USX Training Issues

What do you mean by Written Essay type answers? Are you saying that you have to write the answer word for word??
As close to word perfect as you can get it. Just how word perfect will ultimately depend upon the person who grades your test. But I remember being a bit surprised at just how close to word perfect they expected. Many of the questions on the written are multiple choice and should present no problem for those who prepare.


As for time with the book on the road, I really did not have much time for that. For the 5 days, he never opened my hand book at all. Remarkable!! He could be quizzing you as you drive or at least using the info as something worthwhile to have a discussion about while driving.

It laid up on the dash. I was running 12 to 13 hours of my 14. I think one day I had 20 minutes left on my 14 hour clock. Not an excuse, just the facts of what was going on, on the road is all.
No need to bother waiting for someone else to be proactive. FWIW I would suggest taking 5 or so questions each day and writing them down word for word. Read them aloud to yourself and then write down both the question and the answer.
You have a pretty fair idea what to expect at upgrade and it sounds like your backing skills are already quite good (2 blind side backs in the dark). Just hang in there, put in your hours and move on.
Good Luck to you HD.

 

ok, i am waiting to hear about this, but does anyone have a link or page i can go to to brush up on my pretrip?

 

I was going to send you a PM, but thot maybe I should just go ahead and put it in here in case it will help someone else.

The first 75hrs with my student I am sitting in the jump seat..watching traffic, their driving, the road signs (especially where the highways change), the street signs, etc...anything that will help them concentrate on their driving and help them relax......the ONLY thing I will do to pass the time is to crochet on my son's afghan.

I use the checklist to make sure we are covering everything, dating when we first either talked about it or encountered it.....then I date it when I feel they either understand or have accomplished it.

PTI's are done every morning and evening....I make sure they understand what they are looking for and why.

I go over the major route solution with them, showing them on the atlas, plus we write the road numbers on the side window....the local gets written on a 3x5 card that gets taped to the steering wheel (much easier to see than using a notebook). I aways have my Streets and Trips with the truck stops running on my laptop and I will keep track of the milage and plan where we are going to stop throughout the day and for the night, plus I can make the screen large enough to see where we are going and how the roads run.......I will also use Google Maps (or Earth) to see what we are going into when it comes to the customer.

We go into the customers together so that they know what to do and I let them handle the transactions after awhile.....they also do the Circle of Service with me helping them find the information and making sure they put it in the right places.

Scaling is done for any load over 38k...you actually get a note when you do your loaded call saying basically "Load is not over 38K, you are not required to scale, if you think you need to then contact your FM....if you do scale then you won't get reimbursed for it.".....then I teach them how to slide the tandems, figuring 250lbs per hole (I have my trick of using chalk to mark the hole I want and then pacing it off, pacing off the same from a point on the tractor and chalking the ground).

The second 75 hrs we run Super Solo (I do not run Team) and I stagger my day by about 2-3 hrs.....I still spend the time sitting in the Jump Seat doing the same thing I did before.

As for the test.....I tell my students to basically memorize it because it is almost exactly the same test they will take to Upgrade.

I hope this helps.....if I can think of anything else, I will add it.....or you can ask me questions.

 

You have had some bad luck with trainers...But I assure you, as good as I was with my trainers when I was @ USA...I was not ready as I thought I was when I went SOLO. It didn't take long to figure the rest out, but their are some tight spots out there, and if you are running a bunch of D&H's and dedicated, you are probably in spaces that are huge and easy to back into...You'll see, when you get out there and have to back in off the street and cars could care less if they are in your way

Hopefully, your buddy will train ya, and even better, y'all may hit it off and can run teams and make some good money.

 

Actually, if you are running a retail dedicated account like family dollar, the backing can be insane

 

You should but it's really up to you. I rarely scale anything. Being a dedicated run, maybe the guy knows it's all good. Of course that doesn't mean he shouldn't show you how to do it.

Why do you keep getting stuck with all the dedicated guys? Are you going for a dedicated run yourself?