Signed Up For School Today...All State

I signed up for All State School today. It's a 5 1/2 month course and 480 hours.

I start on the 21st.

 

<cough cough> too much...but that being said they are PTDI certified...decent student/instructor ratio 1:4 and they do have an awesome placement program.

I am really excited about the whole thing...except that my current job won't allow for timeto go to school, so I'll have to get a part time job to make ends meet until March.

 

Ok so today was day three of school.

The way they do things here is that they will start you in a 'module' in various parts of the course. You'll finish everything, but might start somewhere in the middle...as our class has.

My day class has about 10 students...maybe 12.

We are in a two week module of "Log Books and HOS." They told us this was one of the toughest modules, along with Hazmat.

I agree, the rules and regs laid down on drivers is tough, and learning the ins and outs of the govt paperwork is tedious and time consuming.

So far I am diggin this course and the level of professionalism.

 

Ok, so today was the end of week 2. As our instructor said this was the toughest part of the entire course...HOS, logs, regs and trip planning.

Whew, my eyes hurt form all of the fine print and seemingly endless regulations.

It was kind of weird in that they put us in with a class who have gone through almost everything except the driving segments. So next week we start our next two week set of truck familiarization...go figure.

Anyway we had a recruiter from TMC in class today talking about who they are and flat bedding.

 

Well we are now in our 4th week. The scool is broken down into two week segments. Last week we started going to the range for basic 'backing, coupling and uncoupling with tug tests.'

It's amazing at how much abuse some of this equipment gets. Last week we had a gal who missed the initial range class and when she jumped into the drivers seat the next day, popped the clutch with the service brake on. I was standing next to the drive wheels when the yoke on the drive shaft exploded into a half dozen pieces. Wow, all it took was a nano-second.

This week we got hands on with moving the trailer wheels to compensate for load weights and fifth wheel.

Tomorrow is out two week exam. This school isn't a joke, and I still feel that although it is a lot of money, that this will be an investment into my and our families future.

 

If we stop with all of the money printing and just let the economy move forward then we should be fine.