Finished Central Training!!!

So I know I told you all that I would keep you posted as to how this training was going here at Central, and I would have, except for the fact that I left my laptop charger back in Oregon. So I had to borrow a classmates charger and well now here I am.

Anyways, training has been stressful, honestly. I'm not trying to scare people away, its just Central crams a lot of information into you in such a short amount of time. I wouldn't say this is JUST Central though. Any accelerated training program through any company, you will be learning a lot in a short amount of time. Especially IF you pay attention. My class size originally started out with 35+ people. After the first day, the class size was down to 12. And that is where we finished. The people that left didn't leave because they screwed something up while training, it was more of personal choices they had made in the past. Whether it was drugs or criminal charges.

First day was a bunch of paperwork and getting introduced to how life was going to be for the next two and a half weeks of training. Also on the first day (i believe) was the DOT physical. Nothing hard, in my eye. Mostly just stepping up on a ladder 5 times, pushing/pulling up to 100 lbs, and carrying a load 75 ft or something like that.

We started class on a Monday and had our CDL permits from Utah by that Thursday. From what I heard, testing for the permit used to be on Wednesday, thankfully they changed it to Thursday to give some extra time to learn/study. So be prepared to be doing a lot of reading/studying in AND out of class. Don't come here to waste the companies time, and sure as hell don't waste your own time. I found it pretty nice to practice with classmates on the CDL Manual during out of class times. If you are a smoker, be prepared to smoke A LOT of cigs here.

Friday we started backing up and driving forward in the training yard. I was honestly bored...most of people were. Why was it boring? Because we're in low gear ANY time we are in the training yard.

Got a day off on Sunday which is when we also moved to the hotel instead of staying in the "prison". Lol, concrete walls, tiny ### rooms, bunks and well ya...thats what it felt like. But I wasn't going to be complaining. Anyways, the hotel...wow, looks like something out of a 70's porno. Full glass windows, from the ceiling to the floor, from the back wall to the front door. Corny as hell, but still a much appreciated upgrade. Felt like we had more freedom, too bad I ran out of money so fast. I'll get more to that in a minute.

Monday was when the non book training started. Monday through Thursday was in the yard working on parallel parking, offset parking, backing, corners, city and mountain driving. I personally found city driving, in downtown Salt Lake City, more stressful than everything. Having no experience pulling trailers and having so many things to look out for, ya...you get the picture.

Today was the final road test today. Nervous as hell last night, butterfly's in my stomach this morning, and sweaty palms when I was up to drive. What sucked the most was when I pulled back into the yard and the tester (Bob) said the test was over. He's a great guy and has a sense of humor, so his way of telling me I passed was a huge sigh, like a disappointed sigh, and saying "Oh ya...you passed btw". Scared the hell out of me!

Well, thats the big rundown of what I experienced there, now I feel I should give some pointers to people who are interested in going through the Central training.

1) Be ready...Make sure you have EVERYTHING on your list they send you before you come out here. If you are coming out here with $200 like they recommend, you don't want to be spending that $200 on stuff you forgot. You want that money for food.

2) If you are a smoker, take that $200 and double it. Or bring 2 cartons from home. Back home I smoked a pack a day, I'm up to 2 packs a day now, due to the lack of entertainment.

3) I said it once, and I'll say it again. Don't come here and waste the companies time, least of all your own. You aren't here to meet new people, you are here to start a career. To open many doors in your future once you acquire your CDL-A license. If you end up dropping out or aren't really dedicated to this, you'll end up owing the company $3000. If you are going to have that over your head, might as well make the $3000 get you something out of the deal.

4) PAY ATTENTION! I can't stress it enough. I'm that one guy in class who has a comment about everything. Doesn't mean I ALWAYS say it though. I'm a ########. I enjoy making people laugh. So thankfully the teachers/instructors all had a sense of humor and a personality. I may make stupid jokes, but I still pay attention. Thank god for ADHD! When I got asked how I was able to do so well on my permit test, my backing test, and my road test, with me always joking in class, I told the lady straight up that I pay attention. A roll of laughter followed, because they didn't understand. So just pay attention, find what studying methods works for you and study.

I know there is more I want to add, but I need a cig and this charger doesn't charge the laptop, just keeps it powered. So if you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll answer them to the best of my ability! Good luck and thank you to the TruckersReport members/family!