Pre trip inspection.

Many drivers in South Carolina move to North Carolina because North Carolina have third party examiners and the CDL A license is easier to pass in North Carolina.

In North Carolina there is only a 45 degree alley dock and no forward serpentene.

South Carolina has a 90 degree alley dock and a forward serpentene. I have seen CDL schools in North Carolina that have the cones spread to about 15 feet (easy to straight line back) and no borders for backing into the 45 degree back!

No wonder they move!

 

we start with pre-trip then have straight line backing, offset backing/parking & then parallel parking on the skills test, then we had out for the technical road test.. we practiced alley docking in school but it wasn't on the CDL skills test.

 

I live in NC and for the record, our cones were 12 feet apart and there were borders for the 45. And although it wasnt required (like you said), they offered to teach it and most of us gladly accepted. But my understanding is that, yes there are a few states out there that don't require as much.

I think it also depends on the schools and instructors. Mine taught me a lot of stuff that was prefaced by "this isn't going to be on the test, but...". And I am glad they did. It certainly got me more prepared. I have a near and dear friend that is a trainer in another state and he got a "fresh out of school" newbie not too long ago that didn't even know how to use a road atlas, and when he backed up, he was using the right mirror to make sure he was straight, and "backed into the slot like he was at Indy". So it all depends on where you go as to your quality of training.

But I doubt many people are uprooting their lives and families, and moving to NC just because the cones are three feet further apart. hehehehehehe

 

Believe me they move from South Carolina to North Carolina. I personally talked to some who received their license in South Carolina and they claimed they moved to get their license in North Carolina. They had driven for about 5 years and had a few tickets.

They wanted to drive again so they moved because they knew how hard it was to pass the DMV exam in South Carolina.

So, I know it is true.

A requirement in South Carolina is to do a 90 degree alley dock. I can't believe that some schools give you a license with no docking test at all?

How would the DMV or DOT approve?

 

It took me FOREVER to finally memorize the pretrip, until I came up with a few tips and tricks of my own (with a small suggestion from my instructor).

Basically, I treated the road test pretrip like an oral presentation, the kind that we all hated to do in highschool. Using the pretrip sheets that our instructors gave us along with my memory, I typed it all out and then rehearsed it overnight. Now before I did this, I should point out that it would take me over an hour to get everything on the inspection done, and I would always miss a few items. After I typed it out though, I not only hit everything (and a few things the instructors missed), but I shaved almost 25 minutes off my inspection time.

We do something similar in Alberta as well. Although I check a lot more under the hood before driving, for the road test all we had to say was, "Before demonstrating the unhook/hookup procedure I would like to point out that the D.O.T stickers on the trailer and tractor are up-to-date, and that this morning I opened the hood to check the steering, suspension, slack adjusters, fan/fan belts, and fluids."

 

Access to a truck or bus will make a huge difference.

In getting my Class B w/ air brake, passenger, and school bus - this is what I did:

1) Watched someone stumble through the pre-trip
2) Stumbled through the pre-trip with another person.
3) Used a "cheat sheet" to walk through the pre-trip a few times by myself.
4) Used a voice recorder and began going through the pre-trip as I would with an instructor.

The previous poster mentioned an oral presentation. This is exactly what will help you. Talking out loud will help and in the end, you'll less be nervous. Of course, I can't promise you won't be embarrassed, should someone walk by and see you talking to a truck tire. A voice recorder will help in eliminating this sort of thing (which, by my luck, would happen.)

You want the visual aids. You want to associate certain parts of the vehicle with certain phrases. While growing up, there were these weird contraptions. They were round, had an arrow in the center, and a pull cord on the side. When you pulled the cord, the arrow would spin and eventually stop on an animal. The result: The toy would say "This is a cow! The cow goes moooooooooo!" Silly, right? But this the same idea. Your slack adjuster may not moo, but you should know what it looks like, what it shouldn't look like, how to describe it, etc... Visual aids!

 

Our instructors give us a pointer and we take turns pointing out each part, like coolant res. not cracked dented leaking, check level in site glass, if not equipted i would remove cap when not hot...ect..
We go down the line and each person dooes it, if you mess up u go to the back of the line and we start over. We have been learning it pretty easily that way.

 

I think they move up there because the B-B-Q taste better...

 

......when it came time for me to study my pre-trip, I practiced on a rig that i didn't know anything about, the best way to improve your learning curve about the pretrip is this, go around the equipment and start in a different location, by yourself not with the DOT present, everytime, that way when it comes time to the "real thing" from the start point, you will be aware of just what to do, I reversed the pretrip, learning back wards, forwards, from the middle, this kept my frame of mind intact on the day I had to do it with the DOT present, I have even made a few choice items aware to the DOT that most of them didn't think to look at, needless to say I passed with flying colors, prevented an accident from happening when I did the road test, was told to drive back, thought I flunked out, passed, got a pat on the back for being on the ball, even my written test scored high answered all questions with the right answer, not too many can make this claim, but it goes to show you what a good study session can do for you, when you pass, and I trust you will, don't pick up any bad habits out on the road and start skipping things, like the pre-trip, I also perform an inspection while I'm enroute, and once I'm unloaded I do a post trip, this way I'm safe and everyone around me is safe. Remember, this above all else, SAFETY COMES FIRST, I've had those particular drivers tell me, you don't have to do it all the time, they are usually the ones you see getting a violation for not having this or that in proper working order, knowing what's wrong and marking it down really covers your butt, it's not knowing that gets to be the problem, if it's a major item and HAS to be replaced, don't wait, get it dealt with, imagine those fellas, and a few girlies, that get caught up in the mess when the DOT finds something wrong, I've had no violations of any kind during my driving career, nor will I ever, I don't get into coffee shops, sitting talking in the parking lots, I've to many other things to do, get the load there, pick up the next and get it to where it goes, stay away from bad habits.

 

Don't forget the in cab inspection. You can do great on the pre-trip and miss one in cab and the inspector will fail you. In my test we only had 40min to compleate. Unless we when like a road runner and gibbered, some would not finish in time. I was able to do the inspection and use the the term "what I have inspected on this side, I would do on the other side". If your inspector will let you do this don't forget to inspect any item thats different from the other side of the truck/trailer. Example would be the fuel tank ###., not all truck have two tanks. And indicate with your hands and fingers pointing to the other side of the truck/trailer.