My adventures with Western Pacific Truck School Modesto CA

THANKS! I didn't know if I'd be able to get them all on the first try, thats a lot of tests to take at once but I managed. I have to go to the TSA in the next week or so to pay my $89.25 to do their fingerprint and screening thing to make the hazmat official.

I think the key to me doing so well is that I'm really enjoying it and looking forward to the payoff at the end. I know it's not going to make me rich and it's going to be hard work but hey nothing in this life worth having is free or easy.

 

So today I finally got behind the wheel for the first time. It was exciting, fun, but kinda intimidating all at the same time. I basically spent 3 hours going in a straight line(well sorta straight lol), 100ft forward, 100ft back. By the end of it I was starting to get it though. It got easier and easier to keep it between the cones as the day went on. The other hour today was spent doing more logbook stuff & going over the pre-trip inspection. The PTI wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, repetition repetition repetition, did I say repetition? lol. I don't think I'll have any problems with the PTI come DMV test time.

We are supposed to be ready to go out on the road by Thursday!?!?! We will see lol. The instructors seem to know what they're doing so I'll take their word for it. I think tomorrow is supposed to be more straight line backing as well as the 90 degree alley dock. I'm not sure though. Just have to wait and see. Time to do some PTI studying.

 

Well today was spent going over the pretrip more, I hooked to a trailer for the second time, more straight line backing, and then trying to do a 90 degree back(alley dock I think its called). It was definitely a lesson in humility and frustration. Yesterday was EASY compared to today. For some reason everything just felt off. My straight backs were ok but the 90 degree was just frustrating. To top that off the instructor spent most of the time with another student so that left me alone in the truck to do things over and over the WRONG way lol. Add to that the fact that the instructor shows/tells you how to do something once & expects you to know how to do it isn't helping much. I'd really like to have some one on one, someone with me in the truck telling me what to do and what I'm doing wrong. Oh well. Hopefully tomorrow will go better.

 

So today definitely went better than yesterday. I realized that with the alley dock I was just going to fast and oversteering too much. Now I don't have it down pat yet but I improved over yesterday thats for sure. We also learned how to parallel park today. Now that one I have down. I can use some more practice but it came pretty easy for me. We did a little straight line backing again, went over the PTI, in cab inspection, and the cola tests again. I'm getting there. I feel pretty confident that I'll have all this stuff down in the next week or 2. Then its just a matter of going over everything over and over to keep it fresh in my mind. Well now its time to do a little more studying and off to bed. I'm beat! lol It's been a long day.

 

I forgot to add that we also did the measured right turn yesterday. Spent a while goin round the yard in circles. I didn't hit a single cone in that exercise lol! I guess today we are going to be taking our first trip on the road! So if you're in the Modesto area STAY OFF THE SIDEWALKS! Wish me luck.

 

So today we actually got to take the truck out on the open road. 1. I didn't get flipped off(I don't think lol) 2. I didn't hit anything(not even 1 curb) and 3. I didn't get pulled over SO I'd say it was a good day lol. The up-shifting came pretty easy, the down shifting well thats a whole nother story. I can understand it but actually doing it well thats not so easy. Clutch in, shift to neutral, raise the rpms, clutch in, shift to lower gear. All that whille you are trying to pay attention to traffic, slow the truck with the brake pedal, set yourself up for your next turn, yeah well it'll take some getting used to. Our instructor said that for our first time out we did really good. He also said my main problem was that I need to relax, I was pretty tense when I first got in the seat. That made me want to shift hard and fast so I wasn't holding anyone up. After a while though he could tell that I relaxed and started to find my groove. Back to the range tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to my next time out!

 

This is the truck I have been training in. I now know why they call them freightSHAKERS

 

Yeah they have some 40 & 48 ft trainers but they don't think we are ready for those yet an honestly neither do I lol