Can't PM yet, however.

JB

 

Thanks for kind words.

LOL. Yes, I will GOAL when backing next to your truck.

 

Thanks for kind words.

Good to hear docking is worked on in OTJ training. I think I know what you mean by jacking. I've watched another rig back into slot adjacent to us at a T/S. I've been cutting in the trailer sharper than required on the test dock. It has a 45 degree cut-out on the driver side, leading halfway in.

Where did I decide to go- Not sure on employer. Leaning towards gravel/grain. Wouldn't mind pairing up with an O/O. I understand watching me drive is no benefit to an O/O; so can't expect any pay at that phase. (This eats up his clock just as if he's driving). With a compatible, experienced O/O, I think quality & depth of training would be superb. Putting out feelers to my network of friends, connecting to such O/O's.