My Progress Becoming A Truck Driver

I had the opportunity to sit and observe the road test today. My school sent in 4 students and 4 students PASSED. Another school sent in quite a few students and they all FAILED the in-cab.

In my state they do the following order:

In-Cab (includes air brake test DO NOT complete in-cab until air brake test is finished) Exterior pre-trip they choose a section of the vehicle and the test taker must get 35 points within that section or they fail. Straight Line Back Offset Backing Blind side or Sight Side either alley dock, blind side parallel or sight side parallel Once those items are passed it's a 45 minute road test.

If any one of those items are missed the next road test will be redone from the very beginning. They don't skip where a test taker passed, it's now an all or nothing test.

Still in school, working on mastering Parallel parking and Alley Docking. The Alley docking is the hardest as the state requires using just the mirrors and don't allow for sticking the head out the window.

Other than that, I hope to take the road test in about two weeks.

I have in my possession a TWIC and a HazMat approval letter. I am waiting on my passport and working on my skills.

Still in school, working on mastering Parallel parking and Alley Docking. The Alley docking is the hardest as the state requires using just the mirrors and don't allow for sticking the head out the window.

Other than that, I hope to take the road test in about two weeks.

I have in my possession a TWIC and a HazMat approval letter. I am waiting on my passport and working on my skills.

600d w0rk, R0adRa93. That Alley Dock is the biggest hang up for student drivers. In my 7 months driving, I have never had to do a pure 90degree dock. With my mentor, he had to sweat out a 90 to the RIGHT - blind side with yellow posts in the way. Glad I only needed to watch.

Wow why was she mad....good luck to you

She probably thinks he's wasting his talent and brains on...yeuch...trucking!

Seems truckers are looked down upon from every chair.

Agreed. There is a stigma associated with trucking. I am typically amused at the responses I get when asked what I do for a living. "Oh" is a favorite, or "why". Occasionally I am asked "what is that like?" I am usually cordial but thinking to myself, if you have to ask, you wouldn't understand.

Good luck ROadRa93.

I am still struggling with the alley dock as I am limited on time as I still have to drive a school bus and keep my on duty hours in check especially since it is all done by my clocked in hours between school and work.

For instance today I was at school from 8 to 230 and I worked until 730 tonight. Thats 11.5 hours on duty. I am going to be working longer tomorrow so I will have to be late to school thus losing some additional practice time.

On to other news: I have received everything I have been waiting for from the federal government. I have in my possession a TWIC , HazMat approval letter, Passport and a passport card. I think I a, as hirable as I will ever be as a new driver. If I am missing anything please let me know as I want to be prepared.

I am able to straight back, offset back without stopping, parallel park without stopping and am now focusing on as much of my efforts as I possibly can on alley docking.

I am able to perform a complete pretrip without looking at the truck, perform the Incab from memory and recite the steps for the air brake check and tug tests.

I am quite thrilled over my progress, granted I am in week 7 but it's all good. :)

First, I am no longer a school bus driver. I am now focusing full time on my Class A CDL. After that occurred my skills have been building much faster and I am able to spend time on the road. It is awesome, there is a section of route 40 where the speed quickly goes from 45 to 20. I saw the sign for twenty and began down shifting and my instructor was like, "What are you doing?!" I said to him, "the sign said bump 20 miles per hour I'm slowing down to 20 until I go over the train tracks up ahead." He then continued, "I didn't see that sign." My response was quite awesome, "You're not supposed to, I am! It's my truck, my responsibility to be paying attention to the road."

It's official I take the NJ MVC road test this Thursday, 10/22. I just need to perfect my downshifting, stop attempting to create a gear between 6 & 8 and above all get the truck to move from a stop on an incline without rolling back or stalling out.

Today was AWESOME! I got the trailer in 6 out of 6 times on the alley dock and 6 out of 6 on the parallel parking. I also had the opportunity to park one the trucks next to another and had her in straight and lined up perfectly with the other truck.

Tomorrow will be spent on the road with the instructor. I believe I am ready for the yard skills portion of the examination.

Test day is tomorrow! It's 10:55 PM my time and the test is anywhere from 8 AM to 4 PM. I am quite nervous to say the least. My gut is telling me I am going to pass, my subconscious is telling me I am going to pass yet my conscious mind is like yeah it's all telling me I am going to pass I am now going to go vomit.

I have a lot of pressure on passing this test, everything I have worked up until now is going to be culminated in a 2 hour long road test. PreTrip, Yard Skills and a 15 mile long road trip.

I'll let y'all know how I perform tomorrow!

I passed the following: In-Cab, Air Brakes, Tug Tests, Service Brake Test, Trailer Pre Trip, Straight Line, Offset to the right, Conventional Parallel park.

I failed the road test. I kept stalling and I stalled OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. It's like everyone says this is the easiest part to test. For me, it was the hardest. I am going to retest on the 5th of November, hopefully, I'll pass this time around.