New Driver/"truckers kid"

Hi Everyone, Figured this was as a good of a p[lace as any to say hello and introduce myself.
Names James,
My Father was a Truck driver for 25+ years and was an O/O for the last 8 of those years. I always traveled with him on holiday breaks and summer vacations when i was in school (Assuming mother wasn't asking for her Visitation"). I always loved seeing the sights roll by and always told the "old man" that i wanted to be "Just like him". Which he quickly responded to me "no you don't, Trucking is going downhill and i don't want you to have to deal with all the B.S. that is coming down the line. Pick something worthwhile. EARN a living, Don't WORK for a living." Well Low and Behold i decided about a year and a half ago to get my CDL and Go against "Father knows best." I went to Amarillo College Truck Driving Academy, which i highly recommend to anyone looking at getting their CDL quickly, and started "Trucking" for a local dirt work company. I ran a belly dump for the better part of a year, worked with some really great guys, then decided to leave my small town ways and move to the "BIG city" that i was born in. I moved back to DFW about 2 months ago now and started working for the OTR company i am with currently doing regional runs. I'm moderately happy with the company, i get bout .34 a mile empty/loaded, and 15/hr for any wait time. We run "newer"(term lightly used) trucks and "decent" trailers. but the home time is good and the miles are there if i want 'em. I apologize in advance for any comments that are made in ignorance, and i know ill make them, i am a newbie after all. I really hope you old hands wont give me too much grief. I've been stalking these forums for about 6 months now and finally decided that since im starting my OTR career, that "you people" would be the best help in the never ending quest for "greener pastures".

Dont really know what else to put here. Any questions feel free to ask.
Thanks,
James.



P.S. Sorry if this all seems really wordy. Didn't really know what to put so i just kinda started typing and let my fingers decide what to say.

 

The class i was in had roughly 13 people to start and they split us up in two groups for the first course that was just us doing the driving test that the state of texas requires and taking practice test. During the morning 6 of us were on the driving course three in trucks, three watching and encouraging other drivers as they took their tests. then after the course was run twice we would switch. That continued for about 4 to 5 hours until lunch. Then our group was sent inside to do lesson plans over the Drivers Handbook and take practice tests until around 4 o' clock. The other group of 7 people would be doing the opposite of us throughout the day. At the end of the course i was THOROUGHLY prepared for the driving test and the written tests. I passed all of my tests with at least an 89% including my hazmat. Most of which i completed on my first time. The driving test itself is done in an automatic daycab with a 38' flatbed trailer and alot of the reason for that is because if you hit a curb once, You fail. Quite frankly even if you take most of the corners wide as hell there is hardly any room for you NOT to hit the curb in a real truck with a real trailer. You can do it in the school truck pretty easy, but one day i drove through the exact same course in a sleeper mack with a 48' dry box. Next to impossible not to hit the curb on the first friggin turn.lol. After taking the test, Assuming you pass, You have about a week left of the first course to drive in a straight 10 freightshaker up and down the campus roads (its on an old airforce base so there is plenty of room) as they teach you how to double clutch. Side note: they get pretty frustrated when you start floating, lol, i can't count how many times they told me "stop floating and use the clutch." Now if you spring for the extra couple hundred bucks, Or if the GI bill will in your case, you can take the "advanced Course". The advanced course in my case was 8 students and it was all driving for 3 weeks. We had to keep a correct and legal logbook for the entire course so we could get familiar with them. We put in about 500 miles each for the course, We hauled flatbeds, Tankers that were filled to about half, 53' reefers, and a set of doubles. We took two runs through amarillo one with the tankers which ,with as much slosh as they got, was fun. The other run was with the doubles during "rush Hour". We also had a night run from about 7pm to about 4am. All in all the advanced course is great everyone in the truck gets alot of hands-on experience driving, hooking, backing, etc. During the last week of the course its all about backing in between two sets of cones from a 90 degree angle both drivers side and blind side. All in all its a great course for a new driver and i HIGHLY recommend it. Jerry is the handbook instructor and is good at his job and will go into as much detail as you need if you don't understand something. Homer is the drive test instructor and even though hes a bit abrasive and kind of an ###, he is good at his job. Bryan is the Advanced course instructor and is one of the better human beings i've met in my life, both as an instructor and a person.

The equipment that they run in the basic course is all late model except for the freightshaker that me and another student got to drive during the basic course. Only reason we ran it was because we were tired of running automatics and we were both truckers kids and by god we wanted a little bit of a challenge. After taking out a stop sign with the hood, that we decided was a better idea not to tell anyone about, we parked it for the duration of the course.
For the advanced course your running a 2007 sleeper mack, and a 2008 O/O Western star 4900. So all the equipment is anything but old, The Star Car is one of the nicest trucks ive been in to date.

I hope this helps your decision making, i cant speak for any other training courses but i believe that from what ive heard about them AC provides one of the best.