Another One Bites the Dust

and no, it wasn't me.

We had our DMV written tests for general knowledge, air brakes, and combinations for our CDL permit. Yes, I passed all three tests. There were two guys who failed one test (by one question) so they are going to have to retake those tests later in the week (although they will be able to go out on the range with us). One guy failed two tests, and he decided that he was going to go home. And then one guy wasn't able to test, since he wasn't doing well enough in the class as a whole (you have to have 80% in the school in order to even test), so he will be staying for another week in the class to try to bring up his grade (although most of the class agrees that he probably won't make it all the way through the school). The rest of us passed, although we did not receive our permits today since there was some connection problem with the federal DMV, and the CDL stuff is all federal.

The rest of the day was spent learning about log books. What are log books you ask? They are apparently one of a truck driver's worst nightmare. There's all of these rules about how much we can drive, how much we can work in a day while still being able to drive, how long our breaks must be, how much we can work in a week, etc. etc. etc. We were also learning, as well as last Friday, about some of the other laws and regulations regarding trucks. It was interesting to learn that any traffic violation is, or can be considered, a misdemeanor, instead of simply a traffic infraction. For instance, if I was caught speeding in my car I could be given a ticket, but not arrested. If I speed in my truck it can be considered a misdemeanor, and I could be given a ticket, but if I "Piss in the officer's Wheaties" (as the cop on the video put it) then he would be in his right to haul me off to jail. And as far as log books go, I basically have to keep a log book for the rest of the time I am working as a trucker, even if I have a week off. And if I get caught with violations on that, depending on the state I am in, I could get thousands of dollars worth of fines, depending on the number of violations. It gets even worse if I am found to have lie on my log (and there are many ways they can find that out, one of which is by GPS, which is in every Swift Truck. I know I have gone on for a while about this, I guess I was just struck by the amount of regulations regarding this industry. The one good point is that apparently most city cops leave trucks alone because they don't know anything about truck regulations, and they know it.

Well, that's about it, tomorrow is more about log books, and we will start learning about our "pre-trip inspection" which means we learn to check the truck and make sure it is safe to drive. And then on Wednesday we actually start driving.