Passed my first test!

I’ve been going to a trucker mill in buffalo NY for two months now. The school is worse then bad, but that’s for another thread. I show up at the testing ground and the tester is someone my road instructer knows and says he’s a good guy. I’m pleased with the good news. Another instructer shows up a few mins late and one of the students I was testing with says “that guys an #######”, because he apparently failed him for something stupid.

So I look at the list and i’m third, good i’m ready. One guy goes and takes two hours, second guy goes and he takes an hour. The tester walks up and asks for a “partial” or someone who needed to do just the manuvers and road test.. I got bumped.. now lunch happens.

Soured from the bump and the long lunch to which I chose to swim around in my head, I became shaking nervous. 1:00 comes and I test. Brake check and in cab went well, now for under the hood, front of truck, and fifth wheel back “which I was told that’s all I had to do”.. i’ve done this 400x by now. I pop the hood and mention everything without skipping a beat.. close and secure the hood and move onto the front without missing a thing. I walk with him to the trailer and he says “STOP”, I look at him like a deer in headlights and he says “I don’t mean to scare you man, but lets move onto manuvers, it’s obvious you know your pretrip”. WHEW!!

Haunted by all the stories of people failing for small things, I begin back sweating again. I pull up and first is an offset. The alley to which we were testing was much smaller then the yard we had been practicing in. I swing too wide and end up going into the grass with my tractor. Knowing it wasn’t going to work out I used a pullup. Tried again and she goes in like butter. The instructer who was called an “### hole” was proving to be a super nice guy as he walked up to the truck and says “good job” along with a thumbs up. Time for a straight back, which goes off without a hitch.

Now for the dreaded blindside parallel. He sets the cones and has me pull up. I line up for the parallel and back in really bad and crooked.. pulled up and was twice as jankey as the first one.. pull up number three and the angle looks good from the truck. I get out and look and realize she needs to be backed up about another foot while straightning out and she will be ripe to swing the tractor in. I do just that and swing the tractor in and nervously look at the front cones. They were thank god all there and i was dead centered. Whistle blows and tester walks up and says again “great work man, pull up we are going on the road”

I’m very confident on the road and called out all hazards, looked twice at all intersections, drove over simulated rail road tracks, and was told to pull over and was asked what i’d do to safety get out of truck. Everything went well and was checking my mirrors and gauges the whole time. We chatted while I drove and the tester was on his phone for half the time texting, at that point I knew I had it in the bag. We pull back to the testing site, at which point instructers aren’t allowed to tell us if we passed. We are givin a card with a website to check to see if we passed.

Every student in my class was left hanging until 6:00. The tester turns over to me and says “you passed with flying colors, you’re going to make an excellent driver”. With a ton of energy I thank him and shake his hand multiple times. I get out and teachers from other schools were shaking my hand saying “you did an awesome job man, we can tell you worked hard to get to this point”. Full of joy I watched other students from my school fail (huge bummer) and one pass! Needless to say i’m super excited to get my cdl in id form, and happy to not have to show up to that dang school anymore. Wish you all the best and hope you found this entertaining, lol!

 

Thanks man! One of the students and I became good friends, and we put alot of work in that place by helping other students. Gave me a natural high that I can’t explain and helped me at the same time. Truth is, I was only paying it forward, because students were helping us when I first got there.. some didn’t look happy with having to help the “new guy”, but they helped anyway. I’m very greatful for their efforts!