|
|
|
Marissa's School Journal Female, 20 Years
Introduction
I'm a 20 year old female truck driver. That might say enough right there. I guess, growing up, I never thought I would become a truck driver. I always thought I would attend college and I planned to. Yet, I got migraines thinking about college. I decided on a skill that was interesting and exciting. The scenery changes. The job pays you well, for not attending college, and if I wanted to, I could still go on to college later in life. This was it.... The only thing I had to deal with was being a woman and overcoming my father's & grandfather's opinions.
First Week
Anyway, I pulled up in my car right on the dot. Ran in and found out I was actually a half hour late. Geesh, he told me 7:30 on the phone. I wrote it down when he told me the times. I wasn't the only person late, so I'm assuming he told other people the same thing. Basically, the long and short of it is that the first two days were extremely slow. Our instructor, Gary, pretty much took us through orientation. Equipment orientation took up most of the two days we had. It was hard to stay awake at times, but I learned taking notes helped. I took down any information that I didn't know, sounded important, or he told us to take note of. He explained to us in lengthy detail, every important part of a truck. Air brakes, coolant system, different types of trucks, transmission, and gauges; among other things. I learned how a manual transmission works, most importantly. See, the thing is, besides being a women, I know absolutely nothing about shifting, truck mechanics, or even parts of a car. It totally freaks me out, but my instructor seems happy about it. He says that a person who doesn't know how to shift is the easiest to teach. Double clutching is more difficult to teach to a person who knows how to single clutch a car. They're always wanting to do it the way they drive their car. My mind is a fresh piece of paper. An open canvas of sorts. I can't wait to get into the truck that I'm paying close attention so I don't forget anything.
I can't afford to fail this. It's somewhere upwards of $4,000+ to take this class here. I'm involved in a "workforce" program that the state provides to pay for ALL of my schooling. I actually applied for the program in late July, when the school told me about it. I wanted to begin right away, but you know how state funded programs are. A classmate of mine has waited since last October to get into this. I waited 3 months to begin. At the time I applied to the program, it was the end of their fiscal year so they were waiting to find out how much money they were going to have for the next year before they could tell me when I would start. She flat out told me I qualified and that I could start when they had that money. I was ecstatic. I have never been that excited in my life. I immediately thanked God. I never thought it would happen. I thought it would be one of those "Sorry, but we can't help you" situations. I set myself up for disappointment. So, the answer was surprising. I was one of the 3 people waiting from the last year so I was immediately started.
Anyway, the guys in my class are great. They're very awkward right now, but we barely know each other. There's Paul, Ralph, and Carlos. Everyone keeps wanting to call Carlos, Jesus. So, out of an extremely small class of four, I am the only women. There's another women in the school, but she's in the other weekend class that's way ahead of us. They're already started on driving. They actually just finished their yard maneuvers and started bob tailing. One of their guys is already starting to miss class. We haven't had anyone quite like that yet. But it's only the first weekend. The other women, who's name I STILL don't know, is 40 years old, divorced, and has kids my age. She's a great lady. Real outspoken and funny. The other class is real close. I guess it will take awhile for our class to get like that. I hope it does, we're all stiff yet. It would be really uncomfortable to be with people like that in a truck while you're practicing yard maneuvers.
Last, I've come to find that no one really treats me any different. The first day, the instructor kept fixing his statements to include girls in his statements. I finally told him, "Listen, don't treat me any differently then the rest of the guys." I mean, how is that going to help me once I get out on the road. Guys are going to say perverted, obscene things on the CB or in conversation. I don't need to be guarded from reality. It just won't help. Well, that's my first weekend. Going SO slow. I can't wait until November-December. We'll be outside then. Thank God, otherwise we'd be out in 90+ weather while doing pre-trip and other things. Well, I'm off. More later from week two.
Weekend Two
Well, this weekend was definitely better. Got there right on time, but noticed my car is smoking just a tiny bit. Looks like somewhere around the water pump area. God help me if it is. I just bought the thing 6 months ago and still have 2 1/2 years of payment on it. But it was a `94 Grand Prix with 27,000 miles on it, so it really wasn't a bad deal. Runs like a dream. Anyway, we were all tired early that morning. He started us on videos and slides. We were learning Traffic Saturday. The video really was ok. Most of the videos he showed us last weekend were from `85 and you could tell how old they were. Most of the guys had these thick big lensed glasses and were wearing plaid. They're all from a company from Neenah, WI. J.K. Keller is the name. Most of you guys probably know of them from your classes. They produce tons of trucker products. Well, since they're from Wisconsin I had no problem understanding the guys. They have those Fargo-like accents. Most of the guys in our class were like, "Huh??!". I had to smile. Poor Carlos, I never asked him, but I wondered if he understood it ok. I mean, he understands English fine, but sometimes those accents can be difficult to pick up on. Well, the videos were ok anyway, but they make you so tired. Especially the ones that you know from regular driving. They had those too. Then we started looking over slides about traffic situations. I think I have those down. I read the book every night and study it hard. I even have my mother quiz me. So, then we took a General Knowledge test. I got 2 wrong. One question was worded wrong, so he didn't count that against us. I'm going to go over each section at least twice a week until I take my written test. Our teacher told us that the part everyone does bad on is General Knowledge! I couldn't believe that, it's so easy. You study the book and it's easy. I guess some people concentrate on HazMat and Air Brakes that they have a hard time.
So, Sunday we studied Air Brakes. I think I understand them pretty well. Not bad for someone who did not know ANYTHING about brakes. I know the S-Cam Brakes pretty well. I learned that when you engage the treadle valve(brake pedal), the primary and secondary air chambers send air through the lines to the brake chamber. Then the brake chamber fills with air that forces the Push Rod to twist the Slack Adjuster which causes the S-Cam to roll, which pushes the Brake Shoe against the Brake Drum, causing friction against the wheels, which causes your wheels to stop! Whew! I think I got that right. I'll have to take a peek at my book tonight. There's also Wedge Brakes (not common on trucks) and Disc Brakes. They also taught us how to adjust brakes. My instructor says that some companies prefer that you don't adjust the brakes yourself, incase you do it wrong, but we're required to adjust them for our pre-trip inspection for our test. So they're teaching us that. I don't mind anyway. I love learning about vehicles and how to fix them. It's new to me. Ask me anything about computers and I probably could tell you. I'm very good at that, but cars & trucks are new to me. So that was most of our weekend. We also went and took a look at one of the tractors they have. He forgot his keys so we only got glances at the inside. But he took the hood up and showed us most of the parts we'll need to know. He showed us how the Air Compressor is gear driven, tight and secure, no audible leaks! ;) I love learning all this new stuff! lol
My father gets a kick out of listening to me get quizzed about trucks. He tries to trick me by making up stuff. I always catch him. At first I would peer at him and say, "That's not right...is it?". Now he can't trick me. He still tries, which is really good practice. Anyway, that's weekend two. Oh, on another note, Carlos was late Saturday morning from something he could not get out of, I think it was his work. It really doesn't matter, but still, our attendance is pretty good still. Also, another guy, Paul, passed out Saturday morning. He was laying his head down at the end of a movie so I don't think felt well. He went to get some coffee and next thing he comes crashing down. He hit his head on the soda machine and fell backwards. Nothing happened to him except a small cut on his eyebrow and a sore booty. We don't know what caused this, but we hope it's not diabetes. They test us for that for the DOT exam and if he has diabetes it could cause him problems. Poor guy. Well, that's it. Time to go study! See ya next week!
Weekend Three
Well, this weekend we went through combination vehicles, tanks, and finished air brakes. We started with air brakes and just reviewed some of the material. We learned about air brake systems on combo's. We watched some films about air brakes. Watched the DMV video for the air brake system. Then he takes out these overheads about air brakes to give us example test questions. He pretty much bases them off of the DMV test. So I didn't do too bad on any of them. I always get 80% right or more. Which I really can't wait to finish HazMat so I can go take my test. I feel so ready for it. Our instructor told us one thing about taking the test. He said, "Read the questions twice and answer it once." He said sometimes the DMV slips in certain words that we don't catch. They also like to reword things over again. I guess that's Florida for ya. Even the DMV doesn't have their stuff together. - Oh, just for the record, I wasn't even in the state of Florida during the presidential election, so I'm not a retard ;) -
Then on Sunday we studied Double, Triple, & Tankers. We went section by section and watched movies about all of it. They showed us this one movie from Australia. It reminded me of National Geographic. They showed a lot of the Outback and a lot of the animals in Australia. Well, these two guys were driving a tractor with 4 trailers I think. It might have only been 3, but it seems like it was more. They were showin how these guys handle all those trailers. I wouldn't drive one of those if ya paid me. If I feel overwhelmed over 1 trailer right now, I would have a heart attack with 4. I hope it will feel better after I've been in the truck for awhile.
Things are slowing down for me at work too. I really need to find a new job. I'm being showed that I'm expendable already. I have a dog to take care of and car bills to pay. I know I'm lucky, but it's a lot of money when you don't make much. I can't wait until January. I'll be out driving, away from my parents, and making good money. They are driving me up the wall.
Anyway, next week should be better. We'll be a 1/4 of the way through the entire course. Only four more weeks of being stuck in that classroom. I can't wait to get out into that truck. I'm gonna study my booty off on the pre-trip. They do it every day we're out, so we memorize it pretty well. Oh, and on another note, I was late this weekend. The first person to do it! I was only 30 minutes late. I turned off my alarm clock and fell back asleep. *blush* But at least I admitted it to my instructor! Anyway, let ya know about next weekend soon!
|
|
