Profile For Christopher J.

I looked like a monkey ******* a football!!!

funniest thing I've read on this forum

I just started driving for coke. We have some pretty old school tractors but very rarely do we encounter excessive diesel fumes. While I was in CDL school I noticed the diesel fumes were pretty bad as well. But those were all old overly used tractors that were burning quarts of oil a week. For Coke or Pepsi, its the manual labor of hauling cases of soda you have to worry about.. not the fumes.

How's the TND 510 in city and towns?? I'm starting a new job tomorrow with a local beverage company and after training I will defiantly need a GPS as I will have to navigate around towns and cities I've never even heard of.

Hello Ladies and Gents,

Im a newly acquired CDL holder. I received my license back in November. I had an interview with a local company yesterday. They want me to do a job shadow to see if its something i really want to do. Once that's done I will be required to do a yard circle check.. basically i will have to demonstrate my knowledge of driving a truck (pre-trips, backing up, proper shifting, drop and hook) which brings me to my question.

In school we were taught how to do the drop hook. Not really something that requires a lot of time to practice so we really didn't spend much time on doing it.. maybe an hour. My instructor told me the best way to know you have the 5th wheel lined with the kingpin is by having the outer rear tire\ lined up with the side of your trailer using your mirrors. He said once you do it repeatedly it becomes second nature. Just wondering if there's other methods people use when lining up with the king pin. I ask because I have only done it once.. Now i will have to demonstrate it to get a job. Thanks.

Took the test for the second time last night. Just had to do Blind Side and the road test as I passed everything else the first time. The road test went pretty smoothly until I got off the highway a second Time. I made the mistake of trying to down shift one more (from 6 to 5th) gear as the off ramp started to decline downhill Which cause me to grind the gears a bit but I caught it in time. I went thru NETTTS 160hr program which ill post a review in the diaries section.

Hello Ladies and Gents, next Friday I will be going for my 2nd road test in Sterling. The first time I passed all manuvers but one which was the blind side. No doubt I will pass it this time around as its been the only manuver I've been practicing the last month. I'm jus curious to see if anybody on here has taken the actual road portiin of the test in Sterling?? If so any advice?

Thank you all for the advice. After weeks of research I've narrowed my choices of school to Parker Professional Training School in MA. They offer a 6 week 120hr mon-fri course as well as a 8 week weekend only course. They are an accredited school so im trying to get Coca Cola to do tuition reimbursement.

Hello,

Im currently working in the warehouse for a Coca Cola plant in Mass. After years of broken promises about company paid training, Ive decided to stop waiting around for Coke and get my CDL on my own as Im watching them hire more and more drivers off the street.

With the help of this site I have obtained my CDL permit as well as my DOT card. My next step is to take some CDL training at a training school. Here in Ma I have a few options.

-NETTS (new England tractor trailer school) -Parkers Professional driving school -Nationwide Diesel Technologies In Northing Rhode Island. I have a couple grand saved up for training but I don't want to pay the full tuition amount seeing that I already have my permit so I don't need the classroom portion that involves getting your CDL permit. I've talked with Parkers and they do have a "pay as you go" deal where you pay $200 per 2 hour lessons. You need a minimum of 4 lessons before they allow you to take your road test. I was thinking maybe (10) 2 hour classes plus the road test fee as well as the admission fee that Parker school charges which will put my tuition up to almost $3000.

Now I may not need 10 lessons but I sure as hell want more than 4. The min I will take is 8 lessons if I was to even go this route.

I still need to talk with NETTTs and Nationwide Technologies to see if they will offer a discount or maybe charge half price for already having you CDL Permit.

Oh and just if anyone is interested about the trucks they have at Coke, Most of the Trucks are single Axel with either a 7 speed Manual transmission, or automatic. A few of the older trucks are Double with I think a high gear transmission. Those drivers with lower senority usually get stuck driving those as they aren't very desirable for local deliveries.

I was wondering if anyone by any chance has any experience with these schools or went about getting their CDL with already having obtained their permit?