Charlotte Truck Driver Training School

I don't know if it's the first Volvo made but certainly one of the first lol and yes some of these trucks get VERY hot inside lol




American Trucker

 

Spent the first 1/2 of the day on the yard with a whole new class of students, in between there turns in the truck I was educating them on a few things:

1.GO TO AND JOIN THETRUCKERSREPORT.COM
2.DON'T LEASE A TRUCK
3.STAY FAR AWAY FROM CR ENGLAND
4.YOU WILL NOT MAKE $75,000 YOUR FIRST YEAR MORE LIKE $25,000-$35,000

As well as asking them what they were looking for as far as OTR, Regional, Local, Van, Reefer, Flatbeds, Tankers and pointed them in the right direction as far as companies to look into. Told them a little about what to look for in a company like cpm, MILES, APU's, Inverters, ETC. And told them a little about the Anti-Idle laws and cooking in the truck to save money and keep from getting fat. They were like law students at there first day at Harvard Law School writing down everything I said lol



Then the second half of the day I was on the road, drove for 1 1/2 hours. The instructor fell asleep for like 20 minutes so I just let him sleep for a little while before we woke him up LOL I took it as a compliment that he not only trusts my driving enough to fall asleep but that my driving is smooth enough for him to fall asleep . Then we went back to the school and I backed it in again and did pretty good, straight, centered on the first try but it wasn't as graceful as the last time as I didn't have as much room to set up for this spot and there was only a truck on my blind side and not the sight side so that made me a little nervous but I still got it!




American Trucker

 

Spent the whole day on the road 9 hours, 2 of which I got to drive. The Mexican guy I posted about that almost killed us well he just wasn't understanding what the instructors where telling him so today he was on the gear range and the other Mexican guy that can kinda drive started telling him in Spanish how to down shift as he was doing it and he did it perfectly. We did it like that for 30 min or so around the range and then we went back out on the real roads, he did much better then last time but this guy is still WAY off from even being able to pass a CDL Test never mind be good enough to get hired somewhere. He's already been at the school since the beginning of April 2010 for a (9 WEEK) course and he's STILL there, maybe about 6 months and he might be able to pass the CDL test.


Only a few more day/weeks to go!




American Trucker

 

Thanks, I am doing well, can't wait to get out on the road!

What test? I already have a Class A CDL lol, I've had it since I was 18, I'm just here to make the insurance companies happy so I can get a OTR job (Refresher course) it's still 160 hours but I just don't have to test at the end.

But at least I have 160 hours to fine tune my driving and hopefully pick up a few things along the way.



American Trucker

 

Spent the whole day 9 hours on the road, 3.5 of which I was driving. Today was my first day driving with the instructor I had today, I've only had him as a yard instructor until today.

Now this guy can drive! I've seen him have the passenger side steer tire dead center between the two trucks he wanted to park between, then put it in Reverse HIGH and mash the fuel pedal, back all the way around the building ALL 4 sides which includes going under the Giant awning which has a concrete barrier in the middle of it so you have to be on one side or the other and then sink it perfectly between the two trucks......i was like ####! I can back REALLY good but ####!

Anyway he knows I already have my CDL and he's one of those instructors that likes to throw a challenge at you just to see how good you really are. So we went to down town Charlotte, NC (which is a big city metro area Sky Scrapers and stuff). Then through all these tight turns and I didn't have any problems. Until he wanted me to pull out across a 4 lane divided road with Blind to me curve on both sides. So basically I could see 20 feet to my right and 10 to the left and this was a 45 MPH road. So I wait and wait until it was clear. Then I pull out and 10 cars come flying down the road to my right so I had to stop at the median blocking the two lanes to my left. Luckily only one car came that way, but he pulled all the way up to the side of my tractor before he stopped. Well the first of the 10 cars coming from the right decided he needed to take a left into where I was pulling out of, and because I had that car next to me he couldn't turn. So he's looking and yelling out his window at me to back up (i had 5 cars on my butt there was NO backing up) so for like 3 min he continued to yell and scream until the guy on my left smartened up and backed up so that this guy could turn left and stop blocking traffic. lol

Then later on in the day he decided to see if I can back in the real world (because he knows I can back VERY GOOD), I was like YES this is what I've been waiting for. SO we go to this little truck stop and he says "pick a spot and put it in" so I go and do a U Turn so that I don't have to blind side it in and then he's like "WAIT! everyone out" he wanted everyone including himself to watch from outside the truck. I put it in reverse then hit the fuel and sank it in perfectly. So they all get back in and he's like "OK my turn to pick" and he picked one out and they all got out again and watched, this one was VERY tight, but I got it in straight with 3 pull ups because there was a BRAND NEW pro-star next to me on my sight side and a "Rocking Camper parked on my blind side.

So we decided to take a break for a minute while it was parked. And the instructor said I did very well and was impressed with my choice of spots and that fact that I parked in his choice of spots because he said every other student that he has taken there has said "NO way I can't park in here".

Then as we go to leave I had my first encounter with a lot lizard!

There was a road service truck parked in front of the camper to my right, and he had just finished and got into his truck to leave as the Lot Lizard "slithered" lol out of the camper and started *****ing about something to him but as she was talking she was looking at my instructor so he's like "You talking to me" and she starts yelling at him how this is a free country and she can do what see want, and proceeds to show us here feather tattoo and tells us this is HER country and whatever, then walks in front of me as I start to pull out. Then after I had pulled straight out and was starting to turn out of the spot she changed her mind and walked back in front of me! so the instructor says "get out of the way" and she freaks out and refuses to move lol. So I said "Move or be moved" and continued to pull out of my spot and what do ya know she moved, well Ran lol back to the camper.



So another good day, only 2 or 3 more days to go!!!!!!!!!




American Trucker

 

Spent the day on the road drove 3.5 hours. And got to go across the state scales for the first time lol Normally they don't open these scales on Sundays but today they did and the instructor said "Oh ###### we have to pull in" and then I said "GREAT!" Just what I wanted was to get DOT-ied(sp?) in a 20 year old truck and trailer thats FAR from legal and start my driving career out with a bunch of violations and tickets lol or better yet get put out of service at the scales . But it really wasn't that bad I just pulled in, went across real slow light stayed green and I kept on trucking.


All I have left now is 3 hours for my night driving, and 1 more full day of school, then im DONE!





American Trucker

 

OK so I got out of work last night a 9:30pm, and got up at 5:55am and got to school around 7am. Stayed there till 9:45am or so. And they want me to come back at 6PM to do my night driving 9 Hours in the truck!


BUT the good news is, They told me that when I get out of the truck tonight/tomorrow morning I will be done with school!!!!!!!!!

So anyway this morning we I did the pretrip and then we went in a listined to a Werner Recruiter ahhh I love Werner recruiters its always a good time. I asked him a bunch of questions he couldn't answer......they were no even hard here's an example: "If you guys pay for a week off halfway through training, why don't you continue to pay new drivers while they sit at home waiting for a trainer or waiting for a open truck?" He didn't like me much after that....haha


I'll post about what happens tonight either LATE tonight or tomorrow.




American Trucker

 

What are your talking about?



American Trucker