Judgment Day - CDL Style

In the previous post, I showed you the schedule for when I'd be testing. I am very pleased to announce that three of the four classmates who tested on Monday, all passed the CDL exam. Spoiler alert - the 4th person eventually re-took the test a couple weeks later and also passed!

So, it was up to me to keep this Group 24 mystique alive! We had become close and were all pulling for each other to pass the test. I arrived shortly after 7 am, a bit early, and the state examiner asked me into his office. He told me, "Mr. Fors, I hope you brought your 'A game' today. If you don't pass this morning, I'm not sure I can get you back in for a re-test until August."  Ooops. As if I needed more pressure. LOL
Anyway, we went out to the testing pad and I did my pre-trip inspection or PTI and knocked it out of the park. Just a couple points off for minor things. I then went inside the cab and performed my inspection and LAB or air brakes leakage test and that went as planned. The pad maneuvers went well, but heading into my third 'wild card' maneuver, I didn't have any points accumulated, so I felt like I could breathe a little easier. Well, I got sight side parallel, which is the easier of the three options (Blind parallel or 90 degree alley). Here's the thing- the test pad isn't marked the same way as the practice pad we have at the school. You're sort of left to your own devices to find your landmarks and 'imaginary lines' to make your turns, etc. Well, long story short, I had to use a couple "Get Out and Looks" and pull ups to reset my turns, but I got it "in the box" with only about 3 or 4 points.
After that, it was onto the road test and that went swimmingly. The examiner actually told me that I was probably one of the most thorough and prepared students that he'd tested in the past weeks/month, so that was a good thing. He said he thought I'd make a solid, safe truck driver.

So, I got my coveted Blue Folder from Roadmaster Driving School after we returned from the road. The folder contains the state examiner's official test document with his signature, which I have to take to the state DMV to get my temporary permit converted to my final CDL. The folder also contains my final grades and completed course work from the school, along with my medical forms/tests, etc. and some forms for my tuition reimbursement. One of the best parts about passing the test, is that when you're all done and that giant gorilla is off your back, you get to take the Blue Folder around and have your classmates and instructors sign it. It's just like yearbook day back in high school. Everyone wants to sign it and wish you good luck in going out and getting that money!

I had spoken with a few different trucking firms over the previous weeks and decided to sign on with Werner Enterprises. Werner will be reimbursing me for the Roadmaster tuition over the next couple years of my employment, so that's a good thing. Well, no rest for the weary- now that I've got my CDL, I begin orientation at Werner on Friday (just three days later!) and begin my new life/career as a legit truck driver. Whodathunkit?! I'll be posting some pics from orientation soon!

On The Road...Again!

Simply getting behind the wheel of one of these trucks is a thrill. You have to have the utmost respect for the engineering and the power that is hiding beneath the hoods of these monsters. All of our instructors have told us and reiterated that you have to have a healthy amount of respect and fear of the trucks, because as soon as you relax or get too comfortable with them, they'll bite you. Book it!

After we'd spent a couple days out on the maneuver pad, the instructors started to take handfuls of the classmates who were in my "group" out on the road. These trucks are specially outfitted so that there are three extra seats in the bunk area, instead of the bed racks. It's actually pretty amazing how much room there is behind the driver and passenger seats in these trucks. It's like having a small efficiency apartment back there. LOL  Anyway, the first time behind the wheel on the open road is a butt-clencher. I think I was basically white-knuckling the steering wheel the entire time and all I could think about was not hitting anyone else and not running over a curb. That's a big No-No in these big rigs. You have to take all of your turns VERY wide so you're not running over a curb, which could disturb or damage your freight, or cause the trailer to overturn. You also have to make sure that you're not hitting cars who have stopped too far out in the intersection when you're making those wide right and left-hand turns. Remember that! Always stop BEHIND those solid white lines at intersections. 

Each of the four students get around 45 minutes to an hour behind the wheel, and the instructor would make sure that we got plenty of time on a variety of driving conditions. Rural, city, small town, interstate, busy industrial park, gas station or truck stop parking lots- you name it. Each place has its own hazards and challenges, so you've got to be focused and basically look out for everything!

Here's what's amazing. Once I finally start working, actually driving on the road, 45 minutes to an hour will be just getting started! I'll be spending from 10-11 hours driving each day, possibly putting in between 500 and 550 miles. The cab of my truck is literally my office and I have to be sure that I'm not only comfortable there, but not TOO comfortable that I can't be 100% focused on the task at hand. I'm basically in control of a nearly 40-ton missile driving 60+mph down the highway. It's 'heavy' to think about it in those terms, but that's why the education, instruction, and testing process to get a CDL is so thorough and intense. Not just anybody can do it, nor should they be able to do it.

Speaking of testing, the school put out its testing schedule for my class, "Group 24" a couple of weeks ago. My test date is scheduled for first thing in the morning (7:30 am) on Tuesday, July 16th. My four weeks of intense preparation will come down to a two-hour time slot, where I'll get to show that I know how to inspect my truck, test my brake system before driving, pull off various backing and parking maneuvers, and then complete a perfect road driving test.

I'll have at least two or three of the classmates that I've become close friends with taking the exam the day before I do, so that will provide me with some inspiration and confidence to be ready for my own exam. I've worked every day with these guys, and I know we've prepared ourselves for this moment.

Wish us all luck!

Launching Pad

Okay, so the title of this post may be a bit dramatic, but in a way, I am launching my new truck driving career - and the next step in this journey takes me to the maneuvers "pad."
Let me set the stage for you here. I'm talking about what amounts to a 3 or 4 acre parking lot, with 5 or 6 sections lined off with a series of industrial-sized traffic cones. As I showed in a previous post, the day starts with 9 or 10 of the Werner/Roadmaster 18-wheelers lined up like pretty maids all in a row. Then, around 7:30-7:45-ish each morning, the entire class is split up into various groups. 

Two or three groups of students, usually four at a time, head out with an instructor and get in some serious 'road time.' Each student gets about 45 minutes to navigate the local rural roads, city/town streets, an industrial park or two, and a few miles of Interstate 20. The rest of the students are divided up in groups of around 7 or 8 and they spend the day in the sweltering heat, waiting for their opportunity to learn and practice the primary tractor-trailer backing and parking maneuvers.

You have your basic 'straight back' which is exactly what it sounds like. You're driving this behemoth vehicle forward a couple hundred feet, and then you have to carefully back it up into and through "the box." In truck driving it's always about getting the trailer "into the box" safely. That just means getting it into the loading dock without damaging other trucks or equipment, a building, or whatever is in the immediate area. The straight back is relatively easy, but you still need to focus, because even small movements in the steering wheel can mess up your line and then you're chasing your tail the rest of the maneuver, trying to get it in safely.

Also, because you have a 53-foot long trailer that's pivoting or articulating on the drive wheels behind the truck's cab, all of your movements are thrown off because they're the opposite of driving a regular car or SUV. While backing a trailer, when you move right, the trailer's tail goes left. When you go left, the trailer moves right. Got it? Yeah, so a big part of all of this training is re-wiring your brain to understand that what you're seeing in the 6 different mirrors (no 'rear-view' mirror in the cab!) is going to react much differently than you're used to.

After the straight back, you learn "Offset" backing. That means pulling forward out of one spot, straight ahead, and then backing into the space directly next to where you just were. I liken it to parallel parking the truck into the adjacent space, and then backing it in from there. You have to be able to do it from left to right (blind side) and from right to left (sight side). Generally speaking, blind side backing and parking is always more difficult because that means that you're moving the entire truck in a direction in which you can't use your passenger side mirrors to help you. If you're doing a 'sight side' maneuver, that means that in addition to using your mirrors, you can always just turn your head and look out the window and see what the tail of the truck is doing while you're backing up.
The next maneuvers, which are also very tough, are the parallel parking back-ups. Apparently, according to the pros, these maneuvers aren't used a whole lot, but just enough that you really need to know how to do them. They also fall into the sight side and blind side versions. I will say that improvements made in these maneuvers definitely help you get better at both of the offset backing options. They use the very same steps to accomplish their goal.

The final, lethal maneuver on the practice pad is the "90 degree Alley dock". It's brutal and will put a beginner or novice driver to the test. You are basically driving all the way past the parking spot or alley where you want to park, then you' have to be able to back the truck at a 90 degree angle, into the spot. Fortunately, it's nearly always done on the sight side, but because of the precarious angle you're taking, you have to be very careful about what's happening on the blind side. It takes 8-10 feet of movement by the cab before you truly can tell exactly what the tandem wheels in back or the tail of the trailer is doing - this is your "trailer or tandem lag time." A lot of doubt can creep into your mind in those 8-10 feet, like "Did I even turn the wheel in the right direction to make it in there?"
I can safely say that the first couple of times attempting this torturous task, I broke out into a full-on sweat - and that was with the A/C absolutely blasting inside the cab. And let me tell you, I was going through my training in late June through early July in Georgia!

It was freaking hotter than Hades nearly every day. I'm talking like 95 degrees and 75% humidity just about daily. Many people brought umbrellas to class to use as parasols and create their own shade, while others would site down in the shadows of nearby parked trucks. The alley dock area actually had a small covered tent-like thing, so as hard as that maneuver is, folks liked to be assigned there to beat the heat. LOL

The hardest part of all this is the waiting. Some days we'd have eight or more people in a group, and on occasion we'd have a classmate who was more advanced than us come through to practice once prior to taking their state CDL exam, or someone would be sent to 'evaluate out' which meant they had to pass the school's final test, before they'd be allowed to take the state examination.

This was my life for four weeks during the Summer of 2019 - from 7am until 6pm, Monday through Saturday, with an hour for lunch and two 15 minute breaks- one in the morning session and again in the afternoon. Brutal. It reminded me of Hell Week or Christmas training while I was swimming in college, only hotter - and outside. Oh, and I'm old as dirt, so that didn't help.
We're really just getting started, but I'll have more next time!