Profile For BassPlaya

You picked a great company to work for. Things will smooth out with experience, youll figure out the tricks. Always try to sleep at shipper for apt if possible, though sounds like you are running multiple stops throughout the day, also, Rest Areas are your friend!! Lots of craziness at truckstops at night, with everyone trying to find a place to park. Get in early if possible. Good, blog too.. safe travels

As I am sitting here at the Loves watching people park for the night, I am actually amazed we don't hit more stuff. Nearly everyone misses each other by inches. Every single trailer rear corner is missing a truck's mirror by no more than 4 or 5 inches. Kinda scary and yet amazing. I know that they all are not rookies like me. Earlier 2 people parking at an angle across from each other appeared to have both trucks dancing to each other. As they both mirrored each other getting into their respective slots.

Sorry, sometimes it is the little things that get me.

Bradford Union Tech College Starke,Fl

Which school? Where at?

Rick

Something that helped me was, with my initial setup having the end of my trailer lined up with the entrance to the parallel, turn wheel 1/2 a turn, (doesnt seem like enough, i know), as you start turning, keep an eye on your trailer landing gear! When you are nearing the 1/2 way point on your landing gear ( youll be watching for this in your mirrors, blindside will be in your small convex mirror, harder to see but concentrate on it) your trailer tandems should be crossing the line. Straighten up, and back in slowly, as your trailer tandems reach midway in the box, countersteer all the way back, once your tractor tandems reach almost 1/2 way in the box, countersteer quickly in opposite direction. Then just slowly walk it all in. I know this may sound complicated but if you set your reference points that should help a lot. Good luck, and while doing these practices remember the path your tires are making. Another thing that may help is once the tractor trailer is in the parallel box , pull it out and see observe how your turning to get it out. Its just theopposite to backing in then. Also , your offsets are basically the same paths as parallel, you just have more room to manuever. You always want to have tractor-trailer straight and see both cones to the entrances in your mirrors, then its basically a straight line back with a little angle in it. Wow, im sure ive made this sound hard, but its not, just keep track of what ur doing and correct it. Good luck :)

Awesome Chickie!!! Glad you are finally on the road, enjoy the drive and Be Safe!!!

Congrats on your exams!! Yep, High Road is awesome and TT has helped me more than anything else. Tons of excellent information, and will put you ahead of others. Good Luck on your journey!

Well, I studied for about two weeks primarily with TruckingTruth.com. I made it through the entire High Road course (up to the log book section) in a week and averaged a score of 94%.

This program utilizes a very effective memorization technique known as stacking. You memorize the general knowledge section and then go on to the next section. While memorizing the second section you're taking quizzes on the previous section along with quizzes on the new section, thus stacking new information you're memorizing onto information you've already memorized. Before you know it, you come to the end of the course and have memorized all the information for general knowledge and all endorsements.

I passed general knowledge and hazmat, combination, doubles and triples, and tanker endorsements on my first take of these tests, with a screaming toddler in the room (I already have air brake, passenger, and school bus).

The one DMV employee said to me, "You've been studying, haven't you?" I said yes. He said, "Yes, I can tell."

I say all this to make a point. TruckingTruth has comment after comment listed on this site from people who have used the High Road CDL program proclaiming how effective the course is and that they, too, got high test scores and have heard comments just like I heard at the DMV that day. The High Road is very effective, and it's absolutely true as listed about this program. I highly recommend it.

Well just a quick update, Week 4 has come to an end. Its going by very quickly, and having a great time. Passed my pretrip exam last week, only missed a couple of thing (fire extinguisher (DUH!!), checking my ABS light on trailer, and windshield wipers for dry rot or torn blades) but overall pretty happy with it. Got lots of backing practice in, and took my backing exam and aced it. 0 points!! Was very happy with that and was gonna treat myself to some Chinese dinner, but was too tired to go get it , and just wanted to relax and enjoy being done with it. LOL Only have a road test still, and I scheduled that for next week. 4 weeks left in school, and I will use that time to continue backing, coupling, and finish logging my 1000 miles driving. This school is awesome, the instructors are great on how they teach. Reading tons of these forums on TT prior to starting school has made a huge difference for me, and wish more people would use it as well. Ive told several classmates how awesome this site is, so hopefully they'll use it too. I cant tell you what an advantage it gives you, well maybe I just did :) Thanks TT!!!

Thanks Chickie, Ill let you know what happens for sure. TA is processing my app, all should be fine, I have a few other apps out there as well, and after months of researching companies, its come down to a handful. I do like the equipment TA has, others may not be able to match that, but offer other pros, however I would definitely work for TA if available. I,ve heard all the negatives about TA , but feel if you do your job, and be honest with them, things should be fine. I tend to not get caught up in all the bs , and just make things work to my advantage. Fortunately I can deal with the pay they offer, and hope to prove myself to them, and gain the experience I need. Who knows, maybe could stay awhile, not into the job hopping thing. As far as school, I aced my backing exam last week, was very happy about that, and have already gotten 200 of my 1000 road miles I need. 3 of us are well ahead of everyone else ( that's because weve been serious about it, and not leaving school early etc...) 4 weeks left till graduation, could prolly finish in 2, but I will stay and use that time to continue backing. So, my question is, coming in w a cdl already, what kinda training, driving are they going to look at before we go out w a trainer? I'm hoping they really care, like you say they do. Awesome job on all your training, it feels great overcoming all these tests and such. So much to absorb:) Love your blog, keep us posted please, and be safe out there, and good luck w ur trainer, hope all goes well. TY

Hi Bass! Great to hear I will have a TA buddy now! If you are coming to Kansas, give me a shout when you are gonna be at the terminal for orientation and such and if I'm around I'll come say hi!

In spite of the struggles I had, I think TA is a good starter company. Their trucks are amazing! The automatics rock! The trainers I have met truly want their students to succeed and put alot of effort into the short time they have with them.

Be warned though: they will push the lease hard! The best advice I can give is to just say you are gonna be a company driver and don't get sucked into it. We lost all but two of our class to the lease program.

Hopefully your class won't be as big as ours. 12! But be ready to stand around outside. It's very windy in Kansas and sunny so bring sunscreen and Chapstick. Also, save up a little cash because you provide dinner. But there are plenty of options within walking distance of the hotel.

Let me know how everything goes for you! Good luck in school! Your program sounds awesome by the way.

Really enjoy your posts here, hope everything works out well with your training, as these are very exciting times. I'm currently in cdl school and will finish up at the beginning of May. Passed PTI last week, and am scheduled for my backing tests this Tuesday. Should go well, as we get tons of practice in, basically we get to practice all day long. I'm in a local college cdl program, 8 students, 6 trucks, so yea, ALL DAY backing up!!! I was actually worn out at the end of the day , made me wonder how driving forward all day will be like? LOL I've already talked with and applied to TA and am looking forward to driving for them in May. Keep up the great posts, and info THX safe travels....

MO is the cheapest place in the country to buy smokes lol. If you go thru there often stock up especially if your heading to ny or Wisconsin. I about had a heart attack paying 7 bucks for a pack of pall malls in Wisconsin lol. Good to hear how well things are working out for you.

I live in mo so I only pay about 3 bucks for pall malls. I nearly died paying over 5 for them in Kansas!

5 is about average for a pack of pall malls. Wi and ny are about 7 so yeah stock up on home time. I always buy at least 1 carton on my way thru mo

I am quitting when I get on my trainers truck. I've been saying I was going to quit for two years so now I'm going to push myself to do it. Don't know how well it's gonna work out but I'm definitely gonna try!

Oh, maybe aiming points is the term I was looking for. I think I'm getting the hang of the concept. I needed almost no instructor prompting by the end of the day. And I keep forgetting I get 2 pull ups and not to be afraid to use them. It's coming along.

Im also in cdl class working on backing, with offset they showed us to start with one full turn of the wheel (opposite direction of where u want ur trailer to go of course) and watch your landing gear on your trailer. When your tractor tandems are aligned with the center of ur landing gear u turn in the oposite direction till ur tractor trailer are straight (alligned with each other) you will be at an angle to where u wanna back into, but its basically a straightline back up from there. They had yellow tape on the center crossbar on our landing gear so that helped us to see it. Anticipate your turning as u start getting close to the center of ur landing gear. Without a refernce point like that ,your kinda guessing when to turn. Hope this helps , of course practice makes perfect, and it helped me immensley. Also works great on ur blindside offset, but youll have to look hard in your little convex mirror on passenger side to see landing gear,, everything else is hidden. Its a bit challenging , and this was on a 53 van trailer so i hope this helps u out. Good luck, its a great feeling to be passing these test, and with ur pretrip test, just go slow and talk about every part u see , cuz basically theyre having us know everypart , seems overwhelming, but just go step by stepp. I was tested yesterday and passed, missed a few things like the big red object with the white label on it at ur seat inside. Yea, the extinguisher, i looked at it as i was getting inside to do my in cab, but cuz i only was tested on coupling and my trailer, i just looked at it and thought, no, thats part of the front of the truck. Lol. So yea, go slow and talk about everything. This wound up being much longer post than i expected:) Good Luck!!!!