Ready or Not Here I come!!

Yay! I am so happy for u. I tested out Wednesday! Phew! kenny is no nonsense instructor. But I feel he made me better! Alley dock was hard but when the light came on, I coulda kicked myself if my left leg was'nt shaking like a bowl of jello from riding clutch! Sorry have'nt been on here since training but bbm u know how time consuming training is. My advice for anyone considering millington is; if u have drama leave it at home( I have seen a few go home) your mind body and spirit has to be fully engulfed in the raging storm of training to be a trucker. I have a new respect for what america's truckers do for us! U guys are awesome I tip my hat to truckers.

 

Yes the in-cab air brake test is the #1 most important part of the road test, hiring test, DMV test etc. The knowledge of which could be the difference between life and death for yourself and others out here.
The fault for failing the test lies in a big part in my book on the instructors as well as the individual student. Perhaps an instructor knows a certain student won't make a good truck driver and teaches just enough that the student must make up the difference much like a defense lawyer in a murder/child molester case would only defend just so much to stay out of trouble but not go the extra mile to save their (guilty) client.

 

Feeling better about yourself and the choice you made, BBM? You were kind of down in the dumps for a while...

 

It is very tough starting out at just $0.25 cents per mile. I won't lie, there were some weeks I had to live on the $100 dollar advance. I'd send most of my paycheck home every week. Out of the $100 I'd buy about $70 bucks worth of Walmart crackers, beans, vienna sausages, that peanut butter and jelly mixed together stuff because it doesn't need to be refrigerated, bread and water. The other $30 bucks was for coffee, scale tickets, tolls and maybe one or two 'splurge' meals if I felt it was in the budget (close to payday).

After 3 months you get a little raise, then again at 4 months. Pretty soon you're in the groove hitting bigger miles, picking up a load on Tuesday that delivers on Thursday so those miles count for the following week, and you're preplanned all the way til the following Wednesday and turn over 4000 miles for that pay period, just budget your big weeks to cover your little weeks.

 

Yeah ... if you spend all all your time hanging around terminals. Consider the source.

 

BBM...the easiest way to tell if a truck driver is lying to you is to watch his lips, if they move while he talks then most of the time he isn't telling the truth.

Obviously that is a joke, but you must learn quickly why most of us put little credence in what is said around the liar's tables. They are fun to hang out at just to see who will tell the biggest story. There will be the rare occasion that you will learn something useful.