Truck Driving School, Day 4 (history is good; so is coffee)

Day 4

Today was spent mostly in the classroom. I admit, I felt a bit of dejection when the instructor played a video right away… it was a copy of a Modern Marvels episode from The History Channel featuring trucks. Yes, it was very interesting, but I couldn’t stop myself from thinking, “How is this going to help me obtain my CDL, or benefit me a year from now, when I’m solo in a truck?” I feel like my time is limited, and I want every minute that I’m in school to somehow serve one of those two purposes. We then covered several chapters in our textbook, “Delmar’s Tractor-Trailer Truck Driver Training,” taking several quizzes afterwards. Again, I found myself thinking, “how is knowing that CDLs becoming a requirement due to the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 or that workhorses that pulled multi-passenger carts were the forerunners of buses, or that the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 established the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as a separate agency from the DOT is FALSE… going to benefit my truck driving career?” I made my peace with it by deciding that it’s a good thing to know the history of what you’re getting into. And history does intrigue me. With every company I’ve vetted, I’ve been sure to read about the history of the company. And history is powerful knowledge. So in the end, I was happy to have seen the video. Although I would have rather been in a truck, backing into fences and things. 

The afternoon was action-packed: we very thoroughly covered the pre-trip inspection process. We were led through a power-point presentation, which was lovely, followed along in our textbooks, received good insight into what the DOT inspectors would be looking for, went outside and observed the full pre-trip inspection process being performed on a tractor trailer, and then went back inside and watched it again in a video. In short, we were given all of the tools necessary to successfully complete the pre-trip for a graded score required for our CDL. No one fails the pre-trip, according to our instructor, but students have been failed on the brakes test (yes, which is part of the pre-trip). That, I don’t get. The brakes test seems to me far less complicated and involved than everything you need to know about pre-tripping the engine, in-cab, and front, sides, and back of the tractor and trailer.

There were several highlights for me in seeing a pre-trip performed on the tractor trailer: 1) seeing the push-rod and slack adjuster for the first time, NOT IN PICTURES, but in real life; 2) observing the lack of space between the 5th wheel and platform; I know, I know, everything I’ve read has said that there should be NO SPACE between them, but seriously, you couldn’t fit a hair between the two. The Incans couldn’t have done a better job with their walls; and 3) watching the trailer air supply valve and then the tractor protection valve or parking brake valve pop out when the air pressure was fanned below 40 psi. It’s one thing to read about it, it’s quite another to see it done in practicum. 

We also received training in an endorsement that will NEVER EVER appear on any of our licenses… the Coffee Pot Endorsement. When the pot runs out or is dangerously low, there was a diagram on the board showing how to empty and replace the filter with coffee, and fill the water reservoir, with a reminder even that an EMPTY pot should be placed under the spout, thusly keeping the instructors happy with a constant supply of the black liquid gold.

Day 4 is in the books.