Swift Training @ C1 Indy

Here's a mind trick others have said helps them. Think of the examiner as someone you just offered a ride home. They need to give you directions, and you need to pay attention to the road.

Also, remember the examiner had seen "it all" before - the nervousness, the missed gears, the stalls. Also, he does want you to pass*, but he can't say that.

*Proof for at least one examiner: one of my study partners came back from his official road test, head in hands. He had stalled on railroad tracks twice! He knew he was toast.

The examiner went into the office, and after a bit came back. "Well, there was no train coming, so no laws were broken. You pass!"

ALMOST had it today! I could literally see the entrance to the school. I passed pretrip, backing & got a mere 12/30 points on the road. I stalled at an intersection (and recovered marvelously) but the light switched to yellow... I panicked.

I cut the turn a hair tight trying to get out of the intersection ASAP & nudged (and I mean just barely) the median with the trailer. Instant fail.

I was 1 turn away from a trifecta.

Ah well. This has been a great confidence booster for me. Next time I'll just eat the point (the median sticks WAY out) and simply turn into the lane next to it.

I've got this!

Don't Panic.

If you are in the intersection, legally everyone is supposed to wait for you to get out of the way before they start. (You know that ain't happening.) At any rate, of you stall like that again, simply start up, and proceed.

Don't count your points before you earn them. A point is a point. So pull wide, try to miss the median. Use any real estate not covered by a car that you need.

I just passed my CA CDL tests and got my permit. I'll be heading out to the school in Fontana on the 3rd of next month. Really great read mate. I've never driven one of these trucks but have a small amount of experience pulling and backing a one axle trailer with a one axle dolly using a farm tractor. Maybe that won't help me at all here but it exposed me to pulling heavy loads so that's good for something I hope.

Just spent overtime @ school. Got to drive for an hour & a half after class, just me and an instructor riding shotgun. He said there's no doubt I got this as long as I keep cool. I'm testing again tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

Good Luck Mate.

Just spent overtime @ school. Got to drive for an hour & a half after class, just me and an instructor riding shotgun. He said there's no doubt I got this as long as I keep cool. I'm testing again tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

Just spent overtime @ school. Got to drive for an hour & a half after class, just me and an instructor riding shotgun. He said there's no doubt I got this as long as I keep cool. I'm testing again tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

So what's the good word? We're all pulling for ya!

So what's the good word? We're all pulling for ya!

Just passed state today! I leave for Orientation May 9th in Rochelle, IL. I'm officially a CDL-A holder! Woo-hoo, Feels great!

Did they watch you while you peed in the cup? I've heard rumors theyou stand in the bathroom with you?? Did you do the urine test before your psychical? Was the physical right after the urine test?

First day of school today. So anxious I barely slept a wink. Gave up a 5 year career, health insurance, steady pay etc. to follow my dreams. "It's very difficult to follow your dreams...but it's even more difficult to forget them." -Rabul Rumpai

Woke up in the middle of the night thinking it was time to go to school, was 1am! LOL. I've been advised to keep a journal by quite a few drivers so here goes.

Day 1: Class begins @ 6am. Pulled into the parking lot @ 5:30, gave myself a peptalk in my review & headed to the door @ 5:40am. I was the first student in the building. There was another student in his truck smoking a cigarette when I pulled in but I think he didn't wanna be the first guy & soon followed suit when I got out of my car.

I was greeted by the student advisor @ the door who asked if I needed a DOT permit. Out-of-state students are required to have their DOT permits & physicals prior (with the exception of Ohio, more on that later), Indiana residents are not required to have either. She then gave me some forms to fill out & I made my way to 1 of 3 classrooms. The rooms were divided into Swift & PAM prospectful hires. The spare room is a break room. Swift is alloted for 10 students per week, PAM is alloted for 30. There was 6 students (counting myself) in the Swift side, 4 were apparently no-shows.

Being the smaller class we were told to line up outside in the hallway behind a green cone & put everything in our pockets into a basket. You're warned nicely that if you step pass the cone before being called you will be reminded again far less nicely. Whiz-quiz time. Don't flush.

The urinalysis is used for a 5 panel tox screen (THC, Cocain, Opiates, Methamphetamines & something else) as well as a portion of your DOT physical to check for protien, blood & sugar.

The DOT physical consisted of a 20ft. Snellen vision exam requiring 20/40 in each eye (corrective lenses & contacts permitted). A monochromatic test for colorblindness to test your ability to recognize green, red & amber faint alternating colored numbers in a circle of the 2 other shades respectively. BP of no higher then 140/90 (I tested 139/90...whew!) And then a nurse practitioner listens to your chest & belly.

1 other Swift applicant had high BP & they wrote the number on a post-it note on his chart in case it changed so when they retest manually instead of with an electronic cuff. He did pass the manual BP test. One other applicant couldn't pee & had to wait behind the 30 PAM students to try again, LOL.

After that myself & the 4 other students waited nearly 5 hours until 12:45pm for everyone else to finish. One of the students was dismissed (the same one that couldn't pee earlier) due to taking (legit) prescription meds that are on the list of substances banned for CDL drivers...

Lunch time 12:45-1:30. There is a McDonald's practically in the same parking lot. I had a McDouble (extra pickles & onions), a McChicken & sweet tea.

Back to class, they combined the Swift & PAM students after we signed seperate tuition contracts & attendance policies. They played a motivational video, students who pass the skills test the 1st try get a red "Ace" C1 hat. Those who pass on the 2nd-5th tries get a black C1cap. (Yes, in rare circumstances you can get up to FIVE tries). 2 students came in throughout the course of the day with red hat's to have the instructor sign it & were met with a round of applause.

There's certain criteria before you're kicked out. Its supposed to be a 3 week course but you MUST HAVE your permit no later thab Friday of the 1st week to test out on the 3rd week.

Ohio students are driven by a van Wed-Fri to take their permit exams in Ohio if they don't have them. After the 3rd try they either pass or are dismissed.

Indiana students have until Friday of the 2nd week to get their permit or they are dismissed.

You have until the end of week 3 to pass pretrip or you're dismissed.

You have to have 2/3 skills down (Offset, Straight-line & parallel) by week 4 or you're dismissed.

Finally on the 5th week those who have taken the skills test up to 5 times without passing are dismissed.

To finish we watched some slides & done a quiz on combination vehicles. I was the only student out of 30 to get 100% (Thanks to Trucking Truth)!

School starts @ 7am tomorrow. (But if you're not there by 6:45am you're late, LOL). Doors unlock @ 6:30am. I (ofcoursr) intend to be there by 6:25am & go to the BMV immediately after 4pm to get my CDP.

School is open (optional & highly encouraged) on weekend's for students who want extra pretrip & backing practice. If you can't pass pretrip you're only allowed to straight-line back until you do.

Needless to say...I plan on being there every second of every day I'm allowed to be.

Sorry for the looooong post. I'll update as I

Andrea, not to worry. There is provision in the regulations for that to happen, but that's for cases where someone is suspected of cheating by substituting someone else's urine for theirs.

Usually you get a (tiny) toilet room all to yourself, and the lab clerk has a table full of cups right outside.