A.B. CDL Driving School (CT)

Hello all,

Today was the first day of my CDL training school. I will attempt to give you as much information and insight into this privately run CDL school, it may or may not be different than they company sponsored schools, but hopefully it can be informative.

Today was an "orientation day". This school is accredited and according to the director, he is required to hold an orientation portion on day one. I don't know if that differs from other schools, but that is his arrangement.

We watched four videos in the morning from 0700 to about 1130, he had us take a break until 1230, which to me is an exceedingly long lunch break.

In they afternoon, we started the CDL manual in Section Two and watched one video about the Pre-trip inspection. All-in-all, not too bad a first day. Our permit tests are scheduled for Friday this week.

That's it for tonight, I'll post again tomorrow.

Day Two:

We continued with the "Driving Safely" section of the manual today and saw a couple of video presentations. I know classroom instruction is necessary and informative, and I do get something out of it, but alas, it isn't much different for me than it was 30+ years ago in high school, I do have a great deal of difficulty with that way of learning. I am much stronger and retain more when it is hands-on.

Our permit test are to be done on Friday, then I suspect we begin outside in the yard next week.

We had a recruiter from J.B. Hunt in to see us this afternoon and give her presentation of the company. It seems like a strong and well diversified outfit with many different types of freight accounts. I company I should look into with more vigor. I had applied to them already but failed to follow up.

Day Three:

We completed Section Two today, as well as Section Three and we also covered Section Five, Air Brakes. We are to review Section Five tonight and review that tomorrow. Then we will do Section Six and Ten tomorrow and review all those sections for our permit test on Friday.

Saw several videos today covering topics on Air Brakes, Cargo Containment, Flatbed Securement and one on Emergencies.

I took a few minutes on my lunch break to go speak with some of the trainees on the yard course from two previous classes. They were informative and one was ready to complete this Friday and get moving in his career. Unfortunately for him it didn't seem like he made a definitive decision what company he was going with, it sounds like possibly Crete/Schafer.

It was a good day all in all.

Day Four:

We reviewed section on Air Brakes this morning and ran through Combination Vehicles section, not too overwhelming, the review of Air Brakes was very helpful and reinforced some misunderstandings I had going in.

So we took practice tests today in preparation for our permit tests tomorrow, the actual exams at the DMV will be General Knowledge - 30 questions, Air Brakes - 10 questions and Combination Vehicles - 10 questions. The practice ones we did independently today were: 111, 50 and 50 respectively. I got 6 wrong out of 111 and 3 wrong on the combination of 100. Not too bad, I should be fine for tomorrow's tests. All my paperwork is in order, i.e.: medical form and card, S.S. card, license, form for the test and a CDL Self-certification that CT DMV requires now, not sure what that is but I did that online.

No class tomorrow due to the testing, and we are required to take drug tests (urinalysis) tomorrow as well at a local lab. I can't believe week one is just about done, next week we begin on the range, likely with pre-trip procedures but we will be outside and getting to it!!

Stoked...(I think), I'm still in "pinch me mode".

Day Five:

I have CDL Permit in hand!!

Passed the General Knowledge 100% correct, passed Combination Vehicles 100%, passed Air Brakes getting the first two wrong. That was all I would have been allowed to get wrong, two, so I had to ace the remainder of the test,

So that is that, and I also went and did a required urinalysis drug test. All set to start on the range on Monday.

Day Six:

Start of week two, we reviewed the pre-trip process including air brake test section. We went out in the yard/range and began by going through the various components and systems of each of the different truck/tractors that the school uses. After lunch we were shown the actual pre-trip procedure including air brake test. Then for the remainder of the day we paired up with another student and took turns with the air brake portion of the test.

Easy enough to get through and complete. The truck I was in is a 1995 Volvo/GMC White, it really shows it's age in a visual sense, 1.4 million miles on this old dog, but it sounded awesome.

Funny thing, the guy I was paired up with is someone who is the same age, we went to school together and played pee-wee football together until his family moved to the adjoining town where he graduated high school. We know the same people, the same streets and remembered doing all the same things you do as kids and teenagers. We were kind of tripping down memory lane for awhile there.

It was a good day, finally getting out in the field and poking around a big rig.

Day Seven:

Man did it rain here in my neck of the woods, dang!

We made the best of it of course; pre-trip with the class that is ahead of us, to see how they do it, then we ran through two drop and hook maneuvers after a tutorial from one of the instructors. About this time is when the heavy rain started to pelt us, so we all teamed up in pairs and worked within the trucks running through air brake tests.

After lunch, it cleared for a little while and we worked on the air brake tests including rolling forward and back testing the service brakes.

Day Eight:

It was pretty much like yesterday in the yard, we took turns in pairs performing drop and hook maneuvers, pre-trip procedures and testing air-brakes. It goes by pretty fast surprisingly.

One of the instructors, Don, indicated that he was going to test each of us tomorrow to see where are at and how far along we are. The more advanced we are will determine who gets into the next phase and onto shifting, backing and the static course.

I do not feel all that confident yet, but we'll see what he has to say tomorrow.

Day Nine:

The continued and ended with performing drop and hook , air brake and pre-trip inspections. The entire process will be timed on test day not to exceed 30 minutes. Air brake portion MUST be strictly adhered too, the remaining drop and hook and pre-trip should shall not omit anything but can be in whatever order works for you.

So I timed my test this afternoon on my iPhone, after only three days of working on it I recorded 52 minutes. Not too bad, I was reminded by the instructor that it has to be 30 minutes you have to keep shaving minutes off...I knew that.

We have tomorrow off, so I'll be back on Monday to log the days activities.

Day Ten:

We continued this morning by pairing up and performing drop and hook , pre-trip and air brake tests. It is coming much easier but I still struggle with remembering particulars concerning the air brake portion.

After lunch myself and two other guys were the first chosen to start the straight backing exercise. It went very well I thought for me, I had no trouble at all with that, tomorrow we'll continue by backing and keeping the cones on they right side. Then it will be a serpentine backing procedure before doing different backing techniques and the static course.