Profile For ThePsychotics

Yes, the contract is very valid. My husband and I finished from their school not too long ago. However, we did travel to another company after some very nasty and not nice words were passed between myself and my driver advocate when they tried to force me onto a truck with a trainer when I was severely under the weather and not fit to drive. They threatened termination if I did not get on the truck and I did not. Luckily, J and I were able to find a company that liked us enough to give us a chance and train us as well as offer to help pay Celadon back. We are waiting for a call to try and work out a payment plan.

That being said, the school is very good. They know your strengths and weaknesses and help you improve on both. They do try to help out as much as possible but because of several students prior there will be changes. Hopefully Celadon's employees can be better mannered and more civil so no one has a situation like me on the company side.

-E

Another week has flown by, and I have some time to write up about the past week.

Monday was J's chance to retake his general knowledge test, and he passed with flying colors. (Not without freaking out all weekend and using several resources to try practice tests online and memorized the CDL handbook!) He joined our class on the range about mid morning and we quickly set to learning and perfecting straight backs. During one of J's straight backs, our instructor hopped on the side and had him start what would be my week of hell: parallels.

I have never been able to parallel, so much so I would avoid it at all possible, or take fifteen minutes trying to do so in a four wheeler. However, our instructor is one of the most patient and helpful people. Despite having to teach nine people how to do it, he stood on the driver side and walked me through it every day. Even still, I struggled a lot with this concept, even getting so frustrated that I would pull the brakes and storm out of the truck and declare I was never going to get it and I was just crap. However, the friends I have made dragged my screaming butt back in the driver seat and gave me tip after tip. Even the instructor kept saying I was improving little by little. But I couldn't see it.

Our instructor talked to J about my hang up and it was later when I discovered were my fault lay. I was able to grasp the concept and theory of how to do it, but in practice was having issues. But the reason why was simple: I wanted it to be perfect. Perfect distance on either side. Perfect turns. No pull ups. The instructor looked at J and said a simple sentence that I finally figured out Friday. "This is the first week, it doesn't need to be perfect, and I certainly am not expecting perfection."

I was so obsessed with it being perfect I would totally reset when I made a mistake rather than just go through the motions of it. I finally came to the agreement in my mind that I have three more weeks until I test. Three weeks to perfect it. So I made myself a goal every week. This past week was to get it in the box. Even if I was crooked and looked like a lightning bolt, as long as I was in - I was good. with that in mind, several students showed me their way and I was able to get it in the box semi straight. After three times of it, I got out and let myself relax. J was able to get parallels quite easily, and has helped me every day to calm down and remind me of my goals. Next week will be to get the trailer in straight - even if it's off center.

Over the week, we have lost 4 students - two from our class, and two girls that have been here a bit. We also had two of the road trucks go in the shop, so our road time has been cut for now, tough we were able to get on the road for a day and learn to shift up to tenth gear. But we have three weeks and will be ready to take our tests at the DPS. Next week is a new week with new students coming in.

-E

Hellos everyone, E here to post about our lovely time at Celadon's driving school. J and I have completed our first week here and wanted to be able to write out our journey's beginning.

We arrived here last Sunday (April 12th) off of the greyhound bus and were able to check in to our room without much issues. (we had called ahead to make sure we got a room together.) Monday was filled with going over the school's contract and loading up to head over to get our DOT physical done. While the waiting is terrible, the actual physical isn't long. I will say, if you have any medication, please make sure you have records for it and a letter from your primary doctor clearing you to drive. Both J and I are not on anything, but there was one or two people who were stopped by this.

After that, Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning were spent going over the first two permit tests we would take Tuesday afternoon. It s very important and helpful to study for these, which are sections 6 (Combination vehicles) and sections 14 (Special Requirements) in the Texas handbook. It will be gone over very quickly in class, and having it already in your head will do wonders if you can't cram quickly. You can take your tests prior to coming to Celadon if you like, but it is not a necessity and they will pay for your tests here.

Wednesday and Thursday are spent going over the handbook for the last three sections of the written exams. (Section 2 [General knowledge, pre-trip] and 5 [Air brakes]) You will be tested Friday for these, so also study tat if you are unable to process information quickly. I passed all of my tests (by the skin of my teeth on the pre-trip!) and J had issues with the computers and got booted so he 'failed' his general knowledge test but will be retaking it Monday. Despite the hiccup at the DPS, J was still able to join us on the range Friday afternoon due to him acing all the pre-tests given by our instructor. We started learning straight backing and successfully avoided hitting anything, or running over people and relatively managed to keep the trailer straight.

J did stall the truck one time as he had never handled a standard before, but quickly got the hang of it. I have my road test scheduled for May 14th and right now I am terrified but know with practice I will pass it with ease.

P.S.

You will take pictures every time you go into the DPS. And you will surrender your current DL to receive a paper permit. Also, you can elect to have your Medical card laminated for 3$ at the DOT office or you can head out to Walmart and by a pack of 5 self laminating strips for 2.44$. J and I did this and tested it on a piece of paper and found it to be just as stable as the office one for a lot cheaper. Also, to reiterate everyone else here. The tests here help so very much, please use the free resources at your fingertips!

-E

All company training schools will make you pay them back in some form. Some do take from your paycheck, with the bonus of a reimbursement plan if you stay driving for them for a certain set of years. Others, such as Celadon that my fiance and I are about to attend, will have you drive at a lower rate for a set amount of time. Celadon has two options for teams though, .30CPM for 120000 miles and then you have paid them back and get bumped up to their base .42 CPM.

As for companies, all will have good and bad, but you will have to put in your time for the first year at least to get experience behind the wheel and learn what you need to. Every company that takes new people have people saying both good and bad things about them. Swift, Prime, and Celadon were all companies J and I were looking into before we settled on Celadon for the close area to our home. We were told both good and bad things about the companies and how the drivers are "trained terrible and pay is BS". But these are starter companies and have to deal with the blow that comes from taking on new recruits that don't understand driving, or pass everything and then turn their brains off and slack off.

We also chose Celadon because of what is on the trucks. They have both APUs and inverters, which allows us comfort without wasting too much gas if we had to idle. This was important mostly to me because my body does not handle extreme cold or heat very well and being able to regulate the cab temp without wasting gas. It all depends on what you want to have. This will be your home, so make sure you have what comforts you need.

Glad to see things are looking up for you Pepper. My fiance and I just got accepted to the school in Laredo and will be attending starting April 13th. I do have question though, for you or anyone:

Do you go OTR for CDL training, or is it all on site? Just curious to know how much cash to bring on hand to the school. I know we have the 10km company training wit a trainer and then we will be able to team together.

Well, J was a computer tech that also did field work for a city utility company, and I have done massage therapy for a few years. We decided to give trucking a try because we aren't happy were we are and have long since looked into being truckers. Plus, the toll of doing several massages a day to make decent money for three years was starting to show in my wrists. Thankfully since stopping six months ago and moving out to Texas, I only have pain issues if it gets really cold or I twist them in a bad way. We are 22 (J) and 23, no rent, no children (just one attention hungry rescue kitten), and no giant debt or need to be around family. Most of our friends have already moved away or joined in the military so we already are used to catching up on Skype and texts, so no standing obligations to keep us in one place.

-E

That is what we told them. But they are too spooked so now we don't have work history. It seems we might be at the end of our journey before we even started.

Well it seems to have failed. Not because of Prime, but because the previous employer was scared to sign anything. They thought that it would lead to the IRS. We explained but they would not listen, so we are out of options. -J

Okay, another update. Sorry about the pestering posts and such also. Our recruiter finally told us today that they emailed E's previous employer with something to fill out and sign and send back, kind of like a the fax James' friend received. She said that if they send that back, it may work. We will keep you informed. -J

Our recruiter seems to not know of any other verifiable ways, however this may be because she is set in what may have been policy before since she has been there a while. We got E's old boss on the line and got some clearer answers about what happened on the phone. Apparently the verifyer had asked about sending a paper over for them to sign saying I did work for them and the manager got spooked thinking it would be reported to the IRS. After talking about it to the second recruiter we were informed it was more of a precaution based on 9/11 so that the DOT can see where we were. E has to call back in a bit to get more details but we hopefully will be able to get out work history cleared up to go onto the next step.

We are currently trying to get a manager on the line from Prime to see what exactly needs to be done before E calls her old boss back and explains everything again.