Thursday morning was spent on the hill practicing 45° backing. After lunch, we had a 3 hour safety workshop. Let me put it this way...3 hour lecture right after lunch=involuntary nap time! After the workshop was completed, we ate dinner and then went back up to the hill for our final time in school. We practiced truckstop pullouts, 45° backing and parallel parking.
Friday was our graduation day. We began the day by taking our final exams which lasted for the majority of the morning. After lunch we had our payroll orientation and received our fuel cards. At the end of the day, most of the students received their medical cards and were released to the student planner. He is the guy that gets us out to a trainer. Now I said most of the students received them because myself and 2 others did not receive them. After trying to figure out what the hell was going on, I finally found out that they are still waiting to get my drug test results back...from last Tuesday. Right now, I am what they call a "pending student." It is quite frustrating to have come this far only to be stuck waiting. Oh well...so much is life, right?!
Well that brings me to today...the end of phase I and II, and the beginning of phase III. I did nothing but sit today...along with 90 other people waiting to get out with a trainer. Let me tell you all now to not believe the recruiter when they tell you that you will be getting out of school and immediately going with a trainer. A lot of these guys have been waiting for a week or longer. One thing nice is that the "Steven's School" graduates supposedly get priority over people that come in from the outside. They moved us from Crosslands to Americas Best today. I guess Americas Best is the 'employees' motel. We also received our ID badges and graduation certificates today. I will continue to update this blog as I continue on my journey to become a professional truck driver. If there is anything that you guys want to ask, please feel free to leave a comment!
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Days 12, 13, and 14
Apologies for not updating sooner. We have been slammed at school. I will give you all an overview of what was all said and done over the past 3 days.
Monday: This was our last true night class. We started the day off by attending our benefits class. We also received our Steven's driving handbook. It's huge! After the benefits class, we went on the road to drive over our DPS driving test route for the rest of the night.
On Tuesday, we had to be at the DPS at 630a.m for our driving test. I really don't understand why so early since they open at 8 and they bring us to the front of the line anyways. Nevertheless, we only got 4 hours of sleep the night before. When it came time for my turn, I proceeded to start my airbrake tests, but I forgot to turn the ignition back to the 'on' position after turning the engine off. I caught my mistake, but it was too late. I failed my driving test before it really even had began. I was so pissed off that, in my sleepless stupor, I had forgotten something as simple as that. I also felt very cheated for the fact that I caught my mistake right away, but yet I was still failed. Luckily, you get 3 tries to pass it. After the DPS testing, we all headed back to Steven's to attend some more classes. We had a class from the fuel department talking about fuel economy and fuel bonuses. We also met our driver counselors. They are basically our mentors while we are on the road with our trainers. Once we were finished with that, we got another drug test. I was kind of worried about this one since I had recently taken some cold medication...some of which was Claritin D which, I have heard, can pop up as meth on a drug screen due to the pseudophedrine. I haven't heard anything about it, so I'm assuming that it didn't pop up or that it is a non-issue. I did the best that I could with the medication. I tried to ask people at Steven's, but nobody there could give me a straight answer about what was approved or not. I just made sure to stick with stuff that was non-drowsy.
Today was the First of our 2 loooooong days. Today was 630a.m-9p.m, and tomorrow is 7a.m-9p.m. First of today was the DPS again. I nailed my test today with a 97. The DPS examiner actually told me that, out of all of the Steven's people that she has ever tested, I received the highest. Now whether that is the truth or not is a different story...but I like to think it is! After the DPS, we went back to Steven's for more classes and some skills driving/backing. The First class was for Alliance Leasing, and the Second class was actually all for filling out our pre-employment paperwork (w4, I9, etc.) When we were finished with the classes, we went out to start our skills backing. There are several areas including 45° backing, 90° backing, the serpentine, straightline offset backing, and Hunt's Point. Hunt's Point is an incredibly difficult dock to get in to in NYC. So far, I am the only one in the class to get it...it took me 30 minutes, but I backed her in there!!
Well that about wraps up the past 3 days, and I'm tired. I'm heading to bed now. See you all soon!
Monday: This was our last true night class. We started the day off by attending our benefits class. We also received our Steven's driving handbook. It's huge! After the benefits class, we went on the road to drive over our DPS driving test route for the rest of the night.
On Tuesday, we had to be at the DPS at 630a.m for our driving test. I really don't understand why so early since they open at 8 and they bring us to the front of the line anyways. Nevertheless, we only got 4 hours of sleep the night before. When it came time for my turn, I proceeded to start my airbrake tests, but I forgot to turn the ignition back to the 'on' position after turning the engine off. I caught my mistake, but it was too late. I failed my driving test before it really even had began. I was so pissed off that, in my sleepless stupor, I had forgotten something as simple as that. I also felt very cheated for the fact that I caught my mistake right away, but yet I was still failed. Luckily, you get 3 tries to pass it. After the DPS testing, we all headed back to Steven's to attend some more classes. We had a class from the fuel department talking about fuel economy and fuel bonuses. We also met our driver counselors. They are basically our mentors while we are on the road with our trainers. Once we were finished with that, we got another drug test. I was kind of worried about this one since I had recently taken some cold medication...some of which was Claritin D which, I have heard, can pop up as meth on a drug screen due to the pseudophedrine. I haven't heard anything about it, so I'm assuming that it didn't pop up or that it is a non-issue. I did the best that I could with the medication. I tried to ask people at Steven's, but nobody there could give me a straight answer about what was approved or not. I just made sure to stick with stuff that was non-drowsy.
Today was the First of our 2 loooooong days. Today was 630a.m-9p.m, and tomorrow is 7a.m-9p.m. First of today was the DPS again. I nailed my test today with a 97. The DPS examiner actually told me that, out of all of the Steven's people that she has ever tested, I received the highest. Now whether that is the truth or not is a different story...but I like to think it is! After the DPS, we went back to Steven's for more classes and some skills driving/backing. The First class was for Alliance Leasing, and the Second class was actually all for filling out our pre-employment paperwork (w4, I9, etc.) When we were finished with the classes, we went out to start our skills backing. There are several areas including 45° backing, 90° backing, the serpentine, straightline offset backing, and Hunt's Point. Hunt's Point is an incredibly difficult dock to get in to in NYC. So far, I am the only one in the class to get it...it took me 30 minutes, but I backed her in there!!
Well that about wraps up the past 3 days, and I'm tired. I'm heading to bed now. See you all soon!
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