My adventures with Western Pacific Truck School Modesto CA

Had a pretty good day today. Spent almost 2 hours behind the wheel. Did alot of city driving during rush hour. Our new instructor is cool. He says we are doing good, we are still just rough around the edges, some more seat time and we will be fine. Tomorrow we will go over our PTI, in cab, and air brake check, practice skills at the range some more, and then head out to the DMV skills test site again for a little more practice there.

 

Yeah I guess we're technically not supposed to. Our last instructor said he's been chased out of there by the police before but we still go down there once in a while. We don't stay too long. Just long enough for me and the other student to go thru the skills once or twice each. It's good practice to do the skills where we will actually be tested on them.

I'm hoping to be going with W&S too, have orientation scheduled for April 18th. So maybe we will cross paths at a terminal or somewhere on the road!

 

Oh cool! I didn't know his home terminal was Modesto. Doesn't he drive flatbed? I'm thinkin about goin that route too. If you don't mind, ask him if he has any advice for a new flatbedder. I'll definitely be posting here until I get out of school. Once I head to W/S I'll start a new thread in the W/S section.

 

Today was a good day! We started the day being tested on the PTI, in cab, and air brake check. I got 100% didn't miss a single point! After that we practiced our skills in the yard for a while then we went over to the dmv skills test area again. My first run thru the skills I had 1 pull up for the dock, 2 for the parallel(yeah I kinda screwed that one up lol), and no pull ups for the straight back. So if I had been testing with the dmv I would have passed no problem. We each ran thru the skills 3 times I think(and we both did it each time with less than 3-4 pull ups total!) then another truck school showed up so we left. I got to drive around a little then headed back to the school. I'm really happy with the way things are going. The alley dock that I've had so many issues with is really starting to click with me. I'm consistently getting it with 1 or 2 pull ups max. Hopefully when it comes time for me to test I won't choke and do something stupid like hit the curb lol.

 

Oh yeah? I really had no idea what the deal was with it. I just thought it might be kinda cool. I know that it can be alot of extra work, chaining, strapping stuff down, and tarping but I figured it can't be much more work than unloading furniture ya know? I'm curious what the local situation is like here in Modesto for W/S. I see day cabs running round town once or twice a week. Wonder if those drivers are getting paid by the mile or hourly. Guess I should probably send Sandy an email and ask her what the deal is. If she doesn't know I'm sure she can put me in touch with someone who does.

 

Yeah go ahead and send it to me. I probably won't have time to go down there til next week but I'd definitely like to check it out & ask a few questions while I'm there, thanks!