Advanced School of Driving?

So today was my first day at A.S.D, what we did was fill out 2 forms, i think one was for the school and the second was for the employer they set you up with ( in my case it is CRST.....)

After the forms we watched a video on getting in and out of your tractor trailer safely, then a second video that lasted 45mins talking about the pre trip inspection in depth. After the videos we walked out to the lot and the instructor did his version of the pre trip, after that we split in groups and recieved a " study packet " and began attempting the pre trip inspection in our group/s. Then, we were ready to get drug tested ( i believe this is a pre employment drug test ) And that was it for the first day.. ending about 2 hours early.

I like my instructor,(forget his name will add later) he appears to like his job and as a result, he does a good job. he even backed the truck into the shade for us to do pre trip inspection practice!

 

So today I came back to the school after taking a leave of absence, and they scheduled me in tuesday.. picking up where i left off.

Today we grinded the pre-trip inspections all day. started at 6:45am, we had a break at 9 and lunch at noon(ish) and got out at 2:00pm sharp. The trainer made it clear to me I need to have my drug test before next week (im guessing thats when we start driving, after a week of pre-trip practice)

The drug test location is off miliken just below the 10 freeway, they provide a map. The drug test costs 30dollars.

Some food service truck comes at lunch and sells grease with a little bit of burrito, i passed on that and went hungry. This time around i have a new trainer who is clearly new to the job, but he does ok.

 

Day 3 we added another step, we began practicing by first dropping the hooked up trailer by( lowering the legs with crank, pulling the.... RELEASE ARM and checking to make sure it unlocked, disconnecting the emergency, and service air lines, as well as the electric line.

pull out from the trailer turn around and make our approach to the trailer we just dropped, backing up into it and using the mirrors to line up the back back drive tires with the edge of the trailer, and setting it back up for the next student by raising the legs with crank, kingpin is already locked when u back in, and re-connecting the emergency, and service air lines as well as electric line

 

Sorry for the delays in updates for those considering A.S.D in fontana...

Basicly your first week is grinding the outside pre-trip and in cab inspections. On friday we had the train staff give us a 30min lecture at the end of the day about "stay alive while you drive" what to do if your truck breaks down on the tracks, where to run if there is an impending collision, stuff like that. The driving instructors come in after and tell us be there at 6:30 sharp, making it clear that the trucks leaving in the morning wait for nobody.

Monday morning i show up and at about 620am and at 630am we walked over to the truck(2007 freightliner cascadia), instructor ran a outside pretrip inspection and had one of the 4 students assigned to him perform the in-cab inspection. After filling up a tire with air we were off to the truck stop for some diesel. For the first day doing city driving he took us to an area with big, empty rode's. We took turns driving until first break which comes around 9am, then lunch which is at 10:45am, after lunch we come into the yard and started with straight line backing, then moved to ally docking for the rest of the day(2pm is quitting time)

For the second day(tuesday) same thing with a few new exceptions. New student doing the in cab inspection, the driving difficulty increased... we were in downtown riverside at 1 point, and after lunch we started parralel parking instead of straight line backing, after about 1 hour we switched to ally docking for the rest of the day.

My instructor is andrew, hes the owners son,( might explain the new equipment we're using) but dont get it twisted he can DRIVE. He gets frustrated quickly if your not doing as he's saying, hes a bit impatient but his advice and teaching skills are very solid, my 2nd day driving the truck i only grind 7th, and miss downshifting correctly here and there..

I will correct this tomorow if im wrong but i believe there is 3 2007 freightliner cascadias, and 2 older freigts(owners clearly a fan of freigtliner!) i will specify the year on the older freights tomorow but if i had to guess i would say 2000-2001's, all have air conditioning and the new 07's even have leather seats!

Theres about 3 or 4 that never leave the yard(not road worthy) and thats what students use to practice pre trips and in cab inspections

 

Not gonna beat around the bush this school is for fast learners and people that make good use of their time.

Driving in the city it is about 45mins to 1 hour for each student, and then you come into the yard for manuver practice ( parralel parking, alley docking, straight line backing.)

If you fail dmv test you come back and train for 2 hours on what you failed during the test. so say you bump a curb on a right hand turn, your in the yard grinding right hand turns with the cone acting as a curb, or city.. im not sure as i havent taken the dmv drive test yet.

If you check their website it says "[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-4] We Stand behind our training! If you fail your DMV drive test, we will give you further training
at [SIZE=-4]no cost [/SIZE][SIZE=-4]to you."

[/SIZE][/SIZE][/FONT]so to recap my last post ( cannot edit it for some reason ) theres a total of 10 trucks, 1st week is all pre trip and in cab inspection practice. 2nd week is driving, for me its city drive in the morning and manuvers in afternoon. i finish school this friday, and i take my dmv drive test monday, if i pass.. my life changes... if i fail i go back to A.S.D and work on what i missed.