Finally Started Trucking School
Topic 8001 | Page 1
Congrats Leif! Sounds like you found the High Road Training to be as beneficial as I did. I started my 8 week school Mar 17th. Log books, trip planning, safety videos and pretrip inspections for me so far. More to it than most people realize. I've taken and completed my pretrip inspection scoring 100% and have aced all my quizzes so far too. I also give a great big shout out to Brett and all the others for making this site what it is. I've talked it up to the other people in my class. I got started on backing yesterday, but I'm the only one so far. No one else has stepped up to take the pretrip yet. Good luck to ya and keep on truckin'!
I finished CDL school today and passed everything. I still need to go to the DMV to turn in my paperwork, but I earned my CDL A.
The alley dock backing almost killed it for me. I nailed the straight and right off-set with no points, and then for the alley dock, I racked up 12 points on that. It had a smaller area to maneuver than where we had been practicing. lol
I can't thank Brett enough for creating this site, and the High Road Train Program, or everyone here on the forums that has given all of the extremely helpful information that they have.
Now, it's time to hire on with one of the companies that I received Pre-Hires from, and begin learning out there on the road.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.DMV:
Department of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Motor Vehicles
The state agency that handles everything related to your driver's licences, including testing, issuance, transfers, and revocation.
Pre-hire:
What Exactly Is A Pre-Hire Letter?
Pre-hire letters are acceptance letters from trucking companies to students, or even potential students, to verify placement. The trucking companies are saying in writing that the student, or potential student, appears to meet the company's minimum hiring requirements and is welcome to attend their orientation at the company’s expense once he or she graduates from truck driving school and has their CDL in hand.
We have an excellent article that will help you Understand The Pre-Hire Process.
A Pre-Hire Letter Is Not A Guarantee Of Employment
The people that receive a pre-hire letter are people who meet the company's minimum hiring requirements, but it is not an employment contract. It is an invitation to orientation, and the orientation itself is a prerequisite to employment.
During the orientation you will get a physical, drug screen, and background check done. These and other qualifications must be met before someone in orientation is officially hired.
Pre-hires:
What Exactly Is A Pre-Hire Letter?
Pre-hire letters are acceptance letters from trucking companies to students, or even potential students, to verify placement. The trucking companies are saying in writing that the student, or potential student, appears to meet the company's minimum hiring requirements and is welcome to attend their orientation at the company’s expense once he or she graduates from truck driving school and has their CDL in hand.
We have an excellent article that will help you Understand The Pre-Hire Process.
A Pre-Hire Letter Is Not A Guarantee Of Employment
The people that receive a pre-hire letter are people who meet the company's minimum hiring requirements, but it is not an employment contract. It is an invitation to orientation, and the orientation itself is a prerequisite to employment.
During the orientation you will get a physical, drug screen, and background check done. These and other qualifications must be met before someone in orientation is officially hired.
Congrats! Who you going with?
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Well, I started school on March 23, 2015.
We had 3 days of classroom, and wouldn't you know it, we were taught logbooks on Day 1. Good thing that I've gone through the High Road Training several times. We also learned the rest of the HoS rules.
Day 2 was Air Brakes, Driver Wellness, Injury Prevention, and Defensive Driving.
Day 3 was testing for everything that we learned the first 2 days. I aced every test at school, and then went to the DMV for my permit test, which I also aced.
Day 4, today, all day we were outside doing pre-trip Inspections on the tractor and trailer, and then did one run on in-cab pre-trip.
Tomorrow, March 27, we are going to start with pretrips again, and then out driving on frontage roads along I-25 north of Pueblo.
Saturday, we will be hitting the frontage roads again and entering and exiting I-25.
I never imagined how much information was needed to be crammed into our heads in such a short period of time. lol
I am absolutely thankful that I came across TT and began working through the High Road Training several months ago. Thanks for creating the site Brett, and thanks to Danial B., Old School, GuyJax, and everyone else on here that provided container ships (not just boat loads) full of useful information. I'm not so sure if I would have continued on with my journey into trucking if I hadn't stumbled across TT.
Pre-trip Inspection:
A pre-trip inspection is a thorough inspection of the truck completed before driving for the first time each day.
Federal and state laws require that drivers inspect their vehicles. Federal and state inspectors also may inspect your vehicles. If they judge a vehicle to be unsafe, they will put it “out of service” until it is repaired.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
Logbook:
A written or electronic record of a driver's duty status which must be maintained at all times. The driver records the amount of time spent driving, on-duty not driving, in the sleeper berth, or off duty. The enforcement of the Hours Of Service Rules (HOS) are based upon the entries put in a driver's logbook.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.DMV:
Department of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Motor Vehicles
The state agency that handles everything related to your driver's licences, including testing, issuance, transfers, and revocation.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.