Hubby and I graduated CDL school!

Thanks to everyone for your help during the past few months that hubby and I began this journey. Learning to drive tractor-trailors is not an easy thing to do! I thought I would never get the hang of backing that big thing up!

But going through trucking school along side my husband was awesome and made all the difference, he helped me so much!

We have our CDL A's with all endorsements now and are going for our first trucking job/orientation next Monday. We're both feeling nervous, excited, scared, and bewildered.... so many questions running through our heads. And praying that we don't run over anyone or anything out there.

If it hadn't been for you guys we would have a million more questions! Thanks again!

***Special thanks to Chinatown, TruckerDuo, BlairandGretchen, CondoCruiser, LuvtoTruck, & AXE***

 

So which company did you decide on...come on don't be skeered.

 

We decided on Watkins & Shepard.

 

Congrats...hope all goes well. Be safe.

 

Congrulations! That is AWESOME! Now Where are you going for Orientation with W and S? Thanks.

 

We will be going to Conover for orientation.

 

Congrats to you both, Glad everything is going so good for you. Just curious where did you go to get your CDL and my wife wonders if it was harder for you being a woman and was it hard to shift or did you have an automatic.

Looking forward to more info on your training. Will you both train with one trainer or will you have a female trainer ?

 

Thanks!

After researching, we decided to go to a technical college for cdl training, it was 8 weeks long. I am very glad that we went to a 8 week school instead of those 3 week schools....learning to back those tractor/trailors is difficult and takes a lot of practice! Tell your wife that a woman can do it just the same as a man. As a matter of fact, I was the top driver in the class, but just by a tiny bit...hubby was right behind me. I scored 100% on my pretrip test, did not get any points on the backing test (perfect score), and only scored 10 pts. on the driving test (30 pts is allowed, 31 will be failing). The teacher told us that most women are easier to teach than men. She can do it!

Learning to shift was not difficult for me. I grew up shifting in my dad's old 65' ford, being in the tractor double-clutching wasn't much different. My hubby and the other guy in our class had a little difficulty learning to shift, but got it down by test time!

W&S does a 10-day orientation, so we won't be separated during that time. If they decide that we need a little extra time with a one-on-one traininer they will send us out with separate trainers...and they will send me with a female.
Most companies that we have talked to during our research said they provide female trainers.

Tell your wife that it is very doable, it just takes practice and patience!

 

Congratulations! I drove with W&S for 3 1/2 years before leaving to become a lease operator. Loved working with Steve in the Conover terminal. He really kept me moving! Have fun and be safe!

 

Steven's no longer at the Conover terminal, he moved back to Missoula. Chad's the man there now.