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Joi's School Journal Female, age 41
Introduction
I've worked in IT all my life, except that one year I drove straight trucks and farm tractors for a guy with a few thousand acres, and then drove 15-passenger vans for a local church, so I held a class B license for a while some years ago. I got laid off from my last job, and a bunch of us haven't had a single interview in six months. So rather than waiting around living on my savings, I decided to go back to trucking, only this time I'll go whole hog and get a class A. I'm planning to start out as an OTR driver, as so many newbies must.
Day 1 of School
I already have my CDL permit and my health card, but two of my classmates are sent off to get theirs. One of them comes back looking disgusted because Minnesota won't accept his North Dakota permit with the identification he has with him, so he has to have his wife find and bring additional identification with her when she passes through the area in a few days. I guess there was some miscommunication as to exactly which permits were required for a driving school in Minnesota. He lives in North Dakota but I guess Minnesota has different rules.
First day of school, spent all morning in the classroom. We met several instructors, watched a few short movies, learned how to keep log books. We fill out each day's log ourselves, and they're collected by the instructors along with our daily time clock sheet. We saw videos about Hours of Service, keeping log books, and air brake systems.
Then we spent the afternoon learning about pre-trip inspections. A few tractors were parked near some trailers and we spent quite a while going around them naming parts and listing defects we're to look for. Then pairs of us climbed into a cab, with an instructor standing on the driver's side steps pointing out the multitude of gauges, controls, and other goodies. It's not as bad as an airliner cockpit, but if you only drove cars with a 'check engine' idiot light, it's just as impressive.
Then the tractors were backed up and connected to the trailers and we learned how to inspect the trailers. There's a lot to remember, and the tractors are different models so parts move around a bit, too. (One tractor has an air dryer behind the cab, on the frame next to the wet tank, but another tractor has it mounted on the frame next to the engine.)
Never call the fuel tank a 'gas tank' or your instructor will get gas! Truck drivers never 'gas' their rigs like we've always 'gassed' our cars. They 'fuel' their rigs, and it's always diesel fuel, never gasoline.
I got quite a sunburn from being in the yard all afternoon. Several of us got rather fried, especially the older gentleman with thinning hair. We have a range of ages from 22 to 53, I believe. I'm 3rd oldest, at 41, but the rest of the class hasn't realized that yet. At one point an instructor asks why we want to become truck drivers, and I respond by saying I've been working in IT for 25 years and got laid off and need a change... and the other woman in my class turned to me with wide eyes and said, "Wow, you've been doing that longer than I've been alive!" Yep.
Two of my classmates are competing for the 'class clown' title. The instructor has taken to calling one of them 'Jim' since he reminds us all of Jim Carey both in action and appearance.
Our textbook is "Trucking Tractor-Trailer Driver Handbook/Workbook" put out by PTDI. Every night we are assigned to study 3 to 5 chapters from this book, followed immediately by a test on the material the next morning.
Day 2 of School
Today we saw videos about coupling and uncoupling tractors and trailers. We got more practice doing inspections, too.
The tractor we're to drive today has a broken oil dip stick and the broken bit is wedged in the tube so tightly that it's impossible to use an unbroken dip stick to check the oil level. So, word to the wise: dip sticks tend to catch in the tube, and they bend and break easily, so don't just stick the tip into the tube and ram it down there expecting it to slide easily, because it will more likely catch on something and then bend and break. The instructor said that most of their engines have at least two broken dip sticks lying in the bottom.
Most of our class claims to own personal autos with manual transmissions, so today the two women and the one guy who says he hasn't driven a stick were put into a truck with the school's only female driving instructor. (I guess they just assume us girls would just naturally have more trouble with the truck transmission so they put us with the one guy who needed extra instruction. Phooey.) The instructor drove us over to a nearby industrial park and taught us basic shifting. I'm glad the tractor is bobtail (i.e. no trailer attached.) Learning to down sift with a non-synchronized tranny is a new experience. The double clutching isn't too bad when up shifting, but down shifting requires an engine rev in there, which makes the pattern more complicated.
After lunch, we all go back out, except this time a student got to drive down highway 55 a few miles until we reached farm country. Then we spent the next four hours driving down long, mostly straight country roads shifting from 3rd to 9th and back down to 3rd, except when there was traffic behind us.
Mostly the traffic seems patient with us, probably because the tractor has 'STUDENT DRIVER' plastered on all four sides. ;) The instructors are all very patient and calm personalities.
We all have occasional trouble finding gears, mostly I have trouble with the stick being between gear slots so of course it doesn't want to slide in. The first truck we drove has a very worn shift mechanism and the tension spring that separates reverse/first from the other slots is nearly gone so it's very easy to end up in first gear instead of third. I've done that several times. Luckily, no one has managed to hit reverse instead of 2nd or 4th! There are five or six road trucks, our class used three of them, advanced students went out in the others. At least that's what I recall seeing. I haven't tried to pin down the exact numbers. They use trucks with sleepers for most of the road driving, the bunk has been converted to a bench seat. One student drives while the other two watch. I've read that 'observer time' is considered useless, but actually I've found that if one pays attention to what the instructor says when your classmate misses a gear or has a problem, it can really help you when you get to that point, yourself.
The instructor seemed rather surprised that we all picked it up without too much difficulty. We all got straight 3 of 5 markings on our daily score sheets, which apparently qualifies us to get trailers tomorrow. I'm told some students don't qualify for trailers until they're into the second week of class.
Day 3 of School
Today we saw some videos about making left and right turns safely. One of the videos starts with a guy that would give Domino Fats a run for his money on a billiard table. Turns out he's also a champion driver, too. (He keeps showing up in videos the rest of the week, as well.)
Very nice video, camera up in a helicopter hovering as a truck-trailer and an escort car make many different types of turns in city streets. Occasionally the escort pretends to be a moron and gets in the truck's way, just as real drivers will do. I wouldn't mind watching that one a few more times.
We learned about post-trip inspections. Then we coupled our tractors to trailers and hauled them back into the country side for more shifting practice, and personal introductions to making turns. I need more practice with turns! I'm familiar with off-tracking from the years I pulled horse trailers, campers, and flat trailers behind pickups and farm tractors, but the scale of the off-tracking on a 45' trailer is something else. Several of my turns were complicated by traffic pulling way beyond their stop position and blocking space I needed to turn around them.
The tractors the school uses are all 10-speeds, either Rockwell or Eaton Fuller with the same shift pattern. These transmissions possess a two-speed reverse, but never use the high range reverse, it's too fast. It's only there because it's impossible to remove it without making the transmission hideously complex and expensive. Today we're in a different tractor, this one has a better shift mechanism on it, one with spring, but I still manage to not find the proper slot position a few times.
We also learned that it's still possible to kill such a big engine if you're at a dead stop and forget to release the brake when you release the clutch, or if you're in the wrong gear (say, 5th instead of 3rd.) I haven't killed the engine yet.
Day 4 of School
More videos, this time about driving techniques and space management. Then we went back out to the farm country with the tractor/trailer combos for more practice. Our instructor was late arriving today so we were a little short on practice time compared to the rest of the class, but we're doing okay.
I got 3.5s on my turns and 4s on my shifting and other skills. Making progress!
Day 5 of School
This morning is videos about backing. That pool shark was back, demonstrating how a bobtail behaves when backing, and then how a trailer behaves. We do pre-trips, couple to trailers, and half of us head back to the country for the morning for more driving, shifting, and turning practice.
One of the intersections we pass through on the way to the country is a rather dangerous crossing on highway 55, and apparently there was a fatal accident there a few days ago. There's a bit swath cut through the corn field there, where the car landed after being pasted by the oncoming traffic. The woman driving it tried to cross traffic without sufficient time/space to make the turn, and she paid for that impatience with her life. Today there's a crew from the county, state, and law enforcement there taking measurements and surveying the layout. The instructor says there are many accidents on that corner.
So, at one point I'm driving and we're approaching that intersection to make a right turn. I have traffic behind me, including two more big trucks, each with WIDE LOADs on, one in each line, and the one in the left lane just ahead of the one in the right lane.
My instructor tells me to get on the shoulder early and continue into the right turn lane, so I do that. He wanted to give the two wide loads behind us as much room as possible. I've got my signal on, and I'm down shifting like crazy and watching the mirrors to make sure my trailer doesn't get caught up with that wide load in the right lane behind me... and two guys from the surveying crew walk out and stand at the end of my right turn lane, watching me roll up toward them. "Uh, guys? Why are you playing in traffic?"
Finally I guess they notice my signal still going, and the truck still moving toward them (slowly) and the big 'STUDENT DRIVER' on the faring, and they finally scamper out of the way. You'd think they'd have traffic cones out, or a flag man, or something, if they want to play in traffic like that. As far as I could see, they were just standing there talking and watching us coming, they weren't holding any measuring tools or notebooks. They were in no danger, I was on the brake the whole time and had plenty of distance on them, but still...!
After lunch, we join the 'backing pool'. There are three or four trucks with trailers out in the parking lot, all day cabs (no sleepers). There are three 'docks' laid out with traffic cones, and the exercise consists of backing into each dock in sequence. The last one is a one hundred foot straight back, and we have to pull through it going forward, stop the truck with first the front bumper, and then the trailer DOT bumper between two cones, and then back up the length of the dock again and stop with the DOT bumper between the last two cones. This is all similar to what will be on the state driving test.
One of the more advanced students is in another truck sharing the yard with us, and his truck's airline breaks and his brakes lock up as he's leaving one of the exercise docks. Things get a bit crazy as the instructor tells everyone to just freeze where they are while he goes to find the mechanic. (I'd been watching that truck, and noticed that the trailer air connects were being stretched extremely tightly, the student driving keeps getting wedged into 90 degree situations that put a big strain on the connections. I'll bet he ripped the glad hand apart at dock 2.) Eventually they get that busted air line fixed and the trucks all start moving again. The instructor is having us skip dock 2 and just do dock 1 (a 45 degree back to the left) and dock 3, the straight back. I'm assuming it's because the yard is filled with newbies who will take an extra long time at the two angle docks and he wants to keep it moving for the advanced student who needs the extra practice as much as we do.
I start with the straight back, and get out of the cab several times to try to gauge where the DOT bumper is on the trailer. I get so involved in that process that I forget to actually do the backing up part! Oops! But, by this time the next truck behind me is waiting its turn, so I just skip it and head around to dock 1.
The instructor is busy with that advanced student and the newly-repaired truck, so I'm left to myself. I get set up and start backing, except I turn the trailer a bit too sharply and it gets too close to a cone. I pull up a bit to straighten out the angle, and get the trailer in there. I get out of the cab to check where the DOT bumper is, but I'm about four feet from the back of the dock, so I pull up just a bit to straighten out a bit more so I can reverse the last 4 feet to get the bumper between the cones without hitting the side cones.
At this point the instructor notices where I am and realizes I got it there myself in the short time he was distracted. He comes on the radio rather speechless but finally says that was a good job for a first-timer. I think I surprised him.
Day 6 of School
We spend all day Saturday in the classroom taking the Minnesota State Defensive Driving Course. We'll get a state certificate after the exam. Some of us may be able to get discounts from our insurance companies for taking it, too. The course has a small book and some videos to go with the lecture. We had a different instructor today, plus two more students from other classes joined us, I guess to make up for them missing it when their own class reached this point in the schedule.
One of the videos was designed to present a serious topic with a comedic overtone, I guess as a tension release after sitting in those chairs all day. (After about 5 hours in those chairs, I get really uncomfortable. I am short and those chairs are too high for me.) The topic was safe passing, the overtone was a sports theme.
Next week we move to classroom #2, and we'll spend half of each day in the backing pool, and the other half a mix of classroom and city driving. Our class has nine students, and hasn't lost anyone yet, so they're splitting us into two groups to make better use of the three trucks in the backing pool. I'm not sure how that will alter the schedule.
So far I've met 7 different instructors, 2 for driving, 2 for backing, 2 for lectures, and 1 for the safety course. They're all pretty friendly people. The guy teaching the safety course spends a few minutes talking about how the cb radio can be a big help to drivers. You can get on channel 19 and ask for directions to an address and someone will usually answer with help.
I've read online that one should be careful about radio directions, it's not unheard-of for some pirate to hear a call for directions and respond with directions that take the unsuspecting trucker to someplace where s/he gets robbed or hijacked instead. One should also never talk about your load on the radio and not tell people exactly where you're going if you can help it. So I'm going to be careful.
Day 7 of School
Driving wasn't so great today. I kept having to hunt for gears and my braking was rough. Just couldn't find any grove for it. My driving partner had a bad day, too, but we survived it. I got all 3.5s on my daily score sheet, but 3.0 in the backing section. We have a new instructor who just started helping around the school, and he has yet another idea for the best way to setup for a 45 degree alley dock. (So far I've received three sets of conflicting instructions for this. I guess I just have to see whose watching the dock that day and try to remember what his preferred setup is.)
Day 8 of School
Driving was fun today. Two hours went like that *snap*. Instructor didn't have to 'eek' at anything I did, either. My shifting was smoother and my braking was better, too. I had several lights switch to yellow just as I approached the do-or-die point and made smooth stops at each, no panic. Today's instructor has begun to point out the evidence of earlier panic stops school trucks have left at various intersections around the school. Long black streaks on the pavement where all 18 wheels locked up approaching stop lights. So far, I haven't added to the collection. I'm glad we don't have to autograph them for posterity!
I made my first perfect 45 degree alley dock (backing) maneuver today, too! Now I have to duplicate it...not an easy feat yet!
The funniest thing I saw today was some doofus in a pickup pulling a trailer with lawn equipment on it who snuck around us at a light while my driving partner was trying to make a safe right turn at a light with two right-turn lanes. When he got past us he opened his window and gave us the finger. The instructor got so pissed she gave it back to him. I about died laughing. The guy was really out of line passing us the way he did, it wasn't even safe. We weren't even going slow! In fact, we out-accelerated another big truck on the next block... he was loaded and we aren't, we drive only empty trailers.
Now we have a competition: which driving student has received the most rude gestures! Bwahahaha! My driving partner is leading, with four in one day, and only one of hers was really deserved. (She couldn't find a gear and had to sit through an extra stop light cycle, so pissed off the people behind us. But hey, the light was a fast one and we were 4th vehicle back, we probably would have run the bugger even if she'd had the gear when it turned green.)
Day 9 of School
This afternoon I was in the backing pool, and did reasonably well. I nailed an alley dock, and the instructor told me to take a break so another student could practice. A few minutes later they decided to send me out on the road with a new instructor to give us both more practice, me driving and him instructing.
This instructor has just started working for the school and still has to learn how the school operates. I guess every school does things a little bit differently, and he's applying the methods he learned when he was in school. So I'm driving and he's using obvious 'instructor-speak' at me, but I don't understand what he's talking about and start blowing shifts because I'm getting too distracted. When we get back to the yard he asks me for feedback, so we discussed what I didn't understand. Some of the confusion is just different terminology, ie the other instructors say 'unwind' but he says something else, little things like that. Nothing major, just confusing to a student that's already pretty busy thinking about driving and shifting and traffic.
Day 10
Today was an all-classroom day, no driving. We studied hazmat regulations all morning, then did trip planning exercises all afternoon. We saw a number of videos, too. The instructor was the same one who gave us the safe driving lectures last Saturday. Real friendly fellow.
Day 11
This morning I was sent over to the Eagan office to take the test for the Hazmat endorsement. I also took the tests for tanker and doubles/triples. Passed all of them with no errors. When I got back I went into the backing pool for the rest of the morning.
This afternoon we went driving. I was teamed with a classmate I haven't driven with before, and the new instructor. I had another rough day shifting, except rather than missing lots of gears, I was just trying to shift too quickly. My classmate had a rough day, too. We took a break and stopped at a Holiday station that has two parking spots for long vehicles. When we left the instructor gave us a 5 minute demo of several shifting methods we haven't covered in depth yet, progressive shifting and skipping gears. I plan to try progressive shifting next time I'm driving.
At the end of the session he asked us for more feedback and thanked us for being easy to work with. I suspect he asked for the older students, specifically.
Day 12
Today is a half-day of backing pool practice. Normally today we would have driven over to Eau Clair, Wisconsin for a day of skid pad training, but the facility there has recently been resurfaced and is still not available. So, our class has to skip this training, but we are encouraged to come back in a week or two when the facility is open and get the training then. I guess we'll ride up there with the next class.
My backing practice went pretty well. I nailed three alley docks in a row, the instructor seems pretty pleased with my progress. I certainly am!
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