Current update to CRST training from the Waterloo Iowa Hawkeye School

[Day 8]

Monday morning, bright and early.. Went downstairs for another full breakfast w/ coffee and got to meet one of the new students that had come in the day before. Very nice and courteous person. Hopped on the bus at the regular 6:30am load time and made our way to the range with 6 new students. We were dropped off and the driver took the new ones over to the main campus in Cedar Falls, a few miles down the road to do their first 2 days. They'll get to the range on Wen. to prep for their long morning of testing at the DMV. Today was mainly Skills and Road Driving with some Pre-Test thrown in for good measure. This was done all day, so most of it was outside in frigid weather. Actually as cold as it was, it certainly did not compare to the arctic freezing over the wkend, or maybe I'm just being a wimp, lol... I had David S. as an instructor today and his teaching technique threw me off a bit but I recovered quickly and adjusted to the new input. I've notice that each instructor is very different in presentation and their approach to driving techniques vary quite a bit but they are all experienced and have nothing but concern for the welfare of the students. I did Skills today (Overseen by Rick) and got to do my first Road drive with another instructor. He threw me off too, but once again adjusted to new input.:smt101
The only thing going through my mind is practice, practice, practice...
All in all, a good day with great instructors and a good class, as most participate fully and endeavor to do their best..


[Overview & Suggestions]

I don't think that I can emphasize just how important it is to study the CDL manual before you come. You want to be focusing on the hands on practice that you need to keep you and the people around you safe on the road when you finish. Anything that you don't do now can affect your abilities tremendously in a future, unexpected situation. Pay close attention to the detail imparted by these experienced instructors and show them the respect that they deserve, not just for their positions but for the fact that they have taken the time to be patient and flexible with such diverse crowds that overwhelm them at times, and still stay calm and composed. Don't be afraid or too proud to ask questions if in doubt about even the smallest thing. They want to hear the questions, it's in their nature or they would not be teaching.
Be courteous and encouraging to each other, it's amazing how far a kind word can go in affecting a person's disposition or insecurities. That's it for the day folks, be safe..
G'Night and G-d Bless

 

Had to do some unexpected things this evening so I'll update tomorrow after class.
Hope all are doing well and staying safe.
G' Night and G-d Bless!

 

[Day 9 & 10]

{Tue.}
We headed out at the usual 6:30am schedule and I started out the day with Skills practice. Before taking the truck out we were asked to do a thorough pre-trip on it, but with the cold and all the folks involved, I think I'd be a little uncomfortable to say that it was thoroughly done. We initially had 5 students in the truck, with all of us trying to get practice on the Skills course. It made it a little difficult to do much but eventually the instructors separated us out and then the progress started. After a few times without continual distractions, it became much easier to do what was required. Upon completion of what turned out to be a very tiring day we headed back to the hotel for some well needed rest but I had to make a room change, so that everyone had roommates again. If someone leaves, they adjust the lodging. This was why I did not have a chance to post yesterday. Sorry!
{Wen.}
This morning I was looking forward to getting some more practice on the range and I was not disappointed. 6:30 am pickup after another awesome breakfast w/ coffee and orange juice and off to Hawkeye we went. This was the first day that the new students that had come to the range with us. Currently there is a 16 wk. class that has taken the actual class room so we are all in the shop at this point. In actuality it seems to be a grate location, as it preps the new students psychologically for what they are about to dive into... They started prepping for their written tests at the DMV and some of the second week students started Pre-Trip or went out to the range for Skills practice. It was wonderful today. We were handed keys and told to Pre-Trip the truck. We had an instructor named Darrell with us for that and had him for Skills for the rest of the morning. The man is patient and meticulous in his instruction. He had us run once thru Skills and then had us pre-test for the Skills testing and my current roomy and I both scored an 80, which from what I was told was as high as you could score on the pre-test for this. That definitely made me feel better about everything that I've put into this. He had to work with some other folks on backing and various other things so we were told to practice. We did the range course going through gears, skip shifting, turning, cornering, proper signaling and about anything else we could think of to refine what we had learned. After lunch we were going to continue with some more practice but after a short bit of time, Roger(instructor) requested our presence in the shop and we went through a basic pre-test for Pre-Trip testing. We all do the Pre-Trip test tomorrow and I'm certainly happy that Roger pulled us off the range to go through it today, as my test is at 9:15am tomorrow. We went through the whole thing and I'm guessing that I did not embarrass myself too badly other than my inability to shuck UN off of some of the descriptions that I was providing, like uncracked, lol.... Made me feel silly and have no idea why it stuck in my mind after hearing some of the young men in the class using it.

We pretty much finshed out the day with this and I felt burnt this evening when getting back to the hotel. Totally worn out and at this point I think I'm going to relax a bit, hop in the shower and get some of that well needed rest, in order to be bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning.
G'Night and G-d Bless




I've been attentive in the pre trip practice but was being quite honest with myself in realizing that there is always more to learn and watch out for.

[Overviews & Suggestions]
No current ones but I will continue this in future postings!

 

[Day 11]

Hmm I just noticed that I had stopped using th at the end and just stuck w/ Day something a few posts ago.... You can tell where my mind has been, lol!
I awoke this morning and ate well, with the expectations of taking my first test at 9:15am. As we got on the bus at 6:30am, even with everyone knowing that testing was starting today, we still had the regular stragglers. I arrived at the school with little time to spare to compose myself for a stressful day. I dislike tests, lol... I was planning on going through my Pre-Trip thoroughly before my test at 9:15 and then the instructors started asking if everyone had brought their paperwork from the DMV to verify that they had passed all 3 of their required written tests. We had been instructed from day 1 that we had to bring this paperwork with us everyday of class. Over half the class did not have it. Well, I happened to be one of the people that did bring it everyday, so guess who got to go first....
All went well, and I felt truly blessed, then the instructor that was getting ready to do the Skills test requested my presence. That, I was not expecting today. I told him that I would like to run through it a couple of times first and he said "take your time"..
Well, that's what I did, and kept doing, lol... He finally broke down and said that I was going to run it so much that I'd ruin myself for the test so I broke down, took a short break and ran my Skills. Once again, passed with a good score and felt all that stress evaporate... At that point, there was not a lot to do because everyone else had begun their testing and there are only so many instructors and tractor-trailers at the facility. I spent the remainder of the morning mentally reviewing all of the instruction that I had received throughout these days and then it was time for lunch. I ended up being quite hungry so treated my roommate and myself to Wendy's. We got back to the school for the remaining hours of the day and I was able to drive the Road test route and was hoping to do that test today as well but we ran out of time so I did the simulator for about an hour and noticed that I had improved considerably, although I suck at driving video games. By the time I finished with the simulator it was time to go. It seemed that the day had flown by.... Right now I'm going to kick back, catch up on email and read a good book.

G'Night & G-d Bless

 

[Day 12]

Woke up excited this morning with the knowledge that this would be the major test day. I consumed coffee, orange juice, cereal, vitamins and more coffee. Made it to the bus 5min. before departure and arrived at Hawkeye with 10 min. to spare before class started again. I went to the shop in the back to see if any of the instructors were there and they were not so I went in search of. I will put in more detail tomorrow about today because it's quite late right now. I apologize for the time frame... But, to not leave you folks hanging, by the grace of G-d today I passed my final test for the class A CDL and I'm feeling tired but tickled...

G'Night, G-d Bless and I'll update more thoroughly tomorrow!

 

OK, was wrapped up in things today and will have to do a thorough update on Sunday. I'm not trying to be negligent but we were just told today that everyone that has already passed will get Mon. off due to severe weather and not a lot to do there after tomorrow except wait for the lottery. I will explain the lottery tomorrow!
G'Night and G-d Bless

 

Hello Folks, sorry about the delay in updates I've had to catch up on some things and ended up having connection issues. I'll fill in for the last few days.

[Day 13, 14, 15, 16]
Even though most of us had passed our last CDL test on day 12, we still had to test on coupling and uncoupling on day 13. No issues there, as everyone in the class was comfortable with the details and procedures involved. It would be rather embarrassing to drop a trailer and pay that kind of bill, lol..
I said I would explain the lottery. When everyone has passed their tests, the DMV will choose 3 people at random out of the graduating class to come down to their public facility in order to retest and make sure that legal standards are being kept in the instruction and testing process at Hawkeye Trucking School. The folks down here at the DMV have a reputation of making some of the students uncomfortable, so some will mess up on a test and have to stay at Hawkeye for another week of training so that they are able to get beyond the intimidation of the gov. offices that they get stuck at for testing. On day 14 we continued to study what we had already learned because we had no idea as to who might be chosen and we wanted to be up to par. On Day 15 since we had passed the tests, we were allowed to stay at the hotel because it was sooo cold outside and the new classes were in full swing. Early this morning we fueled up on our way out with a bit of anxiety as to the lottery today. When we got to the school, myself and 3 others hopped in a tractor to run the DMV road route and have a bit of familiarity with it. Johhny ran it first, then I started into it and we got a call on the radio that the 3 lottery folks had been picked and that 2 of them were in our truck... Well, needless to say, instead of finishing the route, I drove us back to Hawkeye so that Carol and John could start honing their skills for the DMV. We arrived at 10am and they had 2 hrs. to practice as they were told to be at the DMV by 12:30pm. When they finally left and we got back from lunch. David had us watch several videos on Hazmat Regulations and procedures and had some good discussion afterwards. We finally received the results from the lottery near the end of the day, everyone had passed......
Every face in the group lit up when the results came in. Everyone that was in this class was from very different backgrounds, had very different personalities and interests but when it came down to the crunch, there was not one that did not want the other to succeed. I felt honored to have had my training with them. Initially we had been told that we would be picked up Wen. to go down to Cedar Rapids, but were then informed that the shuttle would be here at 6pm this evening. We all got to the hotel around 4:30 and everyone rushed to get things packed. The shuttle actually arrived at 5pm and the driver said that he was only taking 4 people. So everyone else stopped packing because he'd said that we would be staying till Sun. Then info filtered back that he would be taking everyone tonight but that he would be back around 10pm to pick up the rest. OK, I was getting a bit confused by this point! Anyway, at the moment I need to finish packing for my 10pm pickup, maybe...
I'll let you folks know what happens as we go through the terminal and into a new adventure with CRST.
As for Hawkeye and all of the wonderful instructors that I had the pleasure to meet, I can't think of anything more appropriate to say than, THEY ROCK!
Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful night!

G-d Bless