The rookie

Thanks brothers for the welcome , and yea we were warned day 1 about the island was told they’d be waiting for us haha

 

Yea if I’m not mistaken we’re right in the middle of the S bend , haven’t gotten to see much of the road while cramped in those vans but there was some traffic this morning. And it was heavier then normal while leaving. We did tons of trip planning and learning to read an atlas today, I’m ahead on most of the computer work so I guess I’ll spend some time getting acquainted with the Pennsylvania page.(Half of my class is under the impression they’ll never need one and the gps will get them there every time and that they can just call and say they’ll be late but that’s another story haha) That being said I think we’re supposed to start with the unloading process tomorrow.

 

To end the week out we learned the process of unloading via air and pump nothing major just climbing up and down that ladder a million times and eating subway( I don’t wish this amount of subway on my worst enemy haha)
Sunday they told us we were going out driving and got everybody hyped and ready to go and they broke us into groups, it’s 12 in the class they had 5 training trucks, so groups of 6 and 6 and did half class half out side. I was in the half that had to stay inside for the morning, the rest of us had to learn the intermodal process and how it differs and we get through that in an hour, lunch is at 1130 and almost all of our computer work is done. So from 830 to 1130 all we could do is dream lol making sure we got our gears down know our speeds and turn gear. You know, the basics! since you haven’t driven a truck in 3 weeks. So the other group gets back and we’re asking them about the road... Turns out we were only going through the pretrip and the only driving was the pulling up for the brake test. Oh man the buzzkill.. Got outside and yea we spent a whole 4hours going over the pretrip and our group made it to coupling and uncoupling.

Sunday night got to my room and all the stuff from my roommates bed was thrown on to my bed. Didn’t see any luggage and we didn’t move in any new guys so I don’t know who was in my room so I but I keep all of my valuable stuff on me and nothing was stolen or out of place.. except in the trash there was a snickers wrapper so whoever tossed all the stuff on my bed must’ve not been themselves haha. So I been packing up his stuff leaving it with our instructor.

Monday and Tuesday the classroom side went to tank wash to see that process combined with going to see different trailers (307s,407s, rubberlined, muticompartments ) checking out the different valve on them and the caps.
Those same days the other half went out for drives, Monday I had a partner but today they got another one of the trucks up so we had 6 trucks. Backing we set up 45s and did straight backs. Backing for me is not really an issue coming from having to learn 90s and mainly learning to read my trailer ( as my old trainer would say “you just gotta see it”) and in some people’s case “it ain’t for everybody”.

Driving . Coming from only driving in Michigan with no hills really... here in Pa everything is a d**n hill lol even in the yard 2 hills, leaving the yard to be on a hill, Surge, I’m sure we’re not fully loaded and all that heavy but it hasn’t been nerve wrecking at all sure it’s been weird getting used to those first two hits and getting pulled back when going up hill and almost turning into a roller coaster going down hill but if your not wreck less and drive defensive it’s very manageable. One thing that’s getting me is the transition from driving to pass the state test to how to driving a shorter lower trailer. I’m still taking turns super wide to clear my trailer but they want me to cut it shorter and he’s yelling cut it while my brain is telling me I’m not fully clear.
I also stalled the truck out sitting for a light that didn’t recognize the truck, the truck I trained in didn’t have a high idle it was something you had to do manually to build pressure , so we’re getting off of i79 north. On mt nebo and he’s trying to demonstrate how none of the intersections in Pa are a t (like every other state) and that they are more like a x so we’re sitting at the light and it cycles through 3xs before we get a light where somebody isnt a full 3 car lengths pass the white line( I don’t understand how some people be under the light in the middle of the intersection and think it’s ok)
So middle of the second cycle the light before it auto shuts off comes on because we were sitting still for a while, on a exit ramp hill and my foot is on the brake ,so the instructor pulls the parking brake (which I didn’t notice at the time cause I was seeing if I could make the turn) and is trying to get me to rest my foot on the floors So he can turn on the high idle.
Now every instructor for Schneider has a white hardhat and on the back above their name they have a phrase or a sticker. Now I paid attention to details my instructor has “it’s a trap” on top of his name (Star Wars) now back to this exit ramp from my eyes no way in h*** am I putting my foot on the the floor so we can roll backwards I said “it’s a trap!!” , then the truck stalls and the light turns green and we almost miss it haha

Lastly we were on university blvd by Moon run high school headed to 376 some and some guy cuts clear across all 4 lanes about 3 car lengths in front of us cuts off the car in front of us and brakes hard to turn into a gas station. I still don’t know why people risk it smh for a Pepsi and a lotto ticket , traffic was pretty clear too.

 

They clean the room every Thursday the room was clean when I checked in, it’s one of those 2 to a room situations and it was shaped like an L . Outside of his corner the room was cleaned new towels , new sheets, And bed was cleaned and tucked when I checked in, but Schneider runs it as a continuous live in

 

Only automatics we used were set next to the classroom for practicing the air and pump unloads.
They ask beforehand what you were trained in , so they don’t just stick anyone in a manual