On Board With Knight Transportation, Squire School Started 03/22/21
Topic 29854 | Page 3
Correction...no policy on shoes other than no open toed shoes
Week 3 Day 2
Morning went excellent, Backing maneuvers evaluation (mock test) zero points, totally comfortable.
Afternoon was awesome. Only two of us left in our week's class. We took a long drive out to Gila Bend, cool little town. Got to experience a wide range of driving, traffic and scenery. Really relaxing drive and did a little sight seeing. Drove on I 10, local freeways, rural roads and highways, city streets. On the way back, I drove by the the big Walmart DC outside of Phoenix. It was a tad windy on the way back, but nothing too bad, I felt able to adjust to it, All our driving and backing practice is with a 53' empty. Later model Volvo Autos with the D13. Also caught a little bit of traffic around Phoenix, but nothing bad, slowed to 25-30 in a couple areas on the 202. We each got a couple of hours of driving solid in. One of those days that really cements why I want this lifestyle and career.
I test tomorrow, I feel comfortable and think I have reasonable expectations going into it. The instructor for my Top Gun training called me, I got accepted into the program, (pending a passing result on the test tomorrow) He sent me schedule for next week, its intense and goes over all the training questions that have been buzzing around my head. Im looking forward to it.
I will move out of my comfy hotel room Sunday and be staying in one of the trucks in the yard for next week. Assuming successful completion of Top Gun, I will return home to Aurora CO and then be out for two weeks with a trainer. Upon completion of that, I will do 30k miles solo on my own truck under the care of a Driver Developer Manager (or Mentor?) . If I had not got selected for top gun or chose to go, I would have done 4 weeks with a trainer and then the 30k solo.
Im the tall skinny bow legged guy in the pics lol.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
^^^^^^ AWWWHHHH!!! Nice pix! (Can I get your diet regimen?!?)
LoL.... You are FIT, not skinny! (I'd love to be tall & thin, jsyk...)
Kudos, from the 'Buckeye!' I WISH YOU THE BEST, TOP GUN !!!!!!
(No 'Gila monsters,' tho . . . . ?!?!?!? (j/k!))
~ Anne ~
ps: On a real note; major congrats~!!! All jokes aside. Amazing journey. You've fared quite well, imho.
Week 3 Day 3.
Tested today, passed, 7 points off on pre trip, not even sure what they were. 0 points off on backing, 10 points off on the driving. (couple of lane drifts, lack of smoothness, couple wide turns). But passed. Stoked. Have a shiny new CDL....now off for the weekend and back at the terminal on Monday for Top Gun Training, revised schedule, we start at 0600.
Stoked and looking forward to the next phase of learning and development.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Terminal:
A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.
Awesome!!!
OK, forgive me...I am confused. What is "Top Gun" training? You have your CDL - I assumed the next step would be actual OTR Training.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
OK, forgive me...I am confused. What is "Top Gun" training? You have your CDL - I assumed the next step would be actual OTR Training.
Top Gun is a new training program that Knight has. Its a week long, 10 hours a day. Its concentrated training much more in depth on parking, backing , ELD, city driving, precision driving, shippers, EFS card, lumpers, and more. We will sleep at night in the Trucks on the lot. There is a course description in the photos a couple replies back. Its both simulators and driving, and range time. As far as I understand, there is a 60 % reduction in accidents and backing incidents between CDL grads who have taken the program compared to those that havent. If you go through the program, you only do two weeks with a trainer OTR, (more if you desire) and then go on to 30k miles solo under the guidance of a DDM prior to moving out of the Squire program and becoming a Knight driving associate. I asked my recruiter today if there is a road test between training and the 30k solo and or at the end of the solo. He said he doesnt believe so, but there are requirements that do need to be met along the way. In addition to the training, we have a ton of training assignments to complete through the portal from the looks of it.
During school, we could see the Top Gun guys doing backing and exercises at the other end of the range often. They looked like they were doing a variety of different types of backs and parking, not just standard stuff. Also in AZ, we only test on straight back, offset, and parallel, and only to one side (drivers for offset, blind side for parallel). So we come out of school without knowing how to do 90 and 45 alley docks or have gotten experience parking and just get a quick run through on other stuff.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Shipper:
The customer who is shipping the freight. This is where the driver will pick up a load and then deliver it to the receiver or consignee.
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
Thank you for taking the time to respond. I am going to be applying for Knight soon. I had never heard of the Top Gun portion...I like the concept.
OK, forgive me...I am confused. What is "Top Gun" training? You have your CDL - I assumed the next step would be actual OTR Training.
Top Gun is a new training program that Knight has. Its a week long, 10 hours a day. Its concentrated training much more in depth on parking, backing , ELD, city driving, precision driving, shippers, EFS card, lumpers, and more. We will sleep at night in the Trucks on the lot. There is a course description in the photos a couple replies back. Its both simulators and driving, and range time. As far as I understand, there is a 60 % reduction in accidents and backing incidents between CDL grads who have taken the program compared to those that havent. If you go through the program, you only do two weeks with a trainer OTR, (more if you desire) and then go on to 30k miles solo under the guidance of a DDM prior to moving out of the Squire program and becoming a Knight driving associate. I asked my recruiter today if there is a road test between training and the 30k solo and or at the end of the solo. He said he doesnt believe so, but there are requirements that do need to be met along the way. In addition to the training, we have a ton of training assignments to complete through the portal from the looks of it.
During school, we could see the Top Gun guys doing backing and exercises at the other end of the range often. They looked like they were doing a variety of different types of backs and parking, not just standard stuff. Also in AZ, we only test on straight back, offset, and parallel, and only to one side (drivers for offset, blind side for parallel). So we come out of school without knowing how to do 90 and 45 alley docks or have gotten experience parking and just get a quick run through on other stuff.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Shipper:
The customer who is shipping the freight. This is where the driver will pick up a load and then deliver it to the receiver or consignee.
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
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Week 3 Day 1
Road test evaluation (mock exam). Went well as I expected to. I got dinged for a total of 20 points, with 30 available to miss. Mostly right hand turns were a tad wide, I expected that to be the case, But Id rather be wide that auto-fail for running over a curb, so I dont think Ill vary much from that strategy. I Narrowed them up in practice after the test but Im focusing on strategy. I do feel comfortable that I will pass based on my performance today, but Im not going to push it either way, meaning, I dont want to be over confident and I also dont want to try so hard that loose sight of the goal...to obtain my CDL. The other area that needed some work was just relaxing and smoothing out throttle and steering inputs.
I switched from my heavy steel toed work boots to a pair of shoes, but they are very grippy, I was able to have much better inputs with the shoes, however Im going to go to Wally World tonight and get ones with less aggressive tread so that I can feel the pedals even better. Knight has no policy on shoes, so its in keeping with company policy.
Afternoon was spent practicing on the pad for our backing maneuvers. I was able to do the entire afternoon without looking at the pad, am able to put the trailer where and I when I want it, without pull ups and without any other GOALs than are prescribed in the exercise instructions. I feel very ready for this portion of the test. I also feel very secure in pre-trip inspection. If I recall correctly, we do the entire pre trip for our test, and we have been tested as that.
Tomorrow is practice again for all three portions of the exam. I feel confident. Love that I am learning and really enjoying the experience of school, driving and skills acquisition. I also really enjoy pre trip, the parts and processes make sense to me. I test on Thursday at 0830, although the school thought that we test tomorrow, either way Im good with it, getting excited. Also, confirmed for Top Gun Training (assuming I pass my CDL test) next week.
Pre-trip Inspection:
A pre-trip inspection is a thorough inspection of the truck completed before driving for the first time each day.
Federal and state laws require that drivers inspect their vehicles. Federal and state inspectors also may inspect your vehicles. If they judge a vehicle to be unsafe, they will put it “out of service” until it is repaired.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
OOS:
When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.