Starting At Knight / Squire Training On The 27th :)

Well, orientation is finished. I've signed all my paperwork and am officially an employee (wooohooooooo!!!!!).

We have our badges and technically start school on Monday but they sent us out to the school today to start practicing our pre trip and even get our feet wet with straight line backing. It was honestly a lot of fun and a ton of information coming at you all at once.

One thing to remember, it's an accelerated course as are many of the company sponsored programs. The purpose is to get a student to a point where they can pass the skills test and then you get your real training once you're on board with your trainer for 4-6 weeks. The class sizes are small, which is nice and the instructors expect students to learn and pay attention to what they're telling you. I came in like a sponge, I know nothing and am hanging on every word as I'm learning the skills I need.

More updates to come. ....

Well, orientation is finished. I've signed all my paperwork and am officially an employee (wooohooooooo!!!!!).

We have our badges and technically start school on Monday but they sent us out to the school today to start practicing our pre trip and even get our feet wet with straight line backing. It was honestly a lot of fun and a ton of information coming at you all at once.

One thing to remember, it's an accelerated course as are many of the company sponsored programs. The purpose is to get a student to a point where they can pass the skills test and then you get your real training once you're on board with your trainer for 4-6 weeks. The class sizes are small, which is nice and the instructors expect students to learn and pay attention to what they're telling you. I came in like a sponge, I know nothing and am hanging on every word as I'm learning the skills I need.

More updates to come. ....

Thanks for the post. I'll be attending Squire soon as I obtain my CDL permit.

Question... Were there any out of pocket cost? An email I received mentioned $100 due when you get there.

Only that $100 deposit. You'll want to bring a bit of extra cash for lunch and dinner after orientation or bring some dry goods for lunch and then some money for dinner. There are a few restaurants close by that aren't terribly expensive.

So today was range training on the pad to practice our pre trip and backing skills. Indiana requires proficiency in straight line, offset and parallel so that's what we were practicing today. Our instructor who is flat out awesome taught us some things that make all three very simple to remember and much easier when you follow the steps. Some people had issues but made great improvement as the day went along. I took my time and listened to his instruction and was able to nail all three skill sets on the two different times I tried. After that I took the time to run through the pre trip with another student who is about to test and graduate and have it down pretty well. I didn't miss anything but got ahead of myself on the exterior walk around and had a couple things out of order (corrected those pretty quickly).

All in all, I'm having an absolute blast and look forward to tomorrow. I can't speak for any of the other Knight locations but here in Indy, if you listen to what Kenny tells you and focus on the task at hand, you will succeed. He wouldn't have it any other way. He did have to put the pressure on one of the guys in my class who was struggling but he figured it out quick and by the end of the day had his straight line down pretty well.

On to tomorrow where we get out on the road to have even more fun! !!!!!!

I can't stress pre trip enough though. Study, study, study. You can be awesome on backing and road skills but if you screw the pooch on the pre trip, you aren't going anywhere.