The Real School Begins

Day 1

I arrived at school 6:30 in the morning. I was directed to the front office where I had to fill out some more paper work, then try on a shirt and then wait.  After waiting for a while I was given my parking pass and sent out to take the drug test.  There were fifteen people in my class so the drug test took a while.  After the drug test was done I headed to the classroom, and waited some more.  Class truly started at about 9:30. First part of the morning the instructor introduced us to the school, explained our books and other items that we were given, and then went over the school rules and regulations. I can't remember when but sometime in the morning the head instructor came and gave a little pep talk to encourage us.  After lunch we were taken on the facilities tour in a bus, the range here is pretty awesome. Then we were given more rules and expectations, our homework was explained to us, and we were given the DOT pre-test.  Then we went through some classroom instruction that kind of laid the groundwork for the course, what is a truck driver, why truck drivers are important and so on.

Day 2

School started at 7:00. We covered our homework from the day before first thing, then the instructor taught through the chapters we did homework on. After lunch the instructor took us out to the range and gave us a pre-trip demo on one of the trucks. Then it was back to the class room and working on more materials out of the truck driving manual.  This day was mainly a lot of sitting, and a lot of listening.  After we finished each chapter we also did an electronic test for the school on it, in addition to the homework tests.

Day 3

We started off by finishing up the study that was not finished the day before. Then we covered the new homework, mainly HoS rules and logging. We found out that we were getting Monday off, which is good and bad, good because it is an extra day at home, an extra day to study, but bad because all of the work that would of been done Monday is getting squeezed into the other days. After covering the HoS rules and logging, our instructor then brought us out to the range in the late after noon and let us start practicing doing the pre-trip and air brakes tests on the trucks.  That was fun.  We then went back to the classroom had a short debriefing period and we then left for the weekend with a mountain of homework. We had to do the homework for Friday and Monday.

In summary

So far the program and instructors here have been excellent. I really like this school. If you do plan on coming to Central Tech remember that they are very strict about students being on time. Always be on time or early. The instructor's clock is the only clock that matters. Be early.  Follow the rules. Be respectful and pay attention. Do your homework with a will, don't slack, just work hard and try to learn a lot. It really is a great school.

Peace,

             Flame of Jah

I Passed the Written Tests!

June 23rd

Class started at 7:00. It began with CDL test prep videos for General Knowledge and Combination Vehicles. Lunch was at noon. After lunch we watched a couple more videos, then we did practice tests for the rest of the day. I aced all the practice tests scoring 100% on all but General Knowledge which I scored 98% on.  Class let out at 4:00.  After I got back to my room I was bored so I decided to go ahead and study for the HAZMAT test. I studied until 8:45, then went to bed.

June 24th: Test Day

Class started at 7:00 again.  We just focused on tests. I mainly focused on HAZMAT since I had all the others down.  Our appointment for the real test was at 1:00, but around 11:00, everyone was ready to be done with practice tests and a few filtered out. At 11:30 our instructor let class out and told us we could go early but we would probably wait in line. We all decided to try and see if they would take us early and headed out.  I rode with one of the other guys.  We both arrived first and got in the regular line.  At about 12:45 we got called and by 1:00 we were taking our tests. I opted to take all the tests for all the endorsments except Passenger, and I passed all of them. So I have, Tanker, Doubles/Triples, Air Brakes, Combinations and HAZMAT done. I really didn't think I would pass the HAZMAT, I did so little study on it, but I did. The guy I rode with and one other guy from our class passed, the other three failed. Those of us that passed got to come home Friday and we don't have to go back to class until Wednesday when the real course starts.  Everyone else has to go back Monday and try to pass again.  Anyway, after we got our paperwork from the DMV we headed back to Drumwright and got our CDL permits.  We then went to the school and got our permits copied and after that I headed home.  It was a good day.  I studied so long for those tests, and it payed off.

Have a great rest of the weekend folks,

Flame of Jah

The Adventure Begins

On June 21st in the afternoon I drove the 160 or so miles to Drumwright Oklahoma to start my CDL training. My Training is beginning with the CDL permit prep class, which is two days long, then I will take the permit tests and drive home, and will come back Tuesday of next week to start the real truck driving course.

I got to my lodging at the Driller Inn at about 5:45 last night, unpacked, then drove to the school to kinda check it out.  After that I ate dinner, hung out in the house for a while and went to bed. Not really much happened. My house mate did not get in until late so I didn't see him until this morning.

This morning, June 22nd, I headed over to the school at 6:45 as I had been instructed in the email, and found out that I was fifteen minutes early and the east entrance, which I had been instructed to use was still locked. My house mate found me wondering around and brought me over to the south entrance and I met my instructor Mr. Towner.  My class is made up of four guys including myself, and two girls.

Initially we were introduced to the school, given some paper work to fill out then sent out to a tiny clinic in town to get the DOT physical done. That was pretty painless and easy. After that the instructor gave us a tour of the school building, he would have given us a tour of the course too, but the DOT was all over the place and he didn't want to be in the way. After the tour we came back to the classroom and started on the airbrakes portion of the CDL manual. We stopped for lunch around noon, and when we came back in at one o clock we played with the air brake simulator, finished up the air brakes chapter and moved on to the combination vehicles section. Each section of the course includes us reading the manual, then a video, then the instructor quizzing us on the section and expounding on it.

Class ended around four o clock and I headed back to the house. There really isn't much more to tell.  I will probably get better at this blogging thing in time, I hope to include more pictures and maybe even videos in future posts. That is it for now folks, Lord willing I will post again tomorrow.

God bless,

Flame of Jah