My Training Diary With Central Refrigerated

For drivers considering Central Refrigerated or folks who just want to read about it - I have found my training dairies from our old forum and I remade the dairy on this forum in the 'Training Dairies' section for you all to read and gain an inside perspective on Central Refrigerated schooling.

My Central Refrigerated Diary

I just finished reading your diary.

I was already impressed with you and I am even more now. Reading your diary from then to reading your post today, you can see a very big change. As I said before, your family must be very proud of you. You are the kind of young man that gives the older generation faith in the younger generation. I must admit though that I have always has faith in the younger generation. You are truly an inspiration.

Good think I wasn't your father, because I know of trainer that would have seen my wrath doing what he did with you in that truck. But, you sucked it up and did what you had to do. That shows a great deal of maturity. This is not a easy profession. A trucker driver goes through more hell in one day than most people do in a month or even a year. A driver is an expert at multi-tasking is actually the creator of it.

I was not impressed though with the training that you got. Reading your diary and these post that have been on this website shows me something I needed to see. Part of the problem with truck drivers today is their training. Don't get me wrong, the main reason is the person themselves, but how drivers are being trained has definitely changed. I have seen it in the school I am going to. I will one day sit down a describe just how it is at a Technical School.

Be thing is: You learned and you are on your own now. You did it! Hell of a feeling isn't it? And to still be involved here on this site is another testament to your maturity and your being a "TRUE-TRUCKER". God bless you son.

I enjoyed reading it. Was the best cup of coffee and hot biscuits and syrup I've had in a while. Just sat right down and began reading. Better than most books I have read. Thank you for sharing it with us "Newbies" to the website. Will be reading more of the old forum as well. You are a big help to this profession and to knew drivers. I applaud you.

Oh yeah. Forgot to tell you. Check out this Youtube video. I just learned how to do this too.

This is the 18 year old young man in my class doing a parallel parking in the big rig. This kid is only 5'6" maybe and just turned 18 in August. We are taking our Road Test exam on Oct.3rd. We are the first students to test.

This is why I have such faith in young people. This kid works three, count them three part time jobs and still comes to school. Customer service at a grocery store, landscaping with his own equipment and cleans out storage facilities. He will do anything he can find.

Please if anyone else reads this and checks it out. No bad comments. Just encouragement please.

Wow Daniel! That's awesome that you converted that over to the new forum!!! Very cool! Thanks!

Please if anyone else reads this and checks it out. No bad comments. Just encouragement please.

This isn't TheTruckersReport. We don't allow people to stick around if they have to be told to be respectful to others

Very cool video!

Daniel, your diary is an inspiration to me. I hope I have as much maturity and patience as you do.

Hey Dan, Hope all is well with you. I really enjoyed reading about your experiences of starting out on your trucking career. All of the ups and all of the DOWNS. It didn't seem like you held anything back. From the struggles that you had in learning to handle the truck. To the incredible mess that you had to put up with while with that trainer. And as a side note I do hope that this guy is no longer trying to fill this particular position. I really can't believe the crudeness of this trucker. But kudos to you for being the bigger person. So I do have a few questions for you though. Based on your schooling experience what should we pay really close attention to and please share the song that you made up so that I to can sing my way to acing that part of the test. Keep it save out there and please continue posting. Harry W.

I think you should pay really close attention to the mistakes that you will make. As long as no one gets hurt, it's a positive learning experience. Think about what you did wrong and what you could do better. Make a mistake turn into something you end up not regretting.

I made that mistake starting up the hill. I beat myself for it and it killed all my motivation and confidence for a day or two. But you can bet that everytime I started up a hill after that point I did good. I thought about it long and hard to make sure it wouldn't happen again. That mistake taught me how to start on a hill.

Mistakes will happen. But it's up to you on how you're going to respond to it and most importantly. How you're going to learn from it.

Also, pay close attention to what you're doing with your steering wheel when you're backing up. Mostly every rookie oversteers the wheel. I wasn't any different. But when you're backing on the yard be looking at the trailer but also keep an eye on the steering wheel. Remember to steer gently and never overreact when you're backing. You'll often times cause your trailer to jack knife if you do.

Here's my method for the pretrip. What I said about the object you're pretripping depended on what it's made of and what goes thru it. Doesn't make sense I know.

My key words:

PMS - Properly Mounted and Secure. This goes for ANYTHING that is mounted. ABC - Abrasions, Bulges, and Cuts. This is made for hoses or anything rubber/plastic no matter what goes thru it. Always meantion leaks. ICD - Inflation, Condition, and Depth. For tires.

Here's some examples. Water Pump.

Is the Water Pump mounted? Yes. Does it have hoses? Yes. Are the hoses mounted? Yes. Identify if its gear or belt driven. "I'm now going to inspect my Water Pump. I'm to make sure that my Water Pump is properly mounted and secure, it isn't loose and is tightly fastened with no parts missing. I'm also going to check the hoses leading TO and FROM the Water Pump and make sure that there are no abrasions, bulges or cuts. I'm going to make sure that the hoses are properly mounted and secure and that they are not leaking. This Water Pump is gear drive.

"I'm now going to inspect all my tires the same as I inspect this one. I'm going to check for inflation, condition, and depth. Inflation should be at 100 psi. Im going to inspect all sides of the tire and make sure that there are no abrasions bulges or cuts. The depth should be no less than 2/32 of an inch."

Just a jumping off point. There's a lot more than that but if you can just give each item a PMS and maybe an ABC then you're in good shape. Think about each item and give it a short description. Now sing it like you're doing a play in the same words everytime.

It seems long but it's really not. That's exactly how I did mine and got a 100%. That was exactly how I talked about my water pump.

AWESOME

Since we're on the subject of pre-trip inspections, we have an awesome Pre-Trip Inspection Study Guide which includes videos, a checklist you can download, and even our pre-trip inspection flash cards which has both labeled and unlabeled pictures to help you remember the parts and what you're checking for.

Since you have a laptop and I dont you should post mine;-) Ive been wanting to and cant:-(