AIT Trucking Refresher wk 3

Well this past Sunday the 17th was my last day as a cab driver. It’s hardly worth mentioning and not something that I ever expected to appear in the annals of history, but its just another bad experience that I will take care never to repeat. Just calling cab driving an awful job would be a true understatement.

I discovered that on this very weekend A Cab has started a new policy of only allowing 9 hour shifts instead of usual 12 hour ones. So in a period of a few day, many of the old drivers have quit. Facts being as they are, it’s impossible to make a decent living as a cab driver any more. And at a company where you’re severely restricted, that makes it doubly hard. It’s easy being a cab driver? Just try it.

As for class, I did very well the first day on the range, and I was driving on the road the second. I wasn’t sure if I could remember how to sync the gears, and sure enough I was grinding. It is something only time and experience can master. I need the road time if I am going to succeed.

On of the guys that was in my class last week, up and quit. He was with me when I start on the range, but did not even make it past the first day. He had hip surgery, and was walking with a cane. A former A cab employee also, but he was having issues with the instructor, and could not take the constructive criticism.

I’m still having major transportation issues using the bus.

I just hope that next week goes better than this one.

AIT Trucking Refresher wk 2

Well, quite a bit of lesson material was covered this past week. So much so that it simply seems to have been somewhat of a blur now that I try to recall what was covered. One of subjects that sticks out in my mind and which all truckers must have knowledge of is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs). There are alot of rules here that a driver and his company must be in compliance with or he can be declaired out of service and not allowed to drive.

There was also alot material about keeping your log in compliance. First of all, there is a rule that says the diver can only drive for 11 hours max. and be on duty for less then 14 hours before he must take 10 hours of break time, that means off duty not driving or in the sleeper bearth.

I researched the actual wording in the ruling on hours of service (HOS) to find this:

“A driver may remain on duty after the 14-hour window closes or go off duty after the
11th hour of driving, in each case returning to work after 10 hours off duty on something other than a 24-hour cycle. Nonetheless, FMCSA believes that most drivers, most of the time, will go off duty at or before the end of the 14th hour, since their principal responsibility–driving–is illegal after that point. The circadian friendliness of today’s rule is bolstered by the requirement for 10 consecutive hours off duty. This is enough time to enable drivers to get the 7-8 hours of sleep most people need to maintain alertness and prevent the onset of cumulative fatigue.”

There is also a few log examples as well on this site of which here are a few with no violations:

Note in the last example that there is a split of a two hour off duty and an eight hour sleeper berth break. This is called the split sleeper-berth rule (the driver accumulated at least 10 hours of rest using a combination of at least 8 consecutive hours in a sleeper berth and another break of at least 2 consecutive hours).

The hours of service is something a truck driver must be in compliance with or he can be not only be declared out of service and not permitted to drive, but he can also be given very heafty fines amounting in the thousands of dolars.

Also during last week, we were intoduced to highway watch which was set up by homeland security and run by the American Trucking Association which after googling, I could not find an active web site for both the program nor the association. This may have been a good knee jerk type of program to help fight terrorism, but in my opinion, it currently seems to be disfunctional.

I also recieved notice that my final day of training will be on the 28th and I’m hoping that I will be on my way to orientation with Covenant Transport short after this.

This next week it’s on to the range and back to being behind the wheel of a big rig tractor.

AIT Trucking Refresher wk 1

First of all, taking a bus anywhere is the least desirable thing I’ve done in quite a while. I trip that would have taken me less than 30 minutes, has in fact taken me between 1.5 and 3 hours one way.

It’s a very fast pace course, but it’s much easier for me than the rest of my class as they are getting this for the first time. I did not have classroom material the first time I took my CDL training in San Jose, CA, but AIT (http://www.ait-schools.com/), located up on Lone Mountain near the Pilot truck stop, has a very good curriculum and adequately experience instructors.

I truly wish I had this type of program 5 years ago prior to when I first went on the road driving for Swift. I truly would have made far fewer mistakes the first time around. But I did learn a great amount from being on the road, and most of the class were keen to ask me many questions about what it was like.

I choked on a couple of test at the beginning and this caused my GPA to drop enough that I ended the week with slightly under a B average. I was not studying the right way at the beginning, and made a few too many mistakes when taking the test. There was an online class A CDL practice test located at http://www.roadwars.com/otc/ which I should have taken right at the beginning, but didn’t bother and it proved costly to my class GPA. I highly advise anyone who needs to take a refresher to take this online exam first.

Although every state DMV has their own test questions, most of these are very simular. If you what to know exactly what will be on your particular state’s exam, then you need to consult that states handbook. The one for Nevada is online at www.dmvnv.com/pdfforms/dlbookcomm.pdf

I have one more week of classroom study, then it on to range instruction, which includes the backing practice, on the road driving, and pre and post inspections.