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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;RoadSideDown, post: 11649542, member: 314577&quot;]DAY 10/ END OF WEEK 2</p><p><br /></p><p>I practiced offsets and alley dock backing and went for a two hour trainer road drive through downtown Portland streets, freeway and urban and industrial highways. Fantastic fun. The trainer said although some details are still a bit rough that my driving today would have passed the state exam. Drove through miles of homeless camps. Drove through downtown with a police car on my right the entire way. Oh yeah, I got the 8 foot long STUDENT DRIVER banner slung across the back of the trailer. LOL, fear me, Portland!!! A thousand stop lights to slow down, start up and slow down. 4th-9th&nbsp; and back down to 6th like a bandit, mostly. LOL!&nbsp; The trainer was super. Patient, helpful coaching, and fun guy.</p><p><br /></p><p>I am very confident on my backing. Pretty much nailing every type, no sweat. A week ago I was kind of anxious about driving on the road and my backing sucked bad.</p><p><br /></p><p>The entire class is doing well. I think we have all completed every challenge, some more consistently and smoother than others. But we CAN do it. Personally I am confidant I could pass the state exam today. With two more weeks of all driving and backing it should get very much smoother and easier.</p><p><br /></p><p>one of our instructors got permission to use the yard hostel er training docks. While I was on my two hour drive the other students took turns doing 90 degree backing into a real dock. No more 2 ft on either side between the orange cones. Now it is a couple of inches either side between the steel dock bumpers and must be straight against the dock. Sounded like it went fairly well.</p><p><br /></p><p>I don’t know if most CDL classes are like this, but we have truly great instructors and the students are very supportive and friendly all around. Yeah we get the 1998 Freightliner, early 2000s Internationals, and a couple of “newer” 2006 Volvos. Kinda thinking it isn’t the first time the odometers read 800k! But hey!&nbsp; They all drive and shift and drop and hook fine. And we have lots of them to use. We are getting used to different shifters and clutches and mirror views.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is hard to believe <span style="color: currentcolor">in two weeks</span> I went from anxious concern over several key skills to being able to confidentially perform them on the spot. Many laps around the terminal and two road drives and I am a down shifting fool. Rather than worrying about the state exam I am now excited to do it and move into my driving job.</p><p><br /></p><p>I thank all you guys on here too.&nbsp; I joined the board months ago while still a bus driver dreaming of driving Class A. Did a detour into rock quarry haul trucking but was learning here about the types of jobs. Decided that LTL seemed like what I wanted to start in and eventually I got the call. I never would have known about all these opportunities without you all here at TruckersReport. Tons of great advice, experience stories, and humor.</p><p><br /></p><p>And I’ll drive proudly for YRC this next year in my older truck because they gave me an honest opportunity. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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