Introduction Followed By Millis Training Institute Diary.(Cartersville, GA)

Goodluck sir. You seem to have a great attitude i look forward to reading up on your journey if you get some time.

Cartersville is the nicest Millis terminal. I was through there many times while I drove for the company. Enjoy your training.

Awake at 530 to be done with my morning routine once breakfast starts at the hotel at 6. There is another company that houses teams starting orientation so felt like I needed to be there early. Breakfast exceeded expectations there was actually hot food, proteins and not just carbs or cold cereal. Met my roommate in the lobby this morning, he lives pretty close so he is commuting except perhaps the days we night drive. Trainers arrive a little after 7 in the company van. This class is 5 students which I am pleased about I expected a class of at least double that size and worried beforehand that time behind the wheel would be limited. Got to the terminal did roll call and made introductions. Then back to the van for a trip to the pee in a cup place. Back to the terminal about an hour later, previously mentioned teams in orientation were at the same occupational medical facility and had arrived before us. Then the paperwork, lots and lots of paperwork. In fact we had a short break and I tried to text in for reinforcements from HomeHalf (more on her shortly). Once ALL of the signing was done and legible we went for lunch to a pretty good Mexican buffet.

The afternoon was spent in hour chunks going over slides and working from the textbook. We also spent a bit of time looking at triggering events from the in cab/outward facing cameras. Homework was assigned and the keys to the van were given to a student and back to the hotel we went. I did catch myself a few times gawking at those beautiful maroon KW's outside on the yard this afternoon. Gonna have to position myself with my back to the window tomorrow.

Homework is done, calls to home have been made, and dinner has been scarfed. Still an important video call to make but wanted to get this written. Thank you all for reading and I will update as i can.

I really want to thank everyone again, my wife known as HomeHalf posted here and not surprisingly the TT family has again exceeded expectations. When I first suggested for her to write she looked at me like I was nuts asking her to air her concerns with people she didn't know. You are all so helpful and honest. I really wish I could do more for each of you than just a thank you.

That's a great report Pete! Thanks for doing this. You'd be surprised at how many people will be helped by you detailing your experience.

Thanks for posting Pete. I appreciate the diary more than you know with me starting next week. Its good to have an idea of what to expect this close to my start date. I think I also saw a post in general with someones husband starting in a few weeks as well. The low student number sounds like a great thing and fingers crossed for the same next week in Richfield. I know you're extremely busy and take care of studying and sleep first and foremost but if you get a few minutes this diary will be super helpful and I really appreciate it.

Day 2 still lots of class work. Day started with paper logs for us and going over the HOS. We then did few hypothetical logs with the instructor filling them out and asking us if it was within the HOS guidelines. With a class of just 5 I really appreciate how easy it is to get every question answered as there is no rush trying to keep up with a schedule. Next we started working on trip planning and using the ten pound atlas. Had a page of trips and space for each trip for us to write the route we would choose. I did learn today that if I drove to Frankfort Illinois instead West Frankfort Illinois I would be several hours from my destination. That was my first moment in two days of school that I wanted to shout "WHAT A DUMBASS" at myself, i have no doubt that there will be more to come but that one was noteworthy.

We had lunch in the middle of the trip planning exercises. Today was a buffet country style/southern food and was good stuff. The afternoon consisted of slides and discussion on shifting, coupling/uncoupling, communication, and navigating intersections. Homework has been based on the slides and discussion we've had in class each day. The instructor says we are progressing nicely and may be able to spend all of Friday backing. I am seriously hoping that does happen but if not I'll roll with the punches and plug away at whatever they put in front of me.

Thanks again for reading hope this helps anyone interested. If you have questions about Millis Transfer or Millis Training Institute please ask. I will answer what I can but I'm also not afraid to say I don't know.

Day 3

The day started by changing our duty status on our logs. Then we went over the trip plan that was homework. Then to the yard. Learning to properly double clutch , and downshift while turning laps in the yard was a challenge at the start. After we each took a little time behind the wheel we split up and two of us got into a different 10 speed. I think all of us were happy about the progress we made, I know I was. The real challenge for me personally was forgetting everything I knew about operating manual transmissions, the more laps I was able to turn the better it got.

Lunch today was a trip to Zaxby's. After lunch we each took a turn coupling, hooking up the lines, sliding the tandems , and uncoupling. Meanwhile everyone else was back to turning laps. I was the last to couple so when I uncoupled instructor said ok do laps in this one, so we had three trucks turning laps. The time on the yard ended with the two training trucks backing under a couple trailers and me backing the Lightweight into an empty spot. Home work was assigned and duty status was updated, and back to the hotel we went.

Thanks again for reading. I hope you all have a great evening.

Great posts you have been putting here for others to read and think about.

Thanks for the updates Pete. I do have a question though. How much time have you guys spent on pretrip? Ive been studying the guide on here but I think doing it in front of a truck qould be a big help.

Thanks for the updates Pete. I do have a question though. How much time have you guys spent on pretrip? Ive been studying the guide on here but I think doing it in front of a truck qould be a big help.

I felt the exact same way, I studied it repeatedly but still felt like it would help me more to be in front of the truck. Had pre trip homework tonight, so it will be classwork tomorrow learning the verbage(which if you have gone through Daniel B's pre trip pdf a couple times you have down most likely) and then out to the yard for PTI on trucks.