Another Watkins Shepard Thread

Discussion in 'Motor Carrier Questions - The Inside Scoop' started by harley4life, Sep 16, 2008.

  1. harley4life

    harley4life Light Load Member

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    Jul 17, 2008
    Salt Lake City, Utah
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    I hope this is not going to be a duplicate to what others have been saying, but I just wanted to give my experience with W/S. First of all it took over a month to complete the application process, which was fine for me since I applied right before I started CDL school at Roadmasters. I did a thread on my experience on Roadmasters. Long of the short of it, don't go to the night class. My application finished and they set me up to take the HPE test and drug screen today. It was an odd HPE test, had you in some weird positions that I just don't understand as to why? But I completed it and passed everything. I am supposed to get a call in the next day or so for my bus ticket and where I will be staying. From what I have read it's not a five star hotel.. :biggrin_25525: Thats ok, but either way it's a place to stay. My 10 day training starts Sept 22nd and I hope the trainers there are a little patient with us newbies. I don't have my backing down as well as I would like, but with the limited daylight hours I could practice at Roadmasters gave me the basic concepts of it. I will take advantage of the trucks available for us to pratice in after training and on weekends. Since I won't have my laptop when I am there I will try to update as much as possible with how things are going. I think I read they have computers there for internet access. Talk with you all later.
     
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  3. harley4life

    harley4life Light Load Member

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    Jul 17, 2008
    Salt Lake City, Utah
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    Well I got my travel info and I am leaving tomorrow for MT. I will be staying at the terminal so hopefully I will have acess to internet to update how things are going. I am nervous and excited at the same time. This is a whole new direction for me and I hope it works out. Be safe.
     
  4. keb1209

    keb1209 Light Load Member

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    Aug 17, 2008
    Decatur, GA
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    Harley, good luck with W/S. I'm trying to get in myself. If everything goes well, I'll be going to my 10 day orientation in Hickory, NC sometime in mid or late October. I'm really intersted to know what the program entails, so I'll be checking this thread in hopes of hearing more from you.

    Can you give a little more info on what the HPE was like?
     
  5. harley4life

    harley4life Light Load Member

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    Jul 17, 2008
    Salt Lake City, Utah
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    The HPE was mostly sitting in positions for 3 mintues, like squat, hand held up at eye level, bent over, and bent to the side. Then you had to stand one leg for 15 secs, left like 60lbs to your waist and 45lbs to your shoulders. Step up 18 inches five times and then push and pull 60-80lbs like 10 feet. Then walk for 5 mins on a treadmill. It was pretty easy, just some odd test.
    I finally made it to Missoula, MT. It was a 13 hour bus ride, with lots of stops. I must say, if you are planning on coming here don't expect a 5 star resort. It's a small room with two twin beds. But what do you expect I guess. It's Sunday so nothing really happening right now. Thank god there is a computer here, so at least I can check on whats going on at home. I will keep you up to date on what is going on here. Till the next time. Be safe.
     
  6. dancnoone

    dancnoone "Village Idiot"

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    May 6, 2007
    Mississippi
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    Harley, you're in Missoula LOL

    Not the best digs in the world. They put their money where it should be, drivers and equipment. And, you'll find everyone there to be very helpful.

    Your backing skills. You will get what you need there...more actually. And the trainers are a great bunch of guys.

    You'll have access to the "company" car/pick-up for running around also. The key is kept in the lounge...on far wall behind you.

    It's only 10 days...then your accomodations really go to pot. That 2 bunk room will look 5 star after a month in the truck ;)

    Good Luck
     
  7. harley4life

    harley4life Light Load Member

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    Jul 17, 2008
    Salt Lake City, Utah
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    It seems like the equipment is a lot better than what I learned on at Roadmasters. I am looking forward to practicing my back ups. I like having acess to the trucks 24/7 to practice. I will certainly take advantage fo that. The keys to the company cars was no where to be found. They were not on the hook behind me. We looked for hours for them and never found them. Still have no idea where the keys to the mini van is, I think they had the keys to the silver car in the training office. Luckly the head mechanic had the keys to the white sales car so we could go to walmart and get food.
    So far the first day is paper work and review of what we should have learned in driving school. There is a mix of 30 day students, 10 dayers and experienced drivers in the class right now. I am just wanting to get out and practice my driving. But it will come in time. I will keep you updated out there. Be safe.
     
  8. harley4life

    harley4life Light Load Member

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    Jul 17, 2008
    Salt Lake City, Utah
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    Let's see, it's been two days here and we have only had to practice backing a little, of course driving around the yard to try and practice shifting. Tommorrow I think we will go out on the roads in the city driving for part of our OTR check drives.
    There are 3 three of them you have to do. One is city driving, second is backing and third is mountains, going up and down and shifting on them both. Of course they train you in school not to shift on down hills, but here they say you can and will. Today we did mostly class work and learned logging and trip envelopes. This place likes the paper work.
    There are a few of us that are nervous about the OTR checks. I am mostly nervous about the backing. I am doing better, but is still a worry. I just hope I can do it good enough to not get cut.
    I have to be honest here, I was expecting more training in the trucks for this 10 program. We have not had that chance. We have learned more about logging, Hazmat, trip envelopes, which is important since that is our paychecks, but I wish they worked with us more on driving. The 30 day program seems to be a lot better than the training I paid $5 grand for, wish I had come here for the 30 program. They have driven more hours in the two days than I got all week at Roadmasters.
    We will see if this works out for me. I will keep you updated. Be safe.
    For
     
  9. B-rad

    B-rad Light Load Member

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    Jul 10, 2007
    Eugene, OR
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    Harley4life,

    As a 10 day student can't you go out after school and practice your backing.

    I read that one student went out at 4:00 AM to practice his backing and got more practice in one hour than he would in four hours with other students sharing the trucks.

    They expect the 30 day students to practice after hours 7 days a week as the trucks are available 24/7.
     
  10. harley4life

    harley4life Light Load Member

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    Jul 17, 2008
    Salt Lake City, Utah
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    As a 10 dayer I can practice my back ups anytime I want, which is great, don't get me wrong, but I want to also be able to practice my shifting, past 5th gear, and making tight turns in the city. We have yet to go out driving and its the 3rd day. Tomorrow we are going out driving, but from what I understand we have 1 truck and 7 drivers, so not much driving time. The 30 day guys get two trucks and there is only 5 of them. I know they need more practice since they are new, but I am only here for 10 days and only had the minium hours in a truck to get a CDL. I would think they would want us 10 dayers to get more practice and train us on the real world vs training school way. Since we will be out there driving the trucks and trailers. That just makes since to me, but I am just a student driver or trucker or I don't know yet.
    Today we did more class room training, learned more about the 50lbs of paperwork we get to do when we deliver a load. Wow, there is a lot more than I thought there would be. I just wish in this day of age that companys would invest in the newer systems that would cut out all this paper work. Sure it would be expensive at fist, but the money would be made up in labor hours of people having to sort out all this paper work, more time for drivers to drive or rest if they are out of hours. Thats just my two cents. I will update on how the city driving went tomorrow. Be Safe.
     
  11. harley4life

    harley4life Light Load Member

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    Jul 17, 2008
    Salt Lake City, Utah
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    Its Thursday, the 4th day here. We finally got out on the road with a loaded trailer. It was a lot different from an empty tailer. We were at 78k pounds and it felt it. I did pretty good with the shifting, lost my gears a little and grinded a few times, but over all it was pretty good. My backing is getting a little better too. It has bee nice to practice that when ever I need to. This weekend will be all backing into different docks, between trailers and where ever else I can back into. Setting up for backing up in between trailers is not that easy, especially when I don't know what I am doing. Going to have to ask about that. Well be safe.
     
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