Schneider Paid CDL Training - Ohio

First week all finished up. Having a blast in school, we have a hell of a group of guys in our class that keep things entertaining. Took my written tests today for: Gen knowledge, Air Brakes, Combination, Tanker, and Doubles/Triples. Passed them all. I'm not getting my Hazmat right now, just because I don't have a copy of my Birth Certificate and can't really justify spending the money on getting one at the moment, perhaps in a few months.

This upcoming week we are basically going to do nothing but backing. Of course the other day the instructor took us out to the pad to show us some stuff on one of the trucks and then proceeded to fly through the backing maneuvers. I know he was giving us an idea of what it looks like from the outside but from his speed I think he was also showing off just a little.

Since I passed all my written tests I'll probably grab my temps on Monday. We have all of next week to get them since we won't start road work until the week after but I'd rather have them ASAP rather than waiting. Apparently there is some ruling here in Ohio that says you can't take your driving test until you have had your temps for 14 days. I don't get it but the people with the uniforms say so, so i guess I'll listen to them.

 

Ok I didn't say that right. He went through them quickly an ACCURATELY very accurately. Also effortlessly. Of course you would expect someone who teaches these maneuvers to be able to do them as easily as breathing.

 

Weren't no tracks to be seen on our pad lol. He was a driver for 12 years and has been instructing for the last 12. He's a pretty cool cat. But as I've stated before he teaches us what the state wants us now and then he teaches us what reality is actually gonna throw our way.

 

Whelp, week 2 of school is completed. All this week we were out on the pad doing backing maneuvers. Started with straight back, then went to offset, moved on to parallel from there, and finished with alley. Straight back was easy, though a couple of guys always seemed to want to over correct at first. Offset was also relatively simple. Strange part about that was, that I found it easier to do blindside offset than sight side at first.

Parallel seemed even easier than offset was, but maybe that was because we did offset first. Then comes the bane of my existence, Alley dock.. They showed 2 different ways of doing it, walk it in or pin point it in. I was able to get both a couple times but most were failures. Either I'd cut in short and wind up on the near side cone or I'd be shallow and on the far side cone.

The real pain of this is the fact that I jumped in another rig later on and walked it in 4 times in a row without much issue. The caveat is that particular rig is 2 feet shorter than the first one I was using. I guess 2 feet makes a lot of difference. We're going to be working on the alley more on Monday before we start getting onto the road. I'm just hoping something clicks that will allow me to get it in there with enough room left to correct.

Almost all of next week is going to be spent driving on the road. This ought to be an interesting experience. I will say that so far I've been more comfortable sitting in the truck for long periods than sitting in my car for long periods. Yesterday was a prime example of this. in the truck almost all day playing that clutch. Get out, no problem with pain or anything. Get into my Ford escort and about 70 miles down the road my back and left leg start acting up. Get home take a couple aspirin and this morning I'm right as rain.

 

Schneider doesn't have their company school anymore. Now they basically partner out with community colleges and trade schools that have Truck Driving Academies. My school is Southern State Community College in Wilmington, OH.