Profile For Lil Triscuit

Good Evening,

I completed my BMV examinations today. I was given an awesome examiner. I did a blind-side offset backing and a blind-side parallel. I passed with just one point left before I failed backing. Yikes.

During my road test, we got put in some pretty bad situations, two to be exact, where he had to instruct me on what to do because they were so bad and one was flat-out dangerous (a 4-wheeler cut us off in an intersection, stalled, and we had to sit in the intersection for around 1 minute while he fixed the issue).

It is with great pleasure that I announce that I passed and am considered a "CDL ACE" at this school. In other words, Tri-Fecta!

I spoke with Dana, at Swift, and I am going to be going home, tomorrow, and it will take 5-7 days for Virginia to get my information and then I get my CDL. Once I have my temporary permit, I call my new recruiter (mine is no longer around) and he schedules me for orientation in Richmond, VA (since it is so close to my house).

I will be doing two days of orientation and then out on the road with a trainer. Since I am on the Kraft East contract, they are going to try to get me a trainer who is on that contract but I am expecting an OTR trainer and that is okay, I am curious to see what that OTR life is like.

I will give you all an update once I have my CDL temporary permit in my hand and I am on my way (or at) Swift Orientation in Richmond, VA.

Take care and safe travels!

Good Afternoon,

Yesterday I completed the school's road skills test and backing skills test and passed both of them.

Today I spent some time on the road as well as some time on the range, just touching some fine skills.

Tomorrow is my BMV test day! It is me and one other student, from my class. My test is at 0930 but I have to be there at 0900. I was told that, once I pass, tomorrow, I will be leaving and headed to my next destination (no clue where that may be).

Happy Tuesday!

Yesterday morning was time on the road. I spend four (4) hours on the road, one of which I drove, the other three was spent watching other students drive. My instructor said I was doing very good. We took lunch and then I spent four hours on the range, again, one of which I was doing my straight-line, off-set, and parallel park and the other three were spent watching other students. We did our same-side for the maneuvers.

Today morning was, again, time on the road. I spent four hours in the truck, one with me driving, and the other three with others driving. My instructor is testing me tomorrow to see if I am ready for state. I was told that we were taken on all of the BMV test routes which is great to know. We took lunch and then I spent four hours on the range. I did my blind-side maneuvers for an hour and my range instructor said he thinks I will be testing out, at state, this week or next.

I will update you as to my progress.

Cannot wait to see what things you are going to experience, just three weeks behind me! Good luck and have fun! Study, study, study.

Hello Everybody,

I wanted to update you as to what has been going on around the school. Things are moving quickly, now.

Yesterday was a day spent mostly just hanging out in the classroom. We have a BMV examiner come in at 0900 and talk to us for about 1.5 hours about what to expect and how to excel during your state test. The state tests are taken on the same grounds as the school and they are administered by ProSafe.

A few things to know about the BMV examiners: 1). They don't work for Swift or C1. 2). They examine based on the federal standards, not based on the C1 standards. 3). They know what they're doing and what they're talking about. 4). They can't engage in conversation during any test, they can merely give instructions. 5). They can't help you with anything.

The rest of the day was spent waiting to take our C1 pre-trip examination (which included the 4-point brake test). We only had 6 students (out of about 15) pass both the pre-trip and 4-point, including me. I walked a fine line; however, on my pre-trip test. If I had a few more mistakes, I would've failed. It was mostly either being too specific (saying cut instead of damaged, etc) or not being specific enough (saying damaged instead of cut, etc). I am going to spend each day going back over the sheet just to get the specific little words figured out.

Those of us, who passed our pre-trip, were moved to the final classroom, where we will stay until we graduate from C1. Those who failed remained in the other classroom, along with the new class that started Monday.

The instructor, I had, told me that they're hoping to get me out of this class by the end of this upcoming week, which means that my goals and the school's goals align quite nicely.

Good Evening,

Yesterday we spent the day looking at our classroom tables and going over pre-trip. Brad came in, at 0650, and said he was DOT and was going to inspect our logbooks, since we have to keep log of each and every day, since last Friday. He gave me 100%, on my logbook, but it was a complete and utter surprise how many people did not follow the simple instructions to keep their log and we had one student who didn't even keep log, at all.

I spoke with the lead instructor, Keith, yesterday, and he told me and a fellow classmate that he wanted us to be in the trucks this week but the school director overrode him and said we cannot get into a truck until next week but we will test out on Pre-Trip on Friday. It was rather downing but we kept our heads up.

A buddy, I made at school, fell in the shower last night (at my hotel) and ended up going to the ER and got 28 stitches. He was a trooper and made it in, today, but he did not do anything except sit in the classroom trying not to send his pain into a spiral. When we got back to the hotel, the hotel staff made him do some paperwork (for insurance) and then they moved him (cause he broke the shower). They moved him completely across the hotel, the room farthest from the elevator on the 2nd floor. Poor guy. :(

Today they did roll call at 0650 and at 0700 myself and another student got called out, with Eric, to do our backing practice. I went second and did the straight line backing, off-set and parallel (left). Eric said that you are given three (3) lessons, lesson one being where they hold your hand and walk you through the entire thing, lesson two being where they kind of let you figure it out but help you, and lesson three where you are on your own and they intentionally give you false information to seal your confidence on what you know. Eric said tomorrow was going to be my third day and he is confident that I'll pass the backing, for BMV, on the first shot.

After lunch, I was called, by Travis, with three other students (from my class) to go out on the road. I went third. The two, before me, did not have experience driving anything of this size but they did very well, they should be happy with where they sit driving a truck, like this, for the first time. One of them did their 4-point brake check and did a great job, he just missed some verbiage. Since I have driven truck, before, Travis was pretty lax with me and just gave me some direction and pointers and tips. I also did my 4-point brake check but messed it up because I put my service brake on, first, before letting out my tractor and trailer valves... Travis said he would like a solo hour, with me, to work on gear recovery and a few other things (I missed very few gears and I like to stop closer than 20-feet to other vehicles).

Tomorrow is our pre-trip test. I am ready but I am going to go over it, once more, in the morning and then I will go ahead and take the test. I am very excited that things are rolling now.

On a side note, MrTechit and I have connected, via phone, and he will be starting next week. He is coming in this weekend and we may get lucky and be roomed together (since I don't have a roomie).

If you feel like meeting up, and I am still here, feel free to send me an email. I'll give you my phone number through email, I don't wanna have it publicly shared (by accident). I already get enough phone calls from people I don't know. Haha.

alexhandsaker@gmail.com

I spoke incorrectly and want to correct the record. I have been told that the way they handle the use of automated manual transmissions is that you can choose to test out, at BMV, with an auto, but they warn you heavily of the restrictions. They want you to try, twice, at BMV first, and if you continue to struggle, and the struggle is shifting, then they will have you use the auto.

They are still going to teach you, both on the range and on the road, with the manual but they also let you use the auto if that is the truck the instructor has for the day or if they really need to focus on one thing, such as making turns, and don't want to interfere that focus with the need of shifting.

That is what I was told by an instructor and a student, both, yesterday, so I wanted to clarify.

Sorry for giving incorrect information. I will do better to make sure it is gospel before I run my mouth. :)

Evening!

Here's what's been going on.

I spent the weekend in the hotel, since I am here without a vehicle and there's not really too much around here without having to risk getting hurt. I ordered Domino's delivery on Friday and then just studied and relaxed over the weekend. Still no roommate, I was SURE they would give me one but they didn't... maybe I will be lucky and get MrTechit this weekend, who knows.

Yesterday (Monday) class started at 0645. They took roll call and then told us that if nobody calls us by 0715, to drive or do range, then we need to do our own study until lunch and then take lunch at 1100. Nobody out of our class got called so we all worked on pre-trip and watched the other folks do their backing maneuvers. We took lunch at 1100 and returned at 1200. They took roll call, again, and told us that if nobody calls us by 1215, then we need to do our own study until 1600 and then return to the classroom to be dismissed. Nobody out of our class got called, again, so we did more pre-trip and watching other folks.

Today class started at 0645. They took roll call and told us to work on pre-trip all day. I had five separate people test me on the pre-trip and I passed with no less than 95%. We took lunch at 1100 and had roll call at 1200. The instructors were in a meeting from 1200 until 1300 so we too the opportunity to do our 4-point brake test because you're not allowed to start a truck without an instructor unless it's during one of the instructor breaks or during that meeting. We worked on pre-trip for a while, again, and watched other people do backing.

I have to say there is an awful lot of sitting around happening from my class. It's not because we are lazy, it's because we have all tested each other on the pre-trip and we can all pass it both at the state level and the C1 level. The school is graduating people about 4 to 6 weeks, right now but Swift is still telling us it should be about 2 to 3 weeks. We have lost four students (one failed his UA and the others just never showed).

Hopefully tomorrow leads to some drive time and some range time! I know they are training to get the people ahead of us out the door and the instructors are doing their absolute best with what they are given.

I am pushing to get out of here by the end of this week or the beginning of next week, we will see what happens!

Good Evening,

I recognize the school is a big interview, I am on my phone way less than a lot of the other students and as soon as an instructor calls for somebody or needs something, I am all over it. I've also got all of my tasks done and have the pre-trip memorized extremely well. I've been going outside and watching people back and do other things (it's made them nervous a few times so I am cautious doing this). There's nothing else to really do, unfortunately.

Manual or Auto? Swift is 99% automatic at this point. With that being said, this school is an independent company. They train students for PAM, Swift, TransportAmerica and a few other schools. The school teaches you in 95% manual trucks; however, they do have a few automatics. They will have you test out, at BMV, with a manual.

They do this because, if you test with an automatic, you get a restriction on your license and you won't be able to drive or train anybody in a manual truck. If you're assigned to a manual truck you're completely worthless (for lack of a better word). So they test you in manual and teach you what you need to know because they want you to be as qualified as possible, plus, I think the school and Swift recognize that you may not want to stay with them your entire career.

I hope this answers your questions!