The Goodwin Family: April 2012

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Do I look like a Trucker??

Well, even if I don't look like a typical trucker I am officially one. Yesterday I passed my Commercial Class A on site tests. The process has taken almost a year, and it was a long painful one. It started with passing many written dmv exams (General Knowledge Commercial Class A, Motorcycle, Class C, Combinations for Class A and Airbrakes for Class A). Then yesterday I found myself in a very interesting situation. I drove up to the DMV at 7:45AM in San Bernardino for the Commercial Class A on site exams. It was very intimidating. When I exited my vehicle I had about 50 real truckers looking at me wondering if I was lost, there were about 50 HUGE semi-trucks driving around and I was the only woman around. I also drove up in the nicest car (was wishing I had my old suburban instead of my mom's new one). Some men were doing tests, others were practicing and some just waiting around. I had signed up with a company to provide me with a BIG RIG to take the test in and also help me practice for the other parts of the exam (my teacher's name was Paul, he was a very large white bald guy. He kind of demanded your attention when he walked in). Paul was great. We practiced for about 3 hours. My test was at noon. There were 4 major tests I had to pass in order to get my license. The first test was the Air-brakes exam. This exam consisted of the examiner staring at me not saying a word while I went through 6 separate tests all having to do with Air-brakes (which I know nothing about). Picture this: Me sitting behind a huge steering wheel, air horn to my left, 8 gear shifter to my right and the examiner staring at me. The airbrakes test is very difficult and included citing federal regulations while, pumping the brake, holding the brake, releasing clutch, doing timer, watching the air tanks, etc. To say the least I was in over my head. I didn't even really know what air-brakes are, still don't. Somehow I got them all right. PASSED! Then onto the in-cab inspection. This consisted of about 60 different inspections I had to point out to the examiner that I would perform and why it was important (example: volt meter, water temp, steering wheel play less than 2 inches, etc.) PASSED. Then onto the pre-trip inspection. This part was horrible. I had to walk around the trunk/trailer and under the hood pointing out everything I would check and why. Example: brake chamber (securely mounted and not cracked or broken), brake lining (must be more than 1/4), steering tires must be more than 4/32 of trend, back tires 2/32 of trend. I now know where the push rod, tie rod, slack adjuster and s-cam are. I had to identify something like 200 individual things on the truck and trailer. PASSED. The next part consisted of 5 driving tests: back up 100ft in a straight line, 90 degree turn, stop front bumper with 1 ft, alley dock and parallel park. And of course while I was performing all of these tests all the 50 truckers where watching - it was horrible. But I did great. Paul later told me that while all the truckers were watching me that he told them all "that his lady driver was going to kick all their asses on this test." Glad I didn't know that until later. PASSED that too. The last test was the on the road driving test. It was an hour on the road, including freeway, in city, everything - it was hard. Apparently I did really well and missed only one point, you are allowed to miss up to 40 points to still pass. The point I missed was from my gear shifting, one time I put the truck in 4th gear instead of 2nd (I haven't driven a stick shift since I was in high school). PASSED. Somehow, someway I did it. Thank GOSH that is over! A big thank you to Kevin for encouraging me to stay with it, to Mary Lou for taking great care of the kids for me and to Les for finding Paul and his rig - I couldn't have done it without you guys! Love You!