Beginning CDL Training In Massachusetts

July 11, 2017 - First day in the field

Incorrectly checked the weather before leaving the house; Brief early morning showers then clear. Took Mr. Umbrella and left Mr. Raincoat. Did not check weather 20 minutes north where the practice field is and where it was going to rain hard all day. One other guy came prepared with a raincoat. Mr. Raincoat and Mr. Umbrella are now permanent residents of Señor Trunk.

3 trucks with 3 instructors and 8 students. 2 students practicing air brakes at all times with 6 pre-tripping and later on some straight backing.

Exciting but a little scary. For the air brakes steps my memory is pretty good and there was only a couple of small slips up in remembering the proper order.. However, I've never driven standard before so the brake test on the very first go-around was really rough and consisted of struggling with the clutch to get it in first or reverse and to remember to push the clutch in when stopping (forgot like 3 times). Don't know how, but the instructor was very patient. The execution the second time around went a lot smoother.

However I also had a really hard time with trailer drift when backing up and I can already tell this is going to be a huge issue for me. More tomorrow so we'll see.

July 12, 2017

Today was an absolute nightmare.

After 2.5 days backing straight is still a huge issue for me. Every time is a disaster. I'm listening, watching, asking whatever questions pop up and understand the concept of what happens but I just can't execute. I don't have a feel for making drift corrections at all. Even getting walked through it is a little rough. I'm certainly not competing or comparing learning speed or ability with anyone else but for the sake of honesty the other 7 are doing well with definite improvement.

While aware and acknowledging both my current anxiety level and that fact that it's only day 2 I'm thinking I may need to switch to private lessons and don't think that's entirely jumping the gun or jitters. I'm not a great group learner and do better one on one when mastering something and it's almost impossible to focus only getting a few minutes at a time here and there. Need to sleep on it.

July 13, 2017

Third day in the field. We started off splitting into 2 groups and helping each other with pre-trip. My pre-trip inspection papers were destroyed in the storm a couple of days ago and they finally handed out new copies today. Going to scan these copies into a PDF file and then laminate the originals and and use a dry erase marker on them and see how it works out checking stuff off. Edit: It works awesome, but using Vis-a-Vis wet erase markers instead because it comes off easier.

After pre-trip 2 people went off to start practicing shifting while the rest of us did some straight backing and then attempted offset alleys.

I went first for straight backing and adjusted my mirrors to see less of the trailer than usual, still keeping thin sides in sight - if that makes sense. After searching old forums posts here member "Terry" had previously suggested doing that as he found that too much trailer in the mirrors can give the illusion of phantom drifting. It went a little better than yesterday but it is still a struggle. Forget the offset alleys; As usual I had to be walked through each one by the head instructor. They're pretty difficult and obviously also include straight backs anyway. Practice practice practice.

After that got a chance to practice shifting and do some laps. The instructor was a cool cat who stayed calm through the whole ride. Don't know how these guys do it! Cool Cat immediately asked about experience level with manual transmissions and familiarity with big trucks and didn't even blink an eye at my lack thereof.

Honest to god in 10 minutes Cool Cat had me double clutching up to 5th and then flipping the splitter and hitting 6th. It was rough but it definitely got a bit easier and smoother the longer we went. Was skipping from 1 to 4 a couple of times before getting the feel of it along with some total grinding misses, but getting a little bit of muscle memory and then some real quickness helped. Not having to think about the whole process so much.

Downshifting was another story. Did it a few times for sure but the muscle memory isn't there yet. Having to think out the steps is slowing the execution down and making it a bit harder. More to remember.

The route around the lots isn't a perfect circle and it was more than a little awkward making left turns and laps due to the other truck also lapping and a private student practicing maneuvers in a coach.

It's tough to shift and also pay attention to mirrors and gauges and everything else while in a decent forward motion. Every day of class further proves to me that good truck drivers are underrated, underappreciated and deserve more respect for all the distractions, weather, other drivers, terrain, techniques, knowledge and BS etc. they have to deal with. Much respect. Tractor-trailers are no joke.

A nice surprise today was finding out that I'll be heading back to work next week!!! But the schedule straddles both the weekdays and weekend classes so I'm going to be forced to switch to one-on-one instruction anyway. We'll see.

July 14, 2017

Last day in the field with group class after switching schedule to private instruction. Nailed the air brakes test twice. Felt pretty good. Ever since we got our air brake and pre-trip sheets I try and go over them at least twice a day even if it's just glancing through the items quick. Laying in bed at night I actually conduct an entire pre-trip in my head and that seems to be working pretty well and... it puts me to sleep!

More trouble straight backing today. We were pretty focused on offset alleys. The first half of my attempts at offset alley seemed to go well because following the basic procedure with cutting the wheel, sighting the cones and lines in the mirror, and aligning the tractor and trailer together is almost foolproof - but - then inevitably it requires a straight back and I still can't catch the drift in time or seem correct it! It really sucks! I've tried so many different things with the mirrors, where to look, how much to cut the wheels, it's kryptonite for sure. Hopefully with a dedicated lesson I can figure this out.

Did well enough in shifting practice today to be unleashed on the road and highway! IT FELT AMAZING.... and also felt terrifying. We pulled out of the practice field on to a long, semi-busy road that eventually dumps out down by the highway but a couple of exits up. While it was well-paved with well-painted lines (surprising for New England) it was a bit narrow and hilly. Even though we were only going 35 - 40 it felt like we were going 80. Maybe because of the hills or maybe because of the constant corrections from narrowness I could really feel the tractor and the trailer pulling and pushing on each other.

Downshifting is challenging. The concept of revving up while shifting down is awkward to embrace, I guess? About 3/4 through the drive back I randomly started revving up to upshift. For whatever reason, I don't know but it just somehow got stuck in my head. Couldn't figure out why the gears were suddenly grinding until the 3rd time doing it the instructor corrected me. Surprised the heck out of me! Just one of those things to watch out for. The ride on the highway back going 55 was much better than the back roads. The shifting was easier and the lanes had a little more room but best of all the tracking of the trailer felt so much more on point. At speed on a straight shot it stayed straight behind and wasn't all over the place.

So at the end of the day it felt amazing to get out there and experience a little real world action. Definitely a little sad to have to say some goodbyes and leave the class behind but it is what it is. Still here and still learning just changing tack.

July 18, 2017

First 2 hour lesson today and with Mr. Portable Parking Lot no less! Since traffic was pretty heavy and I felt a little rusty after 4 days since last class, PPL drove us from the school down to the 2nd training field. This practice field was huge in comparison with the field for the group class. Could see at least 3 different areas setup for maneuvers and a huge track setup for shifting practice. PPL had already asked what I felt were my strong points and weak points. Obviously straight backing and maneuvers have been very difficult while air brakes and pre-trip haven't really been an issue. He recommended we put those off for now and focus entirely on maneuvers. So that's exactly what we did.

First thing PPL had me do was back up and try and keep the tractor in line with the trailer. No lines, no cones, no worries. In-line while not really caring where it ended up. He stood back while I did this and noted what I was doing and how. Then I slid over while he jumped in, pulled up and backed up himself while moving his head constantly between the 2 west coast mirrors maybe .25 to .50 of a second the whole way back. It looked comical and a bit dizzying but that is what he wanted me to do next. Constantly checking both sides of the trailers in the mirrors the whole way back so quickly as to nearly be still processing the last mirror view while staring at the next mirror. I backed up straight for the first time!!!!! Instead of relief I actually felt more anxious because it could have been a fluke. 30 minutes and a couple of other PPL demonstrations later I had not only backed up straight half a dozen times, but had backed up within the test lines 3 times with only 1 or 2 pull ups. PPL also randomly stuck his hand through the window and put me in a bad angle to make me recover - which was challenging but amazingly wasn't a problem with the swivel.

PPL; Wherever you are tonight can't thank you enough brother.

In the group class they did things a little differently and mainly had us focusing on the driver side west coast mirror only while watching the trailer and the line gap. I don't know the psychology behind it but like I mentioned in previous entries I'm guessing my mind just couldn't get over the illusion that the trailer always looked like it was drifting one way or the other. Swiveling around non-stop to constantly check both sides definitely helped overcome that and catch actual drifting and also helped to develop a sense of how much to turn the wheel to make corrections. I noticed towards the end I was doing less swiveling and spending more time in 1 mirror or the other and it was going well. However if it really started to get out of line after over-correcting then going back to swiveling helped correct it again no problem.

It's tough to articulate the immense weight that came off my shoulders today. Not having straight backing down in the slightest after like 4+ days was really disheartening. It really feels great to make progress. With so much more to learn and practice to get good at not having to stress over that one starting area is a huge relief.