CRST Expedited Trucking School And Training Program Cedar Rapids, IA. A (re) Training Diary By Millionmiler24

Millionmiler asked:

So just to clarify, I handled this correctly?

The part about impeding traffic; yes.

Ok. Thanks so much G-Town. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much for your continued service on here if I don't say it enough.

06/26/2017:

Less than 36 hours until judgment day. I am SO EXCITED yet NERVOUS at the same time for my skills test(s) on Wednesday June 28th. Today I woke up at 05:20 to get a small breakfast and then got on the first shuttle to NADTA. Today we got to do another road drive and also some more backing practice. Todays MAIN focus is Pretrip, Pretrip and MORE PRETRIP. I got In Cab down ok, Form A ok, some of form B and some of Form C and I need a LOT of work pretripping the coupling system. Its all simple, I am just trying to memorize it all. I was on the backing range first today, however before I got to back, I was working on memorizing Form A and B since they had a couple of bobtails sitting there. I got that down until I was called for road training. I went out with the road instructor for our carousel and I got so much better between the last time and now its crazy. I still need a little work on downshifting and to make it easier to get going quicker I took off in 4th instead of 3rd. After all, conditions were ideal and we had an EMPTY trailer. I watched my speed and didn't go 10 under unless I was exiting the highway or setting up for a left or right turn. We did the emergency stop scenario again and I ACED that so that was quick. I am glad I got that down now. So just my downshifting and I still signaled too early for one turn and started downshifting way too early also at one intersection. I let the instructor know and he said the first step towards correcting what's wrong is me admitting what I am doing wrong and realizing that I am doing that. He was glad I knew what I was doing. That makes his job so much easier. After all they are busting their butts teaching us. I want to make their job as easy as possible. One way I can do that is PASS these tests on the FIRST attempt and free up slots I would use the next day just in case of failure for someone else who needs A LOT MORE PRACTICE.

Now on to backing.....today wasn't as good of a day on the 90 as I would have liked. I believed at first that it was the fact that I was on Carousel 2 instead of 3 and that confused me because that carousel is facing an opposite direction from Carousel 3. Anyway in the end, I ANALYZED MY MOVE and realized that it WAS NOT the Carousel but my setup. I pulled up too far from my objective. The instructor walked me into the hole and I learned BIG from my mistake because at the end of the practice day, the Lead Manager of the school helped us through where we were going wrong on backing and he took basically what that lead instructor that was really technical said and truly broke it down and made us understand it one step at a time. Now I think tomorrow when I practice my 90s I will understand it SO MUCH BETTER.

When our class (Class 203) was dismissed today, EVERYONE ELSE ran back to the training center. I was the ONLY one that stayed behind and practiced my PRETRIP some more and I observed the last backing practice for Class 204 today and ANALYZED what the Lead Manager said and sure enough, I saw that in action and was able to understand it. Now for me to implement it tomorrow when I do my 90 again.

One Important note and this goes to show you how good NADTA (North American Driver Training Academy) really is: I was coming into this with 2.5yrs of OTR experience in the last 5 years and I feel I have learned MORE IN THE LAST 1.5 TO 2 WEEKS HERE AT NADTA than I EVER DID WHEN I WAS OTR THE FIRST TIME. NADTA is LITERALLY that GOOD of a SCHOOL. I asked for reference and our permit instructor for Class 203 said that if you wanted to, you could come there for training and pay the tuition UP FRONT and not be affiliated with CRST if you wish. You could just be a NADTA graduate and move on to your own company as LONG AS you PAY UP FRONT BEFORE coming to school. I would have to confirm that with the Manager of the school. I told him and that lead manager about me being able to learn more there than being OTR and they took that as a HUGE COMPLIMENT. I spoke the truth. If you want a LEGENDARY CDL EDUCATION, come to NADTA. Anyway I am going to close out this RATHER LONG update. Until Tomorrow, remember: Stay safe out there at all times, pretrip like there is no tomorrow, back as safely as possible (remember GOAL (Get Out And Look)), and DRIVE SAFELY AT ALL TIMES!

Millionmiler24 wrote:

I was coming into this with 2.5yrs of OTR experience in the last 5 years and I feel I have learned MORE IN THE LAST 1.5 TO 2 WEEKS HERE AT NADTA than I EVER DID WHEN I WAS OTR THE FIRST TIME. NADTA is LITERALLY that GOOD of a SCHOOL.

Although your enthusiasm is really awesome, infectious; if the above statement is true, your 2.5 years of OTR experience was from the passenger seat. I seriously doubt that was the case.

I get your point; great school, and you want everyone to know it. However like all the others, they teach the basics necessary to pass the CDL tests, not much more than that. They cannot teach loaded operation, real time trip planning, interaction with shippers/receivers, communication process and above all else living on the road.

If someone brand new to the forum read your post it coukd mislead them into believing once through school they are ready for solo operation. Not so...

Not trying to dampen your spirit, but please temper your enthusiasm a bit and not cross the line from factual sharing to selling.

Millionmiler24 wrote:

I was coming into this with 2.5yrs of OTR experience in the last 5 years and I feel I have learned MORE IN THE LAST 1.5 TO 2 WEEKS HERE AT NADTA than I EVER DID WHEN I WAS OTR THE FIRST TIME. NADTA is LITERALLY that GOOD of a SCHOOL.

Although your enthusiasm is really awesome, infectious; if the above statement is true, your 2.5 years of OTR experience was from the passenger seat. I seriously doubt that was the case.

I get your point; great school, and you want everyone to know it. However like all the others, they teach the basics necessary to pass the CDL tests, not much more than that. They cannot teach loaded operation, real time trip planning, interaction with shippers/receivers, communication process and above all else living on the road.

If someone brand new to the forum read your post it coukd mislead them into believing once through school they are ready for solo operation. Not so...

Not trying to dampen your spirit, but please temper your enthusiasm a bit and not cross the line from factual sharing to selling.

I understand completely G-Town. I meant about just the DRIVING SAFELY part. They cant teach ANY of the above you listed. ONLY TRUE OTR experience can teach those skills. That is why we stick with our FIRST company for BARE MINIMUM of 1 YEAR. Am I correct in this assessment? Please correct me if I am not. I am asking for clarification.

06/27/2017:

Well, its less than 24 hrs until JUDGMENT DAY! I am ready to get these tests PASSED all on the FIRST attempt. I am not wanting the white hat, I just want my CDL so I can move on to orientation then to my lead driver and then to my full time co driver. Anyway, today, I woke up at 0515 and boarded the first shuttle to NADTA. Then I had a cup of coffee and got ready to get started at 0615 for practice training. How it worked when the lead manager was setting up times to practice was that it was going by when you test and what the instructors said you need the most work on. My skill they felt I needed the most work on was Backing, so I was assigned a 20 min backing practice at 1045 on Carousel 4. I got it into the hole better than the other day on carousel 2 because I implemented the methods of the lead manager and it worked better. I could understand where I went wrong from the other day. I was still a little off on my setup, however I got it in the hole without hitting something. At the end of the day, that is what counts. This backing practice was a mock test. I got 9 points total which was good enough to pass. If you get 12 or more points, you fail. As long as your points are BELOW 12, you pass and can move on to the road test. I unfortunately did not get a road practice in today. I still feel I need more work on Pretrip and backing are the most troublesome skills for me so far. Driving once I get better at downshifting is a piece of cake. Just be careful, drive safely, dont coast on the clutch or out of gear and you should be golden. I am REALLY NERVOUS however also REALLY EXCITED to test tomorrow. I sure hope and PRAY TO GOD that I PASS the FIRST time. I want to get this over with and move on. Please I am ASKING you all....no I am BEGGING you all: PLEASE PRAY FOR ME TO PASS EVERYTHING TOMORROW. I REALLY NEED THIS. Until tomorrow please stay safe out there at all times.

Millionmiler24 wrote:

I was coming into this with 2.5yrs of OTR experience in the last 5 years and I feel I have learned MORE IN THE LAST 1.5 TO 2 WEEKS HERE AT NADTA than I EVER DID WHEN I WAS OTR THE FIRST TIME. NADTA is LITERALLY that GOOD of a SCHOOL.

Although your enthusiasm is really awesome, infectious; if the above statement is true, your 2.5 years of OTR experience was from the passenger seat. I seriously doubt that was the case.

I get your point; great school, and you want everyone to know it. However like all the others, they teach the basics necessary to pass the CDL tests, not much more than that. They cannot teach loaded operation, real time trip planning, interaction with shippers/receivers, communication process and above all else living on the road.

If someone brand new to the forum read your post it coukd mislead them into believing once through school they are ready for solo operation. Not so...

Not trying to dampen your spirit, but please temper your enthusiasm a bit and not cross the line from factual sharing to selling.

I understand completely G-Town. I meant about just the DRIVING SAFELY part. They cant teach ANY of the above you listed. ONLY TRUE OTR experience can teach those skills. That is why we stick with our FIRST company for BARE MINIMUM of 1 YEAR. Am I correct in this assessment? Please correct me if I am not. I am asking for clarification.

You are correct.

Take a look at these links: First year

06/28/2017:

Well today was Judgment day for me. I woke up at 0500 to catch the shuttle so I could be at NADTA by 0615. The morning started off extremely rainy however I obviously survived it. When "class" began at 0615, we had a list for today just like it was yesterday. My backing practice was on Carousel 3 at 0845. However I was told to wait in the breakroom because they would be calling me for my PTI skills test. They came and got me about 15 minutes later. I went through the PTI and PASSED it with 44 out of 47 possible points. So 1 test down 2 to go. I missed the lighting indicators on the in cab portion due to testing anxiety, however I got through everything else ok when it came to PTI. I got lucky and got Form A just like I prayed for. When the first part of Form A was the Lights and Reflectors, you are supposed to ask your examiner: "Do you want me to conduct a light check?" NORMALLY they say NO due to time constraints and the amount of people testing. However my examiner had me run through the light check at the end of my PTI so we could do it. I am glad I remembered to ask him. A lot of people forget to do that. I think he wanted me to so I could make up for the fact that I missed the Lighting Indicators section of the In Cab. Oh well, I got that done, so that was a BIG load off of my shoulders.

On to my backing practice. The instructor asked me what do I need the most work on when it came to backing and you know I told him just like everyone else, that INFAMOUS 90. I did my practice 90 and got 10 points because I had an encroachment and I think I was 6 pullups over the limit, but I got it in. That is what the practice runs are for: get the mistakes out of your system and learn from them. Then after that, I got to do a practice road test. I messed up on a turn because I stopped and had "Impeded" traffic because I am so used to stopping for turns. After all I am driving a 40 ton truck. I got to be SAFE at ALL TIMES. If that had NOT happened and that had been my road test, I would have passed. After we got back, I watched some more people do 90s and got in some great observations. After that, it was lunch time.

When we got back from lunch, we were in the classroom to watch some more videos about situations where there were a lot of close calls involved. The same lead instructor that initially did our backing class that first week told us that in those situations, the Smith System is very IMPORTANT. If those drivers had been using the Smith System, they would have better avoided those close calls. Anyway after those were over, a DOT examiner, NOT a NADTA Instructor/Examiner called on me for my backing test. I was super nervous but I took a deep breath and she explained the rules of the test and then had me loop the truck around the first 2 carousels and to setup by turning into the offset lane and keep it straight. She had me stop there and had to go and get something and when she came back, I began my test. The INFAMOUS 90. I got it started just like I was taught by all instructors backing. When I got to step 2 I thought I had messed up and hit the cone on the outside of the alley. However I was just DANGEROUSLY close to it. I pivoted to get the DOT bumper away from that cone and then I thought my front tandem was too close to the center of the alley when its supposed to be closer to the left (inside) cone. So I took a gamble, stopped, pushed (turned to the left to get trailer to go right) just a little and I was so glad when the DOT bumper broke the plane on the alley because that meant I could use one of my free pullups and fix the error. I pulled up as far as I could possibly do it and still be within the boundaries and to my avail, what was left was a modified offset right back. I thought oh yeah I actually got this. I started offsetting it into the alley and got far enough back and did my 2nd and FINAL pullup and then OMG it turned into a straight line back. I utilized a hashmark reference point and got my DOT bumper BARELY into the 3 ft box and gave the thumbs up. She walked over to me and said you were BARELY in the box. You were in though. I was straight and I had NAILED THE 90 ON MY DOT SKILLS TEST!!!!! OMG I WAS BANANAS AT THAT MOMENT!!!!!!! Anyway, then she had me set up for my straight line back. That was SUPER EASY as I thought. I did that with no pullups and no GOALs. My 90 was done with 2 pullups and NO GOALs used. Then she had me pull forward and set up for my offset. When I got it set up and did the first push and then the first pivot, I saw that my driver side tandems were a little too close to the left. I started walking the trailer in there until I broke the DOT plane. Then I took a much needed pullup. I got set much better and then walked it in better and broke the plane again. Then I took my last pullup and then straight backed it in to the first set of cones and gave the thumbs up and I knew in my mind I JUST PASSED my BACKING SKILLS TEST on the FIRST TRY!!!! OMG was I excited. I asked her how many points I got and she said zero. I had a look of shock on my face and I said you mean I got a PERFECT SCORE?! She said yes. I GOT A PERFECT SCORE ON MY BACKING TEST!!!! OMG I couldn't believe I had did that. Was I SO glad that was finally over. I went back into the classroom after it was all said and done. The whole thing took only 15 minutes and that was counting the time I had to wait for my examiner to come back outside. She was super cool.

Cont'd on next post....

06/28/2017 cont'd:

I told her Thanks so much and it was an honor to test with her today. I couldn't believe it. I went back into the classroom and the lead instructor asked me if I got it passed and I told him yes, I got a PERFECT score and I also let him know that the next student needed to report to the examiner at Carousel 2. Then I sat down and we watched a few more close call videos and then he dismissed us all unless we were waiting to test. I went to the break room and waited to be taken out for my road test.

About 1.5 hrs passed and then I was finally called to take my road test. I am REALLY NERVOUS at this point but the test starts out smoothly until I get to one intersection where I got to make a right turn: There were 2 right turn lanes. Instead of being into the one on my left to make it easier to swing out wide, I am in the rightmost one. I didn't want to take a chance and take out a bunch of cars trying to make that turn so I stood there with a green light until traffic cleared and made my turn. Since that was classified as IMPEDING TRAFFIC, I unfortunately got an AUTOMATIC FAIL on the first attempt on my road test. I also had some problems with my downshifting. However my examiner told me that had I not impeded traffic there at that turn, I would have PROBABLY PASSED. Oh well, lesson learned. I would much rather take an automatic failure on that test than make that turn and end up taking out 5 or 6 cars with the left side of my trailer. I get to try again tomorrow. Hopefully I dont make the same mistakes I did today and I can pass this road test tomorrow.

To close out this update, things didn't go as planned but oh well the way I see it: I think God wanted this to happen so I could learn from it. I thanked my examiner and told him I wish I could have given you a better drive but I really appreciated the input and that tomorrow I hope I dont make the same mistakes again.

Let what I have said above there sink in. In a previous update on this diary, I stated I had 2.5 yrs of OTR experience within the last 5yrs coming into this school and EVEN I couldn't pass this road test the FIRST time. THAT is truly how difficult this road test really is. Your examiner really wants to make 100% sure you can DRIVE THAT TRUCK SAFELY and by the LAW at ALL TIMES. This road test is NO JOKE. It is the HARDEST part of this journey. My advice to new students coming into any Truck driving school: take advantage of EVERY opportunity you can to practice your skills on the road. Ask the instructors questions on where you are going wrong and thank them for their input. They are there for one reason: to make sure you succeed and get your license.

Anyway, this day didn't go the way I planned however I sure learned a lot today and now I should have a much better understanding about what I need to work on and hopefully when I publish tomorrows update I will be a new CDL holder here in Iowa. Please CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR ME. I NEED GODS HELP AGAIN TOMORROW TO PASS MY ROAD TEST. I am BEGGING you all, PLEASE pray for me. Thanks so much for all of your support. Until tomorrow, stay safe out there at ALL TIMES.

I'm amazed that you took a right turn from the turn lane to the left. In my state that alone would have failed you. We were taught to always use the lane farthest to the right when it's a multiple lane turn lane, whether we're turning left or right. Also any omission or error on incab is an automatic failure where I live, as well.

Anyway, you'll nail that road test perfectly tomorrow. I have full confidence in you. You know how to do this stuff.. it's like riding a bicycle.

I'm amazed that you took a right turn from the turn lane to the left. In my state that alone would have failed you. We were taught to always use the lane farthest to the right when it's a multiple lane turn lane, whether we're turning left or right. Also any omission or error on incab is an automatic failure where I live, as well.

Anyway, you'll nail that road test perfectly tomorrow. I have full confidence in you. You know how to do this stuff.. it's like riding a bicycle.

The way the intersection was set up was that there were 2 lanes in which I could make a right turn. The rules that the DOT state is a CMV must make a turn in the outside lane. In other words if you are making a left turn and there are two lanes and which you can make a left turn from you must use the outermost one. In other words if there are two left turn Lanes you will turn out of the one that is on your right the rightmost one. For a right turn set up in the same scenario you would make a turn out of the left-most right turn lane. The reason you would do this or the reason that DOT would ask you to do this is because the extra turning distance you would get from making a turn in this manner would help with the trailers off tracking. I messed up on that maneuver because I am so used to making right turns out of the right lane. It is a simple live and learn situation. I lived through it and learned from it. I just hope that tomorrow when I retake my road skills test that I will not make the same mistakes again and I will walk out of there with my CDL in hand. Thank you so much for your support on here I greatly appreciate it and once again congratulations on your promotion to Moderator. That promotion is definitely well earned on your part.