Just rambling to those who have probably experienced what I’ve seen, if not worse. I know the best thing I can do is stay in my own lane, block out the noise as best I can, and get out as soon as possible. So I’m not really asking for any advice. But, holy fuck… Everyone at my school is a super trucker in the making. When I learned my maneuvers and pre-trip, I didn’t have to interact with any other students. Now that I only do street driving and have to share the truck with two other students almost every time, WOW. I have never met such a group of, well, assholes in my life… and I worked at a financial firm for seven years. Okay, not everyone is like this, but the loudest 80% at my school:
Used to work a low-effort, high-paying job (bonus points if in a managerial role) but chose trucking because it was like printing money. (Fair point, I’m semi-guilty of this.)
Passed the permit test with flying colors because it’s sooooo easy they didn’t need to study for a single minute, “barely passed, haha,” has a (spouse/friend/relative/baby mama) who works at the DMV and helped them, or had the computer glitch halfway through and fought the DMV to get it counted as a pass. “It works if you mention having a lawyer on speed dial, I swear.”
Has every endorsement including passenger and school bus or none at all because they’re unnecessary. “The test is easy, I could pass it. I just don’t need it for what I plan on doing.”
Has already driven a commercial vehicle for X years or currently (questionably) does it without a license. They’re just going to CDL school for a refresher and will pass the DMV test in a week. Then, why don’t you ever remember to put the splitter up when shifting to 6th? How have you been doing street driving twice as long as me but still can’t downshift worth a damn? “My boss’ 18 speed shifted at different RPMs.”
Can’t read off a road sign fully in English, but if someone else shifts reasonably smoothly, “has de haber manejado buses antes pero quieres la Class A para que te paguen más.” (“You must have driven buses before, but you want a Class A to get paid more.”)
*Circle one answer from each section*: Has amazing jobs lined up because their (spouse/ex/dad/uncle/brother/friend/in-law/dog) in (Arizona/Nevada/Utah/Texas/Mexico/anywhere but California) owns (a truck/a small company/Swift) and is going to hire them as soon as they get their CDL. He is ready to make $(100/150/200/250)k a year to do (one/two) local drop-and-hook, no-touch load/s a day, (four/five) days a week, with unlimited paid vacation and full benefits under contracts with (the DoD/the port of Los Angeles/FedEx/expediters/car haulers/fuel haulers/heavy haulers/“you might see me on Ice Road Truckers”). They also rolled over a curb today and almost took out a stop sign.
Has nothing but the utmost respect for female students, literally crowding them as they stand by waiting to start practicing in the yard, bragging about how they only needed one lesson to pass and do the next maneuver. “It’s not hard, you just have to…” “Practicing pre-trip? Let me show you how it’s done.” “Double clutching is so easy but honestly, you can just float the gears and pretend for the road test. I’ll show you how to float gears next time.” “We should meet up and study on the weekend.”
My DMV test can’t come soon enough so I can be on the road with the more advanced versions of these fine people.
