You can call me driver, driver.

I took the cdl yesterday, Saturday, at 3:00 PM in Albany GA. On Friday, at 1:00 PM we were in Albany and got dispatched to pick up a load of beer and run it to Winder GA. In Winder we were told to take an empty to Columbia SC and get a load of fiber to Cartersville GA for the carpet mills. Then to get back to Albany we had to get a glass load in East Point GA. Now I like to think that Millis wants me to complete my training but I question why they would push us to the limits of fatigue in a 24 hour period only to get me to my testing site 5 minutes late and exhausted.

When I began the pre-trip it was 114 degrees on the pad. I completed the pre trip inspection after about 25 minutes. I passed it but in my mind I wasn’t sure if I had or not. I wasn’t even sure of what I was saying after about 5 minutes. If you are reading this to learn from my experience then learn this; rehearse this a hundred times so even if you can’t think, it will still come out right.

The skills test didn’t take long and even though I had the windows down I was able to blast cold air into my face. All I was required to do was a straight back, a blind side offset and a driver side parallel park. I used one extra pull up on the parallel park and got out once but just to be sure.

The road test was also easy. We drove for about 25 minutes around the airport area of Albany. I was asked to safely change lanes a few times and to recall a sign that we had passed. As we approached a rail road crossing I was told to perform a hazmat crossing. This put me off a little. I stopped, put the flashers on and lowered the windows to look both ways. The problem was, there was a street parallel to the tracks on the other side and if I had stopped there but my trailer would'nt clear of the tracks. I didn't stop on the tracks but wen on across and made my turn. I was told that to fail I had to be unsafe, break a law or pull over a curb. I passed so all is good.

I have one more test to go. I hope to be able to schedule a driving test with a Millis training director by next Monday and if I pass receive my own truck. Now I need to concentrate on logs, bills, qualcom and the business side of driving for Millis.