Almost done, mild frustrations..

So today went well, we were exposed to roundabouts and talked about legalizing the loads that you are pulling. Though we didn't actually do anything about legalizing the load, we did drive around and go through a few roundabouts. Then went and practiced doing more right and left turns. I kinda got into it with my instructor today because on one turn, a car came out of nowhere from the road that I was turning on. I am convinced that the car came down the street and sat in a blind spot that is made by the mirror on the passenger side. My instructor stated that there is no blind spot and that the car came from a side street and tried to hurry up and get by before I made the turn. I was not going to blindly give up on this one. I know I looked and scanned that road and I did not see any vehicle before I attempted the turn but the trainer insisted that they were there. In the end, I agreed to disagree but conceded due to the fact that he has a wider view of the oncoming road from the passenger side of the truck than I do from my POV.
Another thing that I have been having constant trouble on is verifying the trip that is being given. Not because it is a difficult equation, but that everytime we touch on how to do it, the formula is given differently each time. The way to figure out if a person can get to the destination on time is to take the total amount of hours you have to drive using your empty and loaded miles. Then you divide that number by 45 and it will give you the raw amount of time needed to travel that distance in hours. So say I have to go 900 miles to get to the destination. I divide 900 by 45 and get 20. So for me to go 900 miles, it would take me 20 hours at 45 mph. Now, the federal rule is that for every 11 hours driving I have to take a mandatory 10 hour break in consecutive hours. so I know that I have 20 hours to drive,  in that 20 hours I have to shut down once for 10 hours. So now my total driving time (for this example for the rules I have given) is now 30 hours of driving time. I know this is not hard math to do, however a few things were throwing me off. First, we are being told that we are shutting down at around 10 hours of driving time so that we have the last 1 hour to find a place to stay if needed and that has been reinforced all week. So now that 20 hours of driving time has 2 10-hour stops based on this rule. So when I say that there are 2 shut downs, I am getting strange looks and being told, "No, just 1", then the homework we are being given has the questions about verifying routes and if they are legal first. So I am working on figuring all that out and then get the question about if we can get there on time. So by that time I am all brain fried looking at mapping that when I do the math, its all over the place and wrong.

I feel that the training for this part of the course needs to be re-done and re-emphasized on a procedure that works. Yes the trainers are giving the information about the mechanics of how to do the process. What is lacking is a order in which to do them. I feel a set procedure needs to be written up and then emphasized. They have that for all other aspects of the job, just not this one. If the verifying route procedure requires to do the miles first, teach it that way EVERY time. Have an acronym, show a structure that reinforces the proper procedure to do this part of the job so that its easy and not mentally stressful. Also, if you are going to use 10 hours for as the deadline for shutdown, be consistant.  Don't flop back and forth between 10 and 11 hours because you will have situations like above where that 1 hour will blow away any possible attempt at saying I can deliver that load on time.

Overall, my graded evaluation of my readiness states that I am ready for the next stage of training which is driving with a trainer. They gave us all our money cards, access cards and ID's that we will be needing for our job and we all filled out W4's today. I am taking that as a good sign that I am gonna be doing the job soon. My only big concern is whether or not there will be a OTR trainer available to me when it comes time for me to go out on the road to train.  Worse case scenario is that I will be sent home until one is available, in which case I hitch a ride with a trucker who is heading to Florida.

Tonight is the first night in the last few days that we haven't had homework. So we can breathe a little easier tonight and relax. Tomorrow we have the last of the paperwork to fill out and do our final day of driving with our current trainer. I am tired and strung out, miss home and I am not even close to being done. So my endurance and patience get flexed a bit more. I am looking forward to being home on my birthday weekend and hope that the party being planned there will be a nice one. Lots of cheer cheer and joy joy.  Perhaps beer. I want a Guinness in the worse way, but I can't drink anything while I am here training. So, I want to take some time, people and a designated driver to an ale house and get some Guinness in me. Yum!
That, however, is for a later date.