Profile For James S.

Is any one here familiar with “hiking” jobs?

The local Penske is hiring part time hikers to move trucks in between locations. 0-25hrs a week.

@21 an hr I think. Mostly box trucks but also tractor trailers.

If you deliver a truck somewhere are you on your own to get back or do they arrange that? I may be giving them a call tomorrow.

I am laid off for the winter and considering other work. Also looking into local roll off jobs.

Went to the SOS and passed the hazmat, doubles and tanker today. Also received the paper cdl. 3 weeks for normal card to come in the mail.

So I am all done with that. Now its time to figure out employment.

I was cruising through the pre trip with no issues when we came to the trailer suspension....I saw the shock absorber and suddenly didn’t remember mentioning it on the front suspension. So I said something like” i forgot to mention the shock absorber on the front suspension and I would have inspected that as I am doing here”. Turns out i totally skipped the front suspension but because I went over all the other suspension properly and said I would check the front in a similar mannner, it was good enough that it didn’t fail me. I am sure I lost some points there.

The maneuvers all went well. 1 pull up on both offset and alley dock just to be safe, it look good but I didn’t want to chance it when I could pull up once to be sure and not cross a line.

Road test went well enough. I asked for his critique afterwards and he said I need to check intersections better and that I missed a gear when accelerating after a turn onto a busy road. I rushed the shifting again there and somehow didn’t get 8th so I grabbed 7th and proceeded from there.

2 hours and 15 minutes for the entire test, including paperwork at the start and waiting on the sand truck to cover the ice before the backing tests.(the lot was packed snow with a layer of ice)

Happy to have that part finished. Now I will study for the hazmat and take that along with doubles and tanker when I turn in the paperwork to the SOS.

I have a couple of days left at the school and they said I could use the simulator to practice on 13 and 18 speeds, that should be fun.

Passed the test this morning. I did make a couple of mistakes, still passed. So that's nice. I am in a trip planning class this afternoon so I will update later.

A couple of hours of driving today. So far I am doing well but when I rush my self pulling out onto a busy road I rush the shifting and rev to high. Causing problems. I am always able to recover but its something I need to work on.

We also discussed logs books and electronic logs in class. After that we went back out on the range where I did well enough but not as good as the last couple of days.

They have decided I am ready to test so tomorrow at 10 am I will be testing. Ill take an hour in the morning to go over the Pretoria on the truck and trailer I will be using as they are all different. I am a little nerved up but after a good night sleep and a decent breakfast it should go well.

Ill take your advice and make a point not to relax in a casual manner. As I get more road time I hope to be able to spend less time thinking about individual actions and more time observing the overall situation. Each day gets a little better.

Today I drove for a couple of hours and it went well. Driving in town there was a lot traffic, maybe shift change at the factories. The instructor recommended I call out every intersection to ensure the tester knows I am checking them. Also says i should read significant road signs out loud such as speed limits and school zones. I did make a couple of mistakes, one was stopping before turning at a flashing yellow. I didn’t really see what I needed to do to make that sharp turn soon enough to just drive around it in that traffic so I stopped and shifted into 3rd then made the turn. It went well but he said I should have stayed in 5th for the turn. We also had one of those” slow down, slow down....SLOW DOWN!” Moments coming up on a round about. It went fine but with the snow and ice he just wanted me to idle through it.

After the pretest, maneuvers and driving I was told I would have passed the test and they are going to schedule me to test next week. I spent the rest of the day on the alley dock and offset backing, made it every time and that was nice. Not a bad end to the second week

Today we spent the morning on regulations and then some backing videos. After that, off to the simulator to practice the in cab.

In the afternoon we drove through town and dopwn the highway a ways then back on the side roads. The driving went well though when I am pulling out on to a busy road I tend to rush and rev the engine to high before shifting. Otherwise shifting is going well. i do recall that on the simulator I get a little out of sorts with the in cab inspection as there are no wipers so I don’t seem them and think to mention them. Also the visual of the air brakes knobs is a little weird and I tend to hit them a couple times to see if they are engaged or not as it doesnt have the same feel as the truck. When we got back we worked on the alley dock and i got it 3 times in a row so I was happy with that. The last time i did pull up 3 times but I made it.

I feel that i will be close to passing all the minimum standards by the end of next week though I am definatly not confident driving without the instructor yet, I have only been on the road twice and I need a bit more road time to help relax and have less tunnel vision while driving.

Spent the morning reviewing the CFR’s, SMS and general regulatory information.

The weather was freezing rain on snow again and the lot was ice so they put the trucks inside for the day and we reviewed pre trip inspections.

I also spent some time on the simulator focusing on roll over prevention.

Is any one here familiar with NTB (Nationwide truck brokers)? For what I hear it is a good company and they are offering regional work with 48hrs home each week. I looked them up on the FMCSA site and there numbers are good.

The first time I took a **** test I didn’t know it was coming and must have been dehydrated. I sat in that office for an hour and drank 11 cups of water before I could take care of business. The next test I knew about, so I drank an entire pot of tea prior and the test came back as possibly diluted(retested the next day with an observer). So now I just try not to be dehydrated and drink a normal amount. No problems for 25 years.

Day 4 wen well n the morning. Started with the alley dock and tried something i saw on YouTube. Didn’t help at all for me. Went back to what I had been doing and I am at about 90% right now. Another week and I should be solid with that.

For the afternoon we went out on the road. Riding in the back while someone else learned to drive was the scariest thing I have done in a long time. I ended up wedging myself in the sleeper and holding on to a strap. Once in the seat it, the first thing I did was kill the engine as the other guy had left it on the range selector up. I had never used the range selector and it didn’t occur to me to check. After that shifting went well and the entire drive was fairly easy. I realized I didn’t know the truck well enough to remember where the windshield wash was and I didn’t want to take focus away from the road. I was pretty well “task saturated” as they say in the army. There are 5 different trucks and I hadnt gone through the Pretoria on this one, the other driver had while I was out doing maneuvers.

As this school is 32 miles from home I am able to go home every night and now have the week end off. This is the primary reason I chose this school. So far it is working out well.