Watkins & Shepard - Yesterday and Today

Was it fairly simple swapping your Montana CDL for your home state? I want to make sure I can swap mine to California before I make my final decisions

 

No sweat. The process was super easy in Mississippi. We had to show proof of residence in MS, show the Montana CDL, and I think we had to have SS cards too. Anyway, showed the docs, filled out the paper work, walked out with MS CDLs.

 

ok I just checked, I can swap it over with proof of US citizenship, CA residency, and a SS Card...guess it won't be a problem then. =)

 

Upper apex? I think you should stick to something a little simpler - maybe - top of the hill!

 

Yep, and hopefully getting it up to 85 to run up the next hill. Seriously, what's the big deal about dropping a gear at 65 - rev her up, depress the clutch and slam it in the lower gear.

I had some good times at Red's Bar in Dowtown Missoula. Anyone else hit Reds?

 

Thats something i also want to look into a little closer, i obviously will be working with a green card and not as a citizen (not yet anyway). will have to check if thats going to work the same way.

Kinda stuck between Central refrigerated and WS right now, though the input on this forum seems more positive in favor of WS.

What's WS hiring policy like for recent driving school graduates? Do they hire from any schools here in the Sacramento region and is it more beneficial to just go to their school in Montana? Actually saw one of their trucks coming out of Elk Grove onto I5 today.

 

AZ, When you go down a mountain slow, you get to the bottom in one piece, when you go down to fast, it only takes once, and you can never even find all the piece's, lock it in a lower gear before going downhill don't kill yourself or anyone else ! If someone wants to do otherwise, get out of the truck now! there won't be a later, sounds like someone got government incentives to conditionally hire student drivers, this stuff is going to stop. Listen to every-one, but make your own decision's, if it don't make sense to you, that is why God gave you instinct's ! PEACE OUT

 

Irish, I'm stuck in between Central and W/S myself, and I live up in Rocklin, so I'm not too far from you (30 min or so). The only thing that would stop me from going to W/S however would be if I can't get the funds. I'm going to Western Truck School on Monday to tour their school in West Sac...but I don't think I'm gonna do the local school thing. Otherwise Central is down in Riverside and only requires $250 up front for the CDL Permit, Physical, and CDL Tests. We'll see.

 

I don't know, I have been up and down alot of mountains and I never had to regain control of my rig going down the hill at 65.

Maybe the theory's have changed since I started driving but the last time I trained a newbie I had him in the proper gear before going down a grade.,Not after.

And I have never heard of a company washing someone out of a training program because they could not do something you should never have to do in the first place. I haven't in 19 years.

Believe me, if your going down a long grade at 65 under a load the last thing you should be worried about is how smooth your downshift is.

 

I will defer to your experience, but I know there are grades in Montana that the first time there's a warning that it's a grade is after your steers are already on the way down. Also, the "be in the right gear" theory works great if you know what the right gear is before you start down. Most grades are not symmetrical, so the gear up isn't always the right gear down. And Montana isn't the only place they don't always give you much warning.

And lets just say that you end up in the wrong gear on the way down. I know, an experienced driver like you would never have that happen, but a newbie might. Would you rather the newbie know how to downshift or that the training they got left them without that important tool?