Remember how I said that I wasn't going to post every day? Well, here I am backing up that statement. Speaking of backing up, backing up SUCKS! (More on that later....)

Now that we're in the swing of things here, I'll tell you a little about what goes on. Johnny (my roommate) and I wake up at 4:30AM. At 5:15 we're outside waiting for the "Rusty Bus", which is an old Bluebird cabover school bus painted white witht the Swift logos on it. At 6AM, school is in session and they take role. Then we either go to the range, or stay in the class room. The range is where the school's trucks live. They live there permanantly as they wouldn't probably stand up to being on the road anymore. They all have more than 600K miles and have various bits and pieces bent broken cracked or missing. The big thing is that they still start and pull the trailers we get. All of the trailers are 53' trailers and are out of road service for some reason. Usually holes, patches and other assorted damage.

On the range, we do pre-trip inspections every day. The PTI involves checking about 180 parts of the tractor and trailer for items that are bent broken cracked or missing, or hoses / air lines that are frayed leaking or bulging. I won't go into details about what's what, as I might lose you and it'd be REALLY boring, but there are 5 airbrake parts on each end of each axle that have to be checked every day. Once your ground checks are done, you get into the cab and do your air checks and electric system checks... Boring huh? Yeah, and lots to remember.

Once those are completed, we drive! Well, we drive around the lot. To get a CDL in PA, you have to be able to perform certain manuvers. In PA, it's the "straight line back", the "45 degree alley dock", and the dreaded "parallel park".

Straight line backing is fairly easy. It is, as it's name implys, backing the truck in a straight line using only the mirrors to keep the truck and trailer in a lane 3 feet wider than the units. Easy you say? Keep in mind that it's 3 feet total, not on each side and the trailer is constantly trying to go it's own way and if you over compensate for it, the tractor will be outside the lines. If that happens...FAIL

Parallel parking is exactly what it is in cars, but with 70' of truck and trailer.

The 45 degree is the one that gets me. I can't seem to do it. Think of parking a car in a garage in reverse. Now think of doing the same thing with a T/T in the same kind of space. You must have the trailer in the box without crossing the cones (called encroaching), or going more than 1 foot past the last cone (Instant FAIL) You get 5 points to use for mistakes. Each time you pull up to try it again, that's one point. Each time you encroach the cone line, that's also 1 point, so they add up quickly.

I'll fill you all in on more later. Tomorrow is mapping and Haz-Mat, so it'll be interesting.
Russ