Mr. Trucker

Some more advice: the pre-trip is the examiner's first impression of you. Be sharp and know your stuff, that will help you get that "benefit of the doubt" on the rest of the test.

Thanks for the advice! I've definitely chilled out a little bit on the pre-trip as we've been practicing every weekend and I'm retaining it pretty well. My biggest fear at the moment is just leaving stuff out from the repetitive nature of it, though it was a relief to learn that if I forget a part, I can mention it later in the pre-trip and not be marked off. I am going to continue studying, and I have checked on Daniel's study guide and was pleasantly surprised it's very close to the one my school passed out.

Just another update

Just finished week 5 of 13. We've been driving the truck for... three weeks now? We spent the first two weeks doing the ELDT book work, then we took our test the morning of the third week and started on grinding gears (literally) bobtailing. I felt a little embarrassed that I struggled more than I anticipated. I've driven 10 speeds a fair amount on the farm but was taught to float gears. I'm sure it was a combination of both an abused transmission and having not driven a truck (10 wheeler) since 2019, but I suspect a large part was getting the double clutching coordination.

The straight back has been easy. The offset was slightly more of a struggle, but mostly just the learning the timing of when to chase/get under the trailer. I kept getting the tandems where I want them but tend to either chasing early or late. My last two were perfect though, so that's good. Unfortunately we only got 2 90s this weekend because adding the trailer/in-cap parts of the pre-trip ate up the lion-share of the morning and my group's instructor is an older gentleman and he needs to take breaks occasionally. I was pretty happy with my 2nd 90 I got on Sunday, though my instructor did have me GOAL multiple times to show me different things which helped my attempt be successful.

This last Sunday we took the truck with a trailer around town for the first time. It was not nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be. The little bit of semi driving I did on the farm was mostly all rural--so cars, stoplights, and merges seemed like a lot. Really about the only thing I was struggling with was getting it in the gear I wanted before the turn. I assume I need to slow down so I've already downshift to where I want to be? I'm going to ask this next Saturday.

Also noteworthy, two weeks ago we got a real dose of reality. We had bobtailed about 30 minutes from the school and switched drivers. As soon as the next guy got up to highway-speed, our instructor noticed the engine fan was blowing and asked what the water temp was an--as you've probably assumed--it was hot. We'd blown a hole in the line that runs from the engine to the heater core, which left us waiting on the side of the road for the tow truck. I'm only slightly surprised that it was towed to a mechanic instead of the school. It looked like a simple fix to me, but oh well, not my money.

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good about the course. I do see the disadvantage of weekend school and not getting the practice throughout the week, but the three of us in my group are all progressing well. This is probably the first week that I've noticed the 7 full days a week getting tiring, but luckily today is just a work day at the school, so I am getting a little reprieve!

Quick question: Do driving jobs require a resume? I've been looking at jobs, but not really in a position to apply but I can start working on resume/cover letter stuff it those are required in the industry.

Dan

Welcome to the trucking world. Wishing you luck. Most large companies that will hire you will not care to have a resume. It will be applications and question and answer with a recruiter. Some local companies and private fleets will require a resume. I know my company did.

The backing and the shifting will come. Just try and come up with a rhythm and a mojo on your pretrip. Lights ccc color , cleanliness, not cracked. You have the benefit of being able to get a flow down setting in your living room. “My television and securely mounted to the wall, not broken or cracked, and the cord has no abrasions cuts or frays.” My yeti cooler is properly mounted and secure with cap. The seal has no abrasions bulges cuts or dryrot and it’s not leaking” you get the picture 😂

You can also learn the sequence of your air brakes test from studying and repost home. It is IMPORTANT that it is done in sequence because it is pass or fail! Remember leaks , alarms, buttons. DO NOT FORGET to put the key back to accessory mode after you build air pressure and turn the truck off If you do happen to mess it up by say…. Pumping the breaks and the alarms do not go off at the appropriate time. You most likely have forgotten to turn the key to accessory mode. If that happens ….sometimes…. Stop lol and ask the evaluator if you can start over. And most times they will say yes please. Daniels pretrip is good and a great tool before going to school but I would suggest to use the material that your school gives you as that is generally what your evaluators are going to be looking for.. Good luck!

Some more advice: the pre-trip is the examiner's first impression of you. Be sharp and know your stuff, that will help you get that "benefit of the doubt" on the rest of the test.

Thanks for the advice! I've definitely chilled out a little bit on the pre-trip as we've been practicing every weekend and I'm retaining it pretty well. My biggest fear at the moment is just leaving stuff out from the repetitive nature of it, though it was a relief to learn that if I forget a part, I can mention it later in the pre-trip and not be marked off. I am going to continue studying, and I have checked on Daniel's study guide and was pleasantly surprised it's very close to the one my school passed out.

Just another update

Just finished week 5 of 13. We've been driving the truck for... three weeks now? We spent the first two weeks doing the ELDT book work, then we took our test the morning of the third week and started on grinding gears (literally) bobtailing. I felt a little embarrassed that I struggled more than I anticipated. I've driven 10 speeds a fair amount on the farm but was taught to float gears. I'm sure it was a combination of both an abused transmission and having not driven a truck (10 wheeler) since 2019, but I suspect a large part was getting the double clutching coordination.

The straight back has been easy. The offset was slightly more of a struggle, but mostly just the learning the timing of when to chase/get under the trailer. I kept getting the tandems where I want them but tend to either chasing early or late. My last two were perfect though, so that's good. Unfortunately we only got 2 90s this weekend because adding the trailer/in-cap parts of the pre-trip ate up the lion-share of the morning and my group's instructor is an older gentleman and he needs to take breaks occasionally. I was pretty happy with my 2nd 90 I got on Sunday, though my instructor did have me GOAL multiple times to show me different things which helped my attempt be successful.

This last Sunday we took the truck with a trailer around town for the first time. It was not nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be. The little bit of semi driving I did on the farm was mostly all rural--so cars, stoplights, and merges seemed like a lot. Really about the only thing I was struggling with was getting it in the gear I wanted before the turn. I assume I need to slow down so I've already downshift to where I want to be? I'm going to ask this next Saturday.

Also noteworthy, two weeks ago we got a real dose of reality. We had bobtailed about 30 minutes from the school and switched drivers. As soon as the next guy got up to highway-speed, our instructor noticed the engine fan was blowing and asked what the water temp was an--as you've probably assumed--it was hot. We'd blown a hole in the line that runs from the engine to the heater core, which left us waiting on the side of the road for the tow truck. I'm only slightly surprised that it was towed to a mechanic instead of the school. It looked like a simple fix to me, but oh well, not my money.

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good about the course. I do see the disadvantage of weekend school and not getting the practice throughout the week, but the three of us in my group are all progressing well. This is probably the first week that I've noticed the 7 full days a week getting tiring, but luckily today is just a work day at the school, so I am getting a little reprieve!

Quick question: Do driving jobs require a resume? I've been looking at jobs, but not really in a position to apply but I can start working on resume/cover letter stuff it those are required in the industry.

Resumes are definitely not needed for driving jobs. Applications are submitted with your work history, accident/ticket history, residence history, and references. Any employer will verify this information, then decide whether or not to hire you. Don't worry about preparing a resume.

I’m down to just two weekends of school left out of three remaining. One of the instructors is taking this Saturday off due to Easter so I was asked not to come in. There’s one weekend of instruction after that and then I will take the skills test 4/13. It has been a blur with my 7 days-a-week schedule for the last 10 weeks and thankfully I have made it to Spring Break and taking some time to relax–ha! More like catching up on all the projects stacking up.

I’m feeling very confident for the skills test and I wish I could go ahead and just take it. Don’t get me wrong, I think I could flunk it just as quick as anyone by making a brain-dead mistake, but I feel comfortable behind the wheel and pre-trip is old-hat at this point. It would be nice to get it out of the way and use the last couple of classes as just practice. I would like to add that I think that doing my CDL over an extended time (13 weeks vs 7) has been helpful. I do think, however, some of my classmates with less experience around equipment may have found the daily class more beneficial.

I have used this extra time to take all my endorsement tests. I saved my scores so I didn’t have to get a new permit, but once I can get my CDL, I will have my tanker, doubles/triples, and hazmat endorsements already on it. I also went ahead and got my TWIC card as well–which should be here today or tomorrow. My thoughts are that I want as few barriers to any potential jobs as possible. Not to mention with my education background, studying for and taking tests is a strong suit of mine.

I’ve already begun job hunting (thank you that replied to my question above). I have…14 tabs open on my phone’s web browser that stay on my target companies’ career pages. Most of these are LTL companies, though there are some fuel companies as well. While I’m lucky in that my wife has told me she will put up with anything for a year (which is her response whenever I ask about different hometime arrangements), I am hopeful to end up with a home-daily position. Not all of these positions will hire rookies, I just figure it doesn’t hurt to check.

I got overly excited about applying at one local job and went ahead and applied–I’m not entirely sure why, pay would only be around 50k. They did end up emailing me back saying to please contact them when I had my CDL in hand as they had opportunities. Estes also just posted an opening in my area today. Should I apply even though I’m 3+ weeks away from my CDL? Further more, I’d also like to finish out the school year at this point. It’s not really fair to my coworkers/students to peace out with only a few months of school left, plus part of my salary is a 12% bonus I get for teaching the whole year. That being said, if it were a take it or leave it offer at an LTL job, I’d dutifully turn in my notice.

Officially passed my skills test today! Not a lot to write about, everything went well. At some point this week, I should be a fully endorsed CDL holder!

My current plan of attack is to get to the DMV this week, then start applying for jobs the following week. I still have about 8 weeks of school left and I'd like to finish the year so I'm not in a huge rush. My goal is hopefully find something local that pays decent, if not I'll go over the road.

Well, I officially put in my resignation from the school yesterday and told those that I was the closest to that I'm not coming back next year. Even though I am very excited to begin a new career, it definitely was a scary moment--especially considering I don't currently have a job lined up. While my principal was definitely surprised by my decision (she stated she couldn't picture seeing me at a truck stop) many of my coworkers were more than understanding.

I have been searching Indeed and some of my target companies' websites nearly daily, but haven't put in too many applications as of yet. As I've stated before, I want to finish out the school year before transitioning to a new career and the first day I could actually go to work for a new company would be June 17th, so still over a month away. That being said, I still find a few jobs here or there that excite me enough to put in an application. Most have been outright rejected, though a vacuum trucking job was interested and wanted to talk, but closer to when I could actually start.

I'm still hopeful I can get a home daily gig off the rip. If it gets closer to June 17th, I will probably start applying to OTR jobs. I know I am already pushing my start date too far off my CDL School graduation and I would hate to end up having to pay for a refresher course.

Exciting update: I'm hired! (ish)

At the end of March I had applied for a CDL-A HAZWOPER job that was home daily and hourly pay that I got excited about. The recruiter emailed me back and she basically said once I had my CDL in hand they'd be interested (As stated above, I have some experience on manual transmissions from the farm, and I already had passed all my endorsement tests). In April, I emailed back once I had passed my skills test but mentioned I was planning on finishing the school year out and she told me to check back in once we were closer to the end of school.

A week ago, she reached back out to me and said they'd like to schedule an interview for last Wednesday, which I obliged. I didn't really quite know how to prepare for a trucking interview, so I did some googling which really only had questions/answers for more OTR type jobs. I kind of prepared for the few google questions that I thought would fit a Home-Daily job as well as "Tell me about yourself" and "Why do you want to work here?" Other than those, I basically figured I would win them over with my natural charm. 😂

When I arrived, the manager seemed like a pretty cool dude, he was very chill and conversational. All my preparation was for not as most of the interview was just the manager telling me about the position and trying to convey the more difficult aspects of it. When he asked how much I expected to make, I just told him on the lower end of the range I saw posted to Indeed. He scoffed and said "No you wont, it will be higher." He went on to say he finds it easier to just pay people up front so they stick around. In the end, he said he was going to make me an offer, gave me his card and said call him if I needed anything.

So now I'm talking with the recruiter about setting up a date for the physical and drug test. She also mentioned an OSHA course in her email. I tried calling her late Friday to discuss it, but I didn't get ahold of her. I'm hoping to take care of as much of the pre-hire stuff as possible before I start in June.

Based on the willingness to hire a new CDL holder, the length of time the job has been open/number of positions being hired I assume it really is a difficult job. However, I'm excited for the opportunity, and at least from talking to the manager, it seems like a pretty solid company to work for. It checks a lot of the boxes I've been looking for, they have manual trucks, and the napkin math for my wage also gets me close to what I was hoping for. I can definitely see myself working at this company for awhile if everything lines up. If not, I think having the experience of the Tanker/Hazmat hauling would be a big resume booster for potential future positions.

Currently sitting at my desk at school on what is my official last day! It is kind of bitter sweet, I have gotten a lot of compliments and I-will-miss-you-s the last few days. I will say that the adults in the building have been wonderful to work with, but--as I keep saying--I'm excited to not have to argue with 12-year-olds.

Monday I am going to Greensboro for my Hazmat Physical and drug test. I'm assuming all goes well (I have a prescription of allopurinol for gout, surely that isn't a banned substance?), and I will be doing training in Wilmington next Wednesday and Orientation back in Greensboro Friday. I also had to laugh because one of the emails said something to the effect of "if you're currently employed, do not give notice until you get the physical results." I found that funny since I put in my notice over a month ago.

By all appearances, the company I'm going to work for appears to be a pretty quality company. They are putting me up in a hotel Sunday night in Greensboro. I was also told to keep a log of my mileage and they would reimburse me. I'm excited to get going!

I officially start tomorrow at Shamrock Environmental! So last week was all the pre-employment stuff. Last Monday was the physical, which was THOROUGH. I don't know how much was just the hazmat physical and how much was just the company, but I had the normal dot physical, blood drawn, audio test, multiple vision tests, a respirator test, a chest X-Ray, an EKG, lifting tests, as well as the drug test. Apparently, it is also a yearly thing as well.

So, my company got my results back Wednesday and quickly enrolled me in OSHA training on Thursday and an Orientation on Friday. I let that night for Greensboro (they put me in a hotel again) and had OSHA training at 7am. That actually wasn't too bad, we finished the class by noon-thirty and I passed the computer test with a 98%. What was disappointing/surprising was that I had two additional video courses for companies that contract with Shamrock. I passed those and finally walked out of the building by 3:30 pm.

Friday was orientation at Shamrock in Greensboro. It was 8am to 11:30, and was mostly just paperwork. I had to fill out at least 10 different State's W4's. I guess there's a chance we may end up on projects in other states and would have to pay state taxes in those states. Do OTR guys have to do that? We also went over benefits, I was given PPE, and then I tried on the uniform we have to wear. I'm not looking forward to this summer's heat/humidity, as the uniforms are very think material and long-sleeve. I was told this was for safety, for example, if acid splashed on a sleeve it would give me time to get the shirt off and not have the acid on my skin. Finally, they gave me an address to a boot-store and told me to get a pair on my way home. They covered the lion's share of my boot cost, which was awesome.

All in all, I'm excited to get started. I'm also very nervous about starting something that is nearly completely new, definitely experiencing some "impostor syndrome."

Well, nearly a month into my new truck driving job, and I FINALLY drove a truck! It was probably only about a mile, but still counts. It was nice to get out and go up and down the gears to remind myself I still can. 😂

The last month has been busy, though it has mostly been training. The company I work for is an environmental company and we primarily go pick up (or clean up) non-hazardous waste from different manufacturers. So, I have been doing OSHA training, MSHA Training, HAZWOPER 40 training (not quite finished yet) as well as a ton of site-specific training as well. I find the jobs we do pretty interesting as well as enjoy it being an active job. About the longest drive most guys do is about 3 hours to our headquarters/water treatment plant, though I know the guys that are assigned to tankers will go farther.

And that brings me to a drawback of the job, and that is most of the trucks we have are straight trucks that we slip seat. As far as combination rigs, there is one dry van we use to haul universal waste, and one tanker that isn't OFFICALLY assigned, however, there is only one driver that ever uses it. So it is a little disappointing that my opportunities to drive A truck are limited, as it would be nice to be building that experience just for the resume's sake.

I mentioned it's an active job, and that hit me hard last Monday. We were working on a job site with a heat index of 106 degrees. I was helping with the vactruck and, as a new employee, trying to not be a burden and help where I could. I was also trying to drink water the best I could, but within the first couple hours of the job, my jeans and shirt we soaked with sweat and I began feeling nauseous, and then vomited.

I thought maybe I had just drank to much water and/or was too active, and I took a break in the shade, drank more water, and then vomited again when I tried going back to work. Long story short, I ended up getting 5 liters of fluid through an IV and an overnight stay in the hospital from heat exhaustion and acute kidney injury. Definitely a wakeup call to be mindful of heat stress and hydration!

I also have to give my company a lot of credit. When the supervisor saw my puking, he called the shop for a ride, and my safety guy took me to the hospital when my symptoms didn't improve. The company also seems really committed to making changes to ensure that there aren't other heat injuries in the future.

Mishap aside, I have really enjoyed the last month. It's been a great change of pace being outside of the classroom. I will admit that even tonight as I write this, I still get a little anxiety about not having prepared my lesson or graded papers this weekend. Hopefully that goes away quickly!