Profile For toonces

I too had many drunken 2am breakfasts at Waffle House. It will always hold a special place in my heart.

plus the Waffle House.

Haha! Yes, you definitely want to choose a state to live in that has a Waffle house nearby your domicile.

When i moved to Florida from Minnesota, i had to see what what is so great about waffle house. Maybe it was just the location i went to but I was not impressed at all.

Waffle House is best at 2am after an evening of drunken debauchery!! Nothing like grease and starch to settle a stomach upset from alcohol.

I feel your pain. I recently passed my cdl test after failing 3 times because I timed out on the alley dock every time. I was the same as you. My setup and approach were fine, then I got totally lost. The instructors worked with me and would tell me the same thing Errol said, that the trailer takes 8-10 feet to react, but I was just wasn't getting it. I had to wait 30 days to re-test and when I got back to school I got my own truck to practice in. This is when I finally figured out the alley dock.

When I was sharing a truck, I would always let my partner re-position the truck for a setup after a backing maneuver. I didn't realize it at the time but this handicapped me. It caused me to not have a good feel for how I could control the trailer and how/when it would react to my streering adjustments. When I was on my own and had to do all of my own re-positioning, I started getting a feel for how the truck would react.

Suddenly, I could do the alley dock. And it was all because of my practice re-positioning after *other* backing maneuvers.

I don't know what your training setup is, but if possible, maybe practice backing around cones or into lanes from different angles? It's frustrating at first but it causes you to get a feel for the way the trailer handles. Once you get a good feel, then you'll know how to work the trailer into an alley dock.

For specific tips, here are some things that helped me. Stop every couple of feet and picture where the trailer needs to go and which way you need to turn to get it there. If you get it close but you're too much to the left or too much to the right, stop and think about what that means. You either didn't wait long enough or too long before starting your turn. Also, make small adjustments. A little left, a little right, usually gets it in there.

I hope this helps. I really do understand your frustration.

I think my real issue with the pre-trip is that she never does one and I think that says something about how concerned she is with safety.

And I'm not a confrontational person, that's why I'm so conflicted over this. I want to be respectful of her; she is the one with experience. But I also want to be safe and follow what I've been taught. It's very stressful having these 2 things pulling me in opposite directions.

Like I said, I'm going to do what feels safe to me on following distance, obeying posted signs , etc. And if she gets mad I think I will use the excuse "just trying to be safe because I will be the one getting the ticket". Hopefully this won't cause too much friction. I'll let you guys know.

Paul, Crete does 8 week training with the trainer in the passenger seat the first 4 weeks.

And thank you everyone for your advice. It's so nice to have varied points of view. And somewhere to vent!

Yes I learned how to do a pretrip. But there are things they use that I'm not familiar with, like the self-inflating tires and other things, that would be good if someone just went over once with me. I can live with that though, it's the driving things that bother me. Yesterday when someone crossed into my Iane in front of me, I began to decrease speed to 55 to increase following distance. She freaked out and said 150 ft was a safe following distance for the interstate. I told her that wasn't what I learned in school or Crete orientation and she said she didn't remember hearing that. And she told me to ignore the signs that say Engine Brake Prohibited.

I'm going to try following Brett's advice and drive the way I'm comfortable even when she tells me to do something else. I'll see how that goes.

I've been trying to stick it out but I think I might be missing a lot by staying with her.

There are safety issues I think. We've been driving since Friday and today was the first time we've done a pretrip and it was only because I asked. Last night she told me to be ready at 6:15 this morning and I was. 6:45 comes and she's still in bed but awake. I say "I'm ready when you are" and she tells me I can go ahead and do the pretrip. I said I haven't done one on a Crete truck yet and would like to have a trainer show me at least the first time. She said "Yes you have. You know when we went around and thumped the tires, that was your pretrip." Well we only did that once and that was all we did in the way of a pretrip. She told me I could do a more in - depth pretrip on my own if I wanted. I again said, I would like you to show me at least the first time, I don't feel comfortable doing it by myself. So she did one but was really condescending and kept asking "Do you feel safe now? Are you comfortable now?" I asked about what to check on the self-inflating tires on the trailer since I have never seen those, and she said "Nothing. Breakdown doesn't even know anything about those" And we didn't do an air brakes test or check the the tire depth or tractor lights. She keeps giving me a hard time when I slow down around curves and when someone comes in front of me to increase me following distance. It's only my 4th day of driving in training, of course I'm going slow! And there are things she tells me to do that I think are DOT violations but I can't be sure because when I ask her she just says "only if a DOT official is around" or "just don't get caught". Like going off-duty at a shipper, after 30 minutes, is that ok if we're still driving around? Or going off-duty at a truck stop but driving, is that ok? I could look this stuff up in my school textbook but I left it at home to save space. And she blew her air horn at a guy because he cut her off.

And there are other things like she pees outside behind the truck at truck stops because she doesn't want to walk "all the way inside". And she told me I'm going to have to get used to peeing outside so we don't have to stop much. I told her I really don't feel comfortable with that. And she told me I was hurting her feelings because I wasn't talking to her enough while I was driving. I told her I was trying to concentrate and she just said "well you're always going to have distractions." And she keeps asking my opinion on really I inappropriate things like politics and homosexuality. This stuff I can deal with but not the safety things.

Am I overreacting? I know the advice on her is almost always to try to stick it out. What should I do? Should I just stick it out and hope I can figure some stuff out on my own?

I agree. We've all made mistakes, it's just that some of us didn't get caught. 6 string, I'm just curious, do you think he could get hired if the charge were reduced to reckless driving and he pleaded guilty to that instead? I have a friend who got a dui and did that with a lawyer. Because of the nature of her job, she couldn't have any alcohol-related offenses on her record. Granted it wasn't a driving job. Cost her about 12 grand though.

I stand by my comment. Drinking and driving the day before starting Truck Driving School, in my opinoin, and I'm sure many others, exhibits poor judgement. Particularly when you are aware of the dire consequences to your chosen career.

Again, that's stating the obvious, like I said. I think your sentiment would be everybody's opinion, and it's not even an opinion, it's an obvious example of poor judgement, i.e. it's a fact. What I'm suggesting to you is that making such a statement isn't helpful or constructive. People can mistakes, accept responsibility, and move on.

Shaffer

I just went through orientation with Crete/Shaffer in Wilmer, TX last week. I'm on my third day of the 8-week training.

Most of the people in my orientation class were experienced. The only ones that had to do the full 8 weeks were me and another girl that were both fresh Cdl school graduates. The others had to do only 4 weeks of training.

Even with the training though, it's still great pay, like the others mentioned. My trainer seems a little nuts but overall it seems like a good company.

Glad to hear you're doing well Flatie!

Day 3, Wednesday: Today we were officially hired! We got our employee ID numbers and signed more documents. The instructor talked about fuel stops, load assignments, trip info, hazmat, breakdowns, Qualcomm and tolls. Fried chicken was brought in for lunch. Another Denny's gift card for dinner.

I was given my trainer's phone number so I called her to see when she would be coming to the terminal. She said she'll be getting here Friday morning. She seemed nice but a couple of people kind of made a face when I told them who my trainer was, and that scared me a little. My instructor said she's very "direct". I just hope she's a good driver and a good teacher.

The trainer told me to make sure to have a blanket because she's going through menopause and will probably freeze me out, lol. So another girl from class gave me a ride to TJ Maxx and I bought a nice, thick blanket.