ATDS: Student Experience

Day 8: Today went great! Started out the morning doing pre trip inspection then went for a road drive with instructor Stephen. Stephen has a great attitude and is really good at coaching people. Everyone got a turn for about an hour driving through Waco and surrounding communities. Shifting went much smoother today. Went back to the yard and broke for lunch. Went up to DPS over lunch to see about getting endorsements, but line was way to long to get through and make it back in time, so I left to get a bite to eat and head back to the yard. After lunch we went back out for drive with Stephen again. Back through Waco and surrounding areas. Slightly more complex route that included some pretty tight areas, roundabouts, lots of starts/stops, merging on/off highways, and a long, windy bridge(at which point it decided to start pouring down rain on me). Getting more confident on driving ability, shifting smooth on acceleration, though I still need some work on downshifting. I think it's just going to take more practice to figure out the proper gear/rpm/road speed combinations.

 

Day 9: Friday went pretty well overall. Started out in the morning doing pre trip inspection as a group then each of us did brake tests. After that we went for another road drive with Stephen. Everyone got about an hours worth of drive time. I've started to notice that they seem to have pre planned routes based on each student's skill level. As each student progresses, they increase the difficulty of that student's route accordingly. After everyone got their turn, we went back to the yard and broke for lunch. After lunch we spent the rest of the day working on offset backing with Mike.

 

Day 10: Today was pretty awesome! Starting out, Stephen tested me on solo pre trip inspection. Got an 85% overall. I was 100% on in cab and brakes test, but missed way more than I should have on exterior/engine bay. At least it showed me what I need to work on. After that we went for a road drive, with first 2 of us getting about 45 minutes drive time. He directed us towards a 1/4 mile strip that the city uses to test their road stripe painting trucks, which had about a thousand yellow and white lines going on all directions. He had us stop and set up cones to practice straight line backing. Let me say all of us were perfect practicing straight line backing in the yard, but this threw everybody off! Stephen said he brought us here because if we can back straight with lines going in all directions, then we will have no problem on DPS test and out on the road. Tough exercise for us but I see his point. We each did it about 5 times before leaving. Next two drivers for their drive time in before heading back to the yard to break for lunch.

After lunch, 3 of us went back out with Stephen. He directed us to pull over and informed us we were about to have our first graded road test. Once everyone went through the route and we were pulled back over, he went over our results. First guy would have gotten a 92% but Stephen failed him for hitting a curb. I got a 96% barely missing that same curb. I lost points for not calling out the height on one bridge we went under(turning downhill after 4 way stop with heavy 4 wheeler traffic), going more than 5 seconds without checking both mirrors once while merging onto highway(checked left but not right), getting too close to a car once while stopping, and not braking smoothly enough a couple times. Stephen said everyone misses that bridge and mirrors at those spots, and that's exactly why they put them on the test route. Last guy would have done great if he could figure out how to shift better, but got an 82 for grinding up and down gears on almost every shift. I think they're going to put him in an automatic if he doesn't figure it out soon. We drove around some more and went back to the yard to meet up with "A Special Visitor."
Turns out our visitor is a recruiter for Werner, who was more than happy to tell us all about these amazing dollar store routes they have openings for and how the pay is awesome and yada yada yada. I just sat back and kept my mouth shut. I worked for a dollar store for almost 4 years, have seen firsthand how those trailers are loaded and the parking lots those drivers have to get into all while ignorant, broke customers are flying all around the truck. No thanks. Power to those that do it and make a good living at it, but I'll pass. After the guy left, we were outside and a lady from another class said she was gonna apply for it. I could see one of the instructors biting his tongue(maybe school gets a cut for students that sign?) so I spoke up. This lady is in her 50's, about 5'2" and not in the greatest shape. I gently explained to her the reality of those routes and what she would have to deal with daily. Pretty sure I talked her out of it, especially after I started talking about it the instructor that was keeping quiet piped up and confirmed what I was saying. Apparently he did it for 5 years a while back and started telling stories of all kinds of messed up trailers and stores, etc.

 

Day 11: Today was exhausting but went pretty well. One of the guys in our class didn't show up and the guy that's been struggling with shifting got moved into an automatic, leaving just myself and one other student in our group for the day. Stephen had other student run through pre trip inspection and start us off on the road. He drove us to a park with a large, empty parking lot where we set up cones to try parallel parking. He had us watch once as he did it and explained what to do, then we each tried about 5 times. Got it in without hitting cones 3 times but was way off other 2 times. I wasn't set up straight and think I was waiting too long to cut wheels to get back under trailer. Oh well a learning experience and think it went well for first attempts. Put the cones back in truck and I drove us around until we went back to the yard to break for lunch. After lunch each of us got about 90 minutes drive time in. He took us through some twisty, narrow, two lane highways out in the country with limited visibility. Got a lot of practice up/downshifting through there! We went back to the yard and they let the two of us leave an hour early, saying we already got almost double the driving practice we normally would have.

 

Day 12: Today started out like yesterday. Stephen had me do pre trip inspection then a road drive back towards park area for more parallel parking then more road drive time before lunch. After lunch we drove through downtown Waco. Talk about close quarters! Lots of blind intersections, hilly terrain, stupid 4 wheelers in too much of a hurry cutting us off in already narrow lanes. Went back to yard by 330 to meet with another "special guest." This time it was a recruiter for Schneider. I didn't care for the guy personally. He spent too much time saying how much Werner sucks and how Schneider is better. I get that it's his job to promote and recruit for his company, but if the facts and numbers aren't convincing enough and you have to resort to putting down another company, it makes me wonder what you're hiding. That being said, I am considering going for their tanker division if I can't get on with one of my preferred LTL companies and filled out their "pre-hire" application just in case.

 

Day 13: We finally got a cool day(for TX at least), so we spent the entire morning practicing offset backing. I think each of us did both left to right and right to left at least 10 times. Pretty sure I could do it in my sleep now. It got a little monotonous towards the end but was good practice that was definitely needed. After lunch we went for a road drive with Stephen. Each of us got about an hour of drive time. It started pouring down rain right as my seat time began so that kept things interesting. Locked up the wheels once while braking. I was only going about 30 mph. Crazy to think it can happen at that low of a speed but glad it happened during training while I had instructor next to me. Got back to the yard a little early and watched some of the new class practicing their straight line backing until it was time to go.

 

Day 14: Today felt almost like a complete waste of my time. We started out the day with a road drive, but they put the last student from previous class in tractor with us, so we each only got about 30 minutes drive time before lunch. After lunch, they put a student from the new class with us as well. 5 students in the tractor...First three got about 30 minutes drive time. The last two of us didn't get any seat time before heading back to yard. We started doing some practice on backing but head instructor had us shut down by 4 pm for some reason then had us wait, doing nothing until 430 to leave. Not happy about todays experience at all. Was at school from 7am-430pm for 30 minutes seat time on road and a couple backing runs. Not sure why we had 5 students in the tractor when there are 4 instructors and 13 students total right now other than if one of the instructors didn't feel like taking a group out. If it happens again on Monday, I'm going to talk to the school director about it.

 

Day 15: Started out with pre trip inspection and brake test, then spent the entire morning practicing offset backing and parallel parking. It was much needed practice! I've got the offset down and parallel is getting easier. Hopefully we get to practice it more this week. After lunch, we went for a road drive with one of the instructors from the Killeen school(Stephen took a personal day). Everyone got about 45 minutes drive time then we stopped at a truck stop to practice backing into actual parking spaces.

Day 16: Pre trip and brake test, then 3 of us took a road drive with Stephen. We each got about an hour of drive time and Stephen graded us on a road test. Went back to the yard and broke for lunch. After lunch went back out with Stephen. Everyone drove for about another hour. Driving over where 84 intersects 31, we saw a Werner truck that had gone off the road and slammed into one of the support columns under the bridge. Called EMS and turned around to stop and check on driver. He was pretty shook up but thankfully did not appear to be hurt. Not sure if he was on phone or just falling asleep at the wheel but glad nobody got injured! I'm sorry it happened but I think it's a good life lesson for all of us students to see firsthand and be aware of how real the danger is of driving distracted or tired. Very sobering way to end the day for sure.

 

Day 17: Pre trip inspection, brake test, then road drive with Stephen again. Took us down some narrow, hilly, twisty back country roads that were a little interesting after heavy rains the last couple days. Each of the 3 of us drove for a little over an hour then we went back to the yard to break for lunch. After lunch, we drove out and set up some cones to practice parallel parking, then each got about 30 minutes drive time before heading back to the yard. Hopefully we get a lot more practice on parallel over next couple days. I'm fine on straight line and offset, getting better on parallel but not confident enough I'll pass DPS test first try on it right now. 2 of us have our DPS tests set up for Monday!

 

Day 18: Today was awesome for me! One of the instructors didn't show up, so Stephen kept us 3 and another group of 3 in the yard to practice backing until one of the instructors from Killeen showed up around 930. Most of the guys were upset because they wanted to go out and drive on the road, but I was very grateful to get the extra parallel parking practice! Once the Killeen instructor showed up, we went out for a drive until we broke for lunch. After lunch, we were getting ready to go back out for a drive when the group that went out with the Killeen instructor showed up. Apparently he had to leave early so they skipped their lunch for him to do so. Stephen sent his students to lunch and we stayed in the yard for the rest of the day practicing backing more. Once the other group got back, Stephen tested us on all of the backing manuevers. Thanks to all the practice today, we all got 100%! I'm fairly confident that we will all pass out backing tests the first time at DPS next week.