My Truck Driving Experiences

Gather round while I share my experiences traveling across the US and Canada in a Semi-Truck.

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Location: Dayton, Ohio, United States

Monday, July 31, 2006

Third Day of Training

Third Day of Training went well. The day started out with a lab on one of the tractor trailers learning how to couple a trailer to the tractor and how to do a pretrip inspection. From there we went to the simulators to learn how to shift the trucks. A lot of grinding going on when first on the simulator but after a few practice sessions the grinding sounds were at a minimum or not at all. The second half of the day was spent in the classroom learning tips and tricks on driving and logging. Tomorrow we bobtail around the parking lot. Bobtail means driving a tractor without the trailer connected.

There were two tests today. I got a 97 on one and a perfect score on the other one!

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Second Day of Training

My second day of training started out with me finding out my test score for DOT test. I got a 98 percent. There were three other tests during the day, two were not graded and one was. I got a perfect score on the graded test today!

Class ended around 2 today and we were back at the hotel by 2:30 or so. I worked on my homework and then updated this blog.

Tomorrow we will check out the trucks and start working on the simulators. Tuesday we will be paired up with driver training engineers and start learning how to handle the trucks.

The hotel here is great. It has a swimming pool and a hot tub. The rooms have refrigerators in them along with a desk, living area and a separate area divided by the bathroom for the bedroom. There are two TVs, one in the living room and one in the bedroom. There is a laundry here. Washers cost $1.25 and dryers $1. The laundry is actually in one of the rooms so there is also a study area and a TV room in the laundry. The washers and dryers have been placed in where the bathroom normally is.

I plan on doing some more studying, get out to get a bite to eat, jump into the pool and hot tub tonight, maybe watch a little TV and then back to bed. My room mate mentioned going out for pizza tonight, so we may do that.

We have purchased some food for the room for when we get hungry between meals. Some of the meals you get supplied do not have much food with them. Thus the reason to have some food in the room. We mostly have water and soda though, with some fruit, lunchmeat sandwich fixings, and some snack food.

The more I learn about driving a truck the more impatient I am to get at it. I cannot wait until training is over with and I can get down to work.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

First Day of Training

The first day of training was not bad at all. We filled out paperwork for personnel, viewed a couple of videos and took a DOT test about federal regulations and guidelines. We also got our textbooks to study at night.

I got up this morning at 4:15 AM CDT, got ready, had breakfast and caught the bus into class which started at 6 AM. The first day was half a day and we were back at the hotel by 1 PM.

We get to start training on the actual trucks on Tuesday. Can't wait.

Friday, July 28, 2006

Training Bound

I finished packing yesterday and drove to Indianapolis to stay overnight and then got up this morning to catch a bus to Green Bay, Wisconsin for my Truck Driving School from Schneider National.

The drive over to Indianapolis Thursday afternoon proved to be challenging. The rain coming across I-70 came down so hard for a few minutes that I thought I was going to have to pull off the road because I could hardly see through the windshield. In fact, everyone slowed way down due to the visibility problem.

I got to the hotel around 5 PM. I stayed at the Holiday Inn, Indianapolis East off 21st Street right off I-70 at the Shadeland Avenue exit #89. It is not a bad hotel. Pretty clean and all of the employees are very friendly and communicative. There is a Damon's located in the hotel where I had dinner, a breaded white fish sandwich with cole slaw.

After dinner, I retired to my room, updated this blog, checked my email, my family web site, and then watched a little TV and hit the hay.

Before dinner I drove over to locate the Schneider National Operations Center to make sure I would not have any probems getting there in the morning. I had to be there by 7 AM to catch a bus at 7:30 to head on to Green Bay, Wisconsin for my CDL driver's training. I actually woke up at 4:15 AM so I just got up then and made it to the operations center by 6:30 and ate breakfast there. They had combo meals for breakfast so I got the two eggs, hash browns, sausage patties, toast and fruit along with some coffee. I was done with breakfast before 7 AM so I headed back out to the truck to get my luggage that I had left behind so I could eat without toting it around and watching it.

The bus was about a half hour late. It did not show up until 7:25 and did not leave the operations center until around 8 AM. We rode up to Gary, Indiana and picked up a few more folks coming to training and then on to Green Bay.

We arrived in Green Bay at the hotel where we will be staying for the fourteen day training at around 2:40 PM CDT/3:40 PM EDT. What a long ride! The bus seats were small and the leg room was minimal and the bus was full.

After getting settled into our rooms several of us went out to Wendy's for dinner. We were famished since we had not eaten anything since breakfast.

We settled in, several guys used my laptop to check their webmail and then we all went off to ourselves to relax and get ready for the first day of class which starts with breakfast at 5 AM CDT and getting on the bus which leaves for training at 5:45 AM CDT.