Question:
July 31, 2005---The day before training. I left the house at about 4:45am and made it to the motel at about 2:15pm, it was about 560 miles. My car did better on gas then I planned for, I was hoping for 28 mpg, I got 32mpg. I’m staying at an Econo Lodge in Fairfield OH. The hotel is old, but it’s clean. I have a roommate, neither of us smokes, he seems like a good guy. To try and save some money I brought a bunch of groceries, microwave and coffee maker. We meet our trainer tomorrow at 7:30am in the lobby. More info to follow after class tomorrow.
August 1, 2005---First day of training, met our instructor Bill in the lobby at about 7:10am. There are four of us in the class: Joe, Brian, Will, and myself. We left the hotel around 7:30am for the terminal. At the terminal we all did an introduction and Bill talked about trucking and Millis. First hour and half was spent doing paper work and paying rest of tuition ($100 deposit plus $400 first day of class and one year driving for Millis). The rest of the am we went over the types and classes of truck and trailers. We had lunch from 11:30am to 12:30pm. After lunch Bill took us out the crawl around inside and outside of a 01 Kenworth T2000. Going back to the classroom we went over FMCSR pocketbook and the hours of service. We had two quizzes, I passed the first with 100% the second with an 80%. Homework for tonight is read Section 395 of the FMCSR and a vehicle laws handout. All in all I had a good first day.
August 2, 2005---Day two of training, we all made it to the terminal on time. Bill took us back over hours of services and keeping the logbook updated. We started keeping a logbook for our training time. Bill warned us not send these to the main office, it would give the girls in the office a hard time, as we are yet drivers. Spent quite a lot of time of doing the monthly log summary sheet. Bill went over how to control and keep our hours under 70, with out doing a 34-hour reset. Had lunch from 11:30am to 12:30pm. After lunch we went over the components of the truck. Spent a lot of time of the drive train, how to and how not to shift the trans. Bill showed us some parts that had been destroyed by people not shifting properly. Tomorrow we get to bobtail around the yard, I can’t wait. Again a good day, no problems.
August 3, 2005---Day three was a blast. We spent about 15 minutes going over our logs first thing in the AM. Then watched a video about how to shift a trans. After that into the first truck (1997 Freightliner) we all went, Bill drove around the terminal a few laps explaining how to shift. I got to be the lucky first one to be put into the drivers seat. I was a bit nerves about doing something wrong, but all in all it went well. I was actually fairly smooth, didn’t pop the clutch or lurch the truck. After two laps with Bill explaining things to me he put me in the second truck (1987 Volvo) explained the differences and told me drive it around. I was waiting for Bill to climb into the passengers seat, but instead he went back the first truck. When I realized that I was on my own I was starting to get beads of sweat on my forehead. After a few laps I was getting the hang of up shifting, downshifting was still giving me some problems. Had lunch again from 11:30am to 12:30pm. After lunch it was back into the truck, Bill put us in pair and told us to take turns driving both trucks. My partner was my roommate Joe. During the afternoon Bill spent time with both teams. By the end of the day I could shift both up and down smoothly. I had a great day. By the way temps for today were 99-101 F. Tomorrow is all class room, no driving. We are going to learn the pretrip inspection. Friday we hook up an empty trailer and drive it around the terminal.
August 4, 2005---Day four was ok, no drive time. Spent the first 15 minutes bringing our logs up-to-date, then onto a video about auto-shifting. After the talking about the auto-shift we started talking about how to use the mirrors. Bill explained the three-mirror system used on the trucks, explaining the strengths and weaknesses of each. That flowed into how us our turn signals, and four ways flashers. Had lunch from 11:30am to 12:30pm. Bill started the second half of the day explaining how to couple and uncouple a trailer, followed by a video on it. This lead into the basics of backing, all we did was talk about straight line backing. Lastly we talked about the pre-trip inspection, and watched a very poorly made video about. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day; we get to do hands on pre-trip, coupling, uncoupling, and straight backing tomorrow. Looking forward to tomorrow.
August 5, 2005---Day five was great. We started the day by going over our log book, and bringing it up to date. Then it was out to the trucks to learn the pre-trip. Bill spent a little over 2 hours going over the pre-trip in baby steps, having each of us take turns looks at the required items. After seeing a pre-trip done, it seems that it looks harder on paper then it actually is. After the pre-trip Bill put us in the truck and drove us over to the second yard to see the two main loads that Millis runs. We went over to the Miller Brewery to look at beer loads. Millis pucks up empty glass bottles from the manufacturer, delivers them to Miller, and then delivers 40K of beer to Millers customers. We saw trucks loaded with all kinds of combos with cans, bottles, and kegs. Back to the first yard for lunch from 11:30am to 12:30pm. After lunch we were split into two groups, I was paired up with my roomy again. Joe and myself started with straight line backing to with in 18 inches of a barrel and pulling up to bring the front of the truck to with in 18 inches of a barrel. I did ok with the pulling up, but have to work on my judging distance to the back of the truck. I could only get it to with in 18 inches half the time. While Joe and I were backing and pulling up, the other group, Brian and Will were learning to couple and uncouple from a trailer. After an hour we swapped, Joe and I had no problems with the coupling and uncoupling. For the last hour and half it was off to the races running the Millis 500 with a trailer. So far all but one in the class are doing well. I had a very good, I was worried about being smooth with shifting, turns about that with a trailer it is easer for me to shift. I had very good up and down shifts. I only missed a gear once today. We have to read 5 chapters and do the quizzes at the end for home work. Next week we have to be in and hour and half earlier 6:00am, we get out on the road with a trailer, should be fun.
Mark

Answer:
"control and keep our hours under 80"
I hope 80 was a typo, last I knew it was 70 hours in 8 days. BOL

Answer:
Sounds like you are getting some good training out of the deal. I have always said that the most important thing in getting trained is the quality of the instructor and instruction. There are many people who may be great drivers, have solid knowledge or the trade, but are unable to pass it on to someone else. My main gripe against the CDL mill schools is the quality of their instructors. Just because someone wants off the road doesn't make them a suitable instructor. I went through Navy instructing school, and taught for several years, so I tend to evaluate another instructor when they are training me. I even wrote and developed courses, so I have an interest in seeing that training is done correctly. Best of luck, sounds like you are getting along well.

Answer:
I attended Millis Training in March 2002. It is a good training course. Its funny, reading about your first week is exactly how my first week went 3 years ago. Nothing has changed. Not even Bill.
Just a note: Try to stay a Millis a year. I left in 6 months. I had trouble getting another road job because Millis MTI is not a certified school. It's private training. There will be no certificate upon completion. No one accepted my MTI course as satisfactory.
But who knows now, things may have changed since then, since more and more companies are in a desperate need of drivers.
Good Luck.