Hi guys,
So today the man who I was working with all week, said that I was good enough now to be a trucker!
I still have some shifting weaknesses, but I've at the same time come a long ways, I still have a long way to go, but I've come a long ways too, since the first time that I ever, drove a 10 speed, boy that was a scary day. Glad most of this breaking in is going to be behind me soon. I'm not as good at shifting as you guys are, but from where I was to where I am now, I'm a lot better, my floating gears could be improved some and part of that is because I have a heavy foot, but you know, I've kind of made some of this job my own, when my tac is to high and I need a gear I give my old friend the clutch a nice little push and get the stick into neutral and then just float it into gear (I actually have gotten pretty good at that little shifting drill and it goes right in, sometimes extremely smoothly (you know it's supposed to work like that all the time).
They had me on a kind of tough shuttle run this week, back and fourth 10 drops a day. I've dropped and hooked 40 times this week. I've dealt with 40 different landing gears. I've pulled mostly 48's, but a couple 53's through narrow city streets, and even did a blind side back. I haven't seen my old friend the two wheeler in a while, but next week I'll be back on delivery.
They put me on the hardest run they had so that way, everything else will be easier after that. The big boss asked me how I felt and I said "Well a side loader will be a piece of cake after this."
He said "Good, glad to hear it, that was the whole point."
I said "I kind of figured that much ha-ha."
I can't knock the place I work for it's training, it's probably a real good place to start if your a rookie and are willing to work, the driving you get good practice on a 10 speed, get to run all kinds of equipment, 10 speeds, automatics, 28' trailers 30 something foot trailers, 48 foot trailers, a good amount of 48 foot trailers. They have 53's as well, but generally, those are not really on a bulk run. Really with shifting it's one of those things where after you do it for a week 10 hours a day by the end of the week you have come a long ways. You won't be a pro lord knows I still miss gears and stall the truck and am not the greatest when driving in traffic jams, I usually end up missing gears and have some troubles there and get the truck knocked out of gear and then have a hard time getting back into gear. If I have to I'll stop and put the thing in first and start all over, sometimes you just can't get a gear happened to me today, just couldn't get one. I'm not the greatest when having to shift from high range to low. Like from 6 to 5 or 4 can be hard for me. Usually if I'm in 6 at 15 miles an hour and I see a light is red, I just hit the break. 15 miles an hour is pretty slow and by the time you attempt to down shift your really not getting your self a whole heck of a lot, at least that's my take. I mean I guess you could attempt to be saving the breaks, but I don't know at 15 and losing speed, I mean the breaks are meant to stop the truck.
The Volvo that I was in all week had like an auto jake break on it so like when you let off the accelerator the motor would start to slow down and the truck would kind of slow it's self. It was actually pretty nice feature, took me a minute to get used to it, but it's not bad.
On another note I got a job offer from a charter bus company yesterday, I told them not right now at the moment, but maybe a little on down the line. I had a harder time getting my passenger bus endorsement, then I did getting my Class A truck license. When you forget to do the parking break bleed down in the pre trip you can't really pass the CDL test.
So today the man who I was working with all week, said that I was good enough now to be a trucker!
I still have some shifting weaknesses, but I've at the same time come a long ways, I still have a long way to go, but I've come a long ways too, since the first time that I ever, drove a 10 speed, boy that was a scary day. Glad most of this breaking in is going to be behind me soon. I'm not as good at shifting as you guys are, but from where I was to where I am now, I'm a lot better, my floating gears could be improved some and part of that is because I have a heavy foot, but you know, I've kind of made some of this job my own, when my tac is to high and I need a gear I give my old friend the clutch a nice little push and get the stick into neutral and then just float it into gear (I actually have gotten pretty good at that little shifting drill and it goes right in, sometimes extremely smoothly (you know it's supposed to work like that all the time).
They had me on a kind of tough shuttle run this week, back and fourth 10 drops a day. I've dropped and hooked 40 times this week. I've dealt with 40 different landing gears. I've pulled mostly 48's, but a couple 53's through narrow city streets, and even did a blind side back. I haven't seen my old friend the two wheeler in a while, but next week I'll be back on delivery.
They put me on the hardest run they had so that way, everything else will be easier after that. The big boss asked me how I felt and I said "Well a side loader will be a piece of cake after this."
He said "Good, glad to hear it, that was the whole point."
I said "I kind of figured that much ha-ha."
I can't knock the place I work for it's training, it's probably a real good place to start if your a rookie and are willing to work, the driving you get good practice on a 10 speed, get to run all kinds of equipment, 10 speeds, automatics, 28' trailers 30 something foot trailers, 48 foot trailers, a good amount of 48 foot trailers. They have 53's as well, but generally, those are not really on a bulk run. Really with shifting it's one of those things where after you do it for a week 10 hours a day by the end of the week you have come a long ways. You won't be a pro lord knows I still miss gears and stall the truck and am not the greatest when driving in traffic jams, I usually end up missing gears and have some troubles there and get the truck knocked out of gear and then have a hard time getting back into gear. If I have to I'll stop and put the thing in first and start all over, sometimes you just can't get a gear happened to me today, just couldn't get one. I'm not the greatest when having to shift from high range to low. Like from 6 to 5 or 4 can be hard for me. Usually if I'm in 6 at 15 miles an hour and I see a light is red, I just hit the break. 15 miles an hour is pretty slow and by the time you attempt to down shift your really not getting your self a whole heck of a lot, at least that's my take. I mean I guess you could attempt to be saving the breaks, but I don't know at 15 and losing speed, I mean the breaks are meant to stop the truck.
The Volvo that I was in all week had like an auto jake break on it so like when you let off the accelerator the motor would start to slow down and the truck would kind of slow it's self. It was actually pretty nice feature, took me a minute to get used to it, but it's not bad.
On another note I got a job offer from a charter bus company yesterday, I told them not right now at the moment, but maybe a little on down the line. I had a harder time getting my passenger bus endorsement, then I did getting my Class A truck license. When you forget to do the parking break bleed down in the pre trip you can't really pass the CDL test.