Stories From the Road: Trucking School

My adventurous career in trucking began on December 1, 1996. That's when I hopped in my little '89 Isuzu pick-up and headed for New Buffalo, Michigan. It had been a couple of weeks since the trucking company had agreed to foot the bill for my training and hire me on as long as I worked for them for a year. I had been filled with a mixture anxiety, glee, fear, and hope since then. The overall feeling I had about it, despite my fear, was that I had been saved. I imagine it's a feeling akin to what Christians feel when they are born again. I had been going through a really hard time in life for the previous four years and I felt like someone had bailed me out. I was 24.

The school I attended was called the Professional Drivers Institute (PDI). I don't know if they are still there or not. There was a little no-tell motel on the property next to the school and that's where all of the students stayed during their training. The trucking company I signed on with had picked up all of my expenses. I just needed to bring enough money to feed myself. They even offered to bus me in, but I preferred to have my own wheels.

School started on the third so I had a day and a half to kill. I had a room mate. You might find this odd, but if you get into trucking you might find yourself shacked up with a total stranger on more than one occasion. But we got along okay and decided we would celebrate the beginning of our new careers with some beer and pizza. Later, on the first day of class, I found out that alcohol was prohibited for the students. It was also on the first day that we had the drug tests. That whittled the class down from about 25 to 19. We all knew it was coming. I don't know what those guys who failed were thinking when they hopped on that bus. Through other reasons, several more students didn't make it through the training and our graduating class was 10. Yeah, folks, not everyone can drive a truck. It isn't easy and requires skill. Clean pee and less than three moving violations on your license also helps.

I was crazy at the time I went to school. People knew I was a little different, but I don't think anyone knew just how fucked up my head really was. But I was able to hold it together and I was feeling so good about starting my life over again that my symptoms almost completely disappeared while I was in school.

The first couple of days we just did classroom work. We went over logs, pre-trip inspections, laws, safety, and such. Our instructor had 10 years of experience on the road and he would take little breaks from the book stuff to tell us stories about his experiences out there. I was enthralled by the whole experience- book stuff and stories.

After a couple of days in class they turned us loose in some 18 wheelers. Not on the road, yet, but in a trucking yard filled with an obstacle course of orange cones and barrels. The first day all we did was try to back up straight which is tougher than it sounds. We were in lanes marked off by cones. About the best I was able to do on that first day was 3/4 of the way to the end of the lane before I had to pull up and start over again. They would not let you try anything else in the yard until you proved that you could back up straight, and I was a little discouraged. I got it on the second day, though. Damn straight. Not everyone could do it, however. It claimed at least one potential driver that I remember.

The rest of the obstacle course was driving around the yard without running over any barrels or cones (tougher than it sounds, it was pretty tight) and a couple of different backing situations- a 90 degree dock and a 45 degree dock. There was also something called the "serpentine" section where you had to guide the truck through some curves. The course was designed to give you a feel for what it's like to operate a vehicle of that size. They told us to think of all of the barrels and cones as cars, people, telephone poles, fire hydrants, etc. After the first week, all of the people that were left were then allowed to hit the road.

The road trucks were International cabovers with a sleeper on them, the kind of trucks without a hood- they are rapidly disappearing from the road although I still see one from time to time. Our trailers were 53 foot dry vans- just your standard box trailer. They would stick three students and a trainer in one and we would take off. The hardest thing about learning how to drive a truck, besides backing one, is learning how to operate the transmission. With the amount of gear grinding that was taking place, it made me wonder how sturdy truck transmissions were. :)

I was very slow in the beginning, even for a student. I'd start slowing down for stop signs a half a mile before I got to them just to be sure I caught all of the gears when I was downshifting. It earned me the nickname "Slow Motion" and I still use it to this day for my CB handle.

Well, ten of us made it to exam day. I had heard a rumor from the students that the examiner would fail you if you stalled your truck during the test. The examiner was a woman and that made a few of the students less trusting of the situation. If you are a woman you can get into trucking and make the same money with the same benefits as the men. It's one of the truly egalitarian professions in that regard. But that won't change the way you are treated by your male colleagues, especially on the CB. Most guys are alright, but there are some who will really give you a hard time.

So it got to be my turn to take the test. I showed the examiner that I could do a pre-trip inspection, then I showed her that I could safely maneuver and back the truck. Then we hit the road. We were in town and I had come up on a stop light. When the light turned green I let out on the clutch a little too quick and stalled it. Fuck! For the rest of the test I thought I was doomed, but I went through it without any other problems.

When we got back to the yard I was sure she was going to tell me that I had failed. So I was very surprised and gloriously happy when she told me I had passed. I told her that I thought I had failed because I had stalled the truck. She told me that since I got it fired back up again and moving and didn't impede traffic that it was alright. I was elated.

Ladies and gentlemen, the graduating class of December 1996 from the Professional Drivers Institute. The guy in the pink shirt was our classroom instructor. I'm the guy in the blue and black jacket with the white t-shirt poking out of the top next to the guy with the red hat.

Reminds of how nervous I was a year ago about taking Switzerland's practical driving exam -- very, very tough on-the-road test.

:hug:

How are you doing now days? How's the art work coming along?

I'm okay. Forcing myself to draw every day (because my bad art habit is to use a painbrush and diulted paint to just rough in an image before I start painting) and finding that maybe I don't hate it was much as I thought I did. :)

Happy weekend, Droopy! :hug:

Must be a tough course.
Of our original pilot training class of 35 we lost about 10, I think.
A couple of guys just left on their own when they found out flying wasn't their cup o' tea.

It's interesting how many parallels and similarities there are between our professions. 'Preflight' inspection, forms and records, physicals, drug testing, etc.
Good story. Keep 'em coming.

It's not particularly difficult to learn once you get past the stringent requirements (drug testing, physical, background check, DMV check), but some people get behind the wheel and you can tell almost instantly that they are probably not going to make it. As you say, it's not their cup o' tea.

Back in the 60s I instructed army student pilots in instrument and multi-engine at Ft. Rucker, AL.
It was a civilian contract job.

I had this one guy who just did not have (and could not get) a clue about flying. I tried everything I could think of to get it across to him. It was just damned hopeless.

I asked him why he was in flight school.
"The extra hundred bucks a month I get for flight pay."
I told him that I was sorry, but that he was in the wrong business for the wrong reason.

He failed every one of his check rides and was 'washed back' to the next class. He was still in the program when I left for TWA.
The Viet Nam war was in full crank and NOBODY seemed to wash out of the program. They needed the warm bodies.
I often wonder what happened to him.
If they gave him his wings, I'm sure he didn't last long.
Wonder how many he took with him?
:-(

And you are right, it is a difficult profession.

Did you ever think about becoming an instructor? You clearly have the skills, and certainly the patience. Just an observation.

I tried teaching people how to drive a truck at a company I used to work for. I was a driver/trainer. The job paid very good, but it was just too stressful for me.

Man it sucked. The only good part about it was I didn't have to share a room with anyone. That's one of the few advantages of being a female driver. I can't remember how many times I just wanted to say screw it I'm going home.

When and where did you get your CDL? I really enjoyed truck driving school, but I know that might not be the normal reaction. Hell, there was nothing normal about me back then. :) Or did things suck for you BECAUSE of your gender and the reaction to it of your classmates and teachers? I bet that's a little different perspective than mine.

I went there in the summer of 1999. Being female definitely didn't help me. Most of the trainers there talked down to me on a regular basis. I felt like I had to do twice as good just to get half the respect. I still feel like that some days. What got to me the most though was the long days and the heat. August in Charlotte NC is miserable.

:pals:

Although I'm in a slightly different business, it still brought back some memories.

I'm always grateful when one of my longer posts gets some responses. It tells me that what I've written was at least entertaining. :)

I spotted your story hours ago, but I didn't have time to read and respond.

NOW I do!

And of course, it's great. The tension is very clear...

You have battled, and conquered many demons!

Congrats, sweetie!

:hug:

Yeah, sometimes I don't know how I made it through all those years of craziness. I'm not a religious person, but it kind of makes me wonder if someone was watching out for me.

When I was a CBer in the '80s, J.B. Hunt had the rep, for some reason, of putting just about anybody behind the wheel. Every other "large car" driver talked like in "Convoy," only more so — most of 'em had that bouncing-kidneys vibrato as well as the slang, even when they weren't moving. So on channel 17 (yeah, it's 19 everywhere else) you'd get a constant cacophony of stuff like, "Awww, I be waaaaitin' t' get back on the suuuuperslab 'n' git 'er on dowwwwn t' La-La Laaand, tenfo'?"

But the J.B. Hunt guys — or, so we'd make fun of 'em — were always talking in Beaver Cleaver voices like, "Hi, I'm a J.B. Hunt driver. Can any of you fellas tell me how to get out of this parking lot?"









I guess you had to be there.

Yeah, they still give JB drivers a hard time out there, but a lot of them do it without understanding why. Many of the drivers who remember the reason for giving JB a hard time have now retired. It's more of a good natured ribbing kind of thing now days than an absolute hate like it used to be.

My mother-in-law seriously considered a career in truck driving. She even went out on the road to see what the life was like. In the end, she didn't go for it but she remembers the experience.

Oh by the way, did you see the Top Gear episode where the guys were trying to drive trucks?

I certainly respect anyone who can drive a truck out there... certainly a better driver than me. I'm seriously considering finding someone who can teach me some more skills, maybe if I can have a trip out on a skid-pan. The North Carolina on-road test is in my opinion a joke; UK test is far tougher. If I want tougher still I guess I could go to Finland where they do have to go out on a skid pan as part of the test.

Mark.

I don't own a TV so I don't watch any of the trucking shows that seem to be in fashion now days. If I'm not mistaken, Schneider National still puts drivers on a skid pad as a part of their CDL training, but they are the only company that I've heard of that does that. You won't find any place in the U.S. where that is a required part of the state CDL test.

This was in '06, when freight was still rockin' and rollin' and every trucking company out there was desperate to hire just about anyone if they could fog a mirror.

I asked him how things were going, and he said that for the last driver class that he had firm commitments from prospective new hires, out of 128 recruits, after running a drug screen and a driver's license check, he had eighteen people.

Eighteen.

Out of one hundred and twenty-eight pre-qualified to attend the school, the rest washed out after the drug screen tested positive or a toxic driving record from the DMV.

He asked me if I wanted to sign on, and I told him I couldn't stand the cut in pay.

Got to give them credit for tenacity, though, up until October of last year when freight took an absolute nose-dive they called me every month seeing if I wanted to lease on with them.

And reading about you learning to drive in a Cornbinder cabover sure brings back memories. I had a chance a few years ago to pick one up from a fleet where I used to work as a company driver, for a real reasonable price. I'm still kicking myself that I didn't buy it.

I still got a soft spot in my heart for those old cheeseboxes on wheels.

Stay safe, Droopy.

Really.
'Inside' job/profession lingo fascinates me.
:-)

without a trained ear and a couple two or three years of practice picking up on the patois.

I know what you mean about the 'insider speak'. Interesting to listen to a conversation in nothing more than insider talk.

But then again, sometimes that code-speak is used deliberately to obfuscate and confuse those listening in.

When I worked line-haul as a company driver a few years back we even had our own verbal shorthand among the drivers that worked out of that specific terminal. When we spoke openly over the radio, on the frequency we used as a 'company channel', unless you knew the shorthand you wouldn't understand the conversation.

The jargon of various professions.
The medical profession has all others beat, hands down.

My two best friends are physicians.
Husband and wife.
Retired now.

My favorite: "The patient exsanguinated."
He bled to death.

My friends are Brits.
They don't say 'DOA', Dead On Arrival.
It's BID, Brought In Dead.
;-)

He was telling me about an accident he worked one night. He said the driver was DRT: "Dead right there".

A couple of years after school I decided to be an owner operator, and I bought, you guessed it, and International cabover. It was a '93 model with 600,000 miles and a flat top sleeper. I did really well with it. Including the truck debt I was $40,000 in the hole when I bought it. 2.5 years later I was debt free and I owned the truck free and clear. I got out of owner/operating shortly after that. Sometimes I wish I still had that old truck.

I really try to stay out of the way.
So should every driver.
I figure these folks are earning their livings out there.
I'm just on a road trip.

Especially on the I-81 corridor in VA, PA.
I drive it 2 or 3 times a year.
Uphill, downhill.
I pass them uphill, and they blow by downhill.

I try to clear out for them. Haul ass for a few hills and we've got good separation.

Also, if they're steaming up in the right lane, and it's clear, I just stay in the left lane and let them fly on by.

I guess I try to think what they need and give it to them.
Golden rule and all that.
;-)

Just give us plenty of room and that's for everybody's safety. You don't want to ride real close to a truck for longer than you need to. I spoke with an owner/operator one time who had a brand new truck with a bunch of body damage on the passenger side. He said he had been riding along side a truck when one of its tires exploded. It caused $5000 worth of damage to that o/o's truck.

I've never seen one happen on a truck, but I've seen a 707 wheel and tire blow from overheated brakes. Blew a piece of shrapnel through a concrete block wall.

If there's traffic in the lane ahead of me I wait till they clear out so I can whip by with a good closure rate.

I HATE idiots who have the cruise control on and take f-o-r-e-v-e-r to pass a truck at about one mph faster.

It really gave me an idea what you, and your classmates, went through. It reminded me a little, too, of some of the training I've been through. It's such a feeling of satisfaction to survive something like that! :hi:

When you have accomplished something that not everyone can do. Thanks for reading. :)