Saturday, August 25, 2007

Training #8: Back and Forth

I went out to the labs first today, which was a somewhat pleasant change, since we got that done before the temperature reached 100 degrees. We worked on the pre-trip inspection, which helped somewhat with that; I learned a few more things about it, and after seeing everything a few more times I feel like I have a pretty good chance of passing the test. We also did our backing maneuvers... straight line backing is easy as it gets, but slow maneuvering between trucks made me rather nervous, and 45-degree backing still needs some work. I hope we'll get another few tries at that before the final exam on Thursday or Friday.

Then, back in the classroom, we spent nearly the entire afternoon just discussing map reading. Not trip planning - that's tomorrow - map reading. I've done cross-country trips before with nothing but a road atlas, so it was quite easy to go through it all. I helped a couple of the students around me, but for the most part I just worked ahead a bit. We then spent a half-hour or so discussing permits for the truck, what they are, and what our responsibilities are with them. Much of that will be covered in more detail tomorrow, when we discuss hazmat, but we at least touched on the basics today. I have just one short route to do in the map book, a short reading assignment, and a bit of extra time this evening. :)

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