Well the wife and I are in school now and got through day 2!...dang there is a lot to learn.
It is coming fast and furious...3 more days of classroom and then a day of pre-trip and getting to know the truck and then 3 weeks of driving.
I was a bit worried about the wife since she comes from a retail background and i have a solid mechanical background...but guess who is the top student via test scores in the class so far..yep..the only woman..go figure!.
The instructors told us she would do best as she has no bad habits/thoughts to get in the way and will learn the right way the first time. I am real proud of her!!

 

YES it is! At least by after Labor Day, school children WILL be out and about many of the roads WE drive down. Let's ALL pay attention to the signs, and the LAWS! What is 10 mins driving time compared to a child's life?

As the First Shirt of that precinct on Hill Street Blues used to say, "Let's be careful out there, folks!"

[NO... I didn't misread the topic title, OR misunderstand the original poster! I JUST wanted to say this... and this seemed lke a good thread to do so!]

Hobo

 

glad to see you are going for it .... my wife and I went to SAGE in AZ a few months ago ... we are now going to drive for Covenant as we want to train together ... hope to see you out on the road soon ,,,, HAVE FUN and be safe

 

well got through the first week, boy does my brain hurt!!
there is quite a bit of paperwork involved, not sure how you find time to drive the rig LOL!
They gave us a "nightmare trip" to plot for our final written classroom exam. Multiday trip, a couple of trailer swaps, 6 states,3 time zones,
4 load-unload, all with our assistance. 3 tight deadline delivery, and a relay load in the middle of all of it.
had to show a correct logbook, fuel usage, time, mileage, sleeper time ect....did pretty good got everything right except missed my overall milage by only 6 miles!
did take about 2 hours to figure it out!
Now we spend monday on pre-trip with the rig, and then clear the roads..we will start driving (well in the lot anyway) on tuesday....
thanks for all the assistance on here so far!..it has helped a lot!

 

Good Luck

 

Yesterday we did the pre-trip learnin' and since we got done early the instructor moved on to drop and hook and a little yard driving. My wife was the first one to go..I sure wish i had brought my video camera...
She has wanted to drive the "big rigs" for over 20 years and now she was driving one...I was about 10 pm at night, but you could have turned off all the yard lights, dash lights and headlights..she was beaming so bright that it would have been daylight anyway!!!
She did great (better than me in fact!)..The other students were excited and proud of her as well. IT WAS A VERY GOOD DAY!
When she was done she was still excited..but her back was drippin in sweat as well...LOL.
I did pretty good to...but i think the instructors lip prints are still on the inside of the windshield..LOL!

 

I laughed so hard my sides started hurting when I read this .... isn't life good. It's always nice to know we can still get excited about learning. Keep up the good work and know that your life is just about to change forever ....

 

Oh Boy what a night last night!...it was our first time driving in the streets.
Since we are in the late class they took us down to the industrial part of town where it was pretty deserted and had us drive. My wife went first, the first tight turn she made she was still pretty nervous and as she upshifted just prior to making the turn, she "buried the clutch" and actvated the clutch brake, which made her miss the shift and she slammed on the brakes. I found out that the theory of "an equal and opposite reaction" is true (and the 3rd driver in the back with me can fly! LOL). A few blocks later we came up to a stop light and guess what...a 4 wheeler cut right in front of her to beat her to the light....She made steady and upward progress and ended her 2 hour drive shift smiling wide and no death grip on the sterring wheel!

Me...dang I keep forgetting what gear I am in and either over/under reving the rpms when i shift. I figured out a good double clutch trick that works well for my feet..just have to get the right arm to go along with it!

I asked the trainer who sits up front if they pay him about $500,000.00 per year to put up with us...because that is what it would take for me to do this training new drivers week in and week out!!

It is tough, but we are loving it and already are VERY thankful that when we get to our new place of employment they require 5 more weeks of training!...

 

Well another interesting night...doing real well on the upshift timing, but still struggling with the downshift timing..think that will take a few more days.
Instructor did a neat thing..took us to the steepest hill in the area (not sure of the grade..but it is very steep). Has us shift into 4th and then had us watch the applied brake pressure gauge. of course we started about 90! LOL, then whole time he was "less pressure...less pressure" we were down to around 5-7 psi and doinf just fine. That was real interesting.

Even though we only haul lightly loaded trailers, I was very surprised just how quick gravity speeds up the truck going down hill.

All of also saw a good lesson tonight...a J.B. Hunt semi laying on its side on a curved freeway on ramp. (guess he's looking for a new job today!)

We were out in traffic yesterday and while the other 2 drove I counted 6 traffic problems of 4 wheelers trying to get around us or dive in front of us. I swear when i get out on the road i am going to mount a video camera on my dash and make a training film!

 

Hey Benny,

Good job. There was a JB Hunt driver in my area about 2 months ago that flipped onto his side going 55 around an on ramp. When the cops asked what happened he said he didn't get enough sleep.