Packing To Go With Trainer.....

Ok, guys and gals, I am packing. Tomorrow, I head out to meet my trainer Monday morning. With much thought, I am still leaning toward carrying a lot of shorts and collard shirts. My thought process is to wear shorts while I drive for comfort. When I have to get out of the truck to work, I will throw on my carhart bibs and coat. The advantages to the shorts are they take up less space and are comfortable. I am going to carry 2 or 3 pairs of jeans. Does this seem like a good strategy? I found an awesome 40 degree sleeping bag that will roll up really small. I am trying really hard to have one 30 inch duffel bag for the time with the trainer. Being a guest in his truck, I am trying to avoid taking too much space. The only other bag I plan to carry is my back pack. It will have some books and paper and my laptop. Taking sneakers for driving and a nice steel toe boot pair. (required for flatbed) Suggestions? Advice? What do you do for food? Should I just wait and see what the trainer suggests about food? I really don't want to eat out for the entire two weeks.

Best of luck out there. Which company are you starting with?

Roehl.... I have a training diary in the diary section on here if you are interested.

CDL Training Diaries Forum

We have a series of articles that talk about Items To Pack For The Road which will give you some good ideas. You're right - you definitely want to pack lightly for your time in training. Make sure to ask the company if they have any recommendations also.

I would say your selection of clothing sounds pretty good. If you have a laptop you may be able to use Kindle books instead of carrying some with you, depending on what books you're referring to. You may not have a Kindle option.

I wouldn't worry about the food just yet unless you want to bring a dozen granola bars or some other dry snacks to munch on in the beginning. The trainer will surely make a stop at a store to let you stock up on some dry foods. You don't want to carry too much of that kind of stuff with you though until you know how much room he has and what the strategy will be for stocking up.

Wine Taster, I agree with Brett on the food. When I was with a trainer he had a refrigerator and he fixed a lot of his meals in one of those Burton cookers while we were rolling down the road. What he did was stop at a Wal-mart and we shared the bill on groceries. It will all depend on how your trainer operates. I see some guys out on the road who eat out all the time, if you get a trainer like that you can go along with his program or you can make a stop where you can stock up on a few things to eat.

The sleeping bag is a great idea, and trying to pack it all in a small duffel is wise. Two people on a truck gets crowded and your trainer will already have the truck loaded down. A lot of the places you get loaded at with a flat-bed do not allow short pants to be worn, so just be prepared to wear those bibs you mentioned at shippers and receivers. Remember, what ever you bring you will be sleeping with it on your bunk, because your trainer will already have all the cabinet space used up.

Brett,

The books I have are the ones from school. Hazmat , emergency guide, securement rules, atlas. I am sure my trainer will have some of these already but I wanted mine for reference and for jotting notes beside important parts.

Old School,

I have not talked to my trainer yet. My FM said he should have called me yesterday. I talked to a weekend FM just a but ago. I was taking care of some EFS stuff. She sent him a message to cal because he was driving. I had really just wanted to make sure nothing in the plan had changed. I hope he doesn't feel like I am being pushy when he gets that message. I told the FM it wasn't that big of a deal but she sent the message anyway. When he does contact me, I will ask about the food and space.

Thanks for all the help guys! I am a little nervous now. Not sure what to expect living in a truck with a person I don't know for a couple of weeks. I still have so much to learn. Old School sold me the flatbed crack and now I got to figure all the securement stuff out too. On top of that, I have to make those tarps look pretty to impress Old School. If I don't, I am scared he will post a picture about how sloppy this guys tarps look. Then I will see it and have to say, "Man that is horrible!" Even though I know it is my truck in the picture.

Wine taster, I got a great instructor for my student part of training. We are now a team while I am in the training phase of everything. As far as my clothes go I have about 7 each of jeans, shirts, socks and underwear. I got one small cabinet on the truck for my clothes to fit in. Everything else is at the foot of my bunk. Hope that gives you an idea of what I packed. And my PSD phase was 5 weeks out on the truck.

No reason to bring so many pieces of clothing. Most truckers wear the same thing for a whole week.

No reason to bring so many pieces of clothing. Most truckers wear the same thing for a whole week.

You might but not me. I change every 2 days when I take showers.