Trucking School Process (Will Update Daily/weekly)

Good evening everyone. I hope you all had a great and safe day.

Today was covering Pre Trip and Permit test prep. Yet half the time was occupied by recruiters. Schneider and US Express. Tomorrow will be Air Brakes.

I'm tired so I will let you go here. More tomorrow.

Okay, I missed a day yesterday on filling in you guys. It was actually all about Pre-trip procedures and lots of videos along with discussions.

Today however it was focused on Inspections . When Class ended at noon, I went back home to give my permit another shot. Sadly I second guessed myself on a total of 10 questions throughout the air brake and combination sections. I will hopefully be re-attempting the second try on Monday. (depending on how long it takes to get a certified birth cert.) Monday will also be my DOT physical and then more answers will follow.

Good luck, and thanks for keeping us posted on your progress!

I passed my permit test today achieving 80% on Combination and Air Brake. Now the next hurdle is the darn DOT physical. (fear of blood pressure) But with my school (Interstate Truck Driving) the next step is to schedule backing range time and a new text book to study from. More info on that as it becomes available.

Today we went over Backing procedures/maneuvers, Coupling and Shifting (not in a truck itself).

By the way, if I have not mentioned... I am driving to and from the school location every day so I can get the feel of a schedule for this career. {even though I am used to plenty of roads trips by myself to random points on the map}

Congratulations and good luck!

Good afternoon. I took some days off to get things straightened out with the schedule in front of me. Thankfully I'm adjusting at the propper rate. i.e. Sleep, diet, study, driving to class, staying awake using only vitamins and limited caffeine. I did obtain my Permit {apologies if I repeated that fact} and now I am choosing to attend the classes to help get the rest of the knowledge needed for time driving a truck. Yesterday was orientation for new students and our discussion of Driver Qualifications was cut short. But today was the first part of Hours of Service and it was extremely helpful! Even though most of us will be on E-logs, the instructor was demonstrating how to do Paper Logs (as a back up). Also we talked about the split sleeper berth time that Team Drivers usually use and when you get to that 14th hour of the day; you DO NOT DRIVE ANYMORE, but can still work on duty {just take a 10 hour break and you can drive again - Unless you are at the end of your 70/80 week}.

Tomorrow will be more Air Brake and Pre Trip Inspection (advised to attend as many of these as I can before I do my road test and/or instructor time in a truck off the backing range).

Classes are going good and I am glad to be at a Quality school that cares about their students. I have been talking to students from other schools and they are already in trucks and have barely gotten their permit with little to no simulator time on shifting; all the while hearing bout students messing up transmissions and gear boxes. (No Names - Anonymous)

But everyone has a different learning curve!

Have a great day and also a Safe day Drivers/students.

Good afternoon Drivers and students.

I have not posted for some time. (at home studying my pretrip and air brake routines) My Simulator training for shifting begins this Friday. And I also will get to see a Doctor about my high blood pressure Wednesday.

I am also doing research to find Minnesota based trucking companies that hire students.

I keep plugging away at it. (just no big National Carriers)

{There's a driver shortage and I find that a student fresh out of school who is "moldable" for a company would be desired. Some just need to open their eyes and be considerate to people who are turning their life around}

I am also doing research to find Minnesota based trucking companies that hire students.

You don't need a company based in a certain place to work for them. As long as they hire from where you live then you're good to go. In fact, I never worked for an OTR company that even had a terminal or a drop lot in my home state. That doesn't matter.

. Some just need to open their eyes and be considerate to people who are turning their life around

Unfortunately the trucking industry is not that receptive to giving people second chances right away. They normally like to see 5 or 10 years pass from the time of any felony or DUI conviction or any other serious problems because it's just too risky to take big chances on people.

The company is ultimately held legally responsible for anything their drivers do on the road. If a driver gets in a bad wreck and the company gets sued they're going to dig up every last detail about that driver. If the driver has a recent criminal record, a recent DUI, or any other serious issues then the lawyers are obviously going to call into question the decision to put that driver behind the wheel in the first place. And as you can imagine, people aren't too tolerant of who they would like to see behind the wheel of an 80,000 pound truck.

So there are a lot of industries that are far more receptive than trucking is to giving people second chances because the liability risk isn't as great. Most people would like to see someone stay out of trouble for a while before they're allowed on the public highways in a big rig.

Thank you for the input Brett. I was looking locally because some of the big name companies have already said NO. Plus in Minnesota we have the "do not check this box" for felons here; giving us a chance to obtain an interview and put forth a positive image. My felony is from 2001 but when it comes to explaining it, that becomes my downfall. I wish there was a way to just say yes I made a mistake and it is there and I do not want to explain further.

My back up plans are to purchase my own truck of whatever type I can afford. Attend diesel mechanics so I can still get behind the wheel of them. Try applying with Straight Truck jobs.

I'm climbing one mountain then another. (Like a range of them)

Yesterday I also got a reply from my Facebook post about trucking companies. LME is suggesting I talk to their local Terminal Manager near me and start working in the warehouse dept for a year and then move up to driving.