Life changes

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Radbird
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Re: Life changes

Post by Radbird »

Almost there, buddy!

tlombard
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Re: Life changes

Post by tlombard »

A group of us just got scolded (not really) by one of the front desk ladies for being too loud out front of the hotel. Apparently somebody complained. In our defense, if those people actually heard what was being said, they would have been laughing almost to the point of tears too. Some of us from the third and fourth week classes were sharing stories of mistakes that we've made with the first and second week students and after awhile some of the mistakes were just too much. It got absolutely hilarious when one person was telling about one potentially scary mistake he made (stalled at a stop light and then took his foot off the brake and rolled backwards while reaching to restart the truck. Twice) and then one of the other students who was sitting in the back chimed in with his version. His version was a lot funnier and it just built from there with people making fun of others who were out there for stuff that they saw go wrong. Just hearing the stories would be mildly entertaining to anybody but when you've been in similar positions and are going through the same struggle with failure and self doubt while learning not only how to properly brake (really just early), turn without running over curbs or taking out other cars and such all while learning to upshift and downshift in a completely different way than you do in a car all while surrounded by traffic on busy roads... you can relate and it's the funniest stuff you've heard in a long time.

Some of us always end up out front talking about how things are going and those of us who have been here longer try and help the newer students relax, give them tips, tell them what to expect... and a lot of that is sharing things that we've done wrong for laughs. But it isn't done just for laughs, it also helps the newer students relax and understand that they are going to mess up and mess up badly at times but it is expected and nothing to worry about as long as you learn and get better each time. When my class got here those who had been here longer shared that stuff with us because that's what the classes before them did for them and so on. It isn't even anything that they suggest at the school but not only do we all have the same goal while going through the same process, we're all housed at the same hotel with nothing to do after class because none of us are getting paid and we're all broke! LOL. It just so happens that going through this training is something we all have in common so it is the main topic a lot of the time.

It really is an amazing help to know that you aren't the first to feel like you can't do it and have those ahead of you letting you know that what you see them do in the yard in their fourth week is NOT what they were doing when they first got out on the yard. It helps so much to know that in their second and third weeks they were making the same mistakes and having the same feelings of doubt that you're going through but now in their fourth week they are executing the backing maneuvers perfectly over and over again. There are some of us that wouldn't be anywhere near where we are without the encouragement from and chats with those ahead of us in the process. It probably isn't a coincidence that those of us who have spent the most time talking to the students before us are also the ones that are testing first. The people that don't have their test date and are struggling a bit more are the people that just spend their free time locked up in their room and not interacting with anybody outside of training. They always seem to be down on themselves and I honestly believe that they would be much better off if they would have hung around those here who were in their third and fourth week when we started to hear them talk about how much they struggled before it all came together in the end. Instead they stay isolated and don't get to hear that 99% of the students struggle with the same stuff and even then, most of it really boils down to something mental whether it is being too nervous and unable to relax or just a complete lack of confidence. When they don't hear these stories, they don't realize that they aren't the only ones having the same doubts about themselves.

tlombard
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Re: Life changes

Post by tlombard »

Had a minor setback yesterday but hopefully Tuesday I'll get everything done and graduate. I tested for the first time but I failed the first one over something extremely small that I wasn't aware of ahead of time. The next time I can test is Tuesday so I'm already scheduled at 8am then. I should have graduated yesterday and have made it back to St. Louis in time to have a couple of beers with my dad for his birthday but thanks to me not knowing one detail and some dumb luck, it didn't happen that way. But it is something that I need to know and watch for so I'm not complaining or saying that I got robbed. I messed up but I actually feel more confident about the test now that I've been through it and it literally can't get any tougher next Tuesday.

The way the pre-trip inspection works is that everybody has to do the coupling and in-cab inspections and then they randomly draw between the three other choices to decide which one of those you have to do or if you have to do all of them for the entire truck. Of course I drew the full truck so I had to do the in-cab, coupling, engine, tractor and trailer. And there was an auditor present which added a little more pressure even though it shouldn't because he is there to audit the examiner and not you... but you still fail if he catches something the examiner doesn't or wants to let you slide on so he does really matter in the end I guess.

You just have to score 60 points on the full truck to pass BUT no matter what you have to get the air brake test perfect or else you fail. I scored an 81 out of 90 for the inspection but failed the air brake test on something that I wasn't aware of. I did not realize that your air pressure has to be over 100 psi before you start your hold test. For the set up I put the truck in gear and turned the truck off and then turned the key back on (without starting) before pushing in the valves to release the tractor and trailer brakes. After doing that air leaked down for longer than normal but when it stopped, I put my foot on the brake and held it until the pressure stabilized again and once it did then I started the hold test. By that point the pressure had gone down from over 120 psi to under 100 psi and I didn't know that was a problem. In the yard that we practiced the air brake test in, all of the trucks generally have air leaks and such so keeping it above 100 with the engine off is nearly impossible so it was never worried about or discussed. Other people have done it the exact same way that I did and not had any problem in the same truck that I did it in. I just got unlucky and next time I'll push the valves in and wait for the pressure to build back up BEFORE turning off the truck. Technically that isn't the proper way because with the brakes released and the truck in neutral (put in gear and now I have to hold the brake and the clutch!), the only thing holding the truck in place is my foot on the brake pedal for a few minutes while that pressure builds. Never want to do that in the real world but it won't cause a problem on the test because the air brake test doesn't start until you begin the hold test so technically you aren't being tested at all at the point I'll be doing something you might not want to do otherwise. I did all of the other steps perfectly but it didn't matter. I have a feeling that if the auditor wasn't watching over us, then the examiner might have explained to me that the pressure needs to be higher and passed me or given me some hint that it wasn't quite right before I failed but he definitely can't with the auditor there. In the end, I need to know that and now I do so I am extremely confident that I'll nail it all on Tuesday and get to move on to my backing maneuvers and once I pass those I can do the road test. I am not worried about either of those.

I took my final road test with the school on Thursday and only racked up 9 points. I wasn't sure what it takes to fail the road test but apparently you can still pass with something like 30 points so I was really good there and feel great about passing the road test now. I know I have the backing maneuvers down plus I'll get all day Monday to run through those again and make sure I really have them down even better. I could use a little more work on alley docking. I had it down really good Thursday morning when we were working on them but then I started playing around with things and got myself in a jam that I had no idea how to get out of on my last attempt so doing some more of those would be a good idea. I was testing out exactly what trouble I would get into if I put a little too much bend in as well as not putting enough bend in and on my last one I kept putting a little more bend in and then a little more and eventually I was at a point where I could have fixed it but it would have taken me a long time of repeating the corrections over and over because there is only so much room to work with when pulling forward at the point I was at. I definitely got myself in a jam with that one. The instructor even had to think about it for a bit before figuring out how to fix it and it still took us a few corrections! But he knew that was I was experimenting and was fine with it since he was comfortable that I have the maneuvers down. I will not be doing any more of that though because it is time to get passed and on the road making money.

Of the 8 from my class to test so far I am only one of two to fail the pre-trip. The other guy really messed his up. One other guy failed on his road test for panicking and running over a curb when he was turning left and another semi was making a left turn. That's an automatic fail but he gets to go back Tuesday knowing that he only needs to pass that road test while the other two of us have to start from the very beginning and still pass all three. The other five all passed everything on their first try which is awesome. It does help my confidence that the other two who failed were put right back to work on what they failed immediately upon returning to the school. The guy who failed the pre-trip was sent right over to do inspections because they found out he missed a TON of stuff and messed up his air brake test but still couldn't understand why he failed and was blaming the auditor. Then my roommate who failed the road test was put right back out there to build his confidence back up so he wasn't dwelling all weekend on the fact that his last drive was a failed road test where he panicked and ran over a curb barely a quarter of the way into it. When I got back and went over what went wrong with an instructor and he verified that what I was saying was accurate, he just asked me what I wanted to do because now that we know what went wrong and the fact that I got the score that I did for a full truck with an auditor present means I know my stuff and now know the only other thing that could have tripped me up because it did trip me up. Even the examiner told him that it was unfortunate too much air leaked out more than me not knowing my stuff and the examiner told me before I left the test site that I would be back to test again first thing Tuesday morning and he was calling the school immediately to tell them to get me right back there in the next slot which isn't until Tuesday because in Missouri you have to notify the state two business days in advance of a test. I just spent the last three hours watching others do their maneuvers and looking for mistakes and how to correct them so that I was at least working on things mentally but Monday I'm all in for the full day working on backing maneuvers to perfect them even more.

The only thing that scares me is that if I don't pass that pre-trip inspection on Tuesday then I might get sent home. Most carriers will tell the school to just send you home if you fail the inspections twice because they are afraid that either you can't remember everything needed in order to make sure the truck is safe to drive or else you don't care to remember it properly and either way they do not want you driving their equipment. I know I can do it and do it exceptionally well but I'm nervous about getting tripped up by something else weird and random that nobody ever thought needed to be taught.

tlombard
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Re: Life changes

Post by tlombard »

And there was an accident yesterday on the road involving a student. And one just walked out and quit at the end of her fourth week which makes no sense at all because she was going to take her test probably Tuesday or Wednesday and be done but now she owes six grand for training and didn't even get her CDL. It's insane.

As for the accident, it wasn't the students fault and it was actually the student who has years of experience on the road but is going through the classes again after his DUI cost him his CDL. It is just a messed up situation all around but thankfully nobody was hurt. He was just minding his own business driving down the road when suddenly a car cut in front of him and slammed on their brakes before they were even close to off the road. The car came to a complete stop right in front of him and he locked up his brakes but it was too late. The lady immediately jumped out and ran to her back seat where her baby was and the instructor said that was the part that really got him and he almost lost it. The lady said that the baby had just had heart surgery like a month ago and when she heard the baby choking she panicked and tried to get off the road to help her baby and didn't pay attention to anything around her. Both her and the police agree that the student was not at fault in any way and when the officer saw the skid marks in comparison to everything, there was no way the student could have avoided the collision so he should be fine with regards to that and any accident while you have your permit goes back to the instructor's responsibility anyway. If it was a different student, it would probably completely mess up their confidence and mental state when it comes to driving a truck to hit a car with a baby in it before even getting your CDL but he's had enough experience driving that he's fine with regards to that. It was probably very fortunate that he was the one driving and not somebody who was literally on the road for the fourth day ever. His reaction times are undoubtedly much faster than the rest of ours because he's not focusing so much on other things like his shifting and keeping the trucks in the lines and what if that light up ahead turns red as the rest of us still are. One of the rest of us probably would have hit the car harder. Although the instinct to jam on the brakes right away is pretty ingrained in all of us so maybe not. I can promise you that I wouldn't have thought about hitting that clutch though. I would have jammed on the brakes and the truck just would have died but in a situation like that, that is the least of your worries.

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GeddyWrox
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Re: Life changes

Post by GeddyWrox »

Wow. I hope everyone is OK!!! How scary!!

tlombard
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Re: Life changes

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Yeah, everyone was OK after the accident but it definitely was scary. The instructor said he held it together until they go back and the he went and ate lunch before promptly throwing it up. After that he was fine though and they went back out on the road in the afternoon.

I had that same instructor today on the yard polishing up our backing maneuvers along with another guy who is testing tomorrow like me and two who are testing Wednesday. It was a relaxed and fun day where we got a lot of practice at all of the maneuvers. I'm definitely ready for tomorrow now. Since I failed the pre-trip thanks to not knowing that the pressure had to be over 100 psi before starting the air brake test (which was covered in our morning gathering and the instructor giving that speech said even he didn't know about that requirement), I had to retake the in-cab and air brake test for the school today. I got that out of the way right off the bat with a perfect score.

I am actually getting pretty good at alley docking and all of the maneuvers. I am not great or anywhere near as good as the lead instructor who can power through an alley dock in 20 seconds without thinking twice but I'm good enough to know what needs to be corrected and how to correct it so I'll have no problem passing the backing maneuvers tomorrow. The second week wasn't good for alley docking and parallel parking but I got the basics. Then when we went back to it last week, those two just clicked for me with getting just a few different little tips on adjustments and what to look for by an instructor that I hadn't had in the yard yet. He seems to be the finisher. The other guys get you good enough with the basics and then if you are lucky enough to get him in your fourth week then he really polishes you up.

I ended up getting a lot of practice in today since I was in a group with three other guys who are all ready to test as well so things went a lot faster than when we were still learning to back the trucks up in our second week. If you weren't doing a maneuver, you were just hanging out along the fence having a conversation with the instructor and the other guys. Lots of jokes and making fun of ourselves. I'm going to miss that when I get out of here and unless I really botch something up tomorrow, I'll be graduating and free to head back home before the end of the day. While we won't be friends for life, I've met a good group of people down here this past month and they've helped make it a lot of fun while we are learning. The guys ahead of us took us under their wing a little when we started our first week and laughing about the stupid stuff that that they did to help us relax along with giving us all of the helpful information and answering all of our questions so we've been passing that along to the people just coming in and it looks like those who will be left when I'm gone will keep the cycle going. That really makes a difference with the amount of stress that comes along with trying to learn this stuff in such a short amount of time. Four weeks seems like a long time but when you have to share repetitions with two or three other people, you really have to learn fast or else you fall behind and slow up the progress of the others in your group too. That's not fun so it makes a huge difference to spend time talking and laughing with people who are going through or have been through the exact same thing and can relate.

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GeddyWrox
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Re: Life changes

Post by GeddyWrox »

Good luck tomorrow. Will you know the results right away??

tlombard
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Re: Life changes

Post by tlombard »

Oh yeah. You know immediately because you have to pass each test to move on to the next. I'll have to start over with the pre-trip inspection but I know I've got that nailed down.

From there you have to do the backing maneuvers and everybody has to do a straight back (can't be any easier) and an offset to one side where you start out in one spot and move it over to the spot right next to it. I've got those down pretty much perfectly too. Then it is a blind draw whether you have to parallel park to one side or do an alley dock. You can ring up 12 points combined for all three maneuvers. There is no way I'll get to the last one with any less than 10 points and really should have all 12 available. That gives you a ton of room to work with on the last one. I could hit three or four walls and still pass as long as I didn't do anything else wrong. The last two days I've been getting them all done in six minutes or less with taking my sweet time, not hitting a single wall and no extra pull ups every attempt and every attempt would have been an easy pass. Today I just worked on making sure that if I'm not perfectly lined up when I get to a certain point in each maneuver then I'm almost certain to be off in the direction where I'm better at correcting things and getting in. I can make the adjustments either direction but in each maneuver, there is one way that is just easier and more consistent for me so I am now really good at making sure that is the adjustment I have to make if any.

And that will just leave me the road test. I just have to make sure that I don't hit any curbs and if I am making a right turn where there is the little median and a yield sign for that right turn, you have to stop before the crosswalk or else you performed an unsafe act/obstructed traffic and that's a fail. Missing shifts completely will happen but it isn't going to fail you unless you really mess up about thirty of them in a 30-45 minute drive so that takes a lot of pressure off. I had a couple of drives in a row where the instructor said they would have passed the official exam and then when I took my actual road test for the school, I only rang up 9 points. After signing the test sheet I asked how many it takes to fail and was told you get 30 points. That really took a lot of pressure off of me because I didn't feel like that was my best drive and I still had room to mess up three times as much! So I'm feeling really confident about the road test too.

I really should have passed on Friday but I just had a bad combination of getting tripped up by one thing that I didn't know that I had to worry about along with some bad luck. One of my classmates did the exact same procedure that I did before me in the exact same truck and passed because it didn't leak as much pressure when he did it. I was unlucky that it leaked more than normal on me and didn't realize that the pressure had to be over 100 before starting the hold test. We just thought it had to be completely full before starting the setup and 99 times out of 100 you're going to be fine doing it the way I did. I was that one percent. At our morning briefing the instructor made sure to tell everybody that you have to make sure that your air pressure is over 100psi before you start the air brake test. Even most of the instructors didn't know that was an actual requirement that was added at some point because it wasn't when they got their CDL.

I'm getting all three skills tests passed tomorrow and will be leaving with my black hat signed by all of the instructors. I wanted a red hat for passing on the first try but it wasn't meant to be. Once I pass, I'm going to try and half heartedly argue for a red hat because I got tripped up by a combination of bad luck and them not teaching us to look out for that plus I scored 81 out of 90 on my failed attempt which is literally only forgetting three things on the entire truck. Actually, I only forgot two things but I also forgot the step where I should have had the examiner help me verify that the lights were working so that cost me all of the lights which was 6 points. You can pass with 60 points BUT if you aren't perfect on your air brake test then you fail even if you get everything else perfect. The black hat does look better than the red one though once they are signed. Red with black Sharpie is OK but the black with silver Sharpie signatures does look better to those who don't know that the black hat means you failed the skills tests the first time you tried! I don't wear hats and will never wear this one when I get it, but I do want it really bad. I've literally given up almost everything to come here. Quite my job. Gave up my apartment. Got rid of 95% of everything I owned and only kept the bare essentials. I put some stuff in storage but came down here with nothing but what would fit in my car. Not getting my CDL is not an option.

tlombard
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Re: Life changes

Post by tlombard »

Well, I took my tests again today and nailed them. I can now legally drive pretty much anything that is road legal! To be completely honest, I almost started crying tears of joy when I got back into my car after passing. I was so relieved and happy and I don't even know what. I didn't realize how stressed I had been since Friday with that first failed attempt because if I had failed the pre-trip again today then I might have been sent home by the company who sponsored me. The reason being that a lot of companies figure that if you fail the pre-trip twice then either you aren't capable of learning it and making sure that the vehicle is safe to drive or you don't care enough to take it seriously. Either way, that isn't a person that you want driving your vehicles and putting lives in danger on the roads. My emotions were just all over the place and it was like a two ton weight was just suddenly lifted off of me. I literally did not know how to process what I was feeling. I've never had that happen to me before in my 43 years that I can remember. If I had failed and been sent home then I would not only be back home and completely broke but I would still not have a job, I gave up my apartment so I literally wouldn't have a place to stay other than crashing with friends and family and I'd also owe about six grand for the school on top of all of that. It extreme to say that it felt like my entire life was on the line with the skills tests but it kind of was to some extent. Looking back, I really took a huge risk and leap of faith in myself when I made this decision. I didn't realize just how bad it could have turned out until this past weekend when I had nothing to do but think about it. Anyway.

I got 47 points on my pre-trip which apparently is either a perfect score or pretty darn close for what I was tested on according to the instructors when I showed them my test results.

On my backing maneuvers I managed to do them all without accumulating a single point out of the 12 that you have to work with and still pass so that was perfect. I even used the second of my free 'get out and looks' at the very end of my parallel parking maneuver just because I knew that I still had it completely in but I was not going to get tripped up and fail because of something stupid that I missed when checking my mirrors to make sure I was good. I was 99.999% sure that I was just fine but since I was allowed one final get out, I used it and did a complete circle around the entire truck to make sure nothing was hanging over a barrier. I had a good foot in all directions but I wasn't going to fail because of something dumb. The auditor actually laughed at me because when she told me that I had used them all up so once I got back into the truck I would fail if I got back out again without signaling that I had completed the maneuver, I just acknowledged that I was aware and told her that I was just going to run back and pull that horn because I only got out to double check because I knew I had the time and opportunity to make sure I didn't miss something stupid. She knew it was absurd that I got out and checked. I knew it was absurd myself. But it was worth it to be 100% sure and to get a laugh out of the lady auditor that everybody else says is a female dog from their interactions with her. She didn't bother me one bit and was cool with me though.

My road test wasn't quite as close to perfect but I only used up 15 of the 30 points that you're allowed and still pass which is well better than average according to the instructors so overall the examiner and my instructors said I did a great job and I was able to hand over almost every last penny that I have to the DMV and officially have my CDL!

About an hour after I got back to the school and finished all my paperwork to officially graduate I already missed a call from the company that I'm going to work for wanting me to call back to set the date for my start date/orientation and make the travel arrangements. I leave St. Louis at 6pm on Friday and my orientation starts this weekend. That happened quickly! I could have asked to delay it a week or so but I am ready to start making money. I need to start making money.

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cardinalkarp
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Re: Life changes

Post by cardinalkarp »

Congrats tlombard!! Following your journey on here and it’s been good reads!!

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