TMC CDL Training In Des Moines

Starting training at TMC in Des Moines tomorrow morning. Arrived at the hotel last night and spent most of my day today walking the property. Not much to report.

There's no food here on the weekends so if you want something to eat other than pizza that delivers, your going to have to walk about 4 miles down a state route to the nearest town (which I did). Ate some mexican food that was pretty good. Found a small whitetail shed on the way there.

Everyone is very friendly. Which I suppose is necessary when it's asses and elbows in a hotel. The parking lot was completely full and all the rooms are double occupancy. My roommate from last night left early this morning, and from what the front desk says another is on his way this evening.

Excited to start in the morning. I find myself progressively more nervous as the training gets closer. It's wheels up at 7am so I'm going to do more walking in hopes of getting a good night sleep.

A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

I move forward with anticipation.

Here's the shed I found.

Good luck and STAY OFF THE GRASS!!! For the brief time I was there that company seems to be top notch. Pay attention and follow all the rules. If the instructor gives you a 5min break make sure you are back in that classroom in your seat, not walking in the door at 5min. They are watching EVERYTHING you do. I hope it goes well for you. I will be following along..

2-21-2022 Monday

Day one is alot of activity. Mostly paperwork. Got on a bus at 7am and it was completely full. The driver took everyone's temperature and have us a covid questionnaire. The standard questions most everyone asks. After we arrived at the training center we're divided into 3 groups. Experienced drivers, people with a cdl but no experience, and those of us who have our permit but no cdl (my group).

I was told by my recruiter the first thing you do is pee in a cup. Which is a half truth. I started the morning getting breakfast at 6 and drinking about a quart of water, thinking I would need to provide a sample sometime around 730am. It turns out the first thing you do is overview what your life will be like for the next 19 days. Class schedule and the like. Then about a half out later you like up outside. Wait for a bus. Then you drive to a clinic where your only asked to go in 5 at a time and you get your dot physical and med card.

By the time I was allowed in it was close to 10 am. I was about to pop, thankfully I made it.

After the ride back to the training yard were directed over to the maintenance bay where the agility test is administered. Nothing to strenuous but the physical therapist is going to monitor you to see if your capable of being a flatbed driver. We balanced on each foot for 30 seconds each. One guy couldn't balance so he was sent home. Next was the tarp lift. You have to be able to lift the 120 lb lumber tarp put it on the trailer get up on the trailer, then lift the tarp on to a steel cool and get it off the trailer. One guy was so flush by the time he got on the trailer he looked like he was in deaths door. He didn't get to finish the test and was sent home.

After the tarps you climb a ladder on top of a steel box on the back of a trailer. Here they want to see if you can climb a ladder and walk on top of a load that's 13' 6". All of us remaining compete this with relative ease.

Then lunch. Nothing special here.

Before lunch was over we found out that one guy brought in some "outside" urine and refused to provide another sample, needless to say he got **** canned.

After lunch we filled out lots of consent forms, paperwork, and more paperwork. Then there's study modules. Cdl practice test review, combination vehicle review, basic math tests. Also lots of videos to watch. There's about 6 hours worth of video modules to watch before Thursday. During this time the instructor revives a few calls on his cell phone that all go something like this

"Hey boss..... yeah.... uh huh...... yeah we're good here.......okay.......hmmm... alright. Okay"

2 minutes later he calls someone name (the names have been changed to protect the innocent).

"Phillips! You need to go see Mr walker in his office.... down the hall past the bathrooms in the right."

Phillips comes back 5 minutes later, quietly grabs his things and is never seen again.

This happened twice. Now every time the instructors phone rings the whole class gets tense wondering who's next on the choping block.

Around 4pm the simulator training begins. This is a blast. Your sent to a room with 4 seriously nice simulators. They let you 'play' for about 20 minutes. So far this is the best thing to happen to me. I'm a huge American truck simulator fan. This setup blows mine out of the water. After the fun is back to the classroom for more study and video modules. Right before we get ready to leave for the day one guy just flat out quit. Class ended at 8pm. By the end of the day my class was whittled down to 13 people. 6 down in one day.

This day was alot of them seeing who is up to this challenge. I feel like there's alot of cage rattling. It's full of what I like to call "**** tests". They wanted us to do a 50 question test about regulations in the fmcsa booklet. Not because they want you know the intricate subsections of the handbook, but because they want to see if they can give you very explicit instructing that you will follow regardless of if you think it makes sense or not. Can we trust you with a $400k worth of vehicle and trailer and $300k worth of a customer's inventory. Will you pay attention to the details they know are important, but you the newbie, are unaware of.

I stay humble and keep my head down. Yes sir is the best answer you can give in most scenarios so far.

This is the only thing I took a picture of on day one. Although it was the only thing i did that was worth a picture. It's late already and I have an early day tomorrow. It's difficult to find time to make entries into a journal when your busy 14 hours a day. More to come later.

I'm following this closely! I nearly signed on with TMC a few years back to get my CDL. I also see them driving around town getting prepared for the CDL tests. It's always fun if I take my break at the new caseys truck stop just off 35, or the kum and go off 80/35 (where they tend to take breaks frequently) watching how enthusiastic the TMC trainees are about getting this career underway. If you have access to a vehicle I'd recommend trying out the food at 804 main in Norwalk a few miles south of where you're staying. I delivered there when I did food service and the food and staff was excellent.

2-23-2022 Wednesday

Up at 0500. Would have slept until 0600 but someone was dragging something that sounded like a steel tool box across the asphalt parking lot. Breakfast, shower, read the news. then we gather at the south entrance to get on the shuttle at 0645. Class starts at 0730. One of the instructors (George) is out today so my class of newbie cdl students is mixed in with the students who are green but have cdls from a school. Today's lesson is hours of service which lasts until lunch. After lunch there are some HOS logs that we get to take a practice test with.

So far the classroom stuff is very basic. I wish I had more trucking related topics to discuss here but that won't be for at least another day. Tomorrow is load securment and my personal favorite: more truck simulator time!

At the end of the day today my class hasn't lost anymore students but the experienced driver class lost 1 more driver. Every phone call or office personnel who comes in to the classroom makes all of us nervous. You can hear a pin drop when the instructor answers the phone during class.

The apprehension is starting to dissappear as a routine sets in. I'm not going to say I'm feeling confident because I've not done anything difficult as of yet. But I am optimistically moving forward. I'm very excited to just be able to get near the trucks. Excitement builds.

2-24-2022 Thursday

04:40 the alarm goes off, get up eat breakfast and get on the shuttle by 05:45. Class starts at 06:30. Today was an HOS test after a VERY brief review in the morning. I'm fairly sure everyone passed it.

After a break at 8 am we gather back in the classroom and go over the TMC cellphone policy. Which is essentially: don't ever touch your cell phone when your driving. No hands free device and no headsets either. That conversation goes right into the next hour. It's alot of videos that tmc captured from their dash cams. Some are accidents that were unavoidable, but most are drivers doing egregiously unsafe things behind the wheel. One guy even gets up out of his seat and walks back to the sleeper while going 64 mph down a rural route. I should mention that he crashed the truck since his model doesn't have auto pilot.

After an hour of dashcam footage load securment class starts. It's all theory at this point because we're still in a classroom and not in the maintenance bay yet. Slideshow lasts for about an hour. The instructors have really lightened up compared to Monday. They are still very serious about safety and making sure you do everything their way. But they aren't trying to scare anyone off anymore. They're trying to scare you strait. They are super focused on making sure your successful with their company.

After the load securment they start to break us up into groups of 4. Some of us are going to head into the simulators (my personal favorite), and the rest of us are finally going to get into a real truck and start backing practice. This is it, the real deal! My first time behind the wheel.

However it's been snowing hard for the last 3 hours and they decide to call it a day early. I was crestfallen, I didn't get any simulator time and never made it out to a truck. All the students pack their things and we all stuff into the shuttle back to the hotel.

However, there's some good news when I get back to my room. I got an email from tmc with a receipt from my first "paycheck", $450! Its not a big check, but it's a big emotional win for me.

I'm starting to really enjoy it here. Everyone is super nice and the instructors are easy to talk to. I went from feeling like a lost child in the woods to relaxed to excited in the span of about 4 days. I pray that my abilities improve and I succeed with TMC. I can really see myself working here for many years to come.

Congrats, Old J. !!!

I guess they ARE keeping you, they paid you & didn't BILL you, haha!!

Seriously, it seems like things are really taking off on GREAT notes for you; super happy to hear.

Best wishes forward!

~ Anne & Tom ~

Congrats Old J. Just had a few questions about TMC, I am 48 starting a carrier change from being a Auto Technician for 30 years and started Cdl school. Looking at flatbed trucking to stay active plus I enjoy a challenge. TMC was my num 1 choice which I applied and got approved. However kinda concerned by the number of people I hear get sent home on day 1 lol. Biggest question I have is this Math test is it a pass or fail ? And what kinda math should I brush up on ? Never was my strong suit in school and haven't been in school for many Years. Any other tips to get me past orientation would be great ! Thanks