Pinellas Technical College

Day 8 is complete.

First thing this morning we got some bad news. We lost of the Class B guys. He was in a car accident just prior to beginning the program and injured his back, over the weekend he had a setback with his recovery and had to drop out due to medical reasons. Sucks losing someone but you have to take care of yourself first.

After we said our goodbyes to him we got more bad news .... RANDOM DRUG TEST DAY. While we were rotating into the office and bathroom to piss we watched some safety videos and saw one of an accident on Donner Summit where a trainee was driving and rolled over killing himself and his trainer who was sleeping in the bunk. Nasty looking accident.

After our tests were complete we had a recruiter from J&R Schugel visit. Very nice guy from up there named Kurt. We spent about an hour with him and then we finally made it outside around 11am. We did our pre-trip inspection and then it was time for lunch. After lunch we had two hours to drive around the range. So we spent that time working on shifting bobtail again. Towards the end of the day Laura jumped in the truck with me to observe my progress, she said I was progressing very well ... I just need to tighten up my up-shifting sequence and I won't grind as much. You know, it worked ... I tightened up my sequence and I stopped grinding. I was taking to much time to clutch into gear. Down-shifting it still a little hairy but she is happy with my progress so I must be doing something right.

Tomorrow more shifting practice and possibly start messing around with trailers at some point, definitely will begin with trailers on Wednesday if not tomorrow.

The Class B guys were split off from us today, they went out for some big city driving around St. Petersburg. They will be testing and leaving us next week ( they are a 4 week program ).

 

Day 9 and 10 are complete.

This will be a double post due to a dangerous situation I was involved in yesterday which almost sent me to the hospital.

Day 9 started off pretty good, I was feeling good while completing the Pre-Trip Inspection and while driving. We were working on up-shifting and down-shifting still and we were still bobtail. We broke for lunch and then we learned how to couple and uncouple a trailer which took about a hour standing out in the sun ... this is where things started to go down hill for me. It was extremely humid here yesterday and I did not realize it at the time but I was dehydrated. It came my turn to perform the couple and uncouple, I made it through the couple near perfect. I had to pull up I think once to get straightened out. I began uncoupling by dropping the legs and I dropped myself too. I went down to one knee and my vision went hazy ... like a dummy I brushed it off and tried to push through it ... HUGE MISTAKE. I went down again except this time my arms and legs began to cramp ( a big indication you are dehydrated ). Laura and Steve were out there with us and they got me into the classroom where I cooled off and drank some water.

If you are going to be outdoors for any length of time in a humid environment, especially here in Florida, please please keep yourself hydrated. Know your body and know when you need to rest. I was in a very dangerous situation and could have had a heat stroke or worse.

Day 10 was a new day and I felt great after the situation yesterday afternoon. We started off with a Pre-Trip Inspection and then we moved to start practicing coupling and uncoupling .... boy was I wrong with that. We coupled but that was as far as went .... we finally started pulling trailers today. The tractor becomes a lot easier to maneuver and shift with a trailer back there. Laura was easy on us today, we only did a straight-line back and a tight right hand turn. Tomorrow she will throw alley-docking into the mix ... that should be fun.

 

That humidity will get you quick and you won't know until it's almost to late. Today I had a bottle of water in my hand and sipping from it the entire day. Luckily we have AC in the range trucks so it's not to bad if we are driving.

On a side note .. I am not to far from Pinellas Park, I live in the Seminole area ... your wife should know that area as we are right next to Pinellas Park. I might even know the horse ranch she worked at too .. my daughter took riding lessons at one over there for about a year until she lost interest.

 

Since we started pulling trailers I have come to a realization that I enjoy driving a Freightliner more than an International. Those are our two range trucks we have been driving the past couple of weeks. While bobtail they are almost the same but pulling a trailer I prefer the Freightliner, I drove both today with a trailer. The Freightliner is a lot easier to control and shift in my opinion. Lucky for me the other guys in the class prefer the International so I basically get the Freightliner to myself

 

I found a list of the horse farms and stables around here and they are not on there so I am assuming they are no longer there or go by another name now. Small world we live in, it's crazy the people you meet on the internet ... LOL.

 

Day 11 is complete and it also is the end of our 3rd week.

Today we started off the morning with our Pre-Trip Inspections, except this time we each had our own tractor and we were hooking up to trailers and including the trailer in our inspection. We also had the advanced class, who is close to graduating, ride along with us. They assisted us with our Pre-Trips and offered us advice on how the test is done and just observed our driving, shifting and backing and offered pointers on how to improve. After our morning break we received instruction on how to complete an Alley-Dock back.

I was assigned a Sterling day cab today .... this is a wild animal and should be caged up somewhere. This truck shifts like a dream but releasing the clutch when starting out is very rough and made my alley-dock that much harder ... it was like riding a bucking bronco. I attempted the back twice and just could not do it in that Sterling. We broke for lunch, my two classmates had to leave early so I had the final two hours to myself and needless to say I switched trucks, I moved into a sleeper Freightliner ... me and this Freightliner are good friends at this point. I attempted the back and failed miserably, I just pulled out and rolled around the range and reset myself. I pulled in and nailed it once with about 6 pullups and several GOALS. I rolled around again and went in and nailed it with only three pullups. I would had done more attempts but the advanced class guys were practicing parallel parking and some were doing the alley-dock as well.

At the end of the day Laura and Mary both told me I was doing an excellent job .... so I must be doing something right.

Next week we will continue with Alley-Dock and throw in Parallel Parking and Straight Line Backing too. Even heard we might be going on the road too .... that should be fun.