School, Week 1, Is History

Wow! Getting back to school is hard work! But the first week is past and both Brenda and I have gotten most of our testing out of the way. Getting a CDL involves 4+ different tests. The first is the General Knowledge Test (along with the necessary endorsement tests--in our case that's the Air Brake and Combo Vehicle tests). Both of us have that all completed. In most states the other three are part of the driving exam with the DOT instructor: The Pre-trip Inspection, the Skills Course, and the On-Road Driving Test. The Iowans in class get to do all of those during the last week of school. In Nebraska the Pre-trip Inspection is a written test. I got that one out of the way early. Brenda will probably get that done next week.

For the rest of school the focus will be on driving instead of book learning and classroom stuff. Everyone who has their learner's permit (there's still a few people working on that) has driven the truck around the parking lot. It's not too bad. Brenda says it's a lot like driving a Buick. :)

Truck clutches are pretty strange. You pretty much have to forget everything you learned in Kindergarten. There's a clutch brake, which is the last two or three inches before you reach the floor. You only use the clutch brake when you're at a dead stop, so most of the time you're only supposed to depress the clutch part way. It seems the less you depress the clutch, the better. Of course that's way different than a car, pickup, or farm truck clutch, so everyone in class is constantly grinding the gears. That and no rear view mirror are the only two real strange things, and if you've ever driven a U-Haul or a grain truck, you already have experience with the lack of a rearview mirror.

Next week we hook up the semi-trailer. That will certainly add a new level of excitement.

Friday mornings are left open for recruiters and most weeks we'll spend Friday mornings hearing their spiels. (One Friday morning we'll visit the weigh station.) This week we heard from two flatbed companies and a local construction company. One of the flatbed companies, Keim (http://www.keimts.com), out of Sabetha, KS, is a small family company (less than 200 trucks). They have a terminal in Ft Dodge, IA, and that terminal's bread and butter is hauling sheet rock out of Ft Dodge and just about everyting imaginable back. Everyone we've talked to has recommended the big companies for team drivers, so we've not considered any small companies. But we were really impresed with Keim.

Brenda and I are in a bit different situation in that we're less interested in making $100,000+ a year and more interested in being together. Many (maybe most or all) of the big companies demand productivity from their teams, which means that each person will have to drive 10 to 11 hours a day in order to meet load deadlines. The rules are such that with that sort of schedule the other person would have to be in the sleeper and not in the passenger seat. We have begun to realize that if we did this, we'd essentially never see each other, and neither of us would be able to relax and enjoy the view. That's not particularly attractive to us.

Well, it turns out that if we want to drive 20 or 22 hours a day, Keim simply can't deliver. On the other hand, if we want to drive 12 to 16 hours a day, some weeks more, some less, Keim is interested in talking.

Part of the school "homework" is filling out and sending in a minimum of 3 applications, so I'm pretty sure Keim will be one of those apps.

Werner is the 500 lb gorilla in the upper Midwest when it comes to opportunities for team drivers. When Werner gives us their song and dance it will be interesting to see what sort of demands they put on their team drivers.[/url]

Category Posted: General