S1B3: Trucking School - Driving, maneuvers, and Graduation
Lauren Saige the Trucking Gal, Aug 1st, 2020,
I can imagine that the climb to the summit of any great mountain is exhilarating, and at times frightening. My mountain was learning to drive and maneuver A Semi Truck and a 53-foot trailer. There were times when I felt that I was not cut out for this and questioned, “Will I actually make it?” But one step and then the other... one day in the yard at a time - slow and steady….
- Lauren Saige the Travel Gal
Once we were finished with the classroom studies it was onto the yard to learn how to maneuver those big tractor-trailers. This is where I felt my first hint of self-doubt. I didn’t pick up some of the maneuvers as quickly as my classmates did.
Eight hours on white gravel, the temperature was in the upper 80’s and 90’s and we were practicing the maneuvers in older trucks - most of which had no air conditioning, and those that did blew mostly hot air. I imagine it was above 100 in those metal cabs. Can’t have students learning in new trucks...we were brutal on the clutches...I get that. But it gave me a great appreciation for those that drove these monsters back in the day. The clutch pedals are often hard to push down, depending on which trucks you were in that day. By the end of the day, my left knee was ready to give out, and all I could do was fall into bed with heat exhaustion, wake up the next day, and start again.
All of our instructors were truckers, some better than others at the “art of instructing”, but they were all characters...not a boring one in the bunch. I think being a character is a requirement for trucking. There was “The Cowboy'' who had won numerous trophies for trucking “rodeo” like events. Cowboy hat, boots, and that sun-crusted face of a man like one that had lived on horseback most of his life - his horse was a semi-truck and he loved telling stories about his exploits. He was an over-the-road instructor fighting lung cancer and living life as full as he could under the circumstances. I was terrified of him! Didn’t want to land with him in a truck. Students have a tendency to talk, and the gossip was that he was a crazy cowboy trucker. I came to learn that he wears “Crazy” like a badge of honor.
The first time out in the truck with Cowboy Al was, well, suffice it to say, I’ll never forget the first 10 minutes. He never stopped talking. I couldn’t concentrate and I kept thinking, “Please shut the F up so I can concentrate. I’m going to wreck this thing if you don’t shut up!” What I actually said was “I can’t concentrate while you're talking incessantly” He didn’t let up. In fact, he got even more talkative and let me know that this was an essential part of the training - I had to learn to drive without distraction and he was the distraction! After about 10 minutes I was able to settle in and listen and drive at the same time. He made me stop overthinking about my double-clutching and just drive while listening to him. My double-clutching became smoother. After a while, he said, “Your shifting is good. Are you ready to learn some stuff?”
Al took me through a local city, around the tightest curves possible for a trailer, stop and go, left and right, roundabout, up hills, and down hills, stop lights, construction zones, Amish country. It was the most intense and yet greatest learning experience on the road up to this point. One other instructor took me on a difficult run as well - but not quite the labyrinth Cowboy Al brought me through. All of my road instructors were good, all characters, all different, and highly opinionated. Cowboy Al ended up being the best road instructor that I had. Although, perhaps the two that came before had prepared me well for the “Cowboy Way.”
I had learned from a father-son team before Cowboy Al. The son of that team had to endure quite the learning ladder with me. He was my first over-the-road instructor. I couldn’t down-shift to save my soul. I thought he would kill me before the end of the day, yet he remained calm and collected. He would be quite blunt, and always I would have deserved the blunt words, but I was amazed that this pro-football-esque linebacker-built man never once raised his voice or yelled at me. This monster of a man had the patience of Job. I may have the slowest start out of the gate but I typically win the race in the end. It's been that way in every job I’ve ever had.
By the time I had completed four weeks of maneuvers, and over-the-road practice, I was nervous about going to Massillon to take my CDL skills test. I didn’t feel ready, having barely mastered ally dock and not having yet mastered parallel parking, I was a mental and emotional wreck. Had I paid $5500 dollars and spent 6 weeks for nothing? Was I actually capable of becoming a truck driver? It was more difficult than I had imagined. Backing trailers turned my brain into a pretzel. Turning towards the problem wouldn’t register until I was actually out on the road with my company trainer.
Trailers don’t obey the same backing rules that cars do. Anyone who has had to park a camper or back a boat trailer down a boat ramp will understand. And even when you get it figured out you sometimes get mixed up and get your trailer into a tizzy. When Backing If you want your trailer to go left turn right if you want your trailer to go right turn left - and give the trailer enough time to react before you panic and turn the wrong way while in the throws of a pretzel mind exacerbated by heat exhaustion with forty years experience of driving a car. Sometimes you just have to stop, take a few deep breaths, and calm your mind to get back on track!
My classmates and Judy, one of our instructors, were encouraging along the way. “You will be fine” they would say, “don’t be so hard on yourself - you're getting it.” (Not sure if they believed what they were saying but the encouragement was welcome). Thank heavens I had a week to come in and practice each maneuver before my test. A week where the instructors didn’t automatically come out and help – for the most part, they left you alone to figure it out yourself for a change. As difficult as it may have been for them to watch. And only if you really got pretzel tied did they come out. If not for that week of practice I would never have passed. It wasn’t until after I graduated that I was able to parallel park consistently and ally dock somewhat consistently. The most important week is after graduation and just before your CDL test. Hamrick allows grads to use a white card to get in on maneuvers until they pass their CDL. Thank Heavens!
I was better over the road than on maneuvers and I felt confident I could pass the road test if I could get past the maneuvers. As it was, I passed the pre-inspection test by one point. Not because I didn’t know what I was doing, but because I got nervous and started grouping parts, like, “My spring mounts, leaf springs, and bolts are all properly mounted and secure, not cracked or broken.” That’s only one point. I should have said, “My spring mounts are properly mounted and secure, not cracked or broken, My leaf springs are properly mounted by their Ubolts, not missing any leaf’s, not broken or cracked and my U-bolts are not cracked or broken.” Then I would have gotten three points. I mentioned all of them, but I didn’t mention them separately. When testing my lights, I went through all of them on the backside, called the examiner up to the front but didn’t call out each light on the front the way I had on the back (even though I turned them all on and off). So I only got so many points. Almost didn’t pass because of that! I also was a little overconfident, I had been practicing my inspection even before starting school (YouTube is a lifesaver lol!) and didn’t expect to be nervous – I was nervous!
We were told that only one out of five passes the CDL skills test the first time. There are three parts. The pre-trip inspection (30 min time limit), maneuvers, and the over-the-road test. You cannot move on to the next test until you have passed the previous test. If you fail pre-inspection it will cost you $150 to take the test again. If you pass the pre-trip and fail on maneuvers it will cost you $100 to take the test again. If you pass maneuvers but fail the road test, it will cost you $50 to take the road test again. Passing was important for more reasons than one. I wanted to be one of those that passed the first time and I wanted to save money. The percentage of those who pass the first time through would prove to be true in our class as well.
Shockingly the weakest person on maneuvers and the strongest person on maneuvers passed the first go around. Luckily, I was one of those two...the weakest on maneuvers. A tortoise can sometimes overtake some of the hares – persistence is a strength. I seemed to have lucked out. The computer chose parallel park over ally dock for both of us that passed the first time. Everyone else got the alley dock maneuver, and they all failed it. One was in the box but got out of the cab three times - automatic fail. He would have passed had he simply blown his horn to signal the end of the maneuver and not gotten out of his truck at the end.
The odd thing was that everyone that failed the alley dock maneuver was really good on that maneuver at school. My Ohio State examiner, exhausted after my test, said, “Well, they taught you enough to pass the test. You’ll learn to drive on the road.”
I go into this with humility - it’s not as easy as I thought, and I have a lot to learn. But it's energizing to learn something new. I’m completely re-inventing and it's invigorating!
On Aug 3rd, 2020 I will have an orientation with Werner Trucking. Here we go, the rubber meets the road.
Happy Travels,
Lauren Saige The Trucker Gal