My journey through school (CDS in Washington)

Hey everyone! I've been lurking for a while (with a few off-topic posts here and there): reading up on people's experiences, what to do (and not to do), collecting a bunch of bookmarks... and I'm signed up to start CDL school on Monday!

I'm going through the CDS driving school in Port Orchard, WA (there are a few other locations in Olympia, Lakewood, and Auburn). Not much has been posted on here about them, but what little I have found has been positive, and would love to be able to contribute my story in the next few weeks to come for those of you thinking about joining. I'm most likely looking at doing OTR or regional at this point, and ideally running van, reefer, or tanker.

From my interactions with the people at CDS so far, they seem to be really friendly - not just with students but between employees as well. The main front desk person (Khoy) has been great in getting things ready to go while I waited for state funding (that was the hardest part of the process by far, and why I didn't start 3 weeks ago... long story), and answering some early questions I've had.

The class times have changed slightly from what's on their website - it's now 6am-2pm for morning classes, and 3pm-11pm for evenings. As far as I know, everyone takes the morning classroom sessions the first week (but I'm not 100% certain on that) and then splits into morning and evening afterwards. One week classroom, then three weeks in the lot/on the road.

From a conversation overheard with the people there and another prospective student: other than the first week, they are pretty flexible as to when you can come in if you have work, appointments, or other important obligations. If you can't come in for 8 hours a day for the above reasons (being a lazy tart is not a reason), you can take the course out longer than four weeks, as long as you have your 160 hours by the time you're ready to get your CDL. Me: I'm not working right now and only have one possible doctor's appointment in that time, so I'll be going full force. Plus I'm tired of waiting around!

The only negative about the Port Orchard location so far: You will have to hop across the bridge to the Tacoma area for the DOT physical and drug screen (there aren't any school approved locations in Kitsap). You'll definitely want to try to get in before classes start, as appointments are only available until about 4pm and classes get out at 2pm!

Anyways, I'll keep tabs and update how things go on Monday at the latest. Cheers!

 

Thanks Chinatown!

First day is in the books. It was all paperwork, J.J. Keller videos (just think cheesy early-90's classroom videos, if you don't know what I'm talking about) and powerpoints galore. Some stuff I already knew (mostly about logs), and some stuff that was brand new. I have a feeling we're getting into more things I don't know later this week, so yay learning!

The classroom instructor (Jason) is pretty cool with everything. Keeps things entertaining while still informative. Ran into a couple of field instructors who seem to share his sense of humor, so this should definitely be a fun month! Jason also bounces between 3 of the 4 campuses, so if anyone goes with CDS, you'll likely meet him. Admittedly I think I surprised him by getting a "trick question" right about logs since he barely skimmed over the 34-hour reset at first. He's onto me now. (bonus points to whomever added the Flaming Blob to the smilies by the way!)

I tried some practice general knowledge tests online tonight, did better than expected for only making it through day 1, but definitely room for improvement.

As far as the people in the class itself, it's definitely varied. Youngest person is 19, oldest is probably in their 60's. At least two ex-military (I'm in a military town, so not surprising at all), one person originally from Iran, and one with multiple felonies from way back when. 5 male to 2 female, so probably about average balance for the industry these days. Admittedly I was expecting more people overall, but considering it's really only from a local, rural-suburban area, and classes start every 3 weeks... 7 people isn't bad. Two people are also only going for class B, so they'll be splitting from our group on Wednesday.

Later this week we're doing plenty more studying, some practice tests (I'm most nervous about air brakes honestly), and some local recruiters are coming in around lunchtime. We're all going in to take the permit tests on Friday. I'm feeling a lot more confident about that than I expected going in! If everything goes according to plan we'll be in the field on Monday!

 

And then there were six.

Days two and three are now in the books. Things are still going very well for me. Of the five practice tests we've taken in class I've missed all of three questions total. Still need to study more on combinations, the rest of it I just need to keep fresh in my head the next few days.

As far as the other students.... One person I believe has dropped the course, considering she wasn't here today and has been acting really uncertain about the whole thing since day one. The Iranian I'm worried is going to have problems with his English skills, most likely during the knowledge test. The other two A students are doing well from what I can tell.

The two Class B students went to the DOL today and had no problem getting their permits. Not sure how much we'll be seeing them afterwards, so good luck to them! At two points the teacher threatened to make one of them teach, because he came up with a brilliant way to remember how many classes of hazardous materials there were (there's 9 letters in "hazardous" and 9 classes)... and answered a multiple choice answer correctly before the instructor finished the question, or even gave what the options were. He didn't say the answer. Oh no. He said "C". He was right.

Also we've had two recruiters come in with I believe 3 (maybe 4) to go this week. I'm primarily looking at OTR, and they've both been local, but if I decide to stay local (and by local I mean west of Seattle) I do have an option that I'd consider (APP Propane, part of World Fuel Services).

The only thing possibly holding me up from getting my permit on Friday at this point is waiting for my personal doctor to sign a form (gotta love American public health systems....) DOL is open Saturday, so if everything goes through later on Friday I should be good for driving by Monday!

 

First day in the yard! Went over pre-trip briefly (we'll be doing that much more throughout the course no doubt), coupling and uncoupling (that was reasonably easy), and putting on chains (which wasn't bad in the warm relatively-dry yard). Biggest problem I had for day one was stalling the truck out going at a snails pace, so that'll be something to work on this week.

Also have a new set of recruiters coming in this week, including one of the companies I've been considering going with after school, so it'll be my turn to pick their brain other than everyone else.

Tomorrow will likely be a lot more of what happened today, plus starting on backing, and some people might get to drive around town as well.

Good news: the one person I thought left came back Thursday and got caught back up! She went to take her permit test today, which considering how she was doing in class I don't see a problem there.

Bad news: I'm still dealing with the bureaucratic BS trying to get my med card paperwork finalised. Have an appointment first thing Wednesday to get that all straightened out and hopefully be able to drive on the road by Thursday. We'll see how that goes. Fortunately the instructors are able to shuffle my schedule to make things work with that handicap.

 

Ok this week's been fun.

Tuesday did a ride-along with the instructor and a couple students that had their stuff ready to drive. Picked up some things to do (and not to do) watching them, went over pre-trips some more, and some backing. Considering according to the instructors I was the second best backer, and there was one person that has driven horse trailers for years, I'm taking that as a good sign.

Wednesday morning I had to swing down to Tacoma to pick up my med card because bureaucratic BS couldn't even get themselves figured out. Was it worth the trip by itself? No. Was it worth it because I got to get some good tacos? Yes. Was it worth it because I finally have everything I need to start driving trucks? Yes again. The recruiter I was waiting to see came in first thing that morning, and said pretty much exactly what I thought he would (I'd done my research on them) so nothing surprising there.

Today was mainly backing, plus for me driving since I wasn't able to on Tuesday. Once I was moving I was doing pretty good, even with double clutching and along city streets... but getting started up I definitely need some more help on. Overall, it's just day one so I'll chalk it up as pretty good. Just need to get used to the manual controls!

The field instructors are all pretty cool while still keeping us from killing cones when possible. Definitely no complaints in that department. We also have an instructor that specializes in preparing us for the DOT pre-trip exam, she's really good at what she does from what I've seen so far.

My only negative so far is the early start times I'm on. Once I'm working on my own I'm definitely driving evenings or overnights if I can manage to. I am not built to wake up at 4 in the morning.

 

Been a while since I updated this!

Driving is going pretty well. No complaints there, went down some twisting rural back roads south of Port Orchard, that was pretty fun. I did spend some extra time on Monday just working on loading the clutch on a hill, which helped tons. Straight backing isn't a problem and I've almost got the 90 down, offset is still throwing me for a bit of a curve but I bet by the end of the week it shouldn't be a problem. From what I've heard and read, usually the opposite is true for people. Pre-trip I'm not instinctively comfortable with, but I don't really have issues when I work through it out loud/in my head as long as I have the truck in front of me, so I'll probably be ok in that regard.

Quick synopsis of the other drivers:

- There's always one over-acheiver in the class, the one with plenty of trailer experience. He's acing everything the instructors can throw at him.
- One other student is probably about even with me: a little weaker in backing, a little stronger in driving. I think they'll do fine though when it comes to test day.
- Another is struggling with backing. The offset is a problem as it is with me, plus they're mis-correcting and/or over-correcting once they get to the point of straight backing. Some more practice and they should be fine.
- Pre-trip (especially considering English not being a first language) and shifting is going to be a huge hurdle for the last person. I've been working with him on those things whenever we have some down time.
- The two Class B drivers came back in this week, they're doing just fine with their stuff. Turns out their vehicle is a mobile office for the state social assistance agency that bounces all around western Washington (and there's a second one east of the Cascades). We got the Grand Tour the other day.
- A dump truck and mixer class joined us in the yard this week. They're usually off doing their own thing.

We're also all planning on coming in for a few hours Saturday to work on backing some more (except maybe the over-acheiver). Not a class requirement, but it's definitely helpful for the people who have missed a day or two, or just need to work on it some more.

And blob.

 

I think today I had one of those "This is actually happening" moments.

Yesterday we took a nice long drive all the way around Hood Canal, about a 4-hour journey if we didn't detour (so it was really 5). That went fine, the two students that were most struggling were in the other rig, but they made it through unscathed it seems.

A few of us came in for an extra backing session or two today and each time I would have passed the DOT test easily (not to mention our lanes in the training yard are narrower than at the test site).

As far as I'm aware the Class B students passed their tests no problem!

 

I'm baaaaack

Monday and Tuesday were mostly refining what we already know for those of us who are making it through. One student is getting "held back" a week to help out some more. Honestly I don't think he was going to pass this week anyways, so it's probably a good thing. The rest of us are scheduled to test Thursday and Friday. I could definitely see us all passing as long as one person doesn't screw up the backing.

Talking about backing... today we made a tour of our test site in Parkland (south of Tacoma). They weren't kidding, the lanes are bigger than what we have in our yard, so this should be a piece of cake. The roads in the area are also much nicer than Port Orchard's narrow streets and nonsensical curbing.