Davey And CDL

Thanks Old School! Was planning to make that the first thing on the list for log book. If I get it there I will stop with it and it'll probably be real good. Will look at it and study it tonight.

Today we were out on the roads and I drove on I-20, on hwys, roads and streets. At the end of the day I drove the truck into Midland and onto Midland College campus and Wow! First one to do that! It was kind of neat! We had Pizza in Big Spring today for lunch and did a lot of shifting practice on the hills and such. Cornering is coming along and when the entire day was over and we left it felt good. I then drove over, along with a couple of Coca-Colas(!!) to the DMV and went over and over the course that is laid out for obtaining one's CDL. We have drove it and will do so some more but I wanted to reinforce the streets and all. I am not from Midland and it is not my "enviroment" and so wanted to really scope it out on my own. Hey, its all about "setup" right?!??

If you come to Midland College at Midland, TX for a CDL and the Truck Driving School I can recommend it to you. All the instructors do a fine job at teaching. I have had "Bryan" and do not have any interaction in the truck with any of the other instructors. Bryan has been very professional, thorough and complete and so I recommend him to you if you are planning on coming to Midland College.

This week the Director of the Truck Driving School asked us all over to the main bldg., at lunch time and we looked at a hugh simulator they are going to put in place. It was real fun when our instructor got in the drivers seat. We kind of yelled out, "Right, right! RIGHT! MY RIGHT NOT YOUR RIGHT! MORE RIGHT!!" etc. Ha, ha, it was fun. The simulator seat would move and shake and stuff like that and so it seemed as if you were really in a truck. It could be programmed to put you into a skid, in snow and ice, summer hot weather, etc. pretty interesting machine. I asked the Director what the thing cost and it ought to be pretty good, the price was pretty good! (as in real huge price).

OK. thati's it for today. Today was Tuesday and I have tommorow and Thurs and week 3 will be complete. Week 4 is only Mon and Tue so here we go!!!!

-Dave

Today we went to drive and this was kind of extra credit. Had a blast and watched one student parallel park the truck using our instructor's method and he did it first try! He was very happy and we all celebrated with high fives! It was a short day today as we just drove from about 6:45-11:00 AM.

This was a good day for my driving also. I parallel parked it great and my shifting was AWESOME DUDE!!

This evening I went to a outdoor concert in downtown Midland, TX at a nice park there. It was Benny and the Jets and it was an awesome and enjoyable concert. Fun! There were many people there and two of us truck driving students myself, and another and his spouse, and our instructor and his spouse. Benny did it up good and we all thought he was Elton John up there on the stage.

The Midland College Transportation program (Truck Driving School) is adding a defensive driving class to the Truck Driving School that all classes will take after this. I learned this today and it sounds like it will add more quality and substance to the classes on Truck Driving. Perhaps I can return to take this portion of the class also. I think it would be pretty good. We were driving one day and my instructor remarked how I covered the brake pedal at many intersections, etc., when cars where present to pull out and all. So they are aware of this and looks like it will be a real nice addition for future classes.

Brett and gang: I submitted two apps today as I am in my last few days of the school. One to Crete and one to Schneider. My back up is Werner who has already accepted me with a pre-approval for orientation after the school is over with. I hope one of these two will consider me seriously to drive for them.

I have been studying the log book portion of the High Road training and I have to tell you it is just terrific. It includes explanations on hours of service also and I really appreciate it all. This week I hope to return to the HazMat portion also and really go over it so I am read for Tues test at our local DMV. Here in TX we are required to wait to take the HazMat endorsement until we pass our CDL driving test. This I hope to do on Tuesday!! Glory!

Thanks again to Brett and this website for all the encouragement, help and training!

-Dave

I forgot to mention in the post above that the student who parallel parked the truck for the first time is from Ethiopia. There is somewhat of a language problem but this guy is actually an incredible driver. He remembers everything the instructor says and he does not drive with us every day.

I think he will pass this Tuesday also and that will be really a neat opportunity for him. He is lots of fun and today he and I were sitting in the back seat of the Semi and he grabbed the box of paper towels and began to pull on the one sticking out the hole. He pulled and pulled and had about 15 feet out and I said "_____, what are you DOING?!?" He stopped and told me that his hands get sweaty and he wanted to take a towel with him to drive (we were parking and it was his turn). Imagine my laughter and his chagrin! I told him to just rip off a couple and he promptly did and looked at me real sheepishly. Oh I tell ya, this truck driving thing is lots of fun and lots of good friends and memories and I am still in TRUCK DRIVING SCHOOL!!!

Our team even has a chant. Some of it goes like this: "Chhhhh, Chhhhhh! that's our call. Move the shifter through them all!" and so on and so forth. Lots of fun!

-Dave

Wow man. Your updates are a blast to read! Sorry I haven't been responding as much lately as I normally do. I've just had a really busy week.

You guys are having a ton of fun at that school. That's awesome to hear. That makes the difficulties of learning this craft a lot nicer, especially when you get along well with the students and instructors. I went to school back in '93 and we had a really great group of guys in class too. We all got along great, really encouraged each other, and had a lot of fun.

Yeah, keep putting in applications. We now have a new setup where you can apply to multiple jobs with one application and a lot of the companies accept drivers straight out of school. You can find it here:

Apply for truck driving jobs.

Choose as many as you like and submit your app. You will see the results immediately as far as which companies accept drivers straight out of school. I'm going to separate out the ones that do pretty soon but I haven't gotten that far yet.

Keep us updated! I can assure you that tons of people are reading this stuff every day even if you're not getting a lot of responses. And your updates are incredibly helpful to others coming into the industry behind you and a lot of fun for me! Brings back great memories

Thanks, Brett. It's a blast to read the other diaries also and to see and read of other students experiences. I will tap into that multiple listing/application today. Might as well do it up good!

If you are interested in Midland College at Midland TX here is the skinny on it: -Located in Permian Basin, at Midland, TX. Right now incredible oil company (driving) activity here -Cost to me in tuition: $4100.00 -Month long program -You will have CDL when you complete the course -Accredited program/college -Grads receive a certificate of completion type of document (plus CDL of course from State of TX) -My experience: one week of classroom, the rest driving -I came down the week before to Midland and paid the tuition and inquired and paid for on-campus housing. This was the summer and so that was easy. I also paid for meals in the school cafeteria. If you do this I would recommend you do not pay for the breakfasts as the class is on when breakfast is served and you will miss this meal. The quality of the food has been excellent and I enjoy the cafeteria. I have met many students and the funnest night was when a group of us watched the Spurs loose to the Heat!!!!(OH MAN, OH MAN THAT HURT THIS OLE TEXAN!!!!!!!!) -The cost of the housing and meals was hands down a real buy as the price of a motel room and etc., in this town has escalated really high because of the oil boom and the town doubling in population and again (expected and in process). So you might consider the summer session and get in on that. -the $4100 includes the DOT physical and costs incurred at DMV. -Field training is in Freightliner tractors with 10 speed stick shift. -In the on-campus housing I had a room to myself. It includes a nice bathroom and beds, closet, etc. Of course this being TX it has AC and I have slept just fine. Good study desk and free wireless internet is here also and I am on that right now. My housing unit is across the street from the cafeteria. -Midland College is real friendly and I will have good memories of this place and my experiences. OK, that about does it!

Today is an off day (Sat), study time and work out.

Today is Sun and yesterday and today I have been studying on the High Road RE Log books and Haz Mat. The Haz Mat is quite involved. Don't leave studying it to the last minute! -Dave

Hey Dave, I don't know if you've changed your approach to the training program, but I was looking at your scores and you've been halted a lot. You would learn the materials better and get through the program far more quickly if you would look up the answers to each question instead of trying to guess if you're unsure.

You know how there's that link inside every review question that says:

"This is a review question from page 23 (or whatever page number). Click here to look up the answer"

Well make sure you click on that to look up the answer every time unless you're 100% sure of the answer.

The key to learning a lot of materials like that is repetition of the correct answer. So looking up every answer is going to help reinforce the knowledge that much faster and easier. It's not a failure to look up the answer - in fact, that's actually what I want you to do. It's a failure to guess at an answer. Guessing isn't going to help you learn, and getting an answer wrong means you're reinforcing the incorrect answer. Therefore we have to show you that question several more times until you're getting it right more consistently to "push out" the incorrect answer from your mind.

So focus on getting every single question correct. Look up the answers. That will make the program far more effective and you'll get through it in much less time.

OK, will do! (I actually always think I am right and don't feel I'm guessing! Oh, well!)

Well, today was a good day and we got some real good driving in around Midland. Tomorrow, TOMORROW IS CDL TEST DAY! NO STRESS OR NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I actually feel real well and relaxed about this. After all the driving we have been put through, intersections, situations, hills, freeways, hwys, streets, backing, starting, parking, etc., etc., etc., the DMV test course seems like a piece of cake. Don't get me wrong, I will really be concentrating on doing real well.

Did get some bad news today. Schneider is not hiring from my area or does not have any openings in my area where I live. This is what they say but I saw more than one opening from the Amarillo area. I think they are only considering me for positions that are listed as actually open to student drivers. I saw that some of the listings are like that.

So I am still trying to see if something will come of Crete and then there is always Werner that is waiting in the wings.

OK. Everyone take care and keep me in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow, July 2nd, 2013. I will be at the DMV at 0800 hrs., to be there waiting to test.

-Dave

PS. I can't believe I wrote what I did above. A month ago I showed up for this Truck Driving School class and I did not even know how to turn a tractor on let alone drive it through traffic with a trailer on the back! Wow!

As I'm typing this you're at the DMV. Can't wait to hear how it goes!

News News: I passed the CDL driving test with 100%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was very fortunate to have a great instructor and High Road Training on this website! Thanks! (High Road or High Line, anyway . . . its on this site!). I feeeeeeaaaaaaaaal GOOD! Get this: My parallel parking was on the spot! (It worked out even though when I started to pull it out of the box the last student had left it in somehow, accidently the splitter was moved into the up position. So when I started out in 1st I was really in sixth. I instantly felt the engine lug and so stopped, moved the splitter down, went to nuetral, double clutched (want some insurance here). Then put it back in first and went to do do it--WALA!! I was the second student to do this and then drive. I have to say it felt really good to drive down the hwy, make the corners, do it professionally without hitting curbs, crossing lines, etc., etc. I have to say this whole experience was a blast and today was a real blast. Now, tomorrow I will go with the rest of the students back over to DMV. I am going to take the HazMat test and Doubles and Triples test. Then I'll be all tested out (pre-supposing I pass these last two tests). Look out America, here I come!

-Davey (aka, "Traffic Jam" by the other students in our truck. Although I am not causing this anymore).