9/6/2006 - Wednesday - How long have I been here?
Today I got up at 6:05 am. I was pushing it because I was up so late last night. By the time I got out the door it was 6:30 am. I wanted to get to England by 6:45 am because they told us that "Early is on-time and on-time is late". Hearing that and also knowing that this is really a 3 week job interview, I drove like a man possesed and got there at 6:44 am. The traffic was so much worse than yesterday. What a difference a half an hour makes.
I got my seat and promptly at 7:00 they closed the doors. They took roll and as I looked around I noticed that there were quite a few people missing from the original group that was here yesterday. I got to talking to some of the others around me and found out that several people left last night after the Pre-Employment Interview, (Interrogation). Oooo,, that sucks.
As soon as roll was taken they collected our 100 question homework assignment. They said this was the first graded assignment and counted towards our class average. More on that later.
A few people wandered in late and were quietly asked why they were late. From what I understand from some of the students who are a week or two ahead of us, England keeps track of things like coming late and how you behave and conduct yourself in class. They do truly use the training process as an interview for the job. Some of the people I talked to said that you would come into class in the morning and someone you were talkikng to yesterday was just gone. Lesson: Be on time. Do your assignments. Don't argue with instructors. Don't think that you know anything. You must learn the England way!
OK, so all the paperwork I filled out last night, the w-4, driving history, information sheet, and about 25 other forms have been turned in. Now we are getting a briefing from the Safety Department. An hour and a half later that exciting experience was over. I hope you see my sarcasm in that. It was at this time that students that were not paying for the training upfront signed the loan paperwork for their training. I'm paying up front. You save about $1500 by paying upfront. This doesn't mean you have to have cash for it. You can pay with a credit card. I havn't done too much research on this, but I think you could probably pay off the credit card after a few months of driving and not over the 3+ years at $55 - $75 per week that the 18% financing that is offered works out to. If you can finiance it yourself either in cash or otherwise, it's probably a better deal. Just some thoughts.
OK, now a really COOL thing. At 11:00 am we were sent to a classroom and given a Dominos Pizza lunch. They must have had 40 pizzas there and they weren't cheese pizzas, they were loaded! This was when the driving instructors were introduced. They chatted and ate pizza with us. Pretty cool.
12:00 pm - The tests that we turned in this morning, the 100 question Utah cdl test, were returned to us. I got a 94%. Sweet. Ok, here's the kicker. It really didn't count towards the class average. They told a little fibb. It was just a homework assignment that didn't matter. Or did it? Right now I'm not sure what the school or company are looking at.
It really is nice to be in a classroom now with a table and chair and not just an auditorium. We went over the General Knowledge 100 question homework test and that took until 2:00 pm. I feel pretty comfortable with the material. I only missed 6 out of 100 and having gone over it with our classroom instructor who took the time to answer everyones questions and explain everything. He was knowlegable, patient and fair. Jim gets an A+ in my book so far as an instructor.
14:30 pm - We learned about air brake systems for the next hour. There is a working mock-up of a trucks air brake system in our classroom. Cool! It's LOUD and gives a great visual of how the system works.
On another note, I just want to set the picture of our class. We have a married couple in their 50's, a mother & daughter team, a bunch of guys like myself in our 30's, some young women, some young men, some older experienced drivers that havn't driven in a while, and a few total wierdos!
OK, we went over our practice air brake tests and then took a real test on the subject. Now, there is no reason anyone should get anything less that 100% on this. Here's why. The test was EXACTLY like the practice test down to the word. On top of that, instead of having 4 multiple choice answers to choose from, they only had 3. So Easy! I got a 100%. No excuses.
We got out of school at about 5:15 pm so I have a nice evening ahead of me. I'll do a little studying and watch some tv. Tomrrow we have a section on pre-trip inspections in the morning and then a little more studying an at 11:00 am off to the Utah DMV for testing and get our Learners Utah CDL.
On road to the future! Eyes on the Prize!
*Sorry for mixing military 24 hour time and regular time, old habits mixing with new.*
I got my seat and promptly at 7:00 they closed the doors. They took roll and as I looked around I noticed that there were quite a few people missing from the original group that was here yesterday. I got to talking to some of the others around me and found out that several people left last night after the Pre-Employment Interview, (Interrogation). Oooo,, that sucks.
As soon as roll was taken they collected our 100 question homework assignment. They said this was the first graded assignment and counted towards our class average. More on that later.
A few people wandered in late and were quietly asked why they were late. From what I understand from some of the students who are a week or two ahead of us, England keeps track of things like coming late and how you behave and conduct yourself in class. They do truly use the training process as an interview for the job. Some of the people I talked to said that you would come into class in the morning and someone you were talkikng to yesterday was just gone. Lesson: Be on time. Do your assignments. Don't argue with instructors. Don't think that you know anything. You must learn the England way!
OK, so all the paperwork I filled out last night, the w-4, driving history, information sheet, and about 25 other forms have been turned in. Now we are getting a briefing from the Safety Department. An hour and a half later that exciting experience was over. I hope you see my sarcasm in that. It was at this time that students that were not paying for the training upfront signed the loan paperwork for their training. I'm paying up front. You save about $1500 by paying upfront. This doesn't mean you have to have cash for it. You can pay with a credit card. I havn't done too much research on this, but I think you could probably pay off the credit card after a few months of driving and not over the 3+ years at $55 - $75 per week that the 18% financing that is offered works out to. If you can finiance it yourself either in cash or otherwise, it's probably a better deal. Just some thoughts.
OK, now a really COOL thing. At 11:00 am we were sent to a classroom and given a Dominos Pizza lunch. They must have had 40 pizzas there and they weren't cheese pizzas, they were loaded! This was when the driving instructors were introduced. They chatted and ate pizza with us. Pretty cool.
12:00 pm - The tests that we turned in this morning, the 100 question Utah cdl test, were returned to us. I got a 94%. Sweet. Ok, here's the kicker. It really didn't count towards the class average. They told a little fibb. It was just a homework assignment that didn't matter. Or did it? Right now I'm not sure what the school or company are looking at.
It really is nice to be in a classroom now with a table and chair and not just an auditorium. We went over the General Knowledge 100 question homework test and that took until 2:00 pm. I feel pretty comfortable with the material. I only missed 6 out of 100 and having gone over it with our classroom instructor who took the time to answer everyones questions and explain everything. He was knowlegable, patient and fair. Jim gets an A+ in my book so far as an instructor.
14:30 pm - We learned about air brake systems for the next hour. There is a working mock-up of a trucks air brake system in our classroom. Cool! It's LOUD and gives a great visual of how the system works.
On another note, I just want to set the picture of our class. We have a married couple in their 50's, a mother & daughter team, a bunch of guys like myself in our 30's, some young women, some young men, some older experienced drivers that havn't driven in a while, and a few total wierdos!
OK, we went over our practice air brake tests and then took a real test on the subject. Now, there is no reason anyone should get anything less that 100% on this. Here's why. The test was EXACTLY like the practice test down to the word. On top of that, instead of having 4 multiple choice answers to choose from, they only had 3. So Easy! I got a 100%. No excuses.
We got out of school at about 5:15 pm so I have a nice evening ahead of me. I'll do a little studying and watch some tv. Tomrrow we have a section on pre-trip inspections in the morning and then a little more studying an at 11:00 am off to the Utah DMV for testing and get our Learners Utah CDL.
On road to the future! Eyes on the Prize!
*Sorry for mixing military 24 hour time and regular time, old habits mixing with new.*
posted by BigJohn at 6:29 PM
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