Napier Truck Driver Training

When I first came on this site, I tried to find some info about this school, but couldn't find anything. So, since I'm now attending this school, I thought I might post some information about it.

So anyway, the school is Napier Truck Driving School in Hamilton, Ohio. They've been in business for about 20 years so they've been around for awhile.

This is a five week course, with 2 weeks in the classroom, then 1 1/2 weeks doing manuvers, then 1 1/2 weeks road driving. There is about 18 students in my class, so it's not a real full class. The instructor is an older gentleman who has been in the trucking industry for many years, driving, dispatching, and I guess other jobs. They are so concerned with our success in this course that if you miss even just five minutes of a class, you must make up that same portion of the class. Just this past Friday, we had a student joining us who was making up class time. Problem is, he missed other classtime in the truck to make this up, so he will have to make that up now. His classmates will be graduating this week, he'll have two more weeks to go to make up all his time.

The first week of class consisted of preparing for taking the cdl permit tests. Their program covers the basic of the cdl tests: General Knowledge, Air Brakes, and Combination Vehicles, plus they also cover the endorsements like Hazmat, Tankers, and Double/Triples at no extra charge. I've looked at some schools who charge extra for endorsement classes.

The key to learning is repetition, and they really stick to that! For each topic, they cover the subject two or three times then test us three to for times. By the end of the day, we've taken probably 8 to 10 tests! But it seems to work. I took my tests today and passed them all! Go me!

Next week, I think we cover more Maps and Trip Planning, which we started on Friday, and Logbooks. Sounds like fun!

The school is acredited in Kentucky and Indiana as well. We have several students from each state here. They can teach the students here, but they have to get their permits and licenses from their home states. I've heard other schools with out of state students will make the students get a new drivers license in that state so they can get the permits there, then they have to get their license back in their home state when they are done. Not here. The only thing I've seen that seems kind of off is that the training films they use are about 20 years old. They still work, but you would think they would update after a few years.

Overall, if you are looking for a school in the Cincinnatti area, definately check out Napier.

 

Well, Monday morning we reviewed some of tests we had taken the week before and took another test yet again. This is to make sure we are prepared to go take the cdl tests and get our permits on Tuesday. Only three of us took the tests on Saturday and passed so the others have to do that today. The good news is that for those who already passed the tests, we have a day off, and those who needed to take the tests have the rest of the day off after the tests. If for any reason they didn't pass the test, they could go to the school and review some more. The instructor would be there all day. Then they can go try again Wednesday morning, but they will have to make up that missed classtime later on.

Monday afternoon, we watched a couple of videos, had a visit from the Werner recruiter, then got a start looking at Logbooks. The instructor just wanted to give an introduction to Logbooks at this time, but some of the students were asking more and more, then some of the other students started giving their opinions of it and the instructor started getting a bit upset. He kept saying we will cover this in a couple days and he will explain everything then. I would rather hear what he has to say than what some people who haven't done this before. Anyway, can't wait for that.

The Werner guy was very informative. Of course, as I'm sure the other recruiters will also, he painted a pretty picture of the company and did a very good job making it sound like the perfect company. Honestly, they were already in my top three. Comparing his presentation with my research here, they're still at the top of the list. We'll just have to see what the others will say this week.

Will report more later!

 

Friday brings the second week of classes to a close. And what a busy week it was. Tuesday was a day off so we could take our permit tests (although I actually passed mine on Saturday). Wednesday and Thursday was spent covering logbooks. That answered a bunch of questions. It's so much easier to understand what everyone is talking about when refering to hours when you actually know how to do a logbook. I may still have some questions about that later when I get in a truck, but in the classroom, I did pretty good.

Today we saw a fim about the importance of railroad crossing safety then go an introduction to Pre-trip Inspections. Yeah, that looks like fun. But I know it's gotta be done everyday. So this was the end of our classroom time. Monday, we get out on the "track", learning more about the pre-trips. Will tell more later...

 

Well, half way through the third week now. All the classroom stuff is over now and we are out on the "track" learning to drive. The first thing we've covered in learning the pre-trip inspections. Actually, let me clarify that. We aren't learning how to do an actual pre-trip, we are learning to explain the proceess for the examiner when we go to take our CDL test.

In the true nature of multi-tasking, we are also learning to do manuvers as well. The first thing we did was learn how to couple and uncouple the trailers. After that, we started with learning to straight-line back, which has been a real adventure. So far, in the last day and a half, I've been in a truck backing four times. The first time had me really frustrated. We get 3 to 4 passes at each turn and I just had a heck of a time keeping the trailer going straight. I wasn't as bad as some of the others, but I still wasn't happy with my results.

My first attempt at backing today started almost like yesturday, but I stopped, took a deep breath, focused on what I needed to do, and did great. I was really pleased and felt I figured out the "secret". My second attempt wasn't so good, but that only brought me back to earth. My third attempt was back on track and going straight again.

Let me say also that all 18 of us were not waiting to back in one truck. There were actually two trucks availabl to us first timers and another truck being used by the class before us. Once they were done and we had more practice, we did use all three trucks. By mid afternoon, most of us had gotten the hang of sraight line backing. We weren't all perfect, but I think we had a pretty good idea how to get it done. A handful just couldn't get it done, but with some more practice, hopefully they will get it. One guy had his trailer turned 90 degrees! We are supposed to be going straight back, how do you get your trailer turned that much?

While we were doing this practice, one of the instructors would take a couple students out at a time to cover shifting. I know it sounds silly to learn how to shift, but when you've never been in a truck before, this is something you have to learn how to do. During the backing manuvers, we only use first and reverse and we aren't allowed to touch the throttle at all. I haven't done the shifting yet, but I should tomorrow. It's my understanding that during this shifting lesson, we still won't be using the throttle. It's all done at idle speed out in the front parking lot of the school. I believe we will also be starting on working on the other manuvers tomorrow also. I don't know about other schools, but at Napier, we learn to straight-line back, 90 degree backing, off-side backing, and left and right side parallel parking.

To be honest, I'm pretty excited. I'm learning alot at Napier and I'm having fun doing it. There are a lot of bad schools out there, but Napier isn't one of them.

 

I would like to address a comment that's been made in other posts about other schools. When reviewing their schools other students have commented that the equipment their schools uses are junk. The trucks are old and wore out. My response? Well, DUH!!! Of course these trucks are going to be old and have seen better days. A school is not going to buy a brand new state of the art truck and put a student in it who has never seen the inside of a cab. That just ain't gonna happen. Are the trucks at Napier junk? Well, they aren't primo condition, and I doubt that some of them are road worthy, but when all you do is go back and forth, back and forth, you don't need a 2009 Pro Star. Their road trucks are in pretty good shape, but the others work pretty good for what they need to do. I just have to laugh at these guys who expect perfect trucks and perfect facilities.

Not much really new to report classwise. Thursday, I got my time shifting. It's a different experience shifting through the gears with ever touching the throttle, but that's what we did. Of course it was all through the parking lot, not getting out on the road, but we still got up through 5th gear. Then he had us downshifting: clutch and pull it out, blip the throttle, clutch and down to the next gear. Then we just drove through the lot, working from 3,4,5, to 5,4,3 and back and forth. One thing they really stress in class is to not downshift going downhill. You always downshift before you start going downhill. Well, our lot isn't perfectly flat, it has it's little roll to it. Guess when I tried to downshift. And guess why it didn't work. Yep, hit the downshift on the downhill side of the little roll, truck picked up speed that quick and I couldn't get it in gear. But with some work, I got things figured out. I could use some more practice, but I was told I didn't do too bad.

Friday morning was some more classroom review, then in the afternoon, we broke up into smaller groups and went off into different manuvers. Before, the whole class of 18 was straightline backing, so we didn't get a whole lot of truck time. But now we are in smaller groups of four or five spread out among the four manuvers, so we should get much more truck time. This week was also the last week for the class ahead of us so we don't have to share the trucks with them anymore either.

I started Friday afternoon on the Offset backing course. On this course, we pull the truck straight out from one lane, then back it into the next lane. Then pull it out again and pull it back into the first lane. And there are two trucks side by side doing this. This manuver was hard, let me tell you. With the truck turned to one side or the other, you just can't see where you are going. If anyone out there has any advice to help with this, I would really appreciate it. This is going to be a challenge for sure. The second manuver I did was parallel parking, which is actually eactly like it sounds. Just like parallel parking a car, only you have a 53 foot trailer behind you. It seems the basic manuver is the same as the offset, but it seemed to be easier. The other two manuvers we have is the straightline back and the 90 degree alley dock. I'll get to those next week.

ET Trucker, it says you are a student. Where are you going to school at? Are you enjoying it there and learning a lot? Do you have a company picked out for after graduation? Good luck to you.

 

Oh cool! That will be my last week there. I look forward to meeting you there. As with everything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it. The first two weeks you will be tested to death, but it's cool cuz it's mostly practice tests and you cover the material over and over. The classroom instructor is Butch and He is just a really easy-mannered old guy always talking about going to the Podunct Chicken Pluckin' Plant to pick up a load of Partially Plucked Chickens. Class is really alot of fun.But they are really serious about their time. If you miss even 5 minutes of classroom time, you'll have to make up that same segment of time later...when the next class covers that same material, which means you'll miss track time that you'll have to make up later. It's best to always be there on time and don't fall asleep.

 

As for the subject of who to work for, it's never too early to start looking. And this forum is about the best I've seen for information. There is a lot of negative stuff posted about a lot of companies, so I would just take that all with a grain of salt and consider the posters involvement in the sitaution they are posting about. Not everyone has the same experience with all the companies, so just because one guy says he got screwedby someone doesn't mean you will. All of these companies sound like the worst companies in the world, yet they've all got hundreds of drivers working for them and many of them are actually happy. Like I said, you get out of it what you put into it.

There will also be a number of recruiters stopping by the school to talk to the classes. So far I've seen Covenant, Werner, Roehl, Star Transportation (from IL), and BST. You might see other recruiters during your time here, or you might see the same.

 

Wow! What a week! And it's only Tuesday. Well, this week (our fourth week) we continued learning our manuvers. As I mentioned before, we are divided up into smaller groups, each at a different manuver. With each manuver, an instructor is walking along outside the truck telling you what you need to do. After you've done it two or three times and show that you've got the basic idea of what to do, the instructor will let you do it on your own...until you screw up, then he'll help you somemore. At some point in time, you're going to have to be able ro complete this entirely on your own. After all, these guys won't be walking along outside your truck when you're taking the test for your license...or trying to pull into a dock. I like to think I'm catching on pretty quick, but I know I need more practice for sure.

Today was something special...at least for me anyway. After lunch, one of the instructors called me over and said "We're going for a ride" and handed me the keys to a truck. Yep, they take us out for road training one at a time, on three different trucks. (I mean three of us go out at a time, one each on three trucks. Confused? So am I!) I'm not real sure how I did, but I didn't hit anything or kill anyone, so I must have done ok. I definately need more work shifting. Not as easy as it looks, that's for sure!! The one drawback to the roadtraining is that it takes away from our manuver training, and one of the manuvers I missed this afternoon I really need more work on. But I sure need more road time also.

If all goes well, in another week I'll be graduating, then the following week I'll be testing for my CDL, then hopefully off to a new career as a professional truck driver!