Watkins & Shepard - Yesterday and Today

Razoor to put in perspective the grades ms. pilot is talking about, would be like I- 75 in Ga, heading towards Tenn. they are not posted but it can be a problem. better yet 81 in Va, it has that and it is not posted. I hope I helped with the visual; not debating but trying to give u a visual. By comparing it to what u know.

 

10-4 on that. Doesn't sound like bad grades at all then, jakes and a little brake pressure should be able to do ya under normal circumstances, I take it? Still think it's a little nutty to take a student to 65 then have them start to down shift. Should be learning to downshift at a lower speed, that way if ya can't get it you can just let the jakes rattle and everything will be under control.

Just remembered someone did say 6% grades earlier, ya I guess it's usually 8%+ that's marked.

 

I live in Sacramento.. they hire drivers out of there, I've known quite a few actually that live in Sac.

This is for both of you, I went to Western Truck School in W.Sac and after being in Missoula for their 10 day program i saw what the 30 day guys were learning. I will tell you that you will get a LOT more hands on training with W/S school than you will with Western Truck School. And more training that is job related, for example we were never showed how to slide the tandems at WTS.. they just want to get you your CDL and move on.

W/S is investing in you when they put you through their school, they want you to learn the necessary knowledge to operate a truck on your own.

 

First of all, the grade they are talking about starts on flat terrain, I believe it IS marked with 6% sign (Not entirely sure though, been a while) the grade itself starts out as only 4% maybe for a little bit, which is where they have you downshift, then the grade goes to 6% for about a mile I think. They do this with a loaded trailer and it can be a little intense for a newb driver but nothing that serious.. They just want to make sure you know how to downshift going down hill, simple as that.. you brake it down to near 1000 rpms and downshift quickly. It becomes second nature to you after a while.

And I know that W/S wouldn't kick anyone out of there without there being a good reason for it, we had a 10-day guy in our class that went way beyond his stay, he had issues with all aspects of the class.. But, they will NOT give you a truck if you're not going to be able to handle it. End of story.

As for Dick, you gotta know how to deal with him, lol. I just went to the flatbed training and you have to be able to talk crap back to him. He's a pretty funny guy when you get to know him, he's just hard on his students, with that said I never had to drive with him though.

 

How does WS work for you living in Sac?

Would be interested to know being i live there also

 

maybe I'm wrong about this, but in my experience as a truck driver the laws of physics never changes.
what goes up always must come down whether u did an 5% incline 6 miles ago at some piont u will go down the same way.
Just trying to get the piont of the flat terrain notion can somebody clear this up for the thread. Super truckers that was not for u but just for the newbs. I know u know before the backlash.
hey java 1 question is there a waiting list for flats still or no.

 

First off, you will pretty much need to park a car in Modesto as that is where you will most likely leave the truck when you are on hometime. I occasionally got a load to Sac, and knew a good place for me to park my truck that was near my house.

When I was hauling dry van, there was only one time that I got routed back out instead of getting me home, but I would rather run the miles than sit and wait for a load home. They generally did a great job getting me home when I asked for it.

The flatbed side is ran a little bit differently so I guess we'll see how well I get home now, lol.

Doesn't always work like that.. There are a lot of high desert plateaus out there, I have seen a few cases where you might descend 1000 feet out nowhere from one flat stretch of road to another. yes there may have been an ascent at some point, but could have been several miles back and a very gradual ascent.

I'm not sure at this point, I think they run the flatbed class when there is enough interest, I would call Mark or Dick and let em know you are interested. I did hear someone saw that they are only hiring O/O's for flatbed, so there must be some need for flatbed drivers.

Just got on a 3000+ mile trip picked up in Spangle, WA and headed to Vermont, with a couple drops in MN, PA & NJ. I'm liking these miles, hehe. although it'll be a lot of re-tarping.. oh well

 

Hey Java Joe

How did it work out for you with a CA license training in Montana, any hassles with getting your CDL switched to CA?

Also are most company drivers allocated Volvos?

I called WS the other day and they told me that their school was no longer free.

 

I got my CDL at Western Truck School so I didn't have to switch it over.

I think it might be 50/50 if you prefer one over the other they will try to work with getting you into what you want, but no promises.

It never was free by any means, they used to offer financing for students, but it wasn't free.