From training to orientation to the truck

Our site and road days are split. Group A and B, they split our class into 5 and 5 groups. Group A goes on the Road on Saturdays and B goes on Sundays; I am in group B. Saturday the 19th was site day 3. We pretty much just practiced parrelel some more. After doing that all day with only 5 of us on site and 3 trucks we were all doing it really good. Most of the time I didn't even use a get out and look. We start at 6 am, Around 1 pm we got bored with parrelel and our instructor showes us how to do alley dock. I got to try it once before we did our logs and left for the day; only 2 pull ups to get it in.

Sunday the 20th was Road day one. My froup was a little nervous because at the end of the day on Saturday Group A was telling us how they were grinding gears and not being able to downshift without the instructor holing the shifter and telling them: clutch to nuetral, now clutch out rev to 1500 and clutch to gear. We were really exited but nervous about grinding gears and such.
Fist thing was pre trip the truck. Then the instructor drove from the school to the PAM drop yard on Baily road in Lordstown, Oh while explaining how to double clutch and downshift. We got there after about 20 mins(he went the long way). We got our and had a smoke break and went inside to get some drinks because we would be gone about 2 hours.
First up, yours truly. I get in the truck, adjust the seat, and let the air build up. Ok were ready to go the instructor says after filling out his paper. I put it in first and pull out to the front entrance of the terminal. Ok no traffic, right signal, start my turn. I did good around the turn, no trailer tires of the road or over a car so were good. Time to shift, Grrrind, oops not used to double clutching. After about 2 or 3 upshifts I got the whole double clutch thing down and was ok upshifting. Got us up to 45 and cruised up over 76 and down the other side towards an intersection. We are turning left the insructor says, I signal left and make my lane change. Time to downshift, oh goody. I tried to downshift to 7th, No, 6th, no, 5th, lucky I got it in. Preselect for low and 4th, woops no, hey we need to stop, ok stopped. Put in first and waited for light. Started out and shifted to second, good, around the turn didn't run anyone over, good. Upshifted pretty good with minimul grindage. Oh hey railroad tracks, we need to take this in 5th gear. Got my tack down to 1000, clutch to nuetral, line up the gear clutch out and rev to 1500, clutch in to gear, hey I got it in. 6th gear breaks bring tack to 1000, clutch in to nuetral, half way to fifth, clutch out rev to 1500, oops to high clutch to gear(little grind then poped in. 5th same process and got it in. Slow down a little keep on the throttle no lane changes or shifting over the tracks and check both ways. Good to go.
My first time around the 15 mile circle we were taking I was so nervoise because I was missing a couple downshifts here and there and I was first to go so my class mates were in the sleeper seats watching. I got so hot and had the worst case of dry mouth ever. I didn't do that bad thought I was just in my own head. The second time around I barly had any problems with shifting and bery few with downshifting. I was happy with my firsty time in the truck. The instructor complmented me on my fast progress and that he didn't have to say anything about my trailer tires being in on coming lanes aroung turns. That calmed me down a lot.

Next up was one of those guys that I talked about earlier that kind of jerked off all the time and while the rest of use were trying to learn he was distracting us. Breif summery of his trip around the loop. Missed every gear, ground the teeth off every gear and the instructor was guiding his shifted the whole time. It was kind of funny.

We went back to TDDS for lunch, then the instructor drove back to the PAM terminal and the same guy went around again for his second time. Same thing but a little better(not by much). We went back to PAM, took a smoke break and talked to a PAM dedicated O.O. who him and his wife went to TDDS and have been driving as a team for 12 years, they just bought a new truck, man it was nice.

Next up was another one of my class mates who has done good on most of the stuuf we have done so far. He did pretty good only missed a couple gears and was having problems remembering to double clutch. He used to be a yard jocky so he was pretty good at turning and backing in, but he never got past 3rd gear there. He went around twice not doing to bad and then we went back to PAM. We had a coffee and got a snack. The instructor talked to us all and talked about the stuff we need to work on and the stuff we are doing good at. Before we went back to TDDS and did our logs we had time for me to go around one more time(sweet). I got in and took off. Shifting alot better didn't grind a gear once. I was waiting to mess up on the downshifting, but I did it good, no grinds or missed gears. The whole time around my last time the instructor was just watching me, he didn't say a word except good job when we pulled back in to PAM. I was really excited to have gotten to drive finally and also pissed because next weekend we don't go to school for what ever holiday it is(I don't care). I would rather go to school and get it done.

Anyhow this is really long so I will stop here.

Good luck drivers I can't wait to talk to some of my future fellow Roehl drivers at Orientation.

 

Just got done with site day 4 and road day 2. Practiced alley dock and more blind side parellel. Man was it hot outside on site day. Nobody wanted to do anything, not even the instructor. Couple of the guys were turning on the air in the trucks but got yelled at because it will overheat it in the yard. By 12:30 in the afternoon we were all sittin at a picnic table next to the siteroom in the shade. We said we were going over pretrip, ha. It was just to hot to do anything in the trucks without air, we were all hot as hell and sweaty. We did practice alot before we quit thought and ost everone was doing ok(except the few I specified previously).
Road day was fun, but it was pouring down rain for the first half of the day and it was humid as heck. It was not bad thought ecxept whe we would stop to take breaks at the PAM terminal. Needless to say we all got soaked and were all sweaty from the humidity. Other than that it was fun and we all for the most part were doing good. I did good my first time around, no missed gears or grinding, no trailer tires in other lanes, and no problems downshifting, except I was downshifting to fast and would be creeping up to the lights in 3rd for like 50 yards. I fixed that the second time around though. All in all the 2nd road day was a good experiance and we had fun.

I can't wait I have 4 weeks left at my current job and 5 weekends of school left, I am quiting here on July 1st and getting my stuff together for the switch to trucking. I still have to take my pre hire physical and get a duffle bag for the trainers truck. By the time I get my own truck I want to get one of those little refrigerated coolers you plug in and a laptop or portable dvd player so i have some sort of entertainment. I might get satellite radio also. Any suggestions on stuff to get for the truck?
Thanks for the help and support to everyone here.

 

I just completed site day 5 and road day 3. I really want to tell everyone about road day 3 because we had a lot of fun and I learned more that day than any other day so far. But, first is site day 5. More of the same, straight line backing, blind side, and alley dock. It was interesting thought because we had two trucks running blindside and straight line and two running alley dock, we all did good except for when we got in the one truck that was runnning alley dock. For some reason we would keep messing up and it would take use 4 or 5 pull ups to get it in. We don't know why but even the instructor had a problem with it. I think it was because the truck was a little longer and we thing the double dump trailer we had on it was shorter than the rest of the box trailers we had. Looked like a 45 foot trailer rather than a 48 foot. But all in all a good day.

Road day 3 was the fun part. We were now on evenings so we are at school from 2 pm to 10:30 pm. This means also we now will have differant instructors, witch might not be a bad thing from what I experiance yesterday. The first thing was the instructor we had was the most laid back guy ever and funny as heck. The first thing he said when I walked up to show him i have my license, medical card, and cdl permit was, "got all your papers there cupcake". I just laughed, he called everyone some sort of silly nickname and switched it up throuhgout the day. Some people might not like that but I think when you do stuff like that it takes the nervousness away a little. Then he had us inspect the truck and couple to a trailer. He came over and did a quick look over to make sure we are not complete idiots and didn't coupe it right, then we got in the truck.

Off we go, but this time he had one of us drive out of the yard, the rest of the instructors wont do that because its a busy street at the entrance to the school and the speed limit is 55. We get on the way and he starts asking us were we are from and stuff like that and gettin to know us a little. He then asked us the question I guess he askes all his students, which is followed by the story of why. He asked "does anyone take offense when I call you cupcake and stuff like suger bottom" and we all started cracking up and said "no why?" He then told us that he had to go see a shrink and make to make sure he was not trying to intimidate the student by calling them stuff like that because a female student took offense to it and made a complaint. This female student also made complaints about him intimidating her with his size.(the guy is 6 foot 2 and 410 pounds, not much he can do about that. She also made up a bunch of stuff about him talking about his privates and making ##### jokes and peeing next to the truck while they were out(all the other student told the owner of the place she was just a ##### and was lieing).

Anyway on with the interesting stuff. We normally drive around a loop that just goes about 14 miles, this time we were going off the loop. The instructor decided we will drive through Mantue and Garretsville and areas like that. Its all amish country with narrow roads, deep ditches, and speed limit was 55. Yeah my butt hole was puckered for a while when I drove. He took me down a road that my left and right tires were on the line at the same time, the speed limit was 55 and it was like a roller coaster. I was looking in my mirrors a 1/2 second to make sure my trailer was not in the other lane or about to go in the 10 foot deep ditch on the right. After about 15 minutes on that road i started relaxing and had fun, but the first 15 minutes was the most gut wrenching thin I have ever done. I have ridden horses on the edge of cliffs and not been as nervous. I have ridden a dirtbike up a hill that was nearly straight up and all shale rock for 300 feet and not been as nervous.

After that experiance I was learning a lot and had a lot of fun. I learned how to skip gears downshifting a lot better and to judge turns a little better(because you had to or you would run over a yoder toter). Bye the end of the day we drove 200 miles between me and my 2 classmates in my truck and were called everything from cupcake to suger britches. His favorite thing to say when a car would pull out in front of you was "did you forget to take that sign off the front of the truck" you know the one that says pull out infont of me if you have a death wish". Another thing he would do was when they would pull out infront of us he would say "aww look someone has a deatrh wish". It was a hilarious day and we all had fun. 4 weeks left to go and I will be taking my test and going to orientation with Roehl.

Good luck everyone.