Graduate of IITR Truck School!

My tests results - DO NOT OPEN :)

 Thoughts about trucks school...

Having had a class B CDL for over 36 years, I already had skills and habits of a professional driver before going to truck school. I went into this industry after doing a lot of research. I decided to go to a private truck school rather than a company school because I did not want to be indebted to a company and required to work for them or pay them for training. I received a partial scholarship from unemployment and funded the rest with a government loan for the balance at a fairly low rate. I chose an accredited local school with many branches throughout Oregon. The school was 4 weeks long, and focused on passing the DMV tests. I graduated just last week.

There were 6 students in the class. Three young men in their 20's, two men in their 50's, and myself, a 50 something woman. Out of the 6 of us, most had some truck driving experience thru farm work etc. I had 16 years in a school bus.  I found it interesting to note the differences. I had previously taken the DMV written tests and had my permit and most endorsements before class started. The first several days were spent preparing for the DMV written tests. We then did some work with mapping (I love maps) and learned how to do paper logs as well as receiving more information needed for the industry.

The second week we started working with the truck. Learning about pre-trips and hook and drop as well as some backing skills. I the third week we went on the road with two trucks. Each truck had a team of 3 students and an instructor. One was pulling a 48' trailer and the other was a set of 25' doubles.  The first 3 lessons were on the 'shifting range', a wonderful country road with straight stretches and right and left corners with little traffic. As we became proficient with shifting, we dipped into town to work on more traffic skills. By the end of that week we were all able to drive in town, on narrow country roads and the freeway as well. We learned about shifting uphill and downhill and navigating sharp in town corners.

The 4th week was perfecting our skills and final prep for the schools final test on Thursday. Two of my most challenging skills to learn were shifting and backing. After spending two weeks working on backing, my skills finally got better. I began visualizing a perfect backing pattern. On Thursday morning on the first try I successfully navigated the backing pattern. At that point I quit practicing and worked on visualizing. The fellas would let me know when it was my turn and I’d say, “I’m good”. They would shake their heads. 

Friday of the 4th week we signed up to be tested by a 'third party tester' (certified by DMV but independent of DMV and the school). I was first to be tested. Unknown to me, two of the young fella were in one of the tractors across the yard watching me. As they told the story, their jaws dropped as I drove the backing course without any demerits! I also got a 100% score on the pre-trip inspection and 95% on the driving skills test! With a total of 92.9 GPA for the class.

I had a wonderful instructor with great information to share, although, at times, I felt that I was singled out. Sometimes he was much harder on me than the others.  As I thought about this I wondered if he wanted to see if I would quit. Maybe, toughen my skin, and see if I would stand up for myself in this male dominated industry.  I also realized that he works mostly with young men and maybe he has had to get lessons thru hard heads at times. As angry as he seemed, he never held a grudge.  I did hear that there were times that he was hard on members of the other team too. So I was glad it wasn’t just because I was a woman! I enjoyed my time at school but wish I had at least one more week to perfect my skills before going to a training carrier!

It seems as of this moment I have two Orientation dates next week with my top two training carriers. Time to make some decisions!