Start CDL School For Stevens Transport Mon. 6/6/16 (Whew, Glad That One Is In That Date!!)

Okay, Day 1 of Official Training (Yeah, I know, on Sunday!)

We headed out at 7:30 this morning to get our physicals and drug tests from the Stevens approved doctor. I was pretty nervous as some were saying that this was a new guy and he was strict. He was, but he was fair too. He used some common sense on a few things and was willing to listen to valid explanations about medical history about injuries (football) and stuff. However, he said, "You got a lot of stuff goin' on here, with the Diabetes and the blood thinners and stuff. But you're not on insulin and your numbers are good. Be sure you stay on top of it and take your meds, and lose twenty pounds or you are going to have to have a Sleep Apnia test in 6 months when it becomes mandatory for BMI's over 35!" He passed me for a one year card because of the Diabetes and I'm tickled with that!! Now I'll lose the weight so I don't have the other issue!

One guy drove in from somewhere that was supposed to be in our class and tried to use some other or synthetic urine for the drug test and the nurse caught it immediately and he was escorted out!! How stupid can you get?!?!? After physicals, we went back to the classroom and the guys that don't have their CLP's yet worked on the practice tests. Out of 11 or 12 of us already have our CLP's so we were working on the text book materials.

That's about it for now. Tomorrow, we hit the range for the afternoon and start straight line backing and stuff. Glad to finally be started and have the one big uncertainty out of the way so that I can just worry about rocking the training!

DSTURBD

Correction - Out of 11 or 12 of us, about four or five have our CLP's.

Day 2 of Official Training

Today was almost all paperwork. We signed our pre-employment contracts with Stevens, and our school contracts. There was a lot of orientation as to just what the school and the job will really consist of, and what the expectations of us are by both the company and the school. Oh, and did I say that there was a LOT of paperwork?

Supposed to hit the range for the first time tomorrow for half a day, I think.

DSTURBD

Okay, this time, I know for sure that they said we will be on the range tomorrow. Don'y know what gave me that idea about today.

DSTURBD

Day 3 of Official Training

This morning we went to the range and started training for the Pre-Trip Inspection. A LOT of stuff to remember in order and detail, but I think I have a pretty good handle on the beginnings of it anyway. We will continue to train on it and three of us don't have to go test for our CLP's so we will go to the range and get about a half day extra to work on it on the trucks.

But...we are under way, and I'm definitely diggin' that!

DSTURBD

Day 4 of Official Training

The four of us who already have our CLP's spent the morning doing a live in-cab portion of the pre-trip inspection. Then the whole class spent the afternoon doing coupling and uncoupling. It has been thirty years since I have done this stuff and I had an absolute ball today!! Really enjoyed myself. Pretty well got the pre-trip down. Just gotta spend some time memorizing the things in order so that I don't skip anything on the test.

Having a blast though!!

DSTURBD

Day 5 of Official Training

Did straight line backing all day today. Some are having a bit of trouble with judging how long to hold a correction to let the trailer react, but most everybody made a lot of progress. Also working on the pre-trip inspection between turns in the trucks.

Still havin' a ball!

DSTURBD

Days 6 & 7 of Official Training

Both days were more straight line backing and pre-trip practice. Everyone is getting pretty good at controling the trailers in a straight line anyway. I told them to expect the challenge and their frustration levels to go right back up when we get over to the other side of the yard next week. Alley dock, offset backing, and paralell parking are going to be a real shock to some guys. Everyone passed all of their tests and got their CLP's though without anyone getting sent home for anything.

Today (Sat.) was a short day though, and they do a big cook-out at the yard on Saturdays and feed us all. It was pretty awesome!! We had a log book class today also. It was all paper logs as we will get a full-on Qualcom class when we get to Stevens' training facility in Dallas. They highly recommended that we also make a habit of keeping a paper log anyway for times when the Qualcom may have gone down for a while days previous and we didn't notice. He said that it is almost impossible to remember back well enough for it to be legal. Don't know, just repeating what we were told. I kept paper logs years ago though, and it really only takes a few minutes of your time a few times a day and a good idea to have a back up copy for yourself.

Anyway, I'm really beat now after a week of accelerated training and the heat and sun of the yard and ready for a day of downtime tomorrow! Still having an absolute BLAST though!!

DSTURBD

Day 8 of Official Training

Yesterday was Sunday, so we were off, but boy did it go fast!! I drove home to check my mail, etc. and it's a good thing. My P.O. Box was stuffed full. Today, we started road driving and it went great and was a lot of fun. This afternoon, we did offset backing in the yard. It went okay, but I am rustier than I thought or the 53' trailers are messing with me a bit, or it's a little bit of both!

Still having a blast, though!

DSTURBD

Day 9 of Official Training

More road driving and offset backing today. Did better on the "Shifting Loop" as they call it. Upshifting is no problem as it came back right away, however, two gear drops downshifting is something I had never done before as I had never been trained to do it and was afraid of dropping the tranny out of the truck, when I was driving years ago. It is going well though, and I am not really having much trouble at all with it. Will occasionally forget for a moment what gear I am already in when figuring my drop, but hasn't been an issue so far. I'm just diggin' being back in a rig and operating it!!

The offrset backing is not hard at all, but today she was having us intentionally come out early and late so that we would have something to fix and get lined up with a "Snap" move. I used to do that at small docks without much extra room for the trucks. Never knew it had a name, just saw other drivers doing it when I first started and realized that it took very little space to get lined up that way. Also, when I asked her about the truck not coming around near as fast to the left as it does to the right, she told me with a smile,that these trucks are in the beginning training area on purpose, as they have "character" and if you can do it with these, then the good trucks you test with will be a breeze. Makes sense! (Character meaning that the trailers don't track real straight, lots of wear on various components, etc.) LOL

The only thing I am really worried about at all is the pre-trip inspection on test day. Every time we talk to another instructor, that person has a whole new take on things that must be included and things that we were told that they say, "Oh no, you don't say it like that" or "No, you don't need to mention that." I really wish that they would get together and decide on a uniform way that they expect us to verbalize it and what things they do and don't want to be included!! Some say that you need to give lots of detail, and others say things like, you only need three descriptors for each checked component, don't get hooked into a lot of detail or you'll skip something, etc.

Oh well, we have one more day of this and then we start alley dock and stuff on Thursday, supposedly.

Still having an absolute blast!!! Lovin' it!

DSTURBD