Newbie Journal with SAGE School

Day 14 - Drove 130 miles today in the Kenworth, which I've never driven. I'll say right off the bat that I HATE the shape of the brake pedal. Too much like the accelerator and my foot would sometimes stick sliding back and forth from the brake to the accelerator.

Anyway, we started off in Yadkinville, NC and went up to Cana, VA via I-77 through Fancy Gap. I was driving empty, so no problem heading up at 65 mph. We came back down through some backroads, which I think was SR 148 to 97 to 89 into Galax, VA. We continued down the mountain through Sparta, NC (SR 18 to 21 I think) and encountered a 6% grade. The instructor showed me how the Jake brake worked, but kept it off after the brief demonstration. When we got back to Yadkinville we got a bite at Subway (Asbury Church Rd and Hwy 421).

I got in some good downshifts and kept the trailer in my lane. Overall, I think it went very well and the instructor said I was improved over yesterday. I was actually less stressed coming down the winding backroads than I was trying to manuever through the town of Yadkinville yesterday. Go figure.

Another drive Monday morning, and I have no idea where we're headed this time.

 

Day 15 - Stayed on the driving range today to practice going through a pre-trip inspection and backing. Even though it won't be on the NC test, the instructor taught us how to parallel park. I enjoy all the practice I can get with backing. I'm very comfortable with straight backing and can nail the 45-degree backing without a corrective pull-up. The instructors are good about coming up with different situations to challenge us.

Tomorrow is CPR Training and we have recruiters coming from Roehl and Werner.

 

Day 16 - Today was a total waste of time. The school brought in a local Paramedic who also does instruction at the community college to teach us CPR...or so says the course syllabus. The instructor covered material meant for a First Responder course including showing us pictures of various wounds and inuries. Most were taken from victims on the autopsy table. Thankfully, the lecture was interrupted by Werner and Roehl recruiters. The CPR instruction was extremely basic and only lasted 30 minutes.

Regarding the recruiters, both had their presentations well rehearsed and of course free pens for everyone. If I had to score them, Werner got the higher rating for bringing in graphics and props. Werner had a portfolio with color pics and description of all the tractor types in their inventory. He also brought a Qualcomm unit and a Pre-Pass module. Personally, I think the school out to have a Qualcomm unit even if it's just an empty shell to show us what the thing is.

Despite my assigning a higher presentation score to Werner, their Company Snapshot on safersys.org paints a different picture. Werner has an Out of Service percentage of 16.8% while Roehl's is 9.9%. The National average is 22.27%. Werner has had 1220 crashes resulting in 28 fatalities while Roehl had 125 crashes and only 2 fatalities. In this forum, I've found more favorable posts for Roehl than Werner from actual drivers and that means even more to me.

BTW, I decided to submit an application to Howard Transportation out of MS. They're a flatbed hauler and they come highly recommended by one of the instructors.

 

Do you have any experience with Howard or know someone that does? There appears to be little info here on them. I'm concerned about miles when colder weather comes. I hear the winter months can be tough for flatbed haulers, but since Howard hauls primarily electrical transformers perhaps they're able to keep the freight moving unlike those that haul construction materials.

 

I'm already certified in CPR and was shocked when I saw how basic today's instruction was. I'm a volunteer with the Forsyth County Sheriff's Citizens Patrol and the CPR course they put us through was at least 4 hours and included practice on both adult and child dummies. Our vocal commands, compressions and breaths were timed by the instructor. This guy pulled out these styrofoam heads with a foam flap for a chest and a plastic plunger underneath to absorb the compressions. I guess it does the job, but it just seemed really bargain basement.

We did 5 sets of 30 compressions with 2 breaths for practice; took a 5-minute break; and then repeated the routine. No timing or grading. Basically, if we were still breathing and our dummy wasn't torn apart we passed.

Thanks for the Howard feedback. At 48 years, I'm a little concerned about the physical demands of dealing with tarps. I've been stuck behind a desk for the past 10 years and no longer have that buff surfer bod I had back in Hawaii (1970-1985). I'm recently got back in the gym and am putting myself through the C25K (Couch to 5K) program to get my cardio and stamina back up. I think I can do it.