Follow me through Central Refrigerated training

You need to really slow down and pay attention! Dumb crap like that will cost you your job! Be careful from now on!

 

Sorry for not following up dailey, this process has been expidited and fast paced. Lack of sleep added to the stress factors and I think you guys can understand. What I'll do is consolidate all of the days into 1 post now starting back to day 1 at Conley GA.


Day 1

Alright folks for anyone who will be coming to Conley GA this is what you have to look forward to.

Upon arriving to Greyhound in Atlanta you will call the shuttle service for a ride, go ahead and get comfortable becuase that shuttle takes 30-45 minutes to get to you. When it does arrive get comfortable again becuase the ride from Greyhound to the terminal is 20-30 minutes longer.

Once we got to the terminal we were shuttled to the motel (another 30 minute ride) where you will be paired up in a room with another driver. Set your alarm for 4:00 am becuase that shuttle service to the terminal will leave at 5:00 am. Once at the terminal you will start the paperwork process at 6:00 am and depending on class size this will be a long process. Ours took from 6:00 am to 1:00 pm when we broke for lunch. This process will include --- DOT Physical, Security Interview, Work Well and Drug Screening.

If you clear this process (4 people did not) you will be sent to a class room with a trainer who is easy to learn from, just listen to her and DO NOT BE LATE !!!!!!. Once class starts you will focus on paper logs, this is to ensure that you know what you are doing IF the e-logs malfunction.


In all honesty the day was fairly easy, just boring as hell since 80% of the day was hurry up and wait.




You are told to bring $60 for the CDL testing in Utah, the rest is based on your spending habits ... I brought $400 and am still sitting at $300+, but I also went to Walamrt (2 blocks from the motel) and bought simple groceries for the week. The rooms have a fridge and microwave in them.

SIDE NOTE - The written exam in Utah is only $40, the reason you are told to bring $60 is in case you fail the 1st attempt, each attempt after is $20 and you are only allowed 2 attempts per day.


Day 2

Study, Study and Study ... you will also have 1 or 2 tests thrown in as well. Today we did the General knowledge test. The log books are being done here as well and they will go with you to Utah. Learn them as you will get spot checked at times.

Today's work was simple .... Michelle (Instructer) is nice and easy to learn from but she tells it like it is.

Tomorrow we will be working on Air Brakes and Combo's .... with testing.




Day 3

Today we took 2 more tests which were fairly easy to pass. Watched some video and looked at a few trucks, nothing real special TBH. The tests were on Air Brakes and Combo's.

I don't want to come accross discouraging with what I am going to say but I'd like to be honest here. I'm not impressed yet, yea the instructor is nice but the whole process seems unorganized to me. We have folks being sent home 3 days into this becuase info is being found on MVR's that should have, better yet "could have" been found prior to bringing them in. Personally this issue falls on the student as well, if they knew that the company didn't hire with traffic citations 3 years or newer why apply, but then again if the MVR was ran prior to bringing the student in and having her sit here for 3 days getting her hopes up .... I think you guys get the picture.

Me personally, I've been in contact with a recruiter for 4 weeks now, in 4 weeks she knew that I've only had 1 employer for the last 15 years, she has yet to obtain verification of my previous employer and I'm now being told it's my responsibility to do so or I will not leave Conley. This leads back to the disorganization issue ... seems like the process is not being started until you physically arrive to the academy, which may be due to the large number of folks trying to be hired.

As for the academy itself, you the student are being held to a $3000 tuition in return for CDL training, so far all that has been done is "here's the Utah CDL permit exam questions, lets take 3 practice tests for the next 3 days so you can pass that, then we will teach you the bare basics in pre-trip, backing, city driving and mountain driving ... when you finish that the same guy who tuaght you will certify you" ... All my rambling leads to this, for $3000 all I believe we are getting is a job with on the job training.




Day 4

Took or final exams this morning before lunch and everyone passed. The 2nd portion of the day we went of trip planning and such. Pretty uneventful and layed back.




Day 5 - 6 - 7

Greyhound ... this ride will make the strongest of men want to cut. The buses suck, seats are stiff, the rear of the bus smells like pure urine and most of the drivers are extremely rude. Our ride included a 10 hour layover in Denver due to Greyhound not properly scheduling drivers and managing driver hours. We sat in Saline Kansas for 4 hours when our driver ran out of hours. Once we got to Denver we were greeted with this generation of Barney Fife. Once you're there you may see what I mean.


Day 8

Training in SLC is supposed to start on Sunday's, however since we had that layover and arrived to SLC 14 hours late we didn't start class until Monday. This actually took 1 days worth of training away from us, making the process that much expidited. On Monday we arrived and met our trainers. Then we went to the road range and did backing and offsetting for the day.


Day 9

We began the morning with learning how to parrallel park. After doing parrallel parking 3 times each the instructors came and tested us on backing, offsetting and parrallel parking.


Day 10

We started the morning talking about Pre-Trip and the all important ALE test. After about an hour of this we left the terminal and went out to Rookie Road which is actually the old US 40 2-Lane highway near the hotel. On Rookie Road we learned how to double clutch and shift going from 2nd gear to 7th gear and back down to 2nd gear. You will start this process and repeat it on a 15-20 mile road until you reach the end of that road which is at the Great Salt Lake. You will then drive over an overpass for I-80, turning onto the on ramp and drive back into the city via the freeway. Yes, you're driving on the freeway doing 63 mph on your 3rd day behind the wheel.

With 3 students in your truck you might get 2 shots at driving this road.


Day 11

You will return to the same area as Rookie Road, except this time you will drive the Industrial area doing nothing but right hand turns. This allows you to learn how to make rolling turns to the right without stopping and doing so in 3rd gear. This will pretty much be your entire day.


Day 12

Depending on the trainer you get, you will return to this same area, except this time you will be making right and left turns. Learning how to downshift when coming to a rolling turn for each direction. If all is goin well you may also start some slight city driving.


Day 13

This is the best of them all. You will start the morning doing city driving going into downtown SLC near the Temple and Capital buildings. You will do several left and right turns as well as some highway driving. After lunch you will head for the mountains. In the afternoon you will drive I-80 towards Wyoming. Bring your camera's, this drive is unreal and majestic. The trainers will stop and allow pic's to be taken which makes this trip majestic.


Day 14

CDL Road test day .... can't get anymore stressfull. Our class started with 10 coming to Utah, we lost 1 to a background check leaving us with 9. One of our classmates had 2 auto fails on the road test and as of this posting is out retaking his 3rd and final attempt.





As for me, I pass the backing / Offsetting / Parrallel Parking test with 0 points. I scored a 41/47 on the Pre-Trip and got 8 points on my road exam. All of it had it's moments for racking nerves, but TBH the tester for my road course could not have made me feel more at ease. Bob did a great job making everyone feel good and not worry about the test. With the exception of the ####### who go fired for sexually harrassing a student in a previous class, all of the trainiers were excellent and worked thier ##### off to get us ready.

Art, Mike, Dave, Bob and Jim if you folks read this I appluad you all.


I now start job orientation on Monday and should be on a truck by Thursday or Friday.

 

Hey Big Rigg, haven't heard from you in a while. Curious as to how everything is going now that you have been on your own for a couple weeks. How many miles have you been averaging per week?

 

Hey oXo, man you must be here at the Ramada where I am. My class started with 23 and we lost 2 to the work well test, a couple on background checks, 5 went on to a refresher course ahead of us, 1 to high blood pressure, 2 not having the proper documents, and 2 that just quit. We're down to 8 solid now and we're starting our second week tomorrow.

The first day was very stressful watching people pulled out of the class and sent home for reasons we did not know at that time. We had a DOT physical, work well test, security interview, and drug test. After that is was back to the VIP Lounge (nothing to write home about but not bad at all). After lunch we came back to start class in preparation for the permit test in two days as well as finish up on some paper work.

The second day was filled with power points and practice tests for the permit tests to follow the next day. Lots of studying after class as well.

The third day began at the DMV with a class of 10 and all but one passed. One did not get to test due to document issues. After lunch we continued learning about the driving parts of the CDL test.

The forth day we were out of the class on in the trucks doing straight line backing before lunch and offset backing after.

The fifth day we did parallel parking before lunch and ally docking after.

Today (Sunday) we left the VIP Lounge and moved to the Ramada with a class of 8.

Tomorrow we should be out on rookie road shifting, Tues. we will be working on turns and city driving, Wed. will be the pre-trip inspection testing in the am, and mountain driving in after lunch. Thurs. should be backing tests and driving test practice, then Friday will be the Driving road test. More to come later guys.

 

Hey loXol and jolley,

If you get time and would like to have a coffee or beer, let me know. I'm going to be starting with Central in Jan or Feb. I live here in SLC right now. You can PM me on here if you like. I've been keeping up with the thread just so I know to be prepared for it. Thank you both for posting the info on here.

That's an invite for all you guys, to do the coffee, that are in SLC.

 

Well, started backing today. Tomorrow we go get our permits then more backing. The bus ride from Conley was interesting to say the least. See y"all on the range

 

how long was the ride from GA to SLC? and what did yall do to burn the time?

 

Do they pair you at the Ramada and if so, do they give the option of paying extra for your own room?

 

The ride from GA to SLC too about 46hrs with all the delays. To brun the time...ha ha....sleep if you can but plan on being awake for at least 30+ hrs

 

Yeah, we are doubled up. From what I have understood Central wants it that way. As for paying fir your own room...I guess that is possible but Central wants to know your room number to keep track of you. I figure it is good to get used to bunking up since we will be living in a truck with a trainer before we know it.