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

Thank you for your very informative posts. My question to you is when do you start getting training pay?

Thank you for your very informative posts. My question to you is when do you start getting training pay?

As soon as you graduate school and get your CDL , you go to Stevens' terminal in Dallas for 3 or 4 days of training and orientation. Then they assign you a training driver to ride/drive with for a certain number of hours or miles. I believe you start getting training pay as soon as you get to orientation and are put on the payroll. My school is not at that terminal, so my situation is a little different. The students who go to that school get their CDL and go directly into orientation, I believe.

DSTURBD

Thank you for your very informative posts. My question to you is when do you start getting training pay?

As soon as you graduate school and get your CDL , you go to Stevens' terminal in Dallas for 3 or 4 days of training and orientation. Then they assign you a training driver to ride/drive with for a certain number of hours or miles. I believe you start getting training pay as soon as you get to orientation and are put on the payroll. My school is not at that terminal, so my situation is a little different. The students who go to that school get their CDL and go directly into orientation, I believe.

DSTURBD

Thanks

Day 16 of Official Training (Last day before Test Out)

Okay, we were wrong about a couple of things, but that is why they have the "Senior Lunch". I will get to that. Today, our instructor started out by telling us that he wanted to get somewhere on our route where he could go over some things with us about our testing and pre-trip without being interrupted or distractions. He had the guy having the most trouble take us out of the yard and do some driving through the standard stuff for about 45 minutes and then we pulled over at one of our favorite places behind a 7-11. He spent quite a while talking about just what they will be looking for on the road test and went, yet again, through an entire pre-trip with us. At this point, I don't think I could possibly miss anything on the pre-trip as I can now do it in my sleep, which I'm sure is exactly the point. We spent most of the rest of the morning doing that, and then with just about enough time to get us back to the yard for our lunch, he had the other guy take us back. He didn't even have me drive at all today which is, I hope, a good sign! LOL

We went to the office/classroom for our lunch with the owner and the classroom instructors and it was great! They had a big cold-cuts tray and all kinds of sides and he told us, "Okay, the first time through, just make human sized plates until everyone gets some. Then you big eaters can go through again and murder the rest of the food." I think everyone went through twice and there were still leftovers! It was really good, too! Then while we ate, he handed out hard copy CLP's to those who had been waiting for them, and gave us a big talk about what it is really going to be like when we get to Stevens (some are going to CRST) and how we need to realize that this is the real world and it will not all be all Daffodils like the recruiters may have promised. In case I haven't told you, the owner is really cool and has personally done about every job there is in trucking. Oh, and he is also a close personal friend of the owner of Stevens Transport (we were told that on our first day). He's really down to earth and does care about whether we succeed in this business or not. He is also a big proponent of the "give it at least one full year or more before you switch companies" thing. He says that all of the big companies are pretty much the same. They may have a few different habits or procedures, but they are all basically the same. For the ones who need it, he will keep you on for extra training a week at a time and let you test out again without extra tuition or anything. I think you do pay for the extra time in the school housing, but that is only fair from my point of view. I think we may have one or two who may need to stay another week. They are really good about it though and those guys are not treated any differently from anyone else! They just want you to be able to reach your goal and they will do everything that they can to help you do just that! I have seen this with my own eyes!

I found out that I test tomorrow morning at 7:00am with one of the owner's sons as my tester! OMG! He seems pretty cool, but I have never talked to him more than in passing, which was pleasant. We start off with the pre-trip, of course, and the yard maneuvers, and then we go on a 35 to 45 minute road test. There are four groups of four testing at different times tomorrow and then a group of two testing Friday morning. I'm glad that I get to find out early whether I make it or not, but I'm not sure that I wanted to be FIRST!!!!!! It will be nice and cool in the morning though, which will be nice.

This afternoon, we went back to the yard for more alley-dock and offset practice and that really cool alley-dock instructor walked us through exactly how the yard will be set up for our tests and gave us a few secret hints as to how to make it a little easier on us. While he was talking to us, another instructor walked by and said, "You better listen to what Bill says, he's only been the World Alley-Dock Champion for the last five years in a row!" Bill just chuckled and said, "Yeah, I've competed in some pretty exotic places, like Tahiti." I wasn't real sure just how to take that!?!?!? Is that a real thing!?!?! Anyway, I got three turns in the truck this afternoon and I think I should be able to get it done within the allowed points anyway, so I'm not too freaked out about it. I guess we'll see tomorrow A.M.!

Sorry this one got so very long, but still havin' a blast and scared to death about tomorrow!!!!

DSTURBD

Good luck. I'm sure you'll do great.

Hey i didn't know you were in Denver! I've been running around near there for a couple days now. Right now we are in Aurora picking up a load to head back to Kansas.

Good luck on your test! Remember to BREATHE!!

Day 17 of Official Training - Test Out Day!

Well, I am now the holder of a shiny, brand new Colorado CDL!!! WHEWWWWWW!!!!! I can't believe that the first step is actually done and I'm legal. We don't actually find out what all of our individual grades are on the different parts of the test, but I stuck the yard maneuvers! I had an extra pull-up on the alley-dock, but considering the difficulty it was giving me, I'll take a one point deduction on it all day long!! Never came close to a line or a cone on anything. That one extra pull-up was the only deduction that I know of at this point. I don't think I lost any points on the pre-trip, but we'll see. I don't think I forgot anything or said anything the wrong way. The road test was the only thing that I wasn't real worried about, so it was the one thing that bit me in the butt!! Everything was perfect, even though he took me someplace I had never been during training, until I missed a gear. Then, I was concentrating so very hard that I messed up a couple of other things. A couple of signs he asked about, I couldn't tell what they said, and then his style of taking turns and a couple of other things were different from how our instructor was telling us how to do it, like how far out to go, etc. By that time, I was very, very nervous and it made it hard to do even the things that were automatic for me previously. Like I say though, I passed. I have my CDL in hand and will find out tomorrow just how bad I scored on it. We also find out when we are supposed to report to Stevens in Dallas. The meeting is at 3:00pm tomorrow. My tester was really cool though and tried to talk about other things to relax me and was understanding abotu the differences in what I was told to do. Then at the end, in the yard, he was tallying everything on the score sheet up and said, "Well, I have some bad news for you." I thought, "Oh no, I missed a few too many points to pass! Oh crap!!" Then he looked at me and said, "Yeah, you're not going to be able to spend any more time with us, you're movin' on." There are no words that can express the massive relief that crashed over me at that point!!! It was definitely a heart attack moment there at first.

So...now maybe I will have a shot at a pretty Stevens Transport truck like the one I was drooling over the other day! I sure hope so!!

Hey CM. Did you see any Stevens Transport "Driver Training" trucks on the highway while you were out here? The school is actually a little northeast of Denver, but we go down there for city traffic and such.

Well anyway, I'm legal now and ready for the real training and experience to start. I'll update this tomorrow on the stuff I find out then. For now, my usual sign-off...

Still havin' a blast and ready for more!!

And to all of you who have been following my ridiculous entries...

DSTURBD

Congratulations.

Big Scott, Thanks so much man, it means a lot!!

DSTURBD

You are so welcome. I have been enjoying your diary. I wish you much success.