CDT School In West Babylon, NY

Day 18: Today was all highway driving. That’s because we drove a 9 speed for the first time and finally learned how to double clutch. Our instructor did a demo of it for us first, then we all got about 90 minutes of driving time each with it. In the morning we basically went on one of the major Long Island highways, east, then west, then east again, then west again, getting a feel for it. I really enjoyed driving this truck compared to the 6 speeds, it is quite easy to get into gear. I struggled a bit with the pattern but no major issues.

In the afternoon we went out again. One guy drove first, and the next guy, well, I’m not any good myself, but this guy’s really bad honestly. His English is pretty poor and I don’t think he understands the directions being given to him because he’s always doing something different. Honestly he scares me a bit with his driving. Well today he lugged the poop out of the engine and the muffler actually loosened itself and was dragging just a couple inches off of the ground. One of the mechanics from the school had to come out and hold it in place with some bailing wire. That cut in to my driving time of course… after that was fixed I drove and struggled more with the placement of 1st/5th but did okay otherwise. Next week I’ll probably get to drive a 10 speed Volvo with a conventional sleeper.

Day 20: We were in the yard all day. In the morning we went over doubles , including how to couple and uncouple as well as driving them around the yard a bit. It was pretty cold and windy again and standing outside all day was not much fun, and doing this when most of us don’t even have the endorsement made it seem a bit pointless. After that we unhooked the second trailer and did some straight backing with a single pup trailer. It reacts a little quicker but it’s not hard to back up straight at all. We tried some left backing with it and one of the guys had a lot of trouble doing this and actually snapped an air line due to jackknifing. So that ended the pup trailer backing for the day…

In the afternoon we covered sliding tandems. The literature we were handed for this actually came from the High Road training on this site! After we covered it on paper we slid tandems for real, and with some pretend scenarios regarding weight on each axle we had to figure out which direction to slide them and how many holes we needed to slide. We ended with an overview of the in cab inspection.

Day 21: Not as many people in today due to Thanksgiving coming up. There were only 2 of us students in the truck so we got plenty of road driving time today. The truck we were in was an older Kenworth T2000 and it’s extremely fast. I don’t know what engine is in it but it pulls extremely quickly even with a 30,000 lb. load in a 48 foot trailer.

Apparently I tapped a road sign with the mirror but there wasn’t any damage. The steering wheel on this truck was a bit ****eyed and I didn’t realize that quickly enough. After that I was told to hold the wheel a bit lower, closer to my chest, and my lane control was a lot better. Double clutching and shifting, as well as using the clutch in general is really not an issue for me anymore.

We did some more left/right backing practice after lunch and that was it. 2 weeks off now, hopefully I won’t forget everything I’ve learned, haha...

Oops, I messed up the order of these posts...

Week 6 - Day 19: Well I finally decided to pick a company over the weekend and I’m going to go with Werner’s OTR division. Orientation is next month, assuming I pass the road test of course. This is happening really fast!

Today started with some highway driving on a 10 speed. It’s a Volvo VNL 670 with a 48 foot trailer and it’s by far the biggest truck at the school, and probably most similar to what I’ll be driving on the job. Our instructor today told us that the transmission on this truck was just recently replaced and it showed, it felt amazing. It shifted smooth as butter and I really did not have many issues driving that truck. It’s by far the best truck in the schools fleet.

Following lunch we spent the rest of the day in the yard. Well it’s been pretty comfortable outside up to this point with temperatures anywhere between 50ºF and 70ºF but a cold front pushed through recently and not only was it cold but ridiculously windy, with 40+ mph gusts. Horrible weather, but we pushed through regardless. We did pre-trips for a little bit and typing it out on my phone helped me a lot, I definitely did better than last time.

After a short break to warm up inside, we did some more blindside backing. It was not my best backing honestly, but I was able to figure it out and get the trailer where it needed to be. I find it difficult to judge where the trailer is going to go just by looking in the mirrors but since we’re doing this in day cabs I’m just waiting until I can see the trailer through the rear window and reacting based off of that. I have no idea how I’m going to that in a sleeper cab but hopefully I won’t have to do it very often at least.

Week 7 - Day 22: After 12 days off I’ve returned for the final week of training and my road test. We started out with some highway driving for about 90 minutes each, it took me about 15-20 minutes to get re-acclimated to driving the truck but I didn’t curb the trailer or stall or anything like that. We’re back in the 6 speed synchro trucks as these are the trucks we will perform the road test on. They’re easy to drive after having driven the 10 speeds.

After lunch we each did pre trip inspections, including the outside and in cab portions. I hadn’t done the in cab before so that was somewhat shaky but I do realize the importance of the brake tests and know how to do those at least. We ended with parallel parking which I had not done yet and it took me a few tries to figure it out. I have to remind myself to make smaller turns with the wheel. Apparently we’ll only be doing straight line backing and parallel parking on the road test, no alley docks or anything like that.

Day 23: Pretty much the same as yesterday. This particular truck had a clutch that was very touchy and I stalled it a couple of times, actually everybody did. Anytime I’d come off the clutch the thing was practically stalling for some reason and I know it wasn’t me. It did affect the rest of my driving though and it wasn’t the best.

Parallel parking is not that difficult now, I can do it in one continuous motion. Still have to figure out this in cab pre trip and take things slower to remember it all.

Day 24: More of the same. We were again in a different truck and nobody had any issues with stalling and everybody can turn without curbing the trailer now. We won’t be in yesterday’s truck for the road test so that is a relief. We covered the in cab portion of the pre trip a couple more times and I am getting better but I have to remember to always have some sort of brakes applied, I keep screwing that up. The other guys are struggling a bit with parallel parking but I feel like I am doing it okay.

Day 25: Nearing the end of the class finally with graduation and the road test tomorrow. I didn’t drive today until the afternoon but I did okay again. I drove for almost 2 hours after lunch with only a few minor issues. I’m fairly confident in my skills with the pre trip and backing as well. We actually went to the test site as a private lesson student was scheduled to use the truck for his road test. The instructor took over once we got close to the road test site of course, and we waited for a little over an hour (the other student didn’t start his test until 30 minutes after we got there or so). He passed and man was he happy! I’d love to do the same thing.

You will do it. You're a damn Long Islander! Remember to breath. Get oxygen to your brain. And calm your inner soul. Rootin' for ya.

Day 26: The big day is here finally. We started with a mock road test. Nailed the pre trip both inside and out and the road driving. I was reminded to get out and look before I started my straight back, so technically I “failed” the mock road test but my instructor said I did good regardless. We went back to the yard early as a recruiter from a company was expected to come but she couldn’t make it...so I left early to relax.

The road test was in the afternoon. I met up with an instructor from the school that I hadn’t actually met before and he went over what to do. Everything he went over was what I already knew, although he was a bit of a ball buster, but a nice guy nonetheless. Classic Long Island. Suddenly the examiner showed up and we went right into the pre trip. I messed up on the outside a bit but did okay there, nailed the in cab pre trip. When I pulled out to begin the road portion my view was blocked a bit by a pole and I made a bad decision to pull out with a car coming about 500 feet away or so. I believe that was my first 10 points off right there. The rest of the driving portion went okay actually, I didn’t stall, curb the trailer, or any nonsense like that. It was pretty short, I think we were only out for about 10 minutes or so of driving. We went back to the site where the test starts and I nailed the straight backing and parallel parking. That was it. The examiner went over what I did wrong first, which was related to that bad decision to pull out mostly. But…

I passed!!! Those were the only 10 points I accumulated on the test. She handed me the receipt and I simply said “thank you very much,” and that was it. Honestly I could probably name about a dozen different things I did wrong on the whole test if I thought hard about it, but she seemed to be somewhat lenient so maybe I got lucky. Either way, I passed the road test on my first try and I will pick up my temporary license on Tuesday, then off to orientation for Werner on Friday!

Congradulations! You made it sound so easy. I dont know how to do the dancing bananas but if I did there would be 10 of them!

Thanks! It's really not a difficult test as long as you take your time to remember what you're doing. I missed a few repeated items on the outside pre trip but the point is simply to show that you know what to look for so if you do it once but forget the next time, they might be more forgiving. On the driving part you simply have to show that you're in control of the truck by being somewhat aggressive with your decision making and not babying the truck basically.

Apparently I got lucky with my timing of the course because I was told starting next year they're going to change the nationwide standards to include more highway driving and more backing maneuvers, so it should be harder to pass then.

I'll post some bananas for you:

Congratulations!!