I'm no driver!

Hey PattyJ, Merry Xmas. When I was training students not so long ago, 9 out of 10 could not properly shift. I always took the time to show them. A lot of these companies want the newbies to know how to shift so that they can run them as a team instead of really training them to safely operate the equipment. As long as they had a general idea of what they were doing, they were hired to finish their transition into this industry. But, as you know, some of the companies have lost touch with the whole concept of "training and retaining" drivers. I hope you have a safe day.

 

CT? Please tell me that dont stand for central transport. And since when did they decide to upgrade from the bottom of the barrel sterlings to mack?

 

Nope...CT = Coastal Transportation LLC. They are a flat-bed division of COMCAR. They have been working on moving out a lot of MACK trucks for International Prostars Eagles. When? No one knows for sure. lol

 

Alright just checking. Central transport runs autos in their sterlings was gonna tell u to quit before their junk got you killed. That company just needs to be shut down. And gotta love them telling you that dont you. Were upgrading. When? Who knows. Lol

 

Haha. Yup, the company seniors don't even give us false months anymore. They just leave it an open ended date. Pretty reeeeeeeediculous!

 

Agreed. That's horribly ridiculous. Do they take care of their equipment though? If they fix their stuff it aint so bad if they just leave it and dont fix it i'd be livid if they were promising new equipment sometime before the world ends...or im burried 6ft under haha.

 

Ive heard some stories from those with the much older trucks that they are doing as little as possible to get the truck back on the road. They don't want to do major repairs to cut cost so when they trade them in. I am lucky I have a newer model and have had no issues. I do know they do their best to keep all trucks running. The trailers...some need to be scraped. But it is what it is. As long as they aren't falling apart and the lights work I'll pull the old stuff. Lol. I like the company overall. Good people. Everyone seems to know everyone. I like that.

 

Well, no Auto matic at Con~way so depending on how long your oreintation is you might be expected to already "know" everything since your a CDL holder . In thier eyes this is the case many of times. Theres alot of information coming at you fast there and its easy to run into walls, ecspecially shifting. I've seen many of youtube videos on shifting by Yourboy E the trucker ( shamless plug ) Helped me out alot, check it out

 

I learned to drive a non syncro trans by reading how to do it. I drove tankers in the Air Force and they were all 5sp syncro with 2sp rears or autos. At the time we could transfer our military drivers license to a cdl with just a written test. Cannon Express was the only company that would take my military experience so I went with them. The first time I ever drove a non syncro was on that road test. I only missed on gear. When the tester saw me trying to use the gas and clutch to take off, I realised I shouldn't have been doing that and BSed the instructor that I was just nervous and forgot. I was very nervous but never knew that you didn't use the throttle to take off. Made it back to the yard and was flying high till he told me to back it in next to the shop. A very easy straight back. I couldn't do it. We never backed up in the military because we needed a spotter for that and never wanted to wait, plus all aprking spots were pull thru's. Ended up going to driving school and ended up with a much better company than Cannon.