Starting Community College Driving School Tomorrow

I'm starting my community college driving school tomorrow (actually today now).

I'll post updates here as often as I can to describe my experience in the school if you're interested.

If you're interested in following me through school, post a comment here or click on "Thanks" and if there looks like there's interest, I'll take the time to do it. Otherwise, I won't waste my time and/or bore you with my experiences in school.

 

Excited to get started!

Getting up and getting there on time was the toughest part of the day! I'm not used to getting up at 5AM, but I guess I'd better get used to it.

Classes start promptly at 7AM!

Right now there's only 2 of us in class. They normally require a 3 student minimum, so I'm not sure what's going to happen, but at least we got started today.

We completed paperwork and talked about the industry in general terms and what our expectations were for our first year, etc. He talked about professionalism and how the drivers are the face of their companies to their customers and the general public and the importance of not only driving safely and professionally but also to look, act, and maintain the equipment like a professional.

Went over the general schedule:

1st Week: Classroom

2nd Week: Pad driving (float shifting, double clutching, etc.) in the pad trucks.

3nd Week: We'll get in the sleeper cab equipped trucks and start road driving.

4th Week: City driving, testing and then graduation.

He said that we'll move along as fast as we get the hang of things and we'll take as much time as we need to in order to make sure we're confident in the different exercises. He's not expecting perfection, just consistency. He said that when we got to the point where we could do a maneuver consistently good 5 out of 6 times, we should be ready to move on.

Went and got books.

We're using the "TRUCKING: Tractor-Trailer Driver Handbook/Workbook 3rd Edition" by Alice Adams. Looks pretty informative, over 600 pages in 35 chapters, for our textbook.

And, of course, we got a current copy of the FMCSR Pocketbook.

Probably get log books tomorrow as that's one of the chapters we have to read and complete questions on tonight.

Assigned us 4 chapters (about 80 pages) to read and complete exercise questions at the ends of the chapters for tomorrow.

I'm really glad that I went the community college route.

Our primary instructor is a driver with over 20 years experience with the 18 as an O/O. He came off the road full time to be home more with his family after more than 20 years on the road full time. He's been an instructor with the college for 6 years.

You can tell he loves to drive and still does some weekends just to keep his actual on the road skills up. He told us about a trip he made this past weekend with a friend and you could tell by the way he told the story that he genuinely loves to drive.

We got out early today and I was able to get by the medical clinic to get the doctor to issue me a 2-year DOT Medical Card to replace my original which she had only issued for a year yet had indicated on my physical long form that I was qualified for a 2 year card.

I was worried that I wouldn't get out of school in time to get there before they closed before we graduate. So, I was glad to get that straightened out.

Also, had time to get a "statement of unemployment" from the job center to send to a potential employer who contacted me today and asked about it.

I had two follow-ups with potential employers today and scheduled an orientation date with one of them. I'm excited because they were 2 of my top 5! Also found out that I have an "in" with one of them that I didn't know about. So, if I need some internal help, it's good to know that I have a couple of contacts inside.

Hope to hear from the other 3 that I have in my top 5 over the next couple of days. I'm sure they received a bunch of apps over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Either that, or they just don't want me! For now, I'm going with the former and not worrying about the latter.

Well, that's it for today. Nothing exciting, just getting started.

Now I'm off to read another 3 chapters, complete my homework and go to bed early so that I can get there by 7AM tomorrow!

'Til tomorrow . . .

 

They are an authorized "third party tester". So, I'll take my driving test here, then take a piece of paper to the DMV where I'll pay for and then be issued the actual CDL A license.

 

Day 3 in the books!

Instructor had us read 5 chapters last night and answer all of the review questions last night.

We went over 3 of the chapters and questions on them in class today.

Started doing log books today. We'll do a log book page for every day we're there from now on out. We have to turn in our log book page for the previous day and show the instructor that we've started a log book page for the current day first thing each morning.

Supposed to go over map reading and trip planning tomorrow and have a quiz. Then we'll move on to the Pre-trip Inspection and start doing actual hands-on PTIs and entering them in our log books tomorrow afternoon.

Getting closer to driving!! Getting excited!! Might actually start driving on the pad on Friday!!