The secret deBoer letters.

Dear Sis,

Well, my training continues up here at FVTC in Appleton. I have found more evidence of the UCT, which even I had trouble believing. Within a block of the Exel inn, is, are you ready for this... THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY HQ IS HERE IN APPLETON!!!. WOW! That this ultra conservative secretive influential political group is nearby FVTC and deBoer CANNOT be a coincidence. I have always suspected that the JBS was involved in the destruction of flight KAL 007. After all, Congressman Larry McDonald, then PRESIDENT of the JBS was supposedly killed when the plane was shot down by the Soviets. Simple human incompetence could not have caused that plane to drift off course. The JBS society had that Congressman (or more likely, a brainwashed double or clone) carry secret alien technology to cause the planes instruments to misread, thus drift off course into those paranoid Russkies. Thus the UCT can keep us humans from suspecting the JBS as being a member of the UCT. Awfully clever these aliens, but not CLEVER enough! I just have to continue to be a trucking driving student and latter truck driver to expose them.

Before I go into detail about last week, let me explain a bit how things work here at FVTC. The college itself is fairly large, and the transportation center, with truck driver training, diesel mechanics, electrical, collision damage, automotive, and the rest are all together. We meet at 7:30 in the morning, separate from all the rest as well as the 10 week truck driver students. With me are people from all over, either in the partnership program or for some reason, straight truck program. The partnership students are from several companies. deBoer is the largest, but WH, Miller Electrics, Harley-Davidson, Fresh Brands and Miller Brewing company all send students here as do others. Rohel also sends CDL holders who need refresher training here too, but only for one week.

With this place being so large, there are advantages and disadvantages. Being so large, they have a large fleet of trucks and trailers of just about every type. I estimate that they have over forty tractors and an equal number of trailers, from van (many sizes), to flatbed, to tanker. Some are loaded, most are not. Being with deBoer, I am for the most part restricted to the three automatic trucks, but the other students get to use a larger variety of tractor and manual combinations. However, the instructors try to keep you from moving around too much because they want you to become familiar with certain truck so that you can test in it. For me, it's going to be the Queen Mary. This place being so large also has another advantage, large buildings for trucks. Remember, this is Wisconsin. It gets COLD and windy here. Spending two hours with an instructor going over pre-trip procedures out in that cold wet wind is not much fun. But here at FVTC, that is not a problem. They have an enclosed inspection bay which can easily hold a tractor and trailer. If that is not enough, there is also the diesel shop with about 8 bays where several can hold a tractor and trailer. On the night I had my in-depth pre-trip instruction, we held that out of the rain and in the diesel shop.

Our day begins with dispatch at 7:30. This is where you are assigned your truck and trailer for they day, along with your instructor, either by yourself or in groups or two or three. So far, every week (at least for me) you work with a different instructor for the week. It's nice because you can learn something different from each one. After getting the keys, you go out to the truck and pretrip it. After pretrip, you take out back to the trailer yard and hook up. If you find something wrong, you can take it to the diesel shop for them to take a look at it or contact an instructor. For some reason, the QM attracts screws and has to have had two removed since I started driving her. I guess the Queen Mary just wants to be screwed... Once you have completed your pretrip (air brake tests) with the trailer and pre-tripped it, you have various options. If you are with an instructor, you will most likely run around the Appleton area, either the countryside or city driving at their direction. If you are without an instructor and no CDL holder you can practice there at FVTC on the alley docks, offset docking, straight line backing, Keller range, and truck stop. If you have a CDL holder you have the option (if cleared by the FVTC staff) to run routes. CDL holders have many routes to choose from to get road time, but non-CDL holders are restricted to the ABC routes. There are also other restrictions, like age and only two students in the truck. This I understand is a bit different than most training courses, in that you can go out on the road without an instructor. Now, the bad thing about all of this is that the place sometimes gets quite busy! You will have to waste valuable driving and practice waiting for space at the alley docks, truck stops, and so on. You also have to wait while someone in front of you is grinding the gears and can't get the truck moving or is receiving instruction from an instructor. But overall, it is not too bad and in a way, reflects the real world of busy truck stops and warehouses. After driving in the morning, you come back for lunch and meet again at 12:00 for another dispatch. Usually that goes quickly since you generally stay with the same equipment and instructor all day. At 16:00, you unhook and put everything away and then meet up again. There you can finish up paperwork and usually receive your logs back for corrections if there were errors. At 16:30, you can go home.

Day Six: My roommate and I spend most of the morning running routes and for me, practicing backing. Alley docking is still tough, but I am getting the hang of it. We actually had a good time since our truck was one of the few where the radio was not disconnected so we could listen the likes of Pink Floyd "Welcome to the Machine" while cruising around Appleton. In the afternoon, I had the truck to myself, so I worked on backing, especially alley docking until quitting time. deBoer also had three new students, one on a one week refresher and the other two on an accelerated three week course (since FVTC is closed the 4th of July week) instead of a four week course.

Day Seven. In the morning, we had CDL guidelines class for about an hour and a half. After this, the two new deBoer students and I were together in the QM. I, the one week "old pro" gave them some pointers while we waited for the head of the Partnership program to join us. Once he was with us, out into the countryside we went for both the morning and afternoon. I did well on my driving, with only a few scrapes with the curbs. I feel that I am not far from being ready for CDL testing.

Day Eight. The morning was spent much like yesterday. The two new deBoer students and I took turns backing, and then more tours of the countryside with the program head. In the afternoon, we had a presentation on the Highway Watch program, where we truckers are supposed to help spot terrorist. I really wanted to shout "It's ALL a LIE! The terrorist are just pawns of the UCT!" However, I did not and just played along. In the evening part, for this was Wednesday and we go late, we had a class on tandem regulations and scaling. Then we went out into they trailer yard and moved the tandems on one of the air ride equipped trailers. FVCT having so many trailers, we were also shown the different types of tandems that they had.

Day nine. Again with the two new deBoer students and the program head, more joyrides through the countryside and more time on our own backing. Backing is frustrating. Sometimes I am good, other times not. Consistency is what I am working on, but it has so far eluded me. One nice thing which happened is that they got the AC to work in the morning and latter in the afternoon while we were at lunch the steers were replaced. Since the drive tires were already new, the old QM is sporting new tires all around.

Day Ten. This was an interesting day. First we had to switch trailers from because our usual one because of a large screw found in it, and then we spent the rest of they day with a deBoer trainer. The deBoer trainers were there being schooled at FVTC on how to train us newly minted CDL holders into professional drivers in a one week program. Of course, I know the REAL reason is that they are being brainwashed by the UCT at the JBS building, and that sending them to FVTC is just an excuse for this. In any case, our deBoer trainer has been with deBoer for 10 years and is a regional driver in Texas. He had is own way of doing things which was interesting. In some ways, more laid back than the FVTC instructors, but in other ways, pickier, like not wanting us to use the cruise control. He had some good real life pointers too, like always pull against your kingpin after you park to prevent someone from unhooking your trailer as a "joke", and things like that. On the whole, I am reassured that deBoer is a good company when our trainer confirmed that deBoer was a good company to work for. If the other trainers are like the one I had, professional, then I should be all right once I am on the road.

Well Sis, it's late and I am not feeling so good right now. I am heading for an early bed. I can only hope that the UCT had not found me out and poisoned me. So far this week has been good, with more time with a different instructor. I am getting better at backing, especially alley backing. Still, more time behind the wheel is needed and I will update you soon.

T. E. Hambledon

 

Yesterday, I passed my CDL drivers test! More info on how it went in my next update.

 

During Wednesday dispatch in the morning, the head of the program was assigning trucks and when he came to me said CDL test in the afternoon, which was a surprise since I figured I was going to take it with the two new deBoer students next week. Apparently he thought I was ready. Because the other two deBoer students were assigned a different truck, I had the QM for myself for the whole morning to practice my alley docking, which was the only thing which I was worried about. Up to that point, I was usually able to dock the trailer successfully about four out of five times.

So, I began doing alley dock after alley dock, and was getting better and better when twice two different instructors came up and gave me advice, each a bit different on how to to my setups. So I tried to do what they advised and began to really screw up. I was getting worried when it came time a drive with my instructor and then the lunch break. The drive was with the instructor who was going to test me and we went over some of the things on the test, like a simulated mountain pass. After the lunch break, I was able to spend another 1.5 hours alley docking, and what I did was took some of their advise and combined it with what I knew I and the QM could do, and was able to get the trailer in the hole with the one pull up you are allowed almost every time.

After my last practice dock, it was time for the CDL test. We did the pre-trip and I did well, only missing a few mostly because of my bad hand-writing on the "memory aid" or cheat sheet! The time spent going over the tucks, in class and outside really helped here. Then I had the air-brakes tests, which I passed again. After that, the straight line back, VERY easy, and then the alley dock. I did well on the dock, using reference points and everything else I could to get it done right, doing it exactly like the other successful docks.

After this, was the road test. During the test, your instructor is now you tester. I think they become a bit anal here, since they don't want their to be any charges of favortisism. I was not perfect, and some of the points (mistakes) that I received I thought were real trivial and in gray areas subject to interpertation. Still, I felt good driving and had no real problems and passed the test by a comfortable margin. One thing which also helps is that the Queen Mary truck is an automatic, so having to deal with traffic while double-clutching and shifting is one thing to worry about while testing. I am proud to have my CDL, and am so far very happy with my decision to truck drive and especially drive for deBoer. I am still getting good feedback from everyone who works for them or knows about them.

T. E. Hambledon

 

Aye, it's not on their website, but some of the large truck driving job searching websites have it listed. Cost is just a bit over 3k, for which you sign a loan agreement. This price includes room and the school. The hotel has a free breakfast, if you can stand cake donuts and juice all the time, so you only have to pay for two other meals. On the campus, there is a cafeiteria, where you can eat. During the fall and spring semesters, the culinary arts school provides some decent meals too. Prices are a bit high, but quality is decent especially if you get away from the basic burgers and fries. Overall, I am beginning to think that deBoer is offering one of the best deals around. Most other companies are charging considerably more than 3k for training, and these companies have higher turnover rate.

BTW, I get the feeling that deBoer does not want to grow too fast. Seems they stay right around 465 tucks and drivers for the last two years according to the safestat. I also found that they have a decent rating, better than national average for accidents and OOS issues with the trucks. Both good to know before signing with a company.