Question:
I have seen many training journals in here and I like the Idea of sharing experiences with people who have a common interest and goal. First of all like many out there I am a refugee from the IT industry. I moved down into the Tampa Bay area about 1 1/2 years ago and after I made that move I was unable to get a position back in the IT field. After having two companies sold out from under me I decided enough was enough. I cannot support my family on the type of pay available for "Overqualified" people her in the sunshine state. I researched long and decided that the trucking industry would provide the stable job situation I require to provide me and my wife with the living standard we wish to retain. Mind you I said attain, I don't expect to get rich with this job but at least it is stable if you keep your nose clean and follow the regs.
That was the start of a real adventure. The end of November after I had researched various training companies here in the area I decided on Roadmaster. Well let me tell you that in itself was a challenge right from the start. With my credit shot to heck from previous unemployment bouts I found it hard to even get the needed loan. The only thing that saved me was the assistance of the recruiters there and the direction to a program, now get this, in a DIFFERENT county than I am living, which provided me a grant to go to truck driver school. Small sub note, this lead me to the decision to get the heck out of this county once I get the position and go solo. So school was set and I started a week later.
Week One
In the first week we did the classroom work and the work with the regulations. That week alone informed me that trucking is a lot more than just sitting behind a wheel and driving. My respect for fellow truck drivers has grown enormously. Well on the first day of class we had the typical D.O.T Physical and I discovered that my extended period of unemployment had provided my body an excuse to raise heck in the form of Hypertension. And my elevated BP resulted in only getting a 3 month certificate. No Problem says the recruiter at the school. So I followed their directions and completed the first week of school with a 96 average on all the tests.
Week Two
Week Two stared of with a flood of pre-hired from the various companies I had sent my application in to. Like any student I looked at these pre hires and scratched my head as to which I should go to. This is before I found this and other forums on the web. Anyhow I called two of the companies for information and discovered that none of them would accept a 3 month certificate. In school we were outside and working with the trucks; Pre-Trip inspection and backing. I went through the first day of the class for the week and wandered home after a full day of confusion and knocked over cones. I have to learn to key my eyes everywhere and know what is going on with my truck and trailer in both mirrors and up front. I get the overall impression your best truck driver has 8 arms and 4 heads lol. Well the next day I go in as usual for class but the subject of the absence of an orientation appointment bugs me so I decide to talk to the recruiter and get feedback from him. I explained my situation and we came to the mutual agreement it would be best for me to get the hypertension under doctors care and control. That means my best course of action was to stop school at the point in time.
Background Info. Week 2 and 3
Now this was a task in itself. As you know from above I had been unemployed for a couple months. Now for those of you outside the state of Fl. This is an "at will" state for employment which means get and have a Job because your on your own if you don't work. My family is currently receiving one thing and one thing only food stamps. We pay the rent on our apartment from the SSI check my wife receives and the other bills only by the good grace of her mom who owes her money for a vehicle she sold. I have not had any medical coverage for over a year down here and my only recourse is to turn to the VA "Veterans Association”. I have been out of the army for close to 20 years and this would be the first time I would turn to the VA for help. Well I am pleased to say I qualified in every aspect for medical coverage with the VA and they are taking care of the whole ball of wax for me. But the time it takes is painstaking. Because of the nature of my case I got the process "speeded up" and things were taken care of in two weeks instead of the normal 6 months. I have received medication and a plan to keep my BP under control and today I sit here filling you in on the last few weeks of my training. I intend to keep this Journal up to date. Along with the medical issues in the past two weeks I have set up an orientation with Werner. Out of all the pre-hires I received I have heard the best about them on the various boards I have been reading, including this one. I restart school next week and will be keeping you updated as to my progress. First thing Monday morning I will have to go down to the docs and get the Physical updated then it will be off to school. This weekend I will spend the time studying the pre-trip inspection so I am prepared for that test next week.
Drafter
Keep the wheels rolling.

Answer:
Drafter,
Thanks for keeping a journal and the best of luck to you .Sounds like you have great support at home and thats the main thing.Keep us updated as to how things are going .Good luck and keep us posted .
"When everything seems to be going against you,
remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it."
Henry Ford.
"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition there."
-Indira Gandhi
_________________
g8tor_96@yahoo.com or IM at yahoo g8tor_96
I am a telecommunications refugee
edited my spelling
[This message was edited by g8tor on December 15, 2003 at 19:23.]
[This message was edited by g8tor on December 27, 2003 at 20:16.]

Answer:
Hey drafter, I am also a grad. from Roadmaster in Tampa Fl. Igrad. in Nov. 2000, the hardest thing I found about that school was The weekends were long, I worked 40 - 50 hours weekly so I had to take their weekend course, 16 of them, it called for some long weeks, I to had shotty credit when I applied there, so they did a thing for me called inhouse financing, I gave them $150.00 every weekend until until I had paid $1000.00 and then they would wait until I was hired on with a company that would pay tuition re-embursement for the rest, good luck. -->

Answer:
I might have mis-led, it was 16 days, eight weekends in all...sorry if i did -->

Answer:
Originally posted by g8tor:
I am an owner-operator with Werner. I started out as a company driver for them. Went to school at Roadmaster. I live in Plant City. I would like to talk to you, send me email at g8tor_96@yahoo.com or IM at yahoo g8tor_96
Or you can call me on my cell at 813-299-6507
I am a telecommunications refugee
edited my spelling
[This message was edited by g8tor on December 15, 2003 at 19:23.]
g8tor I will drop you a line sometime tonight after school. I should be out around 6 but you you this yourself. Home arounf 6:30 6:45 depending on traffic. Catch ya on the flip side.
Drafter
Keep the wheels rolling

Answer:
Originally posted by wedafitz02:
Hey drafter, I am also a grad. from Roadmaster in Tampa Fl. Igrad. in Nov. 2000, the hardest thing I found about that school was The weekends were long, I worked 40 - 50 hours weekly so I had to take their weekend course, 16 of them, it called for some long weeks, I to had shotty credit when I applied there, so they did a thing for me called inhouse financing, I gave them $150.00 every weekend until until I had paid $1000.00 and then they would wait until I was hired on with a company that would pay tuition re-embursement for the rest, good luck. -->
Hey Webafitz. Yes they are very good in trying to get thier students taken care of. Good to see that we Roadmaster peeps are in fact out there I have heard so much about other schools and nothing about Roadmaster. I know they have alot of Graduates out there. Would be good if a few more of Bill's refugees would pop up and say hi. Catch ya later.
Drafter
Keep the wheels rolling

Answer:
Day 2 Week Two
Well the backing pad was the order of business today. I started out miserable but toward the end of the day I was backing pretty decently and not endangering the life of any of the cones on the practice pad. I still need a lot of work in backing. We went through the Drop and Hook procedure today and will be tested on that on Friday. It seems pretty simple. Not like the PTI that we are still studying for. I was more or less a pain in the butt to the instructors today because I was picking their brain for every snippet of Information I can get. They laughed when I said this and I stated I intended to do the same with my road trainer at Werner. By the time I get finished there the man will probably be just a shadow of his old self. lol. The Instructors did mention that I have the tendency to over steer when I was backing. Any tips from you professional drivers out there? The testing for the Pre-trip started today but they only got one person done. I am a bit nervous about that because I don’t want to leave anything out. Well I will study tonight and continue tomorrow during the times I am waiting for a truck and the test. The last week we are out on the road and the fact that we will be 1 ½ days shorter on the streets is worrying me. The final road test is the day after Christmas. Well I will fill you all in on the happenings of tomorrow when I get home tomorrow night.
Drafter
Keep the wheels rolling

Answer:
Day 3 Week Two
Yahoo!!! Took the PTI Test today and out of 105 Items that had to be identified and checked I only missed three of them. I should get even better with this, especially since I will be doing it on a daily basis. The backing is a bit frustrating. I run through the course a couple of times without a problem and then I have difficulty with on or two sections of the backing. Oh well they say practice makes perfect. Drop and hook went pretty well today. I am comforted by the fact that I will have the whole day tomorrow to concentrate on backing. I don’t want to be perfect I just would like to be able to pass the dang test. I know that with time I will be able to back that truck up to a gnats butt and unload it. The weather was unusual for Florida. It started out all right at about 68 degrees out but a cold front went through and the temp dropped to around 55 and the wind picked up making it feel much colder. I had to laugh at some of the people who acted as if they were going to freeze to death. I found it chilly but refreshing. A funny thing happened too. We were supposed to go onto the shifting range today but one of the times when the instructor was demonstrating the shifting technique he ended up ripping the shift handle out of the floor and the truck had to be towed. When I heard that I said to another instructor he should let the students drive they are less hard on the equipment. That got a laugh out of the whole staff. That poor instructor will probably never live it down with his colleagues. OK back to backing. I think part of the reason for my problems at times was due to the fact that the trailer tracked kind of weird and I need the experience handling a bad tracking trailer. I only hope they have some of the better vehicles for the test because the ones we are driving are kind of old and the trailers are not in the greatest shape. Well tonight since I don’t have to study for anything I am going to relax. I will continue tomorrow night and fill you in on the activities of the day.
Drafter
Keep the wheels rolling

Answer:
Day 4 Second week
Today was backing practice once again. We also had the trucks swapped on us so often I began to thing they were playing Musical Trucks with us. We started out with a beautiful newer Volvo But then a truck of the seniors who are on the road this we broke down so they gave us one of the older yard trucks. It was not too bad but after one time around they cam back and said they needed to take that one for fuel. It was almost empty. We ended up the morning with the oldest truck they had. The trailer did not track right and I had a heck of a time even trying to get through the straight line backing. Finally they brought back the other truck we had been using and the practice went much better. Toward the end of the Day I was able to stop precisely on the stop line, back through the 100 feet of cones set up without an error. The Dock Backing is still giving me some issues I can’t seem to get the sucker in there in one shot I always have to pull-up to get it back in. After one Pull Up I straight-line it back into the area they set up the represent a dock and place it within 5 inches of the dock. Blind side parallel went much better today and I placed the trailer in the box several times. The truck usually ended up 6 to 8 inches short of the dock representation. The Precision right turn went great today and I was able to shave “Grandma” 4 out of 5 times. Meaning I got the back tire close enough to the cone representing “Grandma” she would have been able to read the writing on the tires without her glasses. Lol. The other time I hit a 3 which would have deducted 3 points on the test. We will practice more in the morning and then start the backing and drop and Hook test in the afternoon. I am going to go in the test coolheaded and calm because My goal is not to be perfect but to pass the tests so I can move on to the road section of the school. I was also informed toady that we will not test on Friday next week because of the holiday and short day of Christmas Eve. This is totally fine with me because We will need the extra day of road training. I will have to call up the company I will be going to and inform them that I will need to move the orientation to Wednesday if they have it. Well I am going to eat and relax while checking of more of the Forum. Catch you all on the Flip-Side.
Drafter
Keep the wheels rolling

Answer:
Sounds like your doing great. Keep it going. I am still pretty disappointed in the school I attended. They taught us only enough to get the Class A that was it.
Right now I am with a switcher in the yard being trained to back. Sure is a disspointment when I want to be on the road but cant because I can not back.
Good luck and please keep us informed.

Answer:
A little tip I can give you is this: When backing up, place your hand at the bottom of the wheel. If you need to turn, your hand will move the direction you want the trailer to move. It also stops you from oversteering, which I have found is the biggest mistake drivers make when backing up, including experienced drivers!
Hopefully, you'll continue to be interested in the new career you have chosen and allow it to be as fun as it can be. HEY I still have fun! --> --> ;

Answer:
Good luck. I'll second the one-hand-on-the-wheel backing method described above. Forget what the instructors say. If you put two hands on the wheel and try to back up in a straight line, your brain gets confused and you'll be sure to oversteer.
The alley dock backing you do in school is not much like what you will do in the real world. Actually, nothing in school is like the real world, just get through and get your Class A license, you will learn the rest when you are actually out there, and you will never stop learning.
Get used to "at-will" employment. Every trucking company I know of that hires new drivers is employment "at will." You will sign an agreement to this. Werner employment is at will, I have worked for them. They or you can terminate employment at any time for any reason, or for no reason at all.
You have had a few lumps in your trip through truck driving school. Get used to it. Your ability to be a good driver will be based as much on your ability to handle constant stress as it will be on your driving skill. Driving is only one aspect of the job. The rest is time, equipment, stress, and load management.
I like your comment about asking your road trainer all you can. Do this, learn all you can from this trainer. They should be willing to tell you, but some of the trainers are good and others are not very good teachers. Overall, in your 6-8 weeks training with Werner, you should learn enough to become somewhat comfortable driving and working with the equipment, but you will learn much more on your own.
Good luck, keep us posted.