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Brian's School Journal Male, 23 years young. Introduction Welcome to Driver Training! My name is Brian. I have been considering being a truck driver for a long time, and have finally decided to take the plunge!
December 9, 2000 I arrive a little before 7:00am to see that everyone is there. I hate when you walk into a room and everyone turns to look at you and you feel like you have missed something. The instructor gives a brief description of the class and then we begin. We see a lot of films and cover section 1 and part of section 2 in the PA Commercial Driver's Manual. (make sure you have a highlighter.) We find out that we will have a test on the general knowledge next weekend! Class goes well. The instructor is very funny and down to earth. I feel as though I have taken in a good bit of information. 5:30pm Time to go home!! December 10, 2000 The first day in the yard. I arrive a 7:00am. We go over logs and the instructor checks our license, permit and medical card. He explains that we're going to be learning straight line backing today. So out to the truck we go. Man I should have dressed warmer. Duh! We go over the pre trip. One of the students from the previous class was practicing alley docking in one of the trucks so we only used one truck in the morning. It is a Freightliner with a 48ft van. There are only 6 of us in the class and he lets each of us go through it a few times. I did a lot better than I thought. I didn't have to do one pull up. 9:15am We get a 15 minute break and then back to straight line backing. The student from the previous class had finished and the instructor split us in to groups of 3. I end up in the other truck which is also a Freightliner, but with a 42ft flatbed. One of the students was having some difficulty with the flatbed, so the instructor dropped it and hooked up to another 48ft box. 12:00 Lunch time. We come back after lunch and practice some more. 3:00pm Another 15 minute break then back to practicing. After a while the instructor piles us into one of the trucks and takes us out just to get an idea of what to expect. When we get back we all get to drive in circles around the yard. And then practice straight line backing some more. We go over our logs for the day and class is dismissed at 5:30pm. December 16, 2000 7:00am I arrive at school and take my usual seat. We watch a few videos and finish up section 2 and 3. After lunch we take our test and the instructor graded them as we turned them in. I ended up missing 4, which gave me a 96% A. A little disappointed that I didn't do better. I know, boo hoo!. We skip section 4 (transporting passengers) and move on to section 5 (Air Brakes). We go over our log and at 5:30pm, class is dismissed. December 17, 2000 7:00am. I arrive at class and get out my log and other needed info. The instructor does a once-over and we head out to the yard. We go over the pre trip and then get broken up into groups of 3. My group gets to go out on the road where we will get to drive. Boy was I nervous. The instructor takes us out aways and then hands the controls over to the first student. He gets us back onto Rt51 and takes us to 119 and then 40. He drives in circles between 2 exits on 40 and then we take a break. The next student takes over and goes over the same circle for awhile and then takes us back to 119 and then towards Scottsdale. I then get my turn. Talk about butterflies. I take us back onto 119 and we end up back on Rt 51 headed back towards the yard. We start coming up on the point where the first student had started. I was waiting for the instructor to tell me to pull over. Any time now. Any second. We end up on the Elizabeth Bridge and he instructs me to get off at the Clairton exit. The exit has "jersey barriers" on either side of it so I have to watch the trailer so I don't creep up on them. I drove down through Clairton and we end up back at the turn in for the yard. I have to make a left into the lot which is a divided entrance/exit with a median in the middle. To top that off there are 3 posts; one on either side and one in the middle, which looks like they have been hit a few times in the past. Anyway I get the truck back in the lot without a scratch. 12:00 After lunch we head out to the yard and the other 3 go out with another instructor. We practice..... You guessed it, straight line backing again. After that we start practicing the alley dock. We go back inside and go over our logs. Class is dismissed at 5:30pm. Total mileage: 160 of which I drove about 55 (we divided by 3) Class is off for 2 weeks because of Christmas and New Years. Merry Christmas and Have a Happy New Year!! Check back around Jan 6th. January 6, 2001 Happy New Year! We'll finally went back to school today. It felt like I had forgotten everything. 7:00am Class started. We finished up section 5, Air Brakes. We watched a few videos on air brake systems and the 6 point brake check. After lunch we took a test on Air Brakes. Happy to report I got a 100%. We then worked through section 6, Combination Vehicles. We watched a video about rollovers. Pretty interesting. They put outriggers on a trailer (so it won't go all the way over) and showed what would happen if you turn too quickly. Talk about a scary situation. The driver said that he didn't feel much except for a lean on the tractor before the rear drive wheels lifted. They even did it to a tractor pulling doubles. They also put a piece of Plexiglas into the rear of a tanker half full of liquid so you could see the liquid moving around. We finished section 6 and the instructor was going to give us a test, but didn't feel that all of us were ready and said that we would take it next Saturday. He also showed us a film about TMC. Seems like a good company. Nice trucks anyway. Next week Arrow is coming in to talk with us. 5:30pm Updated our log books and were dismissed. Tomorrow I will be out on the road. I hope the weather isn't too bad. Will update you all tomorrow. January 7, 2001 7:00am Class starts and as usual the instructor goes over our paperwork to make sure we have everything. Three of us go out and do a Pretrip on the truck and then we climb in. We bring our log books up to date and were off. Today we are on two lane roads mostly. We went down through Bethel Park, Upper St Clair, Mt Lebanon, and back to Rt88 on to Rt51. 51 can seem really tight, but we make all the way to the Liberty Tubes and into down town Pittsburgh. We drove around the strip district and other various parts of the city. We didn't actually go through down town. The first driver almost had an incident. He tried to put the trailer up on a guard rail making a right on to a bridge. The instructor slammed on the brakes before anything happened. It is VERY important to look at the mirrors. Especially the right side when making rights.... Anyway, we head back towards the strip dist. and I got to take the controls. I was really nervous. I drove around the strip and a few of the same places we were before. We ended up in some little town were people park on both sides of the street. It seems really tight, but I did fine and we turned back towards the strip. We were on Smallman ST going towards town. At the stop sign he had me make a right on to 11th St? I think. I make a sharp left under a bridge. I wasn't sure if I would make it, but all went well. We got onto 279 and headed for the Fort Pitt tunnels. The clearance is only 13'7", we're 13'6". Talk about close. if you were empty and hit a good size bump you would scrape. They have height sensors before you enter the tunnel and if you set them off lights flash and a guy will come out waving his arms screaming. Anyway, we got on to 79 south and I drove to the Bridgeville rest stop. That was it. Pretty good day. From that point one of the other students took over and drove around the highway. He had missed the last class and had to get use to shifting. We got back to the yard around 12:00 and had lunch. The other 3 students went out at that point. After lunch we went out and worked on the alley dock for a while. The truck we were using had the 42' flatbed on it. And one of the guys was having trouble getting it into the dock. The instructor decided to drop the flatbed and hook up to the 48' box. He backed in and had one of the students unhook it. He handed me the keys and told me to swing around and pick up the box. I hooked it up to the box and we were back to the alley. I will say that is a lot easier with a longer trailer. At 3:00 we took a 15 minute break and the practiced straight line backing. After that we went through a 6 point brake check. We then went inside and talked about the day, went over our logs and at 5:30 class was dismissed. Total miles: 120 Of which I drove 40. Until next week. January 13, 2001 7:00am Arrived at class. The recruiter from Arrow came in. Seems like a good company. I received a pre-hire from them. Still waiting on a few others to hopefully get back to me. We took the test on Combination vehicles and I got another 100%. We then went through section 7 (Doubles and Triples) and took a quiz. Also went through section 8(Tank Vehicles) And took another quiz. We started section 9 (Hazardous Materials) I was doing well up until this point. Now I'm a little confused, but I'll figure it out. 5:30pm Class dismissed. January 14, 2001 7:00am Arrived at class to see one of the trucks leaving? Turns out the clock they go by is 10 minutes faster than mine. I'll have to fix that. Anyway we practiced the Alley dock and I have pretty much got the hang of it. We practiced straight line backing again. I am at the point were I can do it with some speed. We also made some right turns using a cone as a curb. The parallel Park Drivers side wasn't as hard as I thought. I got it in there first try. Lastly we tried serpentine backing. 12:30 I was the first to drive. I left the yard and made a left. Then made another left onto Lebanon Church Road. We drove around Century III mall. I massaged a few curbs with the tires, but didn't go over any. Only drove for an hour. We had a previous student from 1997 with use. He was getting back into trucking and the school lets previous students come back and practice. I'm glad he was there. He gave me a few pointers one of which, Don't always listen to someone helping you back up always Get Out And Look. Turns out he was backing into a dock and one of the drivers from his company was there. Told him to back up. The guy kept telling him he was fine. He ended up backing into the guys truck. The guy was sitting in his truck? Talk about a jerk. The next student did basically the same route with the addition of going out to Upper St Clair. The last student got in and he had a lot of trouble shifting. I mean a lot. We got back to the yard early and the trainer had him drive in circle around the yard shifting. At about 5:00pm we practiced straight line again. 5:30pm Updated logs and class dismissed. Total miles today: 80 (I drove 20) January 20, 2001 As usual class started @ 7:00am. We finished the section on Hazmat and took a True False quiz. Then we started on Federal Regulations 391 and took a test. Scored a 96%. We did some practice on log books and watched a few funny videos. Class was wrapped up at 5:30pm.
January 21, 2001 Got to class a little early today. It snowed a good bit yesterday and wanted to make sure I got there on time. We broke up into groups of three and some of us went through the 6 point brake check while the other three practiced straight line. Then we switched. We did this until they had the alley dock plowed and then our group pulled out of the straight line and worked on the alley dock. We each took 3 turns to run through it. I hit it perfectly on the first to so the instructor and the 2 students I was teamed with thought it would be funny to move the one side of dock in a foot. (It is only 4 cones.) I didn't realize it until I got in there. I made it in, but they thought it was hysterical. We practiced this until lunch. After lunch we split back up into threes and went out on the road. Of course I drove first. I made a left out of the yard and another onto Lebonon Church. We went out through Bethel park and into Upper St Clair. Into Bridgeville and on to Cecil. Then switched drivers. Nothing to exciting. We got back to the yard around 5:00pm or so. Updated our logs and were dismissed at 5:30pm. Total miles: 100 (I drove 25) (We had a tag-a-long student with us.) One additional comment. This past Wednesday I went and took 3 of the Penn Dot tests and passed them. I have to still take the hazmat and tanker tests. ONLY 3 WEEKS TO GO!!!!! January 27, 2001 Class Started at 7:00am. Went over safety regs and took a test. Scored 100%. Last week I went down to the DOT. and took 3 of the 5 tests and passed them. I will go down some time this week and take the rest. Anyway we went over the Pretrip, down hill simulation, hazmat railroad crossing and the 6 point brake check. Everything went well and I can tell we are almost through with school. 5:30pm class dismissed.
January 28, 2001 Got to the yard around 7:00am. We split up into groups of 3 and went threw a Pretrip. We stayed in the yard first while the other group went out. We practiced Straight line, Alley Dock, right turns around a cone, and left turns around a cone. At lunch the other group got back and after lunch we went out. I took us down 51 and across the west end bridge. We finally ended up on 79 north and I drove out to Evans City. We stopped on the onramp to change drivers. The instructor got out to water..uh...check the tires. We heard him yell something and jump back in to the truck. 2 dogs had come running down the hill barking at him. Anyway, we got back on 79 and headed south. We got back to the yard around 5:15-5:30pm, updated or logs and were dismissed. Total mileage: 120 2 more weeks!!!! February 3, 2001 Got to class around 7:00am. The instructor asked us a bunch of questions to see how much we new. We took a Driver qualification test. I got a 96% The last test for the class!!!!! He then told us that we were going to be moving into on of the offices because the carpet cleaners were coming. On of the students can't make it down to take his DOT. tests during the week so the instructor was going to let him go now. I decided that I might as well go since I also haven't had the time. I took both the Hazmat and Tanker. Passed them both. We got back and ate lunch and then went over map reading and trip planning. 5:30pm class dismissed.
February 4, 2001 7:00am arrived at class. We split up into 2 groups of 3 as usual. The other group went out first. We went over A good Pretrip with the instructor and then practiced Straight line, Alley dock, and right turns. We also got to do a few sight side and blind side parallel parking. Around 12:00 the other group got back and at 12:30 we went out. Today I was actually the last to drive. I started in East Liberty, Pittsburgh. I drove down through the Pittsburgh Zoo. Turns out it was around the same time that a monkey had gotten loose. We saw a channel 4 news crew there and the instructor made a comment about them being there for me. I drove down 51 and past the school. We had to stop and get gas. I pulled back into the yard around 5:15pm and the other instructor asked if any of us had any questions about or road test next weekend. He told us how the test will basically go and how he is on testers. We went in and updated or logs and were dismissed. Total miles: 90 ( I drove 30) Next Sunday is the big day..... February 10, 2001 Well today is the last day in class. I got there late because of a power outage of course. We had to go over defensive driving. It was the last thing we needed to do to graduate the classroom. We watched a few films on it and then watched one on Pretrip, and air brakes. We all turned in our books and let us now or grade. I got a 91% A over all. That was the combination of the class and the yard. Class was dismissed at 5:30pm.
February 11, 2001 I got to the yard around quarter till 7:00am. I realized that the 42' flatbed was gone. I was going to take it on the road test. Looks like I'm taking out the van. The instructor asked if we had any questions before the test. He went through what was going to be expected of us and asked for the first victim. I thankfully wasn't the first. They went out and did a Pretrip and a 6 point brake check. Then drove out of the yard and down Lebanon Church Road. They came back a little later and did straight line backing and the alley dock. Unfortunately he failed the yard, but passed everything else. The next guy went and failed. He hit a curb pulling out of the yard, but he passed the yard and Pretrip. The next guy also failed the road test, but he just forgot that the splitter was up and stalled on the road. The next person to go was someone outside the class he was there to test for his class B. He passed and I was up next. I was so nervous I was shaking like a leaf on a tree. We went over the Pretrip and the 6 point. Then went to pull out of the yard. Traffic was clear and as I pulled out some young punk came screaming out of the gas station across from the yard. I had to slam on the brakes and then wait as the other traffic went by. I was wondering if he was going to count that against me, but he didn't say anything, so I continued. At the light I made a CDL Left onto Lebanon church. I went down the hill and he asked me to make another left at the light. Going up the hill he asked me to pull over. I got off the road put on my hazards and pulled the air brakes. He told me to continue. I proceeded up the hill and at the light he asked me to make a right. This turn is one of the ones everyone fails on. You have to go between the median and the curb and most people hit the curb. I thankfully made it. We proceeded through the next light and there is another curb that sticks out a little then the road makes a slight bend to the right. It is a little tight because it is a 4 lane road and the curb is right along it. He asks me to do a lane change go a truck length and come back in to the lane. At the stop sign I stay to the right and then make a left at the light. I drove down to the clover leaf of Lebanon Church and 51. Right before getting there he tells me to pretend this is a restricted hill. I comply and hit the 4 ways down shift check the brakes and such. At the clover leaf he tells me to get onto 51. I swing wide around the turn to set myself up. We cross over Lebanon church and he tells me to make the right back onto Lebanon Church. At the stop sign I make the right turn and go under the bridge. Cancel my turn signal and hit the 4 ways. At the top of the hill I cancel the 4 ways and proceed. At one of the lights he asks me to make a right and then an immediate left. I have the right away and as I start to make the turn Some guy in a Chevy pickup cuts me off. He was to busy talking on his cell phone I guess. Anyway I make the turn and we proceed through the next stop sign. Near the next light it got interesting because the was almost a car accident right in front of me and then somebody pulled out in front of me. Anyway we go through the light and at the next light I make a left. Going down the hill he asks me to pull over. I get over pull on the 4 ways and the air brakes. He tells me to continue. I get back on the road and make a right at the light onto Lebanon Church. Going up the hill I hit the 4 ways again and at the top he asks me to make another right. I get to the entrance to the yard and turn right into the yard. I thought I was going to hit the curb, but luckily I didn't. He asks me to pull through the straight line and let him out. After he got out I backed through the straight line and pulled back up to the cones. Then he waved me on down to the alley dock. This is the part of the yard that I got nervous on. I normally have to do a pull up the first time I try the alley dock. I got it in the first try and my test was over. He walked up to the window and said that I passed. Talk about relief. I pull the truck over and park it for the next person. Later that night I called the next student to go and he had also passed. I am not sure as to the other student in the class. I hope he made it. I am going to call Arrow to schedule my orientation. I should be leaving on Saturday the 17th if they have an opening. I am not sure when I will be back. Orientation is a week and then I go out with a trainer for 4 weeks. I might be able to be home while with the trainer, but I will not know until I get one. When I do finally get back I will update all of you. Once I'm out on my own I will take my laptop to drop in from time to time. I'm also going to see if I can borrow my parent digital camera while I'm gone and will try to take a few pics. Until next time. |
