Good job in Millington! Getting your CDL should be a snap, then off with a mentor. That's where the fun and real learning begins. Everything you've done so far has been good prep for OTR training. I'll finish my 4th week tommorrow. I'll have the 240 required drive time hours before 6 weeks is up but if I have to stay with this mentor to the bitter end...so be it! I'm looking forward to solo but what's another few days. I think the teaming aspect of training is good in that you have to act on your own without your mentor looking over your shoulder. Taking the bull by the horns so to speak. I've gotten far along enough that my mentor barely wakes up and peeps out from the sleeper when we do a night drop or hook. Most of my backing has been done during the night. Sometimes there's plenty of light, sometimes not so much. Talk about getting out and looking. Sometimes I only move a few feet before I get out again. I'm determined not to so much as scratch anything. Keep up the good work and I hope you get a good mentor. I've been in touch with several of my classmates and all seem to be satisfied with the driver they've been hooked up with. As far as I know, none of the mentors they've been assigned have been the proverbial "6 month wonders". I guess those "wonders" exist, but I've not run across one. Stay in touch!
i have a couple questions for you guys. first for Sqail..are you doing orentation in gary indiana? that would be great for me i live in valparaiso so i would be able to come home for week 3 and drive to orientation in the morning...and another question for either of you, do you get any home time while out with trainer? If not is it pretty much gaurenteed 6 weeks out with your mentor?
Hometime is unlikely unless you get a mentor who 1) lives in the same area you live in, and 2) the mentor puts in for hometime. I don't think Swift allows students to request hometime but if #1 and #2 above happen, you could get home but don't count on it at all.
I asked one of my classmates, A Truck/Heavy Equipment Mechanic who needs a CDL for his new service truck. Apparently, The tools used by the tire industry to design, build, & test American tire measure in 32's. So, if you ask a Goodyear Engineer about tread depth he will say xx/32 just like a computer tech will tell you how many gigabyte of space you have on your hard drive. Hope he isn't making this stuff up Good Luck with The Big Trucks
Ok, after another bus ride that was far too uncomfortable to sleep I arrived in Hammond, IN. I arrived at the Quality Inn expecting the worst from some of the stories I had heard. I appears they recently remodeld and made the place pretty nice and clean. When I tried to check in I was told they had no vacancy but they would let me know as soon as a room was available, it was early and I knew housekeeping had not started yet so I did not mind the wait. They let me keep my luggage behind the desk and told me to help myself to breakfast that was being served, then I kind of napped in the lobby for a bit, once they had a room they told me they would get me a smoking room later but figured I would like the shower and some sleep in the meantime. Nice people. Around 1pm they had a smoking room available for me to transfer to, so now I am relaxing, doing a bit of reading and enjoying the much cooler weather up here. Road trainer should be picking me up at 5:30 am tomorrow. >indyboy03: i have a couple questions for you guys. first for Sqail..are you doing orentation in gary indiana? No, I will be doing my orientation in New Boston, MI, but two of my classmates are schedualed to do oreientation at Gary. >Oldnewbiegonnabe: Thanks, I think everything is going great so far, having a great mentor would be a plus. I just found out yesterday that Michigan changed the Pre-trip and the academy has no idea what has changed, they said the road trainer will have the info. Another person said they added 5 pages to the pre-trip... I am trying to think how much could they put on five pages... do they want me to inspect each and every rivet on the trailer? haha Guess I will find out tomorrow. >Blue Screen: I asked one of my classmates, A Truck/Heavy Equipment Mechanic who needs a CDL for his new service truck. Apparently, The tools used by the tire industry to design, build, & test American tire measure in 32's. So, if you ask a Goodyear Engineer about tread depth he will say xx/32 just like a computer tech will tell you how many gigabyte of space you have on your hard drive. Hope he isn't making this stuff up Thanks.. I had asked one of the instructors and he told me about the same, saying it is just what is used in the tire industry. So you can belive your classmate. -SgailDreugan
First day of road training has been interesting, I feel more like a newbie today then anytime the past two weeks. First off it seems most of the pre-trip stuff taught at Millington is bogus. I remember telling other classmates that saying the tire psi like some set unchanging number seemed wrong as there are more then one type of tires used. And the road trainers confirmed that saying the proper response when asked what the psi should be is "whatever the manufacturer recommended pressure is". When asked what the oil pressure should be..."at the normal operating pressure" not 40 - 60 psi like we were taught at Millington .. ect. They said the only things that are the same between vehicles would be the voltmeter and air pressure. Turns out Millington was also supposed to teach proper shifting, all we got was a handout on the last day of range explaining progressive shifting and a road speed to gear chart. I felt like a total idiot this morning trying to shift the truck like I would a car. By lunch I was starting to get the whole double clutching down but I still keep trying to mash that clutch down too far.. and I have the seat as far back and raised as I can. I am sure it will come together soon, but I have to get this all down and smoothed out before I test on thursday. I have a great trainer and he rides me pretty hard, luckily I am not sharing with any other students so all the drive time is mine. We are headed to a hands on michigan pre-trip class tomorrow up in New Buffalo, MI. That should help alot and I am looking forward to it. It is at the same place I will take the cdl test so I can take a look at the skills course while I am there. Ok, back to practicing with the hotel bathroom plunger and roll of toilet paper.. I am determined to get this down. -SgailDreugan
As ONGB said home time while out with your trainer is very hit and miss, depends on your trainers home time requests and whether or not he/she lives near you. 6 weeks is not a hard and fast rule, the rule is 50 hours drive time before you and your trainer can run as a team truck and 240 hours drive time before you can test out. Good luck and have fun... I did
I have all this to look forward to also... I thank you for posting your days and trials... I start Company school Sept 7th in Marshfield Wi and I feel your pain... Shifting is going to be my BIG learning curve I feel. I hope I do as well as you because I really want the career. I am following you sir... thank you and Good luck!
Plunger and toilet paper roll, huh? That's funny, but, if it works DO IT! I didn't have a lot of trouble with the shifting but backing.....well that's a different story. I've kept this a secret but I did buy a model 18-wheeler at Walmart and set up backing exercises on the table in my motel room. It helped a little but the real learning has come from actually doing the deal at real live truckstops, shippers and receivers. Don't sweat it, you're gonna do fine. You've got the full attention of a road trainer and the luxury of having him all to yourself. I wasn't that fortunate but that's another story. Just get the ###### CDL Thursday, get yourself to orientation, then get out here with the rest of us!!! Ya hear me!!!!
You will find out that half of what swift told you is BS. I was terrible at shifting and double clutching too, when I was with my road trainer. I was so nervous during the DMV test, I was surprised I didn't tear out the tranny My mentor showed me how to float, before we left the terminal, and it got a lot easier from there.
