Newbie Journal with SAGE School

Day 18 - Reviewed 2 chapters and tested on same. A recruiter from Cooke Transportation out of Mt. Airy came by to make his pitch. I got to class late and missed his presentation, but the fact sheet he dropped off and what I had already gathered from the web sounded interesting. Their safety numbers from SaferSys.org looked good too.

I did make it back in time to hear from a former student who was working for W****** E******. He told us about his life on the road and seemed proud of the fact that he's running "wide open" until he gets popped. The guy looked and smelled bad and obviously didn't care about his own personal hygiene. Even a bad carrier wouldn't want his customers seeing this guy step out of the truck. In other words, he doesn't strengthen the image of the term "Professional Truck Driver." The instructor told us after he left that he was disappointed in the guy.

 

Thanks SAMMYCAT for the encouragement. Having been married 28 years this July, I can say there's no one more supportive of me than my wife. She agreed to let me go through with the school with the understanding that OTR would be "Plan B" in searching for employment to replace my past job of 10 years. Despite a 4-month advance warning of my last day with the company, my job searching was unsuccessful. Even with the networking help of friends in the right places, I couldn't get beyond the ceremonial first interview. "Plan A" has failed.

I'd be lying if I said the idea of a new career in trucking didn't excite me. Driving a tractor-trailer can be overwhelming for someone who has driven nothing larger than the pumper truck for the volunteer fire department and that was 20 years ago. However, I know that if I can hook up with the right company and a good trainer I'll be off to a great start.

The hardest part is being gone for long periods of time with an 8-year old at home and my wife left to running the household on her own. My 8-year old is priceless and understands what's going on. It will be hard at first, but I think we will all adapt. I'm already working on getting some minor maintenance things taken care of in the next few weeks and I'll have my neighbor take care of mowing the lawn as needed when I'm gone. Taking care of little things like that will help with the transition. I'll definitely get my wife plugged into this forum for support too.

 

Day 19 - Covered our last chapter in the book and tested on same. After lunch, we took an exam to help get us prepared for Monday's big exam. It's open book, but we can only use the FMCSA Safety Regulations handbook and not the textbook or our notes. I ace'd it.

The Sage Administrator come by the range to pick up the textbooks that were distributed at the beginning of the course. We won't be needing them any longer, but if you really felt you needed it to review before Monday's exam you could hold onto it. Everyone turned in their books.

I did a thorough pre-trip after class and then continued to work on my backing and even tried downshifting in the lower gears. The Kenworth is great for shifting, but the Freightliner has better visibility for backing. As for my pre-trip, the instructor said I did a great job and shouldn't have any problems on the actual DOT test.

I've been told I have several pre-hires back in the Sage office at the college, but the Administrator forgot to bring them. I know LC wants to talk to me, and the only others I applied for were Hardy Brothers and Howard Transportation. I guess I'll find out Monday who else wants to interview me.

I will be doing some city driving on Saturday, which I'm nervous about. I've done it before, but this time I have to do it with the Freightliner and it's not as smooth as the Kenworth. Hopefully it will be a sunny, dry day with low traffic volume. Ahhhh, a trucker's dream.

Thanks again SAMMYCAT for the encouragement. I will continue the posts and let everyone know how I did on the DOT test next Thursday. I'll also sum up my experience with SAGE for those who want to jump to the final page and skip the daily entries.