My Official CDL Training Diary

Hello this is my official training Diary. I'm also started a vlog my journey in trying to become a trucker.

Everything that I would say in my first training diary entry is in this vlog episode of mine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbcCPWIpuk0

only thing to add to that is something really funny I had to do today.

There are two things my Wilson Transportation recruiter is requiring of me before he scoops me up since I have a 6 month DOT certification and a class-A permit.

1. Get a CPAP and start using it (Can't get my CPAP until after October 9th's second sleep study) 2. I need to provide proof of employment from September 2021-September 2024. (36 months)

The second one would seem simple but I've been doing mostly DoorDash since 2020 thanks to the pandemic. Apparently a beuracratic nightmare exists between DoorDash and 3rd party companies that makes it impossible for me to get my 1099 forms but I did recently discover how to find/download monthly income statements.

My recruiter told me that he would accept them as proof of employment but I have to send them to him. So I literally downloaded all 36 PDFs and emailed it to him today, haha.

I'm looking forward to not having to deliver for Amazon and DoorDash anymore and start driving those biga$$ semi trucks. WOOT

Just a little update. Finished my second sleep study and learned something interesting worth sharing here for any other noobs like me who find out they got to get a CPAP machine.

If you don't have health insurance, I found a way to save money on a CPAP machine. Aparrently there are health supply stores that sell used CPAP machines for the fraction of the cost if they are brand new. You just purchase the machine, bring it to the sleep lab and they'll re-program it to your needs.

I got lucky and a family member of mine just got his CPAP machine replaced with a new one. Nothing wrong with his old one though and it was in good condition. I showed pics and make/model info to the guy running the sleep study on me at the lab and turns out he has the exact same model. Just waiting for a phone call thursday next week to hear my test results and in that phone call, the sleep lab worker will tell me when to bring that used CPAP to him to re-program the chip and then I can begin my "using a CPAP for 30 days" task that I have to complete in order to meet the requirements to have a second DOT physical that will upgrade my 6 month DOT certificate to a 2yr version.

Meanwhile, I had a talk with my recruiter at Wilson Logistics and he told me as soon as I got that CPAP reprogrammed and used it for 1 night, he'll hook me up with a rental car and I'll be heading off to Missouri for training. He told me they'll work with me in regards towards sending me to a clinic when it's time for the 2nd DOT physical.

Today I've started packing up my stuff that I was going to put in storage because I plan on living out of the company truck for a couple years and my family offered to let me stash my stuff in their shed to avoid a storage bill, which is awesome.

I just put in my 2 week notice at my Amazon van delivery job yesterday! But if I get my CPAP going before then I'll just quit early so I can get to Missouri quicker. Not like I'm ever going to go back to driving delivery vans again, lol.

Quit my amazon job monday this week.

Got a used CPAP machine that I acquired from a member of my family reprogrammed and used it for the first time last night.

Talked to my recruiter this morning, and the ball is finally rolling.

My Wilson Logistics recruiter had me fill out some online paperwork, and I had to use my printer/scanner machine to scan some documents and send them. I was then scheduled a drug test that I'll be doing at a clinic tomorrow and a background check is underway.

Due to the fact that I've only been living in West Virginia since 2020, I was required to call a DMV in in Georgia (where I lived before WV) to find out what my Driver's License number was and send that info to Wilson.

I was then sent emails giving me PDF documents to print out and take with me to the clinic tomorrow that will enable for me to take the drug screening for free at Wilson's expense.

I also got a new email where I have a long list of training videos to watch and get done by monday. Monday next week, I'll be getting another phone call from Wilson Logistics on what to do next.

Was told that I should be leaving for Wilson Logistics in Missouri monday after next (november 4th). And looks like I will be provided a plane ticket as opposed to renting a car to get there.

Nice to finally get this ball rolling! Seems like it took forever to get to the point of having a CPAP machine. The Wilson recruiter was literally just waiting for me to get a CPAP and start using it before doing the next steps. I'm required to use the CPAP for 30 days before I can go and take a SECOND DOT physical exam that will upgrade my 6 month DOT to a 2yr.

But I can spend those 30 days doing what I'm doing now. By the time I go to take the other physical I'll be in the middle of CDL training. At that point the company will send me to a clinic to get that done.

That's all that's going on for now.

As for packing, I spent all week throwing away and disposing of anything I don't want to take with me to Mexico in 2-3 years. I got rid of everything from my bed, furniture, bookshelves, etc. All I got left worth keeping is my desktop PC and my printer/scanner, clothes, and a collection of old out of print scifi novels and some star trek merchandise I've had since I was a kid. That all amounts to just two large blue walmart tubs worth of stuff that I'll be storing in my sister's shed to avoid paying a monthly storage fee somewhere.

Tomorrow I'll be shopping for a decent laptop to take with me and packing all my clothes into a couple duffle bags and a backpack I'm taking with me. I'll be living out of a couple duffle bags by the time I leave for the airport.

Looking forward to living rent free in a company truck, building up savings like crazy while studying spanish for a couple years before I move to Mexico. LFG

Here’s the latest YouTube video of my trucking vlog:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wl__o3MWQ9Q&t=12s

Day one of my training:

Did a bunch of orientation and paperwork done then the actual training started.

Got a test this Wednesday on doing an in-cab inspection and a pre trip inspection. Today we were shown how to do it a few times and we all took turns practicing driving this tractor trailer forwards and backwards without jackknifing. I got it right on the first try.

About to go to the hotel and spend the rest of the afternoon memorizing the steps on how to do a pre trip and in-cab inspection. If I pass a the pre-tests tomorrow I won’t have to do the final tests on Wednesday. LFG

Just finished my first week of training at Wilson Logistics!

Basically it was orientation, then training on how to do the pre trip inspection. Took all week long but I now know the entire pre trip inspection, from the 4 stage brake tests, in cab inspection and everything else outside by heart. I also learned how to do straight-forward/backwards maneuvers, forward/reverse offset maneuvers, and learned how to connect/disconnect a tractor and trailer.

Tomorrow me and 6 other students are loading up in a rental minivan and driving to Austin, TX to do two weeks of what they call "kraft training". From what I understand, I'm at the stage of my apprenticeship in which it's now time for me to learn things that can only be learned by actually doing the job. So it's over the road training with a trainer for two weeks. I'll be in what they call a day truck (a truck without a camper) and doing regional trucking so that I can learn now to do all the things I see truckers do on the road.

So my work routine is me staying at a hotel room provided by the company, and my trainer picking me up at the hotel for us to do our route, and I'll be doing almost all the driving to gain experience.

After those two weeks, me and my 6 fellow students will load back up in that minivan, and drive back to Springfield, MO to the Wilson HQ and I think finish our training, and then take the big CDL test (pre trip, maneuvers, and then a road test).

If I pass the CDL test, then I'll officially be hired on. Until then I'm getting paid 200 dollars/week in advance, and then will have to pay that back after I'm hired via small payments every time I get paid weekly.

Once I'm hired, it's more over the road work but this time with a camper along with a trainer. So I guess it's team driving with a trainer. After an x amount of time, then it's a couple weeks team driving with a fellow graduate and then they cut me loose and I'm able to drive by myself, which is what I prefer. The only person I want riding with me in the long run is a dog haha and thankfully they'll let me do that.

I may not be allowed to take a gun with me but there's no rule against me bringing a dog along. But I would have to not do that right away and do my research on where/how to get a dog, read some books on training so I can train it to be a guard dog. Because I basically have a guard dog in place of carrying a gun, along with seatbelting the doors closed at night and tying a rope between the air horn and the door.

The training was really good and the trainer that helped me learn maneuvers and pre trip was very professional. Shout out to Albert if he ends up on this forum some day and is reading this. Shout out to Bradely, my recruiter, who worked with me for a couple months (or more) because of how long it took for me to get a CPAP.

I've been working the night shift during what Wilson Logistics calls "Kraft Training".

Basically this second week of training, I've been driving what my trainer is calling a day truck. It's the same Freightliner Cascadias I was training with on week one when I was being taught the pre trip and simple maneuvers. Only difference is that the truck i'm driving this week is a Cascadia with no sleeper cab and the fuel tanks look smaller.

From what i understand the purpose of this "two week Kraft training phase" is to finish preparing me for the CDL test that I'll be taking once I return to Missouri the week after next week. I've been going back and forth from one warehouse and another just picking up a load of Kraft condiments at one place, delivering it to another, picking up an empty dry van or reefer and taking it back to the first place, swapping it out for a fully loaded dry van or reefer, then repeat the process.

Also the trainer has been letting me bobtail it to the jobsite from the hotel and from the job back to the hotel I stay at, so I can gain experience just bobtailing it.

I always considered myself a good driver. I'm 38 years old and STILL have never gotten a speeding ticket, never been pulled over for anything accept for something simple like a non-functioning headlight or forgetting to update tags on my pickup...but that was WAYYY back when I was like 20 something years old lol. Also, I've been door dashing for the last four years on and off, as well as several months worth of van delivery driving for Amazon through JPAX (a contractor for Amazon).

However, this phase of my CDL training, just the simple pickup and delivery work I've been doing in the semi truck, with a trainer riding along with me has exposed many MANY bad and unsafe driving habits I didn't even know I had.

I'm at the point where whenever I do a full pretrip inspection, I've gone from always forgetting a couple of things, to memorizing too much. Last night my trainer told me that now that I've got the entire pre trip memorized, I need to start re-memorizing it in a way so that it is more simplified so that all the extra stuff I memorized that's not on the test doesn't throw me off.

I'm at a point now where I'm no longer nervous or jittery driving the semi truck. I was very nervous at first because I've never driven anything that big before, let alone never driven anything with air brakes before. But I'm over that nervous phase and very comfortable now.

The only real issue I need to work on now is learning to feather my brakes. My foot placement has been off like crazy. I was wondering why in the heck I keep hard braking even though I'm barely touching the pedal. The trainer had me pull over and took at look at exactly how my feet are placed on the brake pedal or gas pedal and I was doing the heel-to-toe thing correctly and was swiveling on my heel correctly...I just had my feet too far forward on the pedals.

Looks like the only way I don't do hard braking is if I just have my big toe on the brake pedal and then I'm able to really stop smoothly and really control the brakes. Same thing for the gas pedal.

Now that I know how to properly feather the service brakes and gas pedal, all I gotta do is just practice...practice like hell.

Thankfully, I still have tonight's shift, and 5 more night shifts next week worth of driving to develop the "new habit" on how to properly use the brake and gas pedals.

Last night, when we ran out of loads to do, my trainer had me get on the freeway for the first time (just bobtailing it, no trailer). I don't know if this is normal for a newbie like me, but it felt WAY EASIER driving that thing on the highway than off the highway haha.

Next week is when I'll be doing almost all the driving and possibly drive on the freeway occasionally with a trailer hitched to my tractor.

My experience with my trainer has been an interesting one. The guy mumbles more than he speaks so I have to constantly has him to repeat himself and/or speak up so I can understand him.

He really knows his stuff though. And he's not lazy. He doesn't mess around and is quick to point out everything I'm doing wrong and teach me how to do it correctly. I'm thankful for that because I know that my training is more of a "crash course" on how to be a truck than an actual "trucking school" and I want to discover and solve as many problems as I can before I take my CDL test the week after next week.

Because when test day comes, it sink or swim. I only have two attempts for the CDL test but I'm training like hell to pass on the first attempt. That way I'm not dependant on the second attempt. I'm trying not to stress out over the fact that if I fail, I don't just miss out on getting employed by Wilson Logistics, but will have to pay my own way back home and then back to square one in terms of trying to earn a CDL.

To keep that serious issue from stressing me out too much, and therefore creating a distraction with my training, I worked hard to get "memorizing" my pre trip inspection out of the way so I can focus on other things such as making tight turns without hitting the curb, getting through the turns quickly enough, staying inside my lane, etc.

I've focused so hard these first two weeks of training that now the only real issue I need to focus on is re-learning how to use the gas and brake pedals. It's all about foot placement for me.

Yesterday I made MASSIVE progress and was WAY more consistant at braking/accelerating smoothly. However I noticed a pattern of accidentally defaulting to my normal braking/accelerating habits. From what I understand, solving that problem is just a matter of practice.

My trainer does not have the kind of personality where he's quick to tell me that I'm getting better at stuff. From what I observed, he just gets on me when I'm doing certain things wrong, and when I do them correctly he doesn't say a word. Like me, he's not that big of a talker when it comes to interacting with people in person.

However he is showing more confidence in my developing abilities through his actions. For example, we're at the point where when it comes time for me to drop one trailer and go hitch up to another, he just gets out of the truck and walks away and goes to talk to someone until I'm done, instead of staying in the cab and talking me through each step when I first learned how to do that. Last night he only double checked my "back to front" method once in terms of picking up a trailer but that's because it was the end of the night and I was getting tired and for some reason forgot to raise the landing gear haha.

Also the fact that last night he had me get on the freeway must mean I'm getting better at driving in general. He's on my ass though about the hard braking because he's been a CDL driver for two years now and earned his CDL the exact same way I'm earning it and he's making it clear to me to fix that hard braking problem or they will fail me on the CDL test.

He doesn't say it, but I know he can tell that I may be new, and I may be a little sloppy due to being new, but whenever I do make mistakes I do learn from it and improve. The only thing I'm struggling on is just the hard braking.

Wish me luck! I've only got tonight, and five more training nights next week left before I go take my CDL test!

I've spent several months just to get to the point of being able to show up to trucking school. I'm focused and working as hard as I can and learning as quickly as I can so I can pass that CDL and get the job.

Well I am having a bad experience with my kraft trainer. At first I was giving him the benefit of the doubt but after my 5th night of on the road training I had enough and had to confront him.

You know how when you make a 90 degree turn at an intersection, it's always good to swing a little left before you begin to turn late so that your back end of the trailer doesn't hit a curb, a pole, a person, etc?

Sometimes, you got traffic on your left that blocks you from being able to swing left a little before making a hard right so you gotta make a straight turn. Not a big deal if you know what you're doing.

But in this situation I didn't know what I was doing and 3 times last week I ended up hitting the curb. and the third time I hit a pole and had to pull over and the trainer and I inspected the section where I hit and there was no damage. But if there was so much as a scratch, I would get kicked out of the training program.

Every one of these three times, my trainer didn't say a word until AFTER I hit a curb or a pole. He would just turn and look as I slowly approach and hit the curb at 5mph and THEN say something afterwards.

I confronted him about it and said, "Why don't you say something? Aren't you supposed to be training me?"

And his response was, "It's not my responsibility to say something every time. You gotta pay attention to everything that's going on around you."

My response was, "I understand. That makes sense but this is my first week actually driving a tractor trailer in my life. I am paying attention, but due to my lack of experience, I don't know EVERY SINGLE THING that I need to be paying attention to! And when I look in my convex mirrors, I can BARELY see the back of my trailer."

And he continued to stand his ground on the issue and basically told me (not in these exact words) that it's my responsibility to know things and know what I'm supposed to be looking out for, even though I've recieved no training on knowing what to look out for. So basically I'm at a point where I'm training myself.

But this same guy doesn't hesitate to speak up and remind me to do other things, but somehow magically thinks it's not his responsibility to say, "Hey you're turning too late", or "Hey you turned too soon", which takes all of 3 seconds. And is a clear contradiction to his justification of watching me slowly hit a curb or pole and not saying a word until after the fact and it's too late.

It was clear to me that this guy doesn't give AF and I'm just a number to him. So I called the safety director today (the person a trainer during my first week told me to call if I end up having this kind of training situation with a trainer).

I explained everything to the safety director. And I asked him if I can change trainers. I know I can change trainers when I do the OTR phase of training but asked him if I can do that for Kraft training as well. He told me that under normal circumstances I can switch trainers, but not this time because there's not enough trainers available.

However, the safety director told me that he agrees with me and even agrees about the contradiction part. He told me I did the right thing calling him and telling him about this. He promised me he will call my trainer today and make sure that we are all on the same page. The training director also instructed me to call him on tuesday if I don't see any changes in the trainer's behavior when I go back to training monday night. I told him I'm worried that this trainer is now going to be angry at me because I went over his head and the safety director said that if he gives me any drama over it, to report it to him because that's against company policy. He explained that Wilson Logistics has a strict open door policy that's enforced if someone is given drama for reporting any safety related concern.

I have talked to my fellow students at the hotel and they are not having any negative experiences with THEIR trainers. So I guess the fact that I got the one bad trainer is just a "stuff happens" scenario.

One good thing that came out of all of this is that I'm now really good at making 90 degree turns, no matter how tight and miss the curb/poles every single time now.

But it took me actually screwing up and hitting a curb when turning too late, hitting a curb when turning too soon and hitting a pole turning too soon (almost getting me kicked out of the training program) to FINALLY learn what turning too soor or too late actually looks like from the perspective of the driver seat. Of course I wouldn't have had to learn this the hard way if I had a trainer that would actually communicate with me.

Also I've learned enough with a lot of other things involved in Kraft training, and learned enough with how to do the pre trip, that I am confident that I will pass my CDL test the first time. I just have to endue 5 more nights of kraft training with my trainer and then I'll be taking the CDL test next week.

I've also solved the issue of hard braking, and being jumpy with the accelerator. I just had to develop the habit of barely having my feet on the brake or accelerator, and swivel on my heal between the pedals and I'm a LOT more stable. Only time I have an issue with hard braking now is if I'm bob-tailing it but I'll have that problem solved by the end of this week.

Wish me luck!

One good thing that came out of all of this is that I'm now really good at making 90 degree turns, no matter how tight and miss the curb/poles every single time now.

So, the trainer’s teaching technique was successful, yet you’re still rolling him under the bus. I’m kind of hoping he boots you off the truck and you have to take your chances with a new unknown trainer. Maybe you’ll get one who screams at you every time you’re about to do something wrong. Hate to break it to you, but this job has no hand holding and is really pretty unforgiving. It’s kind of pathetic it took you screwing up the same way three times before finally figuring it out, you’re going to have to learn faster than that when you’re on your own.

lol, bet you’re glad I’m not your trainer. 😄