Newbie Diary

Ok, I went back in yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, Turned out to be, as my classmate called it "The Loser Reunion!" I made an error before, I'll correct now,

I listed a classmate as having failed his air-brake check, I was wrong, I must have been hearing another truck nearby. My classmate failed his pre-trip inspection.

I find out that my classmate who failed his skills test, tested again already, and failed in the skills test again. He really is his own, worst enemy. During his parallel park, he didn't think he was adequately in the box, so he kept pulling up, and redo-ing it. the tester would tell him later, that he got it in there perfectly, twice, before he pointed out for too many pull-ups.

I'm told, though the student wasn't at school to tell me himself, that the student who failed his road-test for obstructing traffic, during his re-test, hit a marker-barrell that denotes the entrance to the skill-testing area, and was disqualified for colliding with a non-moving object.

We're to be in for a full day on Monday, and possibly half a day on Tuesday, we're now in full collision with the class that followed us. But, thankfully, the Class is only 2 people. So, there are instuctors left to be with us, where ever the new class isn't.

 

Oh, and thank you both for posting.

 

And another week has passed. Last week, I tested and failed with "Bob" for issues of "General Driving Behavior." After Bob told me I didn't pass the test, he told me I may have had the worst case of Tunnel Vison he'd ever seen in a human being. He told me that if I'd checked my mirrors, I'd have seen how often I was over or on the white line on the right. He pointed out to me that I never checked my side streets, and that he was [explicative]-ing stunned that I'd checked at railroad crossings.

I listened, I acknowledged, I said "Thank you kindly for your time, sir."
From my point of view, there is no need to argue, counter-point, haggle, or negotiate. He is the Tester, and I am the Testee. He told me I failed, he gave me the primary reasons why. To my mind, this is not a conversation, this is information. Bob then takes my instructor into the office, to explain again, why I failed.

Now, these are not great things to write about myself, and I will pay for it in the future, no doubt. But, I want all the new, and impending students to learn as much as they can from my failings, So I will explain Bob's critique as best I can.

Firstly, I do, in fact, check my mirrors. But, I'm one of those guys who don't really move their head to do it. I line up my mirrors so I don't have too, unless I'm really trying to investigate a blind spot. I was fully aware of every problem I had, with my rear tandems riding the white line, I just tried to fix it, and oftentimes I couldn't, but I didn't draw any attention to it. Being an eye-mover guy, as opposed to a head-mover guy, is not acceptable for testing. These guys are testing you based on what they see you do, and see that you know. If you, in order to visibly check your mirrors, need to act like a monkey on crack, just do it. It's their hoops that you have to jump through.

Secondly, when I learned that the CDL testing was in my hometown, that I've lived for 30+ years, I relaxed. I know these roads, I know the turns, I know it all! Lesson Learned: Complacency kills. I didn't check my cross-streets, cause I knew which ones were worth checking. Whoops. Can't defend that. My instructors couldn't see that coming, because we train by driving through Gary, a much more severe environment for a truck, and I treated everything with pavement with suspicion there. So, if you are testing where you live, be wary of complacency, or hubris. I checked the railroad crossing because Gary has many of them, and you are quickly taught "Railroad + Truck = Death"

Now, let's get to the fun part:

Bob tells my instructor why I failed, in the office. my instructor passes the information to the other instructors, and the school owner. Now, I assume that some level of "chinese-telephone" comes into play, because the story I get is, I'm weaving in and out of my lane almost hitting parked cars, Bob wasn't sure if he was going to live to get back to the testing center. So, for the past week, I've been the whipping boy. All the faults of "my generation" rest squarely on my shoulders. None of the instructors want to take me on the road, since I'm obviously not going to take it seriously (they don't want to, but they do, eventually, get me on the road, letting everyone know, that If I do anything they don't like, they're gonna rip me out of that seat.) I say "none" of the instructors, and that's not quite true. the instructor that takes the schools' truck to the test site, is still polite, and trying to be as helpful as he can, but most of his time is spent at the testing site, or taking the new class out for road-trips. His best advise is to get myself a baseball cap, because the bill of the cap will exaggerate my head moving.

This has taken a while to type... I'll do more after dinner.

 

Now, it appears that I offended Bob's sensibilities early on. As he told my instructor, I almost hit a parked car. "Almost" appears to be one of those odd American words, that mean different things, to different people. You see... If you tell someone I almost hit a parked car, I feel the information conveyed is that I did not hit a parked car. This appears to be an inaccurate definition. It seems that, to my instructors, and my tester, that if I "almost hit a parked car" it means that I could have hit a parked car. Which means that the parked car, would have been hit, had I hit it. then, the parked car would be hit. Understand? Cause I don't.
Allow me to describe "The Incident."

I am driving a freightliner conventional sleeper, with a 48' van trailer that drifts a bit to the right due to an awkward collison with a K-Rail during a class long before mine. I'm going down mainstreet, which is two lanes, with a double yellow line, paralell parking on both sides of the street filled. the blocks between stoplights in town, are all between two, and three truck-lengths. In the center of one of these blocks, is a 30' straight truck, double-parked in my lane. Now, I see it a long time before it's relevant. It's not like it snuck up on me. If I were alone, and had a CDL, I'd stop behind it. I've got enough room so I won't block the intersection behind me. But we are taught that, during the test, don't stop cause you're uncomfortable, you'll get failed for obstructing traffic. So, I ask Bob as I'm coming up to the parked truck "Huh.. Any tips, or suggestions?" Bob tells me to make sure traffic is clear in the oncoming traffic lane, then go around it. Traffic was clear at that moment, but on the other side of the parked truck, I've got one truck-length to get back into my lane before the stoplight that holding off the impending traffic that would like to know why I'm in their lane. I don't make it all the way back to my lane, before I get to the red light, but when it turns green, I'm able to get the rest of my trailer over without disrupting traffic. It was a tight fit on my right side, getting my trailer over without clipping the straight truck. Bob tells me I almost hit that truck. I reply with "yup. Almost." Now, I'm not likely to know if the situation made Bob angry, or my reply. But, the fact is, Bob's mad at me.
I honestly believe that, if my driving habits had been up to snuff, I would have passed. regardless of the "Almost-Incident" But irritating him that early on, he wasn't interested in giving me any benefit-of-the-doubt. And that's OK. My instructors, My testers, these guys are all signing off on me. That I won't jump into a 40 ton truck, get on a cell phone, and run a red light at 65 mph and plow into a schoolbus full of second graders. These guys have to make these decisions based on knowing me for 2 hours, 2 weeks, or a month.

Ok, let's now get to Wednesday. My Second attempt. I'm scheduled for 1 pm. My skill-deficient classmate is taking his 3rd try at 11am. I show up at 11. Moral support/ cheerleader duty. I find out that Barrell-Crushing student was at 9 that morning, and he passed. My classmate gets through skills and onto the road. and 45 minutes later, comes back sulking. The tester "Louie" asks out instructor to come down stairs with them. As he starts to go down the stairs, my classmate turns to me with a big smile, and give me the thumbs up, then turns and goes back to sulking down the stairs. He'd asked Louie to act like he failed, just to mess with our instructor, and about got slapped silly for it. two-for-two. And I've got Louie, today.

While I was watching my classmate doing skills, my instructor grins and says "you'd better hide." I look up, confused. and Bob comes around the corner from a road test, sees me, pauses a moment, then goes into his office. Bob gets his next student ready, he then goes out to the skill-yard, walks up to Louie and starts talking to him, and pointing at me.
"Oh, come on now..."
My instructor just stares at me, "Geez, what did you do to him?!"
Bob then goes on his way.

I start with Louie. Louie starts off by informing me of what I will do differently that how I was taught. He doesn't ask me what I was taught. He knows what Driveco teaches. "Driveco teaches all of it's students the same thing. They teach you to make me stand out in the freezing cold much longer than I want to be. Use second gear, and use fuel to get yourself to the different skills. when you're doing the skills, do as you like, but I don't want to stand around for 5 minutes waiting for you to saunter to the next skill." I fly through pretrip, after my second axle "you know what? if it involves suspension, brakes, or tires, just skip it." Get through that, and my air-brakes without a hitch. I had problems on my serpentine last time I tested, This time my problem migrated to paralell park. But, I still got through it. Onto the Road!

Ok, got my new baseball cap, been practicing acting like a hyperactive ferret for a week now. We go! And... I've appearently lost the ability to shift well. Great. Rear Tandems? Yup, there they are, on the white line. Crap. fixed. whoops.. now I'm speeding.. Oh come on.. It's important to note, Louie isn't saying anything, he's just hunker'd down in his chair, so he can watch me, the mirrors, and his clipboard. all these problems, I'm noticing on my own. I stop good. thank goodness I didn't lose that. On the yellow line... poo. Hold in the clutch too long on that stop... OK, important left turn, have take over the intersection and stop for traffic untill the light changes, which is good, cause I was fouling up my downshift for the turn, anyhow. Side Streets? yup, they're still there. Tandems? White line. Grrr. That'll be fine, I've got room on my left.... If a right lane is created, you stay to the right. do you use your turn signal? or, more appropriately, did I lose points for not using it? How do you know you're botching downshifting? when you try to downshift to 5th gear, and can't get it in gear untill you're going slow enough to get it into 3rd. Big Right turn. no sweat. There's a truck sign with the maximum weight for the road there, I can tell him I saw it, when He asks... hmm.. He didn't ask. Uh-Oh. Ok, Right turn onto the divided Highway... No problem. and yes, I'm totally in my lane! I am a Golden God! Now.. he'll ask me to change lanes..... any minute now... we're runnin' out of road here, Louie... tell me to change lanes! No lane change. Oh man. No Sign Question, No lane change.

I've already failed. we're just goin' though the motions now. Get on the exit ramp. Speed limit for the ramp is 25, I did it at 25 my first time, that didn't feel good at all. We'll do this just under 20. Ok.. Now.. merge into this next divided highway, and get into the far left lane, we're gonna turn left at the next light. Those are my instructions. and I've got nothin' but a wall of traffic behind me. I tell Louie that I'm not positive that I can get over there, before we get to the light. Louie tells me "Just make it happen." ok. I stay at 30 mph comin' off the ramp, throw my turn signal on, and ride the white line untill traffic passed me and I cross one..two..and into the third lane, which is the left turn lane for the light. Big, long left turn onto an access road which immediately T's and I'll be going left there too, pretty much a U turn. in second gear... Vrooommmm.
"Did they teach you not to shift during turns?"
"Yessir, they did."
"Would you forget that, before I die of old age out here?"
"Can-Do."

Now, I'm driving on a road, that really, Trucks shouldn't be on. my side of the road, is 8' wide. Convieniently enough, so is my truck. This road zig-zags for absolutely no reason! Some drunk, mouth-breathing malcontent, got a hold of a paver one night, and ran it through a field, using a weather-vane as a compass, and the city happened across it, slapped a street-sign on it, cause it's asphalt, so obviously, someone had a plan. White line? I'm on it! Double Yellow line? Yup, I'm on that too.

My road test, has become a SitCom. I'm pretty much expecting random baby-strollers to be placed in the middle of the road ahead. Maybe a "Yield" sign, with nothing to yield too. that would be par for the course.

Ok, Left turn up here! Got it! Let's see if I can downshift! Fifth? Nope. Fourth? Nah... Third? Third's always here for ya, baby! Left turn.. no problem. Ok, Turn left again! Ok, Go-Go-Gadget Downshift! 5th? Who are you kidding? OK, let's just get this over with.. where's Third? Third is busy. Second? Sure. why not? Various Flatbed trucks parked everywhere on the road, doing construction in an empty lot. I just keep it in third and slalom through. No idea who's gonna pop out of truck on either side, but there's no mobile traffic, and they left enough spaces for a truck to get through... Turn right... Turn right... blah, blah, blah...

Finally get on the road back to the site. I'm tired. cranky, all my hopes and dreams are dying in a collage of yellow and white lines, and a road that should only be travelled by Oompa-Loompa's on tricycles. There's a Van in front of me turning left, but it's got to wait for traffic. I know the intersection. There's enough room for me to swing wide to the right, go around it, and get back into the lane, before the paralell parking spaces come back.

I told you before. Complacency Kills. Hubris.

As I begin to go Wide-Right, the light becomes yellow, and it only stays there for a beat, before it hits red. I stop. Hard. Right on the stop line. the Tires locked, and skipped a bit. It wasn't pretty. But I stopped. Louie says "You have no idea, how big of a bullet, you just dodged."

What an Odd thing to say. He's not talking about the stop light. Oh yeah.. Trucks don't get to do that "pass on the right" stuff... That's an immediate failure... So, if I dodged a bullet by not immediately failing...

Oh My, I'm still alive! Game On!

Ok ok, ok, ok, don't panic!

all I have to do, is get through town, and not do anything dumb.

I get through town, two lane highway, got a mile left to go.

"What was on that yellow sign we just passed?"

I think... trying to remember.. Not because I saw it, but because I live here.

"...You know, I could make a random guess and hope for the best, but the fact is, I didn't see it."

"Good Answer." (for those of you wondering, I looked later, it was "Truck Entrance" for a compost site.)

and finally, back to the site, come up the hill, there's a train crossing a bit further down, so no need to worry about on-coming traffic, downshift to seventh? No. Sixth? Uh-Uh. Fifth? Sorry. Fourth? No Habla Englais. Third? I'm on break! Second? Where am I? Gotta stop and use the clutch brake on a highway. Got it into second, and went on it. Louie asks me "Why did you stop?"


And a special thanks goes to all the posters of this forum, cause I didn't even have to pause to answer:

"Your driveway is gravel and mud. and you've got a 10 foot drop on the far side of it. I can do this turn a thousand times, too slow. But I'm only gonna do it too fast, once."

"Good answer."

I parked, he told me I passed. I asked if he had any input or critiques on my driving, overall he said "Nothin' that experience won't fix."

Then I went and got my CDL-A.