Oct 2002

John's School Journal

Male, 50 years young

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Introduction

Section 1 - Truck Driving School

My Background

At age 50, I have already had a full career of more than 20 years as a computer engineer, mostly writing software for communications systems like cellular telephone systems or satellite communications systems. Although I liked the kind of work I was doing and was good at it, after a while it began to take a toll. The jobs were getting bigger and bigger, and the schedules tighter and tighter. In late 1997, more than 20 years into my career, I decided that I had had enough for a while. It was just too stressful, and I needed to take a break. I quit my job, bought a sailboat, sold my house, and took off cruising. I suppose you could call it a mid-life crisis, but whatever it was, it was a huge change.

After spending more than a year refitting the boat, I cruised south to Florida for the winter of 1999 - 2000, then north to Chesapeake Bay in early summer 2000. I worked for two seasons at a marina in Solomons, Maryland, and although I enjoyed the work, the pay was too low for long-term survival. After cruising south to Charleston, South Carolina, for the winter of 2001 - 2002, I cruised back north to Baltimore, Maryland, in early summer 2002 to look for a job. Liveaboard cruising is a wonderful hobby, but the pay is lousy!

Back when I started cruising, my original plan was to cruise for a couple of years, then resume my computer career. But I've now been away from computer work for more than five years, so I'm pretty “stale” from a technological point of view. And to tell the truth, I don't have a whole lot of interest in returning to computers - 20+ years of sitting behind a computer is enough! Even if I wanted to return, there aren't many computer jobs around, and most of the jobs in the Baltimore area are for government projects that require a current security clearance, which I don’t have.

Selecting A New Career

The question is: what to do, what to do? I'd like a job with some “meat” to it, and one that's challenging. Also, I'd like a job that pays enough to live on, and then some. (I want to have money left over so I can save up for additional sailboat cruising.) The problem is, as a middle-aged former “computer geek”, I don't have a lot of experience in other fields, so I need to choose a field where inexperience (or middle age) isn't a big drawback.

I now have a golden opportunity to reinvent myself as something completely different. I have already done that once before, changing from a stressed-out “computer geek” to a laid-back liveaboard sailboat cruiser. The process of reinventing myself had many challenges, but at the same time, it was exciting and interesting. After all, how many times in your life do you get to completely change the direction of your life and do something completely different? For me, not very often!

During my first “reinvention”, I looked upon the process with some trepidation, unsure of myself and anxious of failure. However, my cruising adventures turned out to be interesting, exciting, and filled with new experiences. Now that I'm going through my second “reinvention”, I'm much less anxious, and in fact I'm really enjoying the process. Whatever I do next, I will choose carefully so it's interesting, challenging, and full of new experiences.

I spent a lot of time looking through the Sunday classified ads and browsing employment sites on the internet. There were lots and lots of relatively boring and unchallenging jobs - not for me, thanks. There were quite a few jobs that sounded interesting, but required significant experience - scratch those, too. Every Sunday, there seemed to be lots of job ads for medical technicians (like nurses) and truck drivers. I don't want to be a nurse. What about being a truck driver? Hmmm...

What I Found Out About Truck Driving

During late summer 2002, I spent quite a while investigating truck driving as a new career. I spent a lot of time on the internet and found lots of good information. I discovered that truck driving has both positive and negative aspects.

On the plus side, it would be something completely new and different, a major new challenge for me to tackle. It would also be both a job and an adventure, compared to computer work which was all job and no adventure. The industry seems to be very receptive to new drivers, even those of middle age, due to a severe shortage of drivers. Training is readily available from private schools, community colleges, and schools associated with trucking companies. There are many jobs available, and the pay for new drivers seems to be somewhere in the low $30K range in your first full year of driving. You have a high level of responsibility without a manager looking over your shoulder all the time.

On the negative side, truck driving seems to be very demanding of your time, energy, and patience, and seems to produce more than the usual number of frustrations. Part of the reason why there are so many jobs available is that it's a difficult job, requiring a lot of patience, skill, maturity, and energy. The driver turnover rate at some companies exceeds 100% per year, so it's apparently quite common for drivers to get fed up and quit. After all, if truck driving jobs were really great and well-paying, all the job openings would be immediately filled.

After doing a lot of research on the internet, I'm beginning to think that some of the “problems” with truck driving jobs are due to the expectations of the drivers being out-of-whack with what the job can deliver. Drivers with families seem to have a lot of problems because they are away from home so often, other drivers seem to have little patience which causes problems waiting to pick up or deliver loads, other drivers can't handle being alone so much, or working outside in all kinds of weather. Some are just not mature enough to handle the major independent responsibility that the job requires. I actually think I'm fairly well suited for the occupation, and if I keep my expectations in-line with the reality of the occupation, I think I'll do OK.

I discovered that there are several different kinds of truck driving, for example, long-distance truck driving (also called OTR, for “over-the-road”), regional, local, dedicated (servicing one customer only). The different types of driving determine how far you drive and how often you get home. OTR truck drivers can drive all over the country for days at a time, and only get home typically once every couple of weeks. Regional drivers might get home every weekend, local drivers every night. Although getting home is important, many new drivers start out driving OTR, since it seems that the more desirable routes (home more often) are assigned to the more experienced drivers who have already “paid their dues” by driving OTR. I’m interested in long-distance driving, which to me looks similar to cruising on my boat, except it’s obviously “cruising” on land. I live on my boat by myself and have no dependents, so the limited home time of OTR driving shouldn’t be a problem. My boat can pretty much take care of itself while I’m away.

There are also different types of tractor/trailer combinations. The most common is a tractor and a “dry van”, which is your typical box-type enclosed trailer. There also are refrigerated trailers (for meat or frozen food), bulk carriers (for things like powdered cement), flatbeds (for steel and machinery), tankers (gasoline or chemicals), etc. New drivers typically get dry vans, since they are the least dangerous. You wouldn't want a new driver hauling hazardous chemicals, since the consequences of an accident could be very severe (poisoning an entire city, for example!). I’m pretty sure I don’t want to haul a refrigerated trailer, since it seems they have more than the average amount of delays. Flatbeds would seem to require lots of agility to tarp and secure a load - I’ll leave that for the younger guys. At some point, I wouldn’t mind hauling a tanker, but at this point in my career (zero experience), I think I’ll have to settle for a dry van.

You can drive solo or as a team (of two people). Solo is just what it sounds like - you're always by yourself, and you stop the truck when you need to rest. Team driving is where the two drivers take turns driving to keep the truck moving 24-hours a day, except stopping for fuel. Teams transport “expedited freight” - high-priority shipments that must get there as soon as possible. I have lived by myself for years and enjoy my own company, so solo driving sounds just fine to me. In contrast, team driving sounds downright grueling.

Many companies hire drivers who work for the company as employees. Other companies hire “owner-operators” - independent contractors who own and operate their own truck, basically a mini one-truck company. Sometimes a company will hire both company drivers and owner-operators. I have no interest in owning my own truck - it sounds like a huge amount of extra work, on top of the already substantial demands of the truck driving job itself.

Some trucking companies only service a particular region, for example, New England, or east of the Mississippi. Other companies service the entire lower-48 states. I’m interested in driving 48-states, for maximum variety. Of course, you go where your dispatcher sends you, which depends on where the freight is moving. It seems that the heavily-industrialized eastern half of the U.S. needs the most service.

To summarize, the type of driving I would like to try is as a company driver hauling a dry van doing 48-state solo OTR. As far as I can tell, this is also the most common type of driving, with the most job openings. I also figure this to be the type of driving with the most adventure. In any event, I have decided to give it a try. At this point, I don't know enough about the occupation to be sure that I'll like it, so the only way to find out is to try it. Even if it turns out that I don't like it, I figure I can stand it for a year, just to earn some money, then I can do something else.

Deciding How To Get Trained

To tell the truth, when I started investigating truck driving as a career, I had never even been in a tractor-trailer truck - I certainly had never driven one. Step 1, then, was to learn how to drive a truck. I had noticed on some training-related internet sites that not everyone can handle a big rig - some people are too intimidated by the size or just don’t “get it”. I certainly hoped this wouldn’t happen to me, but what if it did?

To answer this question, I decided to get truck driver training locally in Baltimore, at my own expense. This way, I could find out quickly, easily, and “on my nickel” if I could handle a big rig. Another training approach would be get to driver training at a trucking company, but I had a few problems with that approach. First of all, it seemed that you had to sign a contract to work for a certain amount of time (like a year), otherwise you’d have to pay back the cost of training. Training always seemed to take place in some far-away, God-forsaken place, which would be a nuisance. But the biggest problem was that company courses seemed to be very short - as little as two weeks! How could I learn everything in such a short time? Even if I learned enough to pass the course, it would no doubt be a very difficult and stressful time - not very conducive to learning and not a very satisfying introduction to truck driving.

In early October 2002, I started investigating truck driving schools in the region. There were several schools, but most of them were more than an hour away by car and would be inconvenient to attend. Baltimore had two truck driving schools: a private school and a program run by the Community College of Baltimore County. I visited both schools and talked to their representatives.

In my opinion, the private school seemed very intent on making as much money as possible, including trying to convince me to finance the tuition. I didn't even get to talk to someone who knew anything about truck driving, or who even knew the details of the training program. I only got to talk to a sales representative whose main function, I decided, was to weed out the losers who wouldn't be able to pay or qualify for financial assistance, and arm-twist those who could pay into signing up right away and financing their tuition. It was too much of a high-pressure sales pitch, and I came away from the interview disappointed.

I talked at length with the director of the training program at CCBC (the community college), and I was very impressed by his dedication to providing excellent training and supporting his students even after they graduate (in certain situations, they can come back for more training at no extra cost). He knew a lot about the industry and told me how the training related to industry requirements. I had done an internet search on the program and didn't find out very much, but I did discover that the director was quite involved in the truck driving industry in Maryland and truck driving schools in particular. I considered this to be a good sign, since someone so involved in the industry would certainly strive to provide good training - the quality of the new drivers coming from his school would directly reflect on the quality of his training program.

I signed up to take the truck driver training course, which ran for eight weeks from mid-October to mid-December 2002. It was a full-time course that met for about seven to eight hours a day, five days a week, for eight weeks (about 300 hours, total). The first two weeks would be spent in the classroom, then the remaining six weeks would be spent on the driving range and road. Towards the end of the course, we would take our official driving test administered by the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA). The tuition for the course was $5000, which was pricey for a community college. The tuition also covered the DOT physical, textbooks and classroom materials, MVA fees, etc. If you didn’t pass your MVA driving test on the first try, the tuition would cover the cost of up to two more driving tests. I paid for the course out of my own pocket (so I was VERY motivated to succeed), but most people taking the course got financial assistance from the government due to being recently laid off. I signed up to get the Class A license. This is the full license to drive tractor-trailer trucks. There is also a lower class license, Class B, that allows you to drive busses or straight trucks (that is, trucks that don't “bend” in the middle like tractor-trailer trucks). Sometimes, if students can't master the class A driving, they can get a class B instead, and still wind up with marketable skills.

Before The Course Started

Before the course started, I went to the school to take placement tests which tested basic reading and arithmetic skills. They sometimes get applicants who have trouble with these basic skills, and they need to figure out which applicants need extra help. I took the tests and I'm sure I got 100% since they were very easy.

Before the course started, I also had to get a “DOT physical”, which was a special physical that conformed to requirements set by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The truck driving school requested $150 up-front to cover the cost of the physical, which was administered at a local walk-in clinic. If you passed the physical, you could then enroll in the course and pay the balance of the tuition. The purpose of the physical was not necessarily to check your health across-the-board, but to see if you had any specific problems that would interfere with truck driving. For example, if you had mobility or strength problems with your limbs, problems with sight or hearing, any kind of condition that could cause loss of conciousness (epilepsy, diabetes, heart problems, etc.). I had to fill out a form that had a list of many possible ailments and injuries, and if I checked any boxes, I had to discuss the information with the doctor. I had reviewed all my personal medical files beforehand and typed up a list of all pertinent information. Also, I had found the complete DOT physical form on the internet, including the instructions for the doctor. Having all this information beforehand made it much easier to fill out the form in the doctor’s office.

It’s a good idea to take the physical well before the truck driving course starts, so if you discover a problem, you might have time to solve the problem before the driving portion of the class starts (for example, by starting to take blood pressure medication). If it’s a big problem that can’t be solved, at least you would find out before investing extra time and money in the truck driving course. The most difficult section for me, and for many others, was the blood pressure test. It had to be no greater than 160 over 90, which is the limit for “high normal” blood pressure. I didn't have any problem with the higher number, but my lower number was 90 which is the limit, so I just barely squeaked by. If you are outside the limits, you can get treatment (such as drugs) to lower your blood pressure, then take the physical again. The end result of taking and passing the physical is the “DOT card”, which is a small certificate that you have to carry around at all times and show along with your license whenever requested. You can't drive a commercial motor vehicle without a valid DOT card in your possession.

A few days before the course started, we had an orientation meeting with the director. He handed out copies of the course curriculum and the rules and regulations. The rules were strict but fair - students were expected to commit 100% to the program and no goofing off or unprofessional conduct would be tolerated. The director said the course would be “hot and heavy, hard and fast”, so it would not be the kind of schooling that you could “sleepwalk” through. He also handed out textbooks for the class A CDL. Our textbook was called “Truck Driver’s Guide To CDL” by Career Publishing, Inc., which was based on the standard CDL manual but had significant extra information including practice written tests (which were very helpful). He also handed out textbooks for the class B passenger endorsement and said we should study it and take the corresponding MVA written test, so if we couldn’t handle the class A driving, we could instead get a class B license with a passenger endorsement.

The director recommended that we study the material and take the MVA written tests as soon as possible, so if a student had a problem area, they could find out where they needed more work. It didn’t cost anything to take the written tests, and there was no real penalty for failing a test - simply take it over again. If we had time available on Friday (the next day), he recommended we read through the books and take the MVA tests just for practice. I read through the books and took all the tests, and passed them all - before the course even started! There were seven written tests: general knowledge, air brakes, combination vehicles, doubles/triples, tankers, hazmat, and passenger endorsement. As an aside, I found out that I needed a certified copy of my birth certificate for the hazmat endorsement, which is one of the post-9/11 changes that are being implemented. Also, MVA now does a background check for all hazmat endorsements.

Classroom Training

The first two weeks were classroom instruction; we met from 8 AM to 4 PM with a half-hour lunch break and a short break in mid-morning and mid-afternoon. The first day of class I met my fellow classmates. We had six people in the class, including me. They were all men, mostly in their 30's (at 50, I was the oldest), and most of them had been laid off from other jobs. One student used to work as a technical supervisor on a cable-laying ship that roamed the world laying undersea fiber optic cable to satisfy the internet boom. When the internet boom went bust, the business dried up, and he got laid off. Another student was a co-worker of the cable-laying man; he worked as a forklift driver until he got laid off. Another student used to work as a PC network technician until he got laid off. Then he worked as an ink mixer in a printing plant until he got laid off. As an earlier job, he once worked as a mortician, embalming corpses. Another guy was a salesman at a tropical fish store. Much earlier he used to drive trucks with his uncle, but he didn't learn all the driving skills - his uncle only let him drive the straight highways, so he never learned how to maneuver the truck in close quarters. Another student was only in his early 20's, and was entering the field because his father was a truck driver. And finally there's me, a former “computer geek” turned sailboat cruiser. All in all, quite an assortment of characters.

We had a really good teacher who was very easy to get along with and who had lots of truck driving experience - he said he had “hauled everything from chicken sh*t to a satellite”. He told some good “war stories” about his truck driving experiences, including one time when he lost his brakes coming down a mountain out west, and at the bottom of the mountain, went flying through town, blowing his air horn and running red lights until his truck coasted to a stop. Another story was when he was exiting a highway on a rainy night and some idiot car driver on the exit ramp started to back up to get back on the highway. Our instructor hit his brakes and wound up skidding and losing control of the truck. He went off the road, overturned, and was partially ejected since he wasn't wearing his seat belt (he was injured but not very seriously).

Here’s a summary of the classroom training, day-by-day. It might read like a disconnected list of topics, but it was well-presented and generally followed the textbook. We had additional classrom instruction not based on the textbook, such as our defensive driving course and the drug/alcohol awareness course.

Classroom Week 1

Monday, 10/14/02 - Introduction to truck inspections - pre-trip, en-route, post-trip, with additional information on some items for the MVA pre-trip test. Introduction to logbooks and the four categories of duty status. Backing - what to look out for, using all your mirrors. Information about driving - looking ahead, up-shifting, down-shifting, RPM’s, going up and down hills. Brake usage (and pitfalls), brake fade, spring brakes, Jake brakes, speed management. Adjusting and using mirrors, defensive driving and looking for hazards, coping with reduced visibility. Emergency stops (placement of red reflectors), computing stopping distances, traction (losing it and regaining it), skids, ice, hydroplaning, rollover risk, winds, night driving, use of escape ramps. Hazards along the road, planning how to cope with emergencies, accident avoidance, detecting and handling tire failure. Information on combination vehicles - weight distribution, jackknife risks, trailer hand brake. Air brakes - the in-cab brake buttons and what they are used for, air brake system components (compressor, tanks, hoses, shutoff valves, slack adjuster, low air alarm, brake lights, spring brakes, dual brake system, air brake leak test, parking brakes). Load management, weight distribution, bridge formula, securing loads, special concerns for flatbeds and tankers.

This seems like a lot for one day, but there was minimal detail for each topic. The goal was to learn as much as you needed to know for basic safety and to pass the CDL written tests. There was emphasis on the air brake leak test, since on our MVA test, we have to perform the air brake leak test perfectly, otherwise you fail. Other portions of the MVA test allow for a few minor errors, but not the air brake leak test.

Tuesday, 10/15/02 - We had a detailed presentation by recruiter from TMC, a flatbed company out of Des Moines, Iowa. It seemed like a pretty good company, and the school wouldn’t let them in to recruit unless they were decent. I’m not too keen on driving a flatbed, though, since every load requires you to climb all over to secure, and perhaps tarp, the load. In the classroom: We spent significant time going over the details of transporting hazmat. Also, how to fill out logbooks, the hours-of-service rules and regulations (10-hr rule, 15-hr rule, 60/70-hr rule). Practiced filling out logbooks using a sample trip.

Wednesday 10/16/02 - We started using our logbooks yesterday, and every morning, we’ll turn in the previous day’s page. Today we had a few miscellaneous topics, then the instructor gave each of us a Rand-McNally Motor Carrier’s Atlas and we spent a while planning and logging two sample trips. For some people, this was their first introduction to map reading and trip planning. I had a hard time seeing the tiny mileage numbers on the map and vowed to bring in a magnifying glass for the rest of the classroom training. (I found a rectangular “pop-out” magnifying glass with built-in light at Wal-Mart which worked very well.) You also definitely need to have a calculator. The instructor handed out our official yard handbook, which contained written-out instructions for all the range maneuvers, as well as other basic operating instructions for the truck. The handbook had the complete pre-trip inspection that we would need to learn for the MVA examination. For homework, we have to start memorizing it. We also heard a rather shocking “war story” from our instructor about a former student at the school who had an accident on his first solo run once he started working. He was carrying a load of steel on a flatbed, and lost control of the truck while reaching for something in the cab. The truck rolled over and he was ejected from the cab since he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. The still-moving truck ran him over and killed him. The moral of the story was that it’s important to wear your seatbelt - you never know when you’re going to need it, and it could very well save your life.

Thursday 10/17/02 - Today we heard another presentation, this time from a financial planner from the Maryland Motor Truck Association. He gave us some advice on how to allocate our funds for security and future income. This wasn’t a very helpful presentation, since it didn’t really have anything to do with truck driving. Also, the guy was basically a salesman, and although he was approved by the MMTA, he was basically trolling for business. We worked-out another practice trip, doing trip planning with the atlas and filling out log sheets. Saw a video and got a lecture about skids and how to recover - “a skidding wheel always leads the parade”. We heard a few more “war stories” from our instructor: One time, he tried heating a can of beans on the exhaust maniford. He didn’t open the can first to relieve pressure so the can exploded and got beans all over the engine compartment. Another time, he got snowed-in out west and had to leave the truck on the roadside. When he went back after it stopped snowing, the truck was literally buried in snow. Snowblowers had cut a path for the road, but you couldn’t even see the truck it was so buried. He had to get a state road department crew to help him dig it out. Saw a video - “Seven Deadly Sins of Winter Driving”. (1) Failure to prepare (clothes, food/drink, tools, sand); (2) Lying to yourself (it isn’t going to happen to me; if I just go a few more miles); (3) Overconfidence (losing fear of ice and snow and driving too fast for the conditions); (4) Not understanding the physics (traction loss; don’t ask your truck to do something it can’t do); (5) Bad judgement (pushing ahead when good sense says to stop); (6) Lack of knowledge (inappropriate or incorrect driving behavior for winter); (7) Not seeing the big picture (delivering a late load is not the end of the world). “You will never regret being too safe, but you WILL regret not being safe enough.”

Friday 10/18/02 - We saw a video on accidents and learned what to do in case of an accident. Also, what to do if the truck breaks down. Got more info on logbooks. We were dismissed early so we could go to the MVA office to take the written tests. The first time (a week ago) was for practice, now it’s for real. In case of failures, we’ll get another chance to retake tests next week.

Classroom Week 2

Monday 10/21/02 - We had an all-day, major presentation with videos, lectures, and a test for a defensive driving course (and certification) called “Drive to Survive”. Every year, 41,200 are killed in accidents, 2,300,000 are injured, resulting in $113 billion in insurance payments. “Defensive driving is driving to save lives and insurance money in spite of conditions around you and the actions of others.” Factors that cause accidents: driver, vehicle, conditions. 60% of accidents are due to driver error. How to prevent accidents: (1) Recognize the hazard, (2) Recognize the defense, (3) Act correctly and in-time. Saw an unforgettable (and heart-wrenching) video “Room To Live” where a former police officer vividly described accidents. There were no gory scenes - he just lectured in front of an audience, but it was mesmerizing and very real. The #1 killer in accidents is being thrown out of the vehicle, due to not wearing seat belts. The police officer had on numerous occasions found dead people thrown out of their vehicle, but the vehicle, despite suffering major damage, still had “room to live” inside the passenger compartment. If only the victims had worn their seatbelts, they would likely still be alive. The officer’s final comment in the video: “I never unbuckled a dead person from an accident”.

Tuesday 10/22/02 - In the morning, we took several hours to work out a complicated trip-planning and logging exercise. This one would be graded and count towards our final classroom grade. In the afternoon, we had another major presentation with videos, lectures, and tests, this for our drug and alcohol awareness certification. I don’t have any problem with drugs or alcohol, but the course material was very interesting, nevertheless. 50% of vehicle collisions involve alcohol. They described a test of airline pilots in a flight simulator 24-hours after smoking one joint. None of the pilots thought they were impaired and they all thought they were doing fine, but their performance on complex tasks was much worse than normal, even a day later. When they simulated landing an airliner, they were twice as far off the runway centerline as normal, which was almost as bad as when they were obviously impaired. For truck driving, we learned all the times when a driver can have a drug/alcohol test and what the consequence are if you fail or refuse the test. There are many situations when you can be tested, and the consequences of failure are very severe - drugs and alcohol are a big no-no and will ruin your career!

Wednesday 10/23/02 - We had been studying the extensive pre-trip inspection litany for days, to prepare for real pre-trip inspections once we get to the range, next week. Today, we had a written test on the pre-trip inspection, where we had to write it out from memory. We were also tested on the air brake leak test, which we had to write out perfectly to pass. Had a lecture/video on how to cope with road rage (both your own and that of others), more discussion of rollover risks. We took the final exam for classroom portion (I got a 98). We got an introduction to what we will be doing on the driving range next week, with some tips from our instructor (for example: “most beginners tend to oversteer when backing - you only need to make small adjustments”).

Thursday 10/24/02 - We were basically running out of things to do, since we had been able to cover the classroom material fairly rapidly. We had lectures/videos on backing concepts and backing safety. We had another in-class written test for the pre-trip inspection.

Friday 10/25/02 - In the morning, we reported to the driving range instead of the classroom for our driving range orientation. At the range, we start at 7:00 AM, so I have to wake up at 5:00 AM (when it’s still dark out) to make sure I get there in time. It takes me about an hour to get ready in the morning, and it takes about a half-hour to drive there (I stop to pick up a car-less classmate in the city). We met the head range instructor and got to look over the trucks for the first time. The instructor demonstrated an official pre-trip inspection on a real truck, with all the proper “patter” to pass the MVA test, and pointed out all the parts to us. We were dismissed early so people could finish taking the MVA written tests, and so everybody could get their CDL Learner’s Permit. Although the written tests were free, it cost money to get the learner’s permit. The school issued each of us a check for the proper amount so we didn’t have to pay anything else out-of-pocket. I had already taken my tests, but my car-less classmate needed to take a few more. Everybody has to have a CDL Learner’s Permit and DOT physical card in-hand on Monday morning so we can start driving on the range. No permit, no driving.

Training On The Driving Range And Road

We spent the next six weeks on the range and road, learning how to drive a tractor-trailer truck. To pass our MVA test, we would have to perform a pre-trip inspection, then demonstrate the following maneuvers: straight-line pull-up to a stop line, straight-line backing, sight-side parallel parking, blind-side parallel parking, and alley dock starting from a 45-degree position. We would then have to take a road test of about 17 miles that included city, suburban, and highway driving. During the next six weeks, we would practice the pre-trip inspection many times, and would learn all the maneuvers and practice them numerous times. We would also learn to drive on the road, and would take numerous road trips, both large and small.

The driving range was in a big gnarly industrial park with a huge building that used to be a copper smelter. The company went out of business so the property is now greatly underutilized. The college is allowed to use a large paved area that used to be the parking lot as an off-road driving range. There are several other buildings around the driving range, all abandoned and decrepit. The area looks like a movie set for a city after a nuclear war, with ruined, empty buildings overgrown with weeds. Sometimes when we walk around the parking lot, we find copper nuggets stuck in the pavement, where they fell off a truck and were run over and pressed down by numerous truck tires. If you pry a copper nugget out of the pavement, you get a nifty souvenir.

The trucks we drive consist of a White/GMC (Volvo) tractor with a 48-foot-long trailer. It's your typical 18-wheeler, complete with giant-size radiator, tall chromed exhaust stack, and lots of wheels and tires. The overall length of the whole rig is about 60 feet, although when you're learning to drive it, it sometimes seems like 160 feet. There are several big signs on the trailer saying “Student Driver”, which seems to get us an appropriate amount of respect while driving on the road. Car drivers usually don't mess with big trucks in the first place, and they seem to stay even further away when they see that the driver is a newbie who doesn't know what he's doing!

I didn’t take such detailed notes at the range, so I’ll just provide an overview of what we did each week.

Range/Road Week 1 - 10/28/02 to 11/01/02

The first day, we got more orientation details, including a discussion of the good/bad places to eat lunch. The first two days, we concentrated on doing real pre-trip inspections, and testing each other. While one person recited the patter from memory, the other person would follow along in the book to make sure no items were missed, and that the patter was suitable. For almost any item, if you didn’t remember the patter, you could fake it pretty well by saying “...I’m checking to make sure the <whatever> is properly secured and not damaged”, but this is lame and the instructors (and the examiners) are not going to let it pass. For each item, you’re supposed to say several actual things you’re checking, and not just a generic statement. For example, when checking the steering linkage,you’re supposed to say “I am checking the STEERING LINKAGE, from the steering gearbox to the front wheel, that all LINKS, ARMS, and RODS are properly secured and not damaged, all JOINTS and SOCKETS are properly secured and not damaged, and there are no missing or loose nuts, bolts, or cotter keys”. Each capitalized word/phrase is an item on the official test sheet that you must mention to earn the point. While you’re reciting this, you’re supposed to touch each item as you mention it, or point to the item if you can’t reach it.

Before we had the trucks to work with, I was memorizing the pre-trip using a set of flash cards that I made out of 3x5 cards. For each major section of the pre-trip, I would write the name of the section on the front of a card (for example, “first drive axle”), then on the back of the card I would write the subsections (“suspension, brakes, wheels”). Then for each subsection, I would write the name of the subsection on the front of a card (for example, “wheels”) along with a number indicating how many items (“14”), then on the back of the card I would list the items (“axle seal, inside sidewalls, inside tread, inside rim, spacer, outside sidewalls, outside tread, outside rim, lugnuts, lugnut holes, inside valve stem and cap, inside tire inflation, outside valve stem and cap, outside tire inflation”). Finally, I would make one flash card for each item, writing the beginning of the patter on the front (for example, “I am checking the tread of the outside tire...”, then on the back of the card I would write the remainder of the patter (“...to make sure the tread depth is no less than 4/32”, there is no tread separation, and the tire is evenly worn”). I made flash cards for the entire pre-trip this way, which resulted in a big wad of cards, but the technique worked well for me.

On the third day, we learned how to couple/uncouple the tractor and trailer. We learned the procedure that goes “by the book” for maximum safety. Our instructor told us that most experienced truck drivers skip some of the steps to speed things up. While we're learning, we need to learn all the details, but once we're earning a living, time is money. The instructor also demonstrated how to slide the tandems on the trailer, and it looked like it would be a little tricky if you were doing it by yourself.

The next day, we learned how to drive straight. I'm not kidding, this was an actual lesson. It turns out that it's a little tricky to do it properly, since the view from the cab makes it harder to see all around the truck. We also learned how to back up in a straight line, which was fairly difficult at first. The trailer has a tendency to veer off to one side or another (since the truck can “bend” in the middle), so you have to turn the wheel slightly to make corrections while backing up. You can't veer outside of your lane, though, because you need to demonstrate this maneuver on your official driving test, and if you veer out of the lane, you fail!

On Friday of the first week on the range, we learned how to parallel park a 60-foot tractor-trailer truck! This maneuver is also on the driving test. It was moderately difficult, but like many new skills, if you practice it step-by-step numerous times, eventually it begins to make sense and things work out better. The tough thing about parallel parking was consistency - if you could do the maneuver exactly the same way each time, it would always work out just right. But normally, things would be a little different each time, and the maneuver wouldn’t work out properly. You’d have to sit in the cab and try to figure out how to correct the problem. If you sat for too long, the instructor would come over and help you out.

Everybody seemed to notice an interesting phenomenon. While you’re standing outside, watching another student maneuver, you can readily see his mistakes and figure out how to correct them. But when you’re sitting up in the cab doing the driving, it’s much more difficult to see your mistakes and to figure out what to do. One of the reasons is just the stress of being “on the spot” and maneuvering the huge truck under the steely gaze of the instructor. But also, when you’re in the cab, it’s a lot harder to see all around the truck and judge distances and angles. When the rig is “jacked” (that is, bent in the middle), the big flat mirrors are not very useful, so you have to use the smaller round mirrors (the “spot” mirrors). If you’re trying to judge distances at the back of the trailer, that’s already nearly 60’ away to begin with, and the curvature of the spot mirror makes it look even further away. So what you’re looking at in the mirror winds up looking very tiny. It’s also difficult judging angles from inside the cab, since you’re facing (mostly) forward, but looking sideways into a mirror to see backwards, looking at the trailer which is at a different angle than the tractor - now which way was I supposed to turn the wheel???

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