TDI at Irwin, PA My Daily Log

Day 6 went pretty well. I was afraid I'd backslide because of the weekend. My shifting has improved a alot. I'm watching the tach instead of my windshield. Cornering is still rough though. Can't seem to figure out when to start turning to keep my trailer from turning too tight. Rolling along the highway i'm fine, it's those right angles that are getting me. Any tips or tricks would be appreciated. And since were down to 3 driving students, I got about 4 hours of stick time today.

Range time was cool. Alley-dock is still a pain in the ###. The trailer likes to curve too fast on me and the rate of curve is still hard for me to judge. Think I'm gonna make it the bulk of my range time tomorrow. The cool part today was blind-side parallel parking. Once you've got your landmarks down on the truck, it's really easy. Though I imagine it will be different with another truck since length varies.

Also helped the senior week student with his pre-trip. I basically stood there with the checklist and watched him go through it. It's a nice review for me and it helped him figure out if he had any trouble spots since his pre-trip test is tomorrow. He's returning the favor to me tomorrow.

We had snow today, and it was pretty #### cold but it didn't affect much on the range til we couldn't see the lines too well on the range. Tomorrow there should be some snow laying in the morning. The instructors were talking about swapping range and driving time to give the road crews a chance to clean up the roads some. We shall see.

That's it for now, see you tomorrow,

Valkyrie

 

Day 7 was not very notable. Same as the day before as far as training.

Day 8 started out horrible. My instructor took me on the state test route. Two lanes, shifting road speeds, tight turns, hard uphills... I couldn't keep my trailer from touching the yellow line on the left turns... I was ready to cry by the time we stopped.

During our break, the guys encouraged me saying at least you had your bad day today instead of test day.

The way back went better, but I was on familiar roads again.

After that, I went back into the classroom to learn logbooks. Interesting stuff there. There's some dispute between the instructors about a particular scenario... One section seems to contradict the other.

Here's hoping tomorrow goes better.

Valkyrie

 

Thanks paledr, I'm starting to get it.

Day 9 went much better. I sat and talked with my instructor a bit before we left in the truck. Told him I was nervous because I was scared of failing. He reminded me that I had a whole other week to go, that I was getting one-on-one time, and that I was getting more stick time than any student could hope for. He told me not to worry, just to learn from my mistakes. He asked me if he was making me uncomfortable. I'm like no, I have no problems with you, I'm just scared I won't be ready.

The rest of the day went ok except one stoplight, I panicked and shoved the clutch to the floor. (Too much time in a stick-shift 4 wheeler)

The Swift recruiter came in today. He was ok. Still shy of them after reading stories here. Biggest plus I saw was that there's a terminal really close to where I live and free spouse training. Not enough to buy me though.

Rest of the day we did trip planning.

See you tomorrow,

Valkyrie

 

Hi Bella,

To save yourself a lot of headaches, get your recruiter to run your loan paperwork before you get there. Don't them bullsh-t you and just say that the company you work for will pay for it. They do work with finance companies to get you a loan and some folks have to get co-signers if their credit isn't stellar. Better yet, prepare to finance $6000 yourself, you'll probably find a better interest rate. One other thing you can do; if you're unemployed, go visit Career Link. They'll pay for it all but you'll have to jump though some red tape. The companies they work with for hiring all have reimbursement programs, but some only pay up to $5000 like Swift. They also don't always pay the full payment amount. Most pay between $100 and $125 a month on your loan, you pay the balance. My payments are like $180 per month so I pick up around $55 a month. Luckily for me, my first payment isn't due until April so I should be making more money by then.

Right now the classes are still pretty small, so you'll get a lot of drive time. And the driving instructors are wonderful. Just bring some cash for breakfast at Bernies and the other diner they frequent. $3-5 normally covers it.

Day 10 was different. I had to take written tests all morning then went up to the range in the afternoon. Had a different instructor up there today. He was confusing me with my alley-dock instructions. But I think I've found a happy medium between the different intructor's methods. We'll see on Monday.

Laters,

Valkyrie