Vocational CDL School as it happens

I started this thread to post a day by day acount of my training experience at a central Florida CDL school, a vocational school ran by the Orange County School System.
My hopes are that this might help some in their decision about beginning the process of training for a truck driving career. I can't give you anything to compare as I've only visited the privately run schools, never having attended one myself. Perhaps others on this forum can help with any question as to how other schools run their program. Giving those interested an idea of the differences in a short course school and the longer vocational school I will be describing in this thread.

Tuesday I and 10 others began an eight week 320 hour CDL
school in central Florida. I will attempt to update at least weekly how it goes in hopes it might help others decide where
they train and what to expect if they choose a vocation school versus a for profit ran school.
Day one was classroom all day 10 hours. Homework assigned to read 3 full chapters in the book "Bumper To Bumper" The complete guide to tractor-trailer operations, and 10 pages in a fourth chapter. Questions at the end of the chapter to be answered on a separate sheet of paper and turned in at 7AM the next day (Wednesday).

Day two Wednesday, began with the collection and grading of homework and the collection of log sheets. Log sheets
are required to be completed each day for the 24 hours and turned in for review by the instructional staff each day for the previous day. This being done to familiarize students with the proper way to fill out logs before we begin filling out the ones that will really count if you've screwed up.
We began working with just the tractors in a hundred foot alley mock up, we drive through the 12 foot wide alley (cones with barrels at each end) stopping with the tractors rear axle in the center of the end barrels, then reversing back through the alley and stopping with the tractor front bumper in the center of the barrels at the other end. Only a couple students had ever been in a class 8 tractor before this exercise. Most did okay however a few seemed to have some problems. Although the tractor is huge compared to what people drive for personal transportation, it is still little differences with no trailer, yet some had problems.
The rest (most) of the day was spent in the classroom with Orange County School Board required Employability Skills Class training to complete day two.

Day three, begins much same with turning in our answers from the end of chapter quizes from the daily homework assignment along with the previous days log. The remainder of day was spent on the driving range rotating teams of two students throught the five different tractors on the five 100 foot mock allies. Soon after beginning this day each of the five tractors was hooked to a trailer. Those who didn't do excellent with just a tractor in the 100 foot alley had far bigger problems with the addition of dry van trailer to their rig. They weren't alone, as a number of students having no problem with bobtail in the alley, were now having serious problems. I can only imagine that those students that had never even pulled a trailer in their life before this day, must have been very over whelm when given the task of learning to do so with a rig 8 1/2 foot wide in 12 foot alley. I was glad I had learned with a farm tractor and trailer when I was still to young drive on public highways. Seven of the ten students were strugling to one degree or another. The instructor suggested that they seek out a friend or family member over the weekend with something they could practice with even it was just a riding mower with trailer.
After this exercise one could easily see the importance of attending training where the student to truck ratio is low in our case only two students per truck. We only attend class Monday through Thursday for 10 hours a day. Day three concludes with more long faces walking off the range than smiling faces. I hope for the sake of those having problems they're able to pull it out next week as we will move out of the alley and onto other manuvering exercises.

 

Dumb me could not find the thread to continue what I had began.

Day 4, Monday

We began as usual with homework assignments being graded, then out to the range where we continued the 100 foot alley for part of the morning. Then we began a couple/uncouple exercise. It was extremely hot and a bit tiring for an old guy like me in and out of tractors, under trailers to verify kingpin/fifth wheel alignment and cranking the landing gear up and down only to repeat the process over and over. I slept well this night.
First casualty today our class of 10 is now a class of 9 as one of the CDL A class members decided to move to the CDL B class.



Day 5, Tuesday

Homework graded as usual and out to the range.
All the trucks were set up for a banana dock maneuver and we spent the morning perfecting (yeah right) attempting to master it.
After lunch the range was set up with 6 different maneuvers and two students were assigned to each of these for the remainder of today
through lunch tomorrow. Then each team of two will rotate to a different maneuver. Myself and another student got the south angle dock for the first maneuver of this rotation. I now began to understand the reasoning of beginning with the 100 foot alley, basically all of the maneuvers end with at least part of the 100 foot alley routine, so if you can't back straight down a hundred foot alley, you wouldn't stand much of a chance pulling off one of these angle dock maneuvers. This day began with 9 students and ended with only 8 as another decided to move to the class B group.




Day 6, Wednesday

Starting today each day some of the class members are assigned a truck/tailer to inspect (with written report) and couple up before we begin the day on the range. At the end of the day the same students do a post inspection and uncouple the rig. This will rotate every day to a different group until we have mastered the inspection process and taken that portion of the CDL exam.

My partner and I spent the morning on the South angle dock maneuver we had began the previous day. Today we began shifting instruction as each of us one at a time were called over to the shift track to begin learning the shifting procedure. This I might add is not as easy as you pros make it look. After lunch I was paired with a new partner (my third so far) and we began learning the parallel parking maneuver and continued for the remainder of the day.

This day too would end with another student moving over to the CDL B class, we now number 7 in a class that began with 10.



Day 7, Thursday

Homework as usual then out to the range to continue with the maneuver we began the previous afternoon. Each of us would spend an hour on the shifting track during the day. After lunch my partner and I moved to the Straight dock maneuver and we were told to float between the straight dock, the banana dock and the hundred foot alley. This was a bonus as the entire day was all driving with no waiting for your partner to have a turn. This day would end without losing any students. We are off Friday, Saturday and Sunday as our classes are 10 hours a day four days a week. I for one was more than ready for the weekend, with an hour of drive time each way and 10 hours in the hot sun, made for some long days.


Day 8, Monday

Drill is pretty much the same as to homework, truck inspections,etc. We continued with each of us having a turn with the shifting lessons while working on the maneuver last assigned. After lunch I got a new partner (my forth) and no I'm not that hard get along with, it is just a way to not stick people with the same partner all the way through the class. I've enjoyed getting to know each one of these guys a little better as we spend a day working together on mastering the same maneuver. My new partner and I were assigned the east angle dock and finished the day working on same.
Another day has ended without losing a student tho at least one or two seem to be strugling. I had never even sat in a rig before this class but did have experience driving large single vehicles and have pulled trailers all my life. Many in this class had never even pulled a small trailer before taking the CDL class.


Day 9 Tuesday

We spent the morning on the same maneuver we had worked on the previous afternoon, We had now spent a day on all six maneuvers, after lunch we would begin a free floating process where each guy moves to any of the six trucks at will. This would continue for the next several days. I was caught a little off gaurd when I and another new partner (my fifth) were summoned to begin driving on public roads. As four wheelers would pull out in front me along the way I wondered if they had known it was my first time at the wheel of a big rig, would they have not been in such a hurry and waited till I passed by to enter the highway. My guess is they would have stayed clear.

This day would end with another dropping out of our class, now only 6 remain in the CDL A class that began with 10 a couple weeks ago. Some transferred to the Class B group after learning that local jobs don't exist at present for Class A drivers with no experience. Others found handling a combination rig to be more than they were up to at this point in time.



Day 10, Wednesday

The remaining 6 of us floated about at will among the six maneuvers.
My second time on the public highways was a forty mile run to Polk City exit on I-4 and return. My new driving partner (sixth) drove over on mostly four lane city/county roads with lots of traffic lights, some two lane and some interstate. I drove the return mostly I-4 with a little city four lane with trafic signals. This truck just purrs along at 65MPH, it would be easy to exceed the posted limit with this big Cat. I still have a long ways to go to become smooth with the up and down shifting. Just when I seem be making progress with a few flawless shifts, then suddenly its like the first time all over as I grind away, feeling like a dumb #####.


Day 11 Thursday


This day begins by taking a driving exam on the maneuvers we have been practicing over the week. Its called a mid term, but is really just a practice test to make sure everyone understands the point system used to grade ones performance. It gives you an opportunity to home in on your weakness and strengths before taking the school exam that counts toward your grade. I was the first one up and with no time to warm up, I began. The first maneuver was the the 100 foot alley, drive through straight and stop with the trailer bumper within the one foot square the vehicle to be straight, then reverse to the opposite end stopping with the front bumper within the one foot wide square, again with the vehicle straight. No problem. Next the banana dock this one I mastered early on (at least I thought I had). I was concerned about the tendency of the brakes to grab on this truck especially since it had not yet been driven today. This need not have been my concern, it would be other things that I would screw up. I lost a lot points on this one and I was P****d at myself for doing so.
Not good because my anger (at myself for screwing up) now would cause me to totally blow the parallel park. I manged to extract my head out of my butt and complete the remaining three challenges
like I had done this before, however my score could not be recovered to a level within the passing range after the earlier screw ups. Good thing this was a practice and not the real thing. My instructor just laughed, he had expected better from me and so had I. He said I set up everything perfect but failed to take the jack out quick enough on the parallel park, if I had just stopped pulled forward, adjusted and continued to back in all would have gone well with no more than a five or ten point deduction. IF? Like they say if a frog had wings he wouldn't bump his #####. Oh well, Thursday ends the week not as I would like it to have ended but never the less I was glad this day was over.

 

Hope your school is going well. I couldn't find this thread to add to it for a couple weeks and thought maybe I had posted in the wrong area and it had been removed.

Let us know how your CDL school working out for you.