What do orientations and road tests consist of?

Your a young guy. You expected to be fired from a job. If you didn't then you prob didn't have fun in your high school/college years. lol

 

Don't be too concerned about the road test.USexpess knows you just graduated,they don't ecspect you to be the perfect driver.In your case what they're looking for is to see how you handle a semi,keeping it on the road and in your lane.You may not even have to do any backing until your training is over.They're also not going to fail you for a bad shift.Just relax and you'll do fine.Far as your work history,as long as you was truthful about everything and have no gaps you'll be fine.These people that have trouble either have gaps in their work history and can't account for them or an employer gave a bad review.The physical walk test.they make you walk like a duck and don't forget to flap your arms and quack like a duck,you get extra credit.

 

Thanks for the thread. I just finished school 3 July and start orientation at Prime in three weeks. My CDL school left a lot to be desired. We practiced and tested-out in a Ford 8000. We never got to practice the double-clutch shifting. I went back after graduating to get them to help me practice with a Mack and the double-clutch shifting. The two times I did get to practice, I was pathetic. The two times I went out for the double-clutch, I had two different instructors, and they had very different ideas on how it should be done. One guy never used the clutch except to start out...just floated the gears in-and-out by adjusting the rpm's with the ground speed. Will there be any time to practice before the driving/road test?

 

My kind of driver. Awesome post. Lots of people need to go right back home. I did like you, I was ready to work. I went through the Swift orientation too. The flatbed guys had to go a couple extra days for securement stuff. They put us all into a crappy motel. That Saturday afternoon, a lot of the trainees were sitting around bored. They walked over to the convenience store and bought beer. I'm a beer drinker, but I wasn't drinking because I wanted to go to work. Had a van driver roll up looking for a student. I was waiting for a flatbed trainer, but this guy came up asking for a student because he needed to go from Greer, SC to San Diego by Monday. I volunteered to go ( anything to get started). Swift did a surprised raid on the motel and fired all students that had been drinking.

Got in the truck and stepped out on I85. The thing felt huge. It had been 7 years since I'd been on the bigroad. The trainer sat there for an hour. He said, "You've driven before, you know what you're doing", went into the sleeper and was out like a light. The first time I stopped was in Shreveport for fuel.

We made San Diego that Monday. We got along well. He was an old retired marine drill sgt and I'm former lawman. He didn't hold hands and I had a job to do. He didn't tell me anything, we just ran. Swift had a cow.

I stayed out from orientation from August to December. Finally went home in December.

 

Now THAT'S a refreshing post, Triplesix. Great to hear from someone that understands what OTR really means... getting out on the road and working. Sounds like you had a good trainer, you got along well, and your transition back into the game was smooth.

Funny that Swift did the raid on the motel and fired the drinkers. Might be that someone tipped them off. They are strict about not drinking or possessing alcohol in the truck at all. When I was training we had an urgent JIT load we had to grab at a terminal because the driver walked out of the terminal to drink, came back, they smelled his breath and he was fired on the spot.

My impression from my orientation class was that 3/4 were new to the industry and 1/4 were experienced drivers going through orientation to change companies. At the end of it a couple of the experienced drivers were gone and the mix finished with 2/3 newbies and 1/3 experienced. In a way I felt a tad bit sorry (especially in retrospect) for the experienced drivers that were new to the world of Qualcomm (as I was). Might be better to at least send them out for a week of training to get the hang of going through a few cycles of using the QC. When I was assigned my truck there was such a driver that had done the two hour QC class, but was still totally lost... we ended up passing each other on the freeway two days later, I waved him to follow me into a rest stop and I spent an hour going over how to read and respond to his messages. The industry has changed...

 

The thing about the drinking was that the students in the motel were supposed to be waiting on a trainer. How can you be ready to go to work at any moment when you have been drinking? If you are a student, until you are assigned your own truck, you always should be ready to work.

 

Have all your ducks in a row when you go to orientation. If you got any med issues get em cleared up before you go.any past experience or jobs hav e it all verified before you go.key words are before you go! Lots get sent home because there #### is not together in advance.lastly when you get there be attentive and quiet. Theres always that one guy whos done it all and seen it all in every class. Dont be that guy.