NTI Bangor, Maine... My CDL Class A Journey
Topic 13979 | Page 3
Alright that's awesome Mario! Keep studying until you figure out what's best and it's good your planning. Best to take your time anyway. Keep me updated!
And thank you both!
Day 10-12 (better late then never)
Been very busy outside of school so I'll update before the new week.
The last week was very basic and we practiced straight backing, parallel parking, drop and hook and alley docking.
I had a lot of trouble with the parallel parking after a 10 hour day of screwing up. Let me tell you I wanted to give up but the next day something clicked and I aced it mostly! But I figure I can't get everything perfect in the first week hahaha
I've got my drop and hook down but I gotta keep practicing the rest. Alley docking is easy as long as you get your setup right, same with parallel parking. Straight backing is a piece of cake. Starting tomorrow we should be hitting the road. We will be doing half a day practicing straight backing, parallel parking, alley docking and drop and hook, the other half road driving.
The biggest thing I took away from this last week is not to give up no matter how frustrated and stressed you get. I did a full day of parallel parking failure and it put me down but I woke up determined to get it right the next day and I'm getting results.
I hope you all had a great weekend and a great week to come!
- Tom
Drop And Hook:
Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.
In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.
Hey Tom! Thanks for the great diary of your experiences at NTI. I had researched them a bit, but could hardly find any reviews from past students. Yours is terrific. I live in New Hampshire. I studied on my own & passed the CDL-A tests here. Got my CDL-A + air brakes + tanker + doubles/triples. Didn't do HazMat , though I did study for it. (You need to get a TSA security clearance before you can even take the test, I understand).
I'm hoping to get into XPO Logistics (who recently merged with Con-Way Trucking) Student Driving program. They said you need to get your CDL permit in you state of residence before applying to them. Once you're through their training, you're on the hook for something like $4,000. Hope I get in, or maybe I wasted a lot of time/effort studying material that I'll be forced to sit through in another CDL student program.
I gather it took you about 8.5 days of school to get through all the CDL written tests? Took me a lot longer than that.
I look forward to more posts of yours!
Cheers, Joe
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
HAZMAT:
Hazardous Materials
Explosive, flammable, poisonous or otherwise potentially dangerous cargo. Large amounts of especially hazardous cargo are required to be placarded under HAZMAT regulations
Doubles:
Refers to pulling two trailers at the same time, otherwise known as "pups" or "pup trailers" because they're only about 28 feet long. However there are some states that allow doubles that are each 48 feet in length.
Joe Linking wrote:
I studied on my own & passed the CDL-A tests here. Got my CDL-A + air brakes + tanker + doubles/triples. Didn't do HazMat
I believe you passed the CDL A Permit tests and endorsements.
Joe Linking also wrote:
Hope I get in, or maybe I wasted a lot of time/effort studying material that I'll be forced to sit through in another CDL student program.
Joe the permit material is covered in CDL School. When review occurs, there is practical application and much more detail. Pre-Trip Inspection is a good example; yes it's reviewed but then you practice, practice, practice on an actual truck & trailer including narration. You are then tested on your ability to perform the pre-trip in school.
- Pre-Trip Inspection Study Guide
- Daniel's Pre-Trip Inspection
- Pre-Trip Inspection Checklist
- Pre-Trip Inspection Practice Questions
Pre-trip Inspection:
A pre-trip inspection is a thorough inspection of the truck completed before driving for the first time each day.
Federal and state laws require that drivers inspect their vehicles. Federal and state inspectors also may inspect your vehicles. If they judge a vehicle to be unsafe, they will put it “out of service” until it is repaired.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
HAZMAT:
Hazardous Materials
Explosive, flammable, poisonous or otherwise potentially dangerous cargo. Large amounts of especially hazardous cargo are required to be placarded under HAZMAT regulations
Doubles:
Refers to pulling two trailers at the same time, otherwise known as "pups" or "pup trailers" because they're only about 28 feet long. However there are some states that allow doubles that are each 48 feet in length.
G-Town wrote:
I believe you passed the CDL A Permit tests and endorsements.
Dear G-Town,
Yep, that's exactly what I meant! Thanks for the info & links.
I've applied to get into XPO Logistics' company-sponsored CDL School. Fingers crossed.
Joe
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
It's really good to hear from people here in New England. I see truck after truck every day and a number of them with day cabs so I know they must be in the region, but it seems like they must be figments of my imagination since no one in the trucking community seems to like driving up here. 
I myself am just a spectator in this whole experience with a lifelong desire to drive a tractor trailer but realizing it probably isn't going to happen. At least not as long as I want to stay married. 
Shortly before they adopted the CDL classification I used to have a "Heavy Commercial" license through my local fire department. That, for you young people is an endorsement/license that allowed me to drive a "10 wheeler". It is amazing to me now, after all the studying and tests I've taken on this site, just how little we seem to need to know back then. I don't remember having to know anything about air brakes which we did have on at least one of our trucks. 
Tom, good luck to you, I am rooting for you. My son lives in Bangor and I know the area pretty well. Joe, I am also rooting for you. I live in Plainfield and work in West Lebanon so we may have stood in line at WalMart together. Who knows?
Stewart
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Day Cab:
A tractor which does not have a sleeper berth attached to it. Normally used for local routes where drivers go home every night.
Hey all!!!!
It's been a little while since I posted, school and life has kept me busy lol
So for the past 2 weeks we have practiced yard skills and road driving consistently. I now have a perfect parallel park and my alley dock is good enough to be done within the limits allowed so I'm very happy with that!
The biggest challenge I had on the road was down shifting and double clutching but I can shift really good now. I can take it from 3rd to 10th and back down pretty smoothly. I'm a gear jammer now lol
I did however have 1 funny incident.... I managed to rip an electronic walk/don't walk sign off a pole in a very crowded rush hour part of town lol I didn't let it get to me because my instructor did 1 on 1 with turning and by the end of the next day I could take on anything!!! Progress!!!
I got 2 job offers... one from Stevens Transport and the other from Prime. I accepted Primes orientation invitation. They are offering a NE regional flatbed driving job granted everything goes as planned.
Other than that not much more to jot down here. I have 1 more week before my actually road test and I can't wait!!!!
Thanks for following all and I hope you all have a great weekend!
Regional:
Regional Route
Usually refers to a driver hauling freight within one particular region of the country. You might be in the "Southeast Regional Division" or "Midwest Regional". Regional route drivers often get home on the weekends which is one of the main appeals for this type of route.
Double Clutch:
To engage and then disengage the clutch twice for every gear change.
When double clutching you will push in the clutch, take the gearshift out of gear, release the clutch, press the clutch in again, shift the gearshift into the next gear, then release the clutch.
This is done on standard transmissions which do not have synchronizers in them, like those found in almost all Class A trucks.
Double Clutching:
To engage and then disengage the clutch twice for every gear change.
When double clutching you will push in the clutch, take the gearshift out of gear, release the clutch, press the clutch in again, shift the gearshift into the next gear, then release the clutch.
This is done on standard transmissions which do not have synchronizers in them, like those found in almost all Class A trucks.
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
Joe thanks for following and your welcome!!!
You got a good chunk out of the way and yes it took me about that long.
Not sure how things will go with your plan but from what I read from others in company training your doing it right.
G-Town gave some good info on that.
Again thanks for following!!!
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
Hey Stewart thanks for following!!!
Alot of local jobs are hard to come by up here but it's possible. From what info I've gathered it's best to do OTR for one year than apply local as that seems to be the trend around these parts. I was lucky to get offered a NE regional flatbed offer and I'll be happy with that. They said after orientation and 40k miles with a trainer (combined miles) I will get solo with 2 weeks away from home and that's about as good as it gets because it strikes such a nice balance for me with money and time away.
It all depends on what your willing to compromise for.
You can make it as a trucker if you really want it, just find the will and the way. Give it a shot.
I have a family including a kid and after talking it out we compromised and felt this was the best we could do to make it work.
Hope that you might give it a try so keep me updated!!!!
Regional:
Regional Route
Usually refers to a driver hauling freight within one particular region of the country. You might be in the "Southeast Regional Division" or "Midwest Regional". Regional route drivers often get home on the weekends which is one of the main appeals for this type of route.
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
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That's great! Congratulations, what a big hurdle to get across. The rest should be cake. Keep kicking @$$