Conway: From a Rookies Point of View

Thats one difference then. Your brother is a L/O. Do you plan on following him and being a L/O? I hope not since I believe that right out of school it is something you should not do. With that being said, can he help you with the things you aren't being taught?

 

I would not start with Conway in your situation. You are expected to be able to adequately shift a manual transmission in boot camp. Backing, shifting, and general vehicle handling deficiencies can get you sent home.

 

No my fiancé and I are wanting to be team company drivers. I already asked him to help me and said I would pay him, but he is a bit of a jerk and said he wont do it. He only gets a few home time days a month and spends every minute of them with his girlfriend.


Thankfully today the school just announced that their truck is now fixed as of today and they are letting everyone who did not learn shifting to come back and learn it. Thank goodness. They told us it would be few months maybe, but enough students voiced how important it was to learn that they bumped fixing it on the top of their things to do list. So hopefully we will do okay now.

The thing I like about Con-Way is that they have the boot camp and 1 on 1 time with a trainer.

 

The boot camp is more for vetting not so much for training. If they bring you to boot camp, they do want you to make it. But a nice fellow that came thru boot camp with us struggled with the shifting and backing. He was sent home. And if I recall correctly, they were using a 13 speed at boot camp. This fellow had been trained exclusively on a 10 speed. Things could be different now but most folks come in having several weeks/100s of miles under their belt from their CDL school when they come to boot camp. I doubt that you and your fiancé will gain enough access to your school's manual to develop the skills needed to pass boot camp. Yes the non-team trainer technique Con-way uses is ideal. But you must survive boot camp to get that training. Con-way would probably not bring you to boot camp if they knew you weren't adequately trained on a manual. The Boot Camp vetting is as much or more directed at the CDL training schools as it is towards the student driver. Schools not adequately preparing students are black listed. Starter companies with automatics are what you guys have been prepared for. Sadly some schools get away with this automatic crap. Driving is multi-tasking. In the early stages of learning manual, too much of your attention will be allocated to getting the timing down on both shifting and especially downshifting. Your safety to yourselves and others will be suspect until shifting becomes second nature. I wish you guys luck, I really do.