Training Adventures with Sage in Cheyenne, WY

Keep us updated on how its going and who you finally decide to drive for.

 

Hanzerik,
First of all thank you for your service. Have you tried to convert you Military license in to a regular Class A state License. I did that, but that was 35 years ago.
There are several companies that will give you credit for any military driving, it may only be the diffrence in base pay, but always worth looking into.
I wish you luck and safe miles in your new carrieer.

Take care,
Larry

 

No I haven't. The only thing left, trucking wise, on my gov license is just the different trailers; Flatbeds & Lowboys. I think they pulled the tractors when I was stationed up here because they didn't use the same vehicle codes as my last base. I also lost my 4K/10K/13K forklifts when they transferred my license. I might have an old license around somewhere.

But I would probably benefit from going through a school anyway since I haven't driven a tractor in a few years. Plus all of the differences between military and civilian stuff.

 

Jynxx, hopefully you don't mind, but I figure I'll just post my "Adventure" stories with Sage in Cheyenne in here instead of making a new thread with the same title.

Start school in a couple hours and am excited to finally start. It has been a relaxing week; Retirement ceremony was on the 29th and final out-processing was last Monday.

I was not able to get a grant...I currently make too much money (still get my normal Military pay, $6K+ a month, while on Terminal Leave), and I would even make too much after August (Effective Retirement) in retirement pay to qualify for assistance from the State. So I closed out a small investment fund so the Wife and I can pay for school. She is starting a Dental Assistant School in June. It's no biggie, I would rather those grant monies go to folks who truely need it and have been out of work. I only needed to come up with about half the cost, tuition assistance through the Military paid $2500. Plus the school is cutting me a deal if I only have to hit the Port once for testing . So I better practice and study my butt off LOL.

So I will continue to post updates throughout the coming weeks.

 

Best of luck to all you folks and welcome to the wild,wierd and wunnerful world of trucking where the only constant is "Everything Changes". Don't worry too much about double-clutching, it'll come just like backing, etc. Soon it'll be second nature and you'll find yourself doing "truck driving" in your own car. Amazing how bad the rest of the world drives suddenly when you get some miles under your belt.

 

Nice to meet you today Jynxx, hope everything with W/S goes smoothly.

And the first day of class is basically what Jynxx posted in his first post in this thread; videos and practice test taking. We have six folks in our class, one of which is an old(er) trucker taking the class due to years of being away from driving. One lady who has never driven a manual, which maybe will help her when it comes to learning how to shift...no bad habits. Overall, it was a lot of info to take in, but I think that having read the WY CDL manual, and taking all of those practice tests over at the Crist website beforehand helped out. Tomorrow is more Vids and practice tests, then over to the DMV for the real tests. Total agreement on the videos Jynxx...they are outdated and have some incorrect info in regards to what the WY CDL manual and other sources teach, at least towards downhill breaking.

Took a break from brushing up on HAZMAT & Tankers to post. I'm not too worried about the DMV tests, as long as they are similar to the practice tests I have taken.

 

Day 2:

Kind of an interesting day...
We watched some more videos and did the practice tests. Then had our little admittance speech given by the school director. After that we were handed a check and made our way to the DMV to get our permits.

First test up was General Knowledge; needed to get %80 out of 50 questions. I start the test and notice that my mouse cursor didn't want to do anything after I submitted each answer. It was taking about a minute for the mouse cursor to get back to normal after each click, and for the page to refresh. So the lady said to finish that test on that machine and she would switch me to another for the other tests. 45 minutes later I was finished.

I get on another machine and blow through the other five tests. Passed all on first try. I think I missed a total of 6 questions out of all six tests.

I go back up to the counter and the gentleman behind the counter looked at the screen and asked me if I still had my CAC card (Avtive Duty Military ID), then he asked if I still had my Military drivers license, I told him I had a print-out of my military endorsements since I had already out-proccessed and had to turn in my .Mil license. He said ok and I went to my car to grab it. I come back and give it to him, and he looks at what I have on there and says "you will leave here today with a Class A CDL" with all endorsements except for HAZMAT (have to wait of the finger prints) and passenger (going back tomorrow to take written for passenger). I have tractor/trailer and passenger bus on my Military license. All of the skills testing is waved.

Huh, didn't see that coming , but it just saved me a bunch of money off the tuition. So now I have a temporary CDL until my real one comes in the mail, and will just have to go in again once my HAZMAT stuff comes back to get it and passenger put on.

So...yes....an interesting day
Going to continue with the course to get hands on refresher training, and since it has been a while I feel I need it. Plus all of my commercial vehicle driving was automatics, except for tactical vehicles like 2.5 Ton and 5 Ton cargo trucks which were manual.

 

Went this morning and took and passed school bus and passenger. I wont get the school bus endorsement unless I was to drive for the district. But at least I have the record of passing it.

Tomorrow we start learning about log books. Then in the afternoon we are all going over to the workforce center to listen to the Sanjel USA pitch. I had already set up an appointment with them, but I guess they thought it would be good for everyone to go over.