You have finally made it through school, and now have been hired with a company. You report to the company for orientation which will last for up to 5 days, and most company's will only give you maybe $25.00 per day for this. Some company's won't JD Truck Training Centre even do this. Of course the feed you lunch, and put you in a cheap motel, and provide you with a van to take you to the terminal and back to the motel.
There are a lot of things to learn during this period and you will still need a lot of practice driving and maneuvering the truck. Driving school will give you the bases, but you are no way able to jump right into an 80000 pound vehicle all by yourself just yet.
To begin, when choosing a Truck driving school which is right for you, try to get feedback from current or former students. Since they already have experience with the academic institution, they're your best eyes and ears, so to speak. If you're investigation brings about positive feedback, you're ready to move on in the process.
What a difference we could make if each person uplifted another each day. Just like doubling a penny every day for thirty days results in several million dollars, our acts of kindness, encouragement and acknowledgment would multiply as well to touch more people that we could ever imagine, simply having the self confidence to care about others first.
The schooling began with nothing but classroom study for the first week or two. If you decide to attend driving school at a HR Truck Licence company....let the propaganda begin! They won't waste any chance at promoting themselves, believe me. They will also make you feel like it is your privilege to be working for them. Get used to that. Now here's your first piece of raw truth about the industry... companies are completely and totally desperate for truck drivers. I mean DESPERATE!
I learned that traveling, by car, to the top of Mt Lemmon, which is located in the Santa Catalina Mountains, is some 9100+ feet above sea level. When I took Jessica, my teenaged daughter, there, we learned that going from Tucson to the top of the mountain, was like traveling from the border of Mexico to the Canadian border, as far as the changes in Temperate Zones experienced. As I recall, it was around 70 degrees in Tucson, and people were skiing on the snow, in the 20's to 30 degree truck driving school mark atop Mount Lemmon.
When you look at your logs as a tool for trip tracking you will see more profitability. We will look at On-time Service and how it affects other parts of trip planning in part 3 of this series of Trip Planning for Truck Driving School Students. Even though you may still be in truck school, this article and the article to follow will help you develop into a profitable driver.