SAGE Technical Services Training Diary

Tuesday/Final Week

Sunday night I had my ‘night drive,’ originally scheduled for 6-10pm, then moved up slightly to 5:30pm, then bumped to 4:30pm… I was cooking a baked potato for dinner in the microwave at 4:15 when my phone rang; it was the instructor letting me know he was ready. I shut off the microwave, choked down a sandwich, and ran over to the school.

We started out taking the route the DOT examiner takes us on, simulated crossing railroad tracks and then pulled off the road, as if we were broken down, so that I could explain where I’d put the warning/reflective triangles, and then headed off down the interstate to the familiar country road where I practiced upshifting and downshifting before getting back on the interstate. Heading away from town, I missed the exit the instructor had told me to take, extending our drive time about 40 mins and sending us through a nice thunderstorm. I was sorry for his sake that I missed the exit, because I know he wanted to get back, but honestly I’m glad I missed the exit because as it turned out we still got back before our four hours had expired, and because we’re on Mountain Standard Time and it gets dark around 8pm, I was able to actually drive in the dark, which I wouldn’t have been able to do if we’d gotten back when he intended for us to. Plus I got to drive in inclement weather; as far as I’m concerned I was much better off for not following directions. Not that I’m going to make a habit of it.

Yesterday I reviewed for my HAZMAT endorsement test, which I took this morning at the DMV and passed. Thank you Hazardous Materials Free CDL Practice Tests and High Road Practice Questions: Hazardous Materials!!

Today was quite eventful: first I passed the HAZMAT endorsement test, then I got confirmation that Schneider will hire me (even though I’ve received three pre-hire letters from them, I wasn’t absolutely certain until the recruiter confirmed that there is nothing on their end that will prevent them from hiring me, as long as I pass my CDL exam on Thursday, of course), while also learning that the earliest orientation class they can fit me in will be a week from Monday. I was hoping for this Monday, but oh well. That will give me a week to spend with an old friend in Austin, TX, which I hear is a kick-ass town. It’s a guy I sort of grew up with; we’ve been friends since we were about 8 or 9 yrs. old. Haven’t seen him in 20 years. From Austin it will be just a short hop over to Houston to begin orientation.

This afternoon I had a four hour session driving on the range, where I continued practicing the 90º back as well as off-set backing; at some point, after you get it, it almost becomes boring. There are steps, and as long as you follow the steps, it just become routine. If only I could drive the truck forward as well as backwards, I wouldn’t be sweating the CDL exam in two days. After backing I spent the last hour driving in circles around the range, practicing upshifting and downshifting. I figured out that if I didn’t square off my turns so much I could maintain speed on the curves, and get it up to 6th gear. This allowed me to use the splitter on the gear shift, shifting from the low gears (1-5) to the high gears (6-10). But no higher than 6th gear. So for several laps I practiced shifting from 5th to 6th gear, and back down to 5th. That’s an awkward shift, because both 5th and 6th gear is in the ‘down’ position, and you skip over a gear to get from one to the other. I wasn’t really paying attention to my speed, just to my tachometer, and to what was around me on the range. BIG mistake. HUGE.

The classroom instructor was in another truck, parked, with a student, showing him I’m-not-sure-what, when he saw me driving at what was apparently a rate of speed much too high for the range, walked towards me so that I stopped, and yelled at me the likes of which I haven’t experienced in many years. I was so embarrassed, my face got white hot from shame, and I apologized profusely. “Where do you think you are, on a racetrack?!” “No sir, no sir I don’t, I’m sorry sir.” It was near quitting time, so about 20 mins. later after I parked the truck and went in to the instructors’ office to turn in the keys, they were all in there and I again apologized for disrespecting him, the range, the school… he was completely calm and told me not to worry about it, just don’t do it again. I wonder if it had been a trucking company CDL school if I would have been kicked out? A friend who was backing on the range said he noticed me drive past and wondered if I thought this was the Indy 500?

He empathized with me a bit however; there is no place to really practice shifting other than the road sessions, which there don’t seem to be enough of. That’s irrelevant, I am aware. I should have been paying attention to how fast I was going, and even if I thought I was in control, it was still too fast for the range. That’s something I should take with me when I begin driving for my company: always pay attention to what you are doing, where you are, and respect the rules of the host, no matter what my needs or intentions are.

Tomorrow I have a four hour road session in the morning, when I can practice my NASCAR cornering skills legally.

Hey Pete...that's a great learning experience for you, highly relevant. Most yard speed limits never exceed 15mph (and no drafting or blocking). Swift terminal yard speed limits are 7-8. Very strictly enforced.

You handled it well, owned your mistake and offered an apology. You will make mistakes...this experience and the take-always will help you in the future.

Good luck and take it easy.

Final Entry/Last Days Pt. 1

What do you call someone who finishes last in their class in medical school? Doctor.

What do you call a guy who fails his CDL exam the first time but passes it the second time? Truck driver!

It’s been awhile since my last entry, but there had been only one or two more driving and range sessions, which were largely uneventful, and then the CDL exam last Thursday, which I absolutely did not want to write about.

One final road session gave me confidence heading into the exam, as we covered the examination route and I felt like I drove it pretty well, hitting the upshifts and downshifts without too much trouble. There was only one curb that was of concern, but as long as you can be patient and wait out the traffic, eventually you will get an opening so that you can make the right turn into the oncoming traffic lane, giving the trailer plenty of room to clear the curb. The day of the exam I had a four hour range session, of which I used only about two hours… after you get the hang of backing up, it almost becomes mundane. Wow, never thought I’d say that. Wonder how it’s going to go in the real world, when I don’t have cones to my left and in front that I’ve been using as markers, turning the wheel one-and-a-half-times at that cone and straightening the wheel at this cone… should prove interesting. I do have the concept down, which is the goal.

Our CDL exam is split roughly into three parts, as I imagine most are, and we figure we have about 30mins per part. The first part is the pre-trip inspection + air brakes test; no problems whatsoever with the pre-tripping. I was prepared and could have easily pre-tripped the whole truck, but was only given the approach & engine, and the coupling devices. Everyone does the coupling devices, and beyond that it’s either the approach + engine, the driver’s side of the tractor, the trailer, or the whole thing. Then it’s to the in-cab, where we pre-trip the interior of the cab, finishing up with the brakes & air test. Guess where I botched it?

After performing a safe start and completing the in-cab inspection I began the brakes test well enough, doing the tug test against the tractor, trailer, and service brakes, but after I shut the engine off and turned the electronics back on, I proceeded directly to fanning the brakes down to 60 psi to activate the low pressure warning gauges, and then further down to 20 psi until the two valves (red & yellow)…(trailer brakes & tractor protection) popped out. And then declared “Done.” And that, my friends, was an automatic fail. I completely forgot to perform the one-minute air loss test, where you depress the service brakes for one minute, making sure that you don’t lose more than 4 psi (3 psi for a single vehicle) during that one minute.

Unlike the other parts of the exam where you are allowed to miss pieces of the pre-trip, or allowed mistakes on your backing maneuvers, and afforded mistakes on your road portion of the skills test (with a few exceptions such as running the rear tandems over a curb or stalling out in the middle of an intersection), with the air brakes test there is no margin for error. None. Nada. Zilch. You screw up any one part of it and you’re done. Thanks for participating, see you next week. A horrible feeling washed over me that remained for the rest of the day. My re-test was scheduled for the following Thursday. I had to wait another whole week! At $60/night in my hotel, that was going to be a very costly mistake.

What was I going to do for an entire week? I already knew the pre-trip, and really, I knew the air brakes test, I just farted inside my head and left something out. It’s like testing on numbers and having to count to ten, and forgetting number seven. You know there’s a number seven, you just forgot to say it. The despair I felt left me shaking for several hours. Fortunately, as I was about to leave the building, one of the instructors mentioned that you can view the DMV CDL exam schedule on-line, and that sometimes there are cancellations and you can move into an earlier slot. So I checked that night, several times on Friday, and several times on Saturday, but to no avail. ...

... ... ... ...

Final Entry/Last Days Pt. 2

...Friday morning to calm myself I walked four miles to a bakery for a donut, cinnamon bun, and coffee, and then four miles back. Saturday morning I walked the 3-4 mi. round trip to the Wal*Mart, to begin stocking up again for another week’s worth of groceries, and later that evening walked 4.5 miles to a pizzeria, and 4.5 miles back. By Sunday I was feeling good again. Sitting inside a coffee shop I decided to check the DMV site using my phone, and Holy Cow, someone had cancelled their exam, because there was a 10:30am slot available for the next day, and I jumped on it. I got to the school early the next morning to let them know I was testing that morning (Mon. morning) instead of Thursday, and to hopefully lay claim to my favorite tractor trailer, the 10-speed Peterbilt & 53’ trailer. I’m happy... no, elated to say, it all worked out. I breezed through the pre-trip, this time getting the coupling devices & trailer, nailed the in-cab and air brakes test (leaving nothing out this time), performed the straight-line, 90º, and off-set backing maneuvers without a hitch, and then went out and got one of the better road-test scores our school director had ever seen. What a relief! Ever the perfectionist, I was a little dismayed that I had gotten some things wrong on the road test; I’m sure the trailer drifted onto the white line on more than one occasion, I ground the heck out of the gears several times, even losing the gears once while making a turn, but each time I recovered well, which is what the examiners want to see. It’s o.k. to make mistakes, but can you recover from the mistake, essentially proving that you can control the truck.

Fortunately my first failed attempt at the test did not affect my job… I had wanted to get into orientation Monday of this week, but in retrospect am thankful the earliest they could set me up is Monday of next week. That’s one phone call I’m glad I didn't have to make… “Umm, sorry guys, but I can’t make the orientation next week because I’M A FAILURE.” So I’m set to begin orientation with Schneider Monday morning… I’m presently on a bus making my way to Austin, TX, where I’ll spend two days with an old friend before continuing on to Houston. 28 days of training in their tanker/dry bulk division, and then I’ll be on my own. I reckon this will wrap up my training diary; if you’ve kept up with it, thanks very much for reading. I’m undecided about writing a training diary after I begin working for Schneider… if it happens it will show up in this section (Training Diaries) of the forum.

A mighty ‘thank you’ to Errol V., G-Town, and Hans Solo Cup for your earlier words of encouragement. I’m very excited and proud to join your ranks, and hope that our paths cross on the road as well as in this forum.

Nice work Pete! Congratulations!

Fantastic Pete! My parents always said and now I always say "Everything happens for a reason." You got a lot of walking in which helped clear your mind and relax your body... and, lo and behold, a testing slot opened up. You weren't stressed and the timing was right. Well done. I hope you decide to write another training diary and I will eagerly await its appearance. Good luck!

Pete, Congratulations Man!

I've been following along in here, although silently for the most part. I'm really glad to see your progress! It really is tough when you first get started at this, and you will experience many more trying things as you progress, but you are really doing a great job of it!

I loved your analogy about a guy finishing at the bottom of his class in Med School - it really is true. I tell people all the time about how my three daughters all learned to walk at vastly different ages. Once they had been walking for a few months they each walked just as well as the others. It really makes no difference how many times they fell down at the beginning.

I'm glad to see you doing the walking... I walk a lot, it is something that you can do to get out of the truck and renew your self while out here on the road. I'm actually parked on the beach today in Pass Christian, Mississippi taking a nice 34 hour reset break. I walked several miles down the beach yesterday, and will do the same today. Jackson Brown once wrote a line in "Taking It Easy" that said, "Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy." Out here you have got to get away from the truck sometimes to take a break from the constant running just to make money. There has to be a balance in this OTR lifestyle, and I'm sure you will find it. Don't be a slave to that truck. Work hard when you are up to it, but take a break every now and then so that you don't burn yourself out.

You really did put together a great diary, very valuable information in here. I know it is a lot of work to do this type of diary, and I appreciate your contributions in here! Best of luck to ya Pete, I am looking forward to hearing more about your career as it progresses.

I, for one, would love to see you continue your updates as you progress. As one who is considering this profession, every inside glimpse or piece of advice I can get from someone going through it is truly invaluable. Thanks for the updates and congratulations!!

I, for one, would love to see you continue your updates as you progress. As one who is considering this profession, every inside glimpse or piece of advice I can get from someone going through it is truly invaluable. Thanks for the updates and congratulations!!

Deke, and Han Solo Cup, I did write another diary re: my bulk training with Schneider... it's titled SAGE to Schneider: a training diary quickie. It's not as in-depth as my CDL school diary, but does give some insight into the bulk/chemical unload training. If you have specific questions, don't hesitate to ask and I'll go into greater detail.