From the Beginning

The next several entries will detail how I got started in the business (maybe I should call it "History"). For those of you who are regular readers of this article (Thank You!), I want to say one thing: if you are not a truck driver, these postings might seem a little strange, but "THOSE WHO ARE IN THE KNOW WILL ATTEST!"
I had been driving a limo in Chicago on and off for about five years, full-time and part-time, and bouncing around from one menial job to the next. So, I'd do my telemarketing
full-time, then drive the limo on weekends, or whatever. I actually wrote a book about my experiences, called "Limo Driver," but I never published it. In fact, it's on some old Mac floppy discs lying around somewhere. I was not a happy camper; I really wanted a "career" instead
of just another job: something I was good at. But what? I knew a couple of drivers; in fact, one of my good friends, a fellow limo driver, was a CDL driver, but wasn't active for some unknown reason.
I don't know what actually pushed me over the top in "going for it," but I remember checking out a few different schools. One was in Memphis, for one month, and only cost $2,500.00 (can
you sense the sarcasm?). I finally found a class at a nearby community college, an eight-week
course (part-time evenings) for $3,500.00. Yeah, I was willing to spend the extra grand for the convenience of being near home. Plus, I could work my two other jobs, one during the day, and one on the weekends. So, my brother was nice enough to co-sign a loan for me, and I got it! I was really excited. I would start in Feb., 2002.
CDL classes are very much like getting your regular driver's licence: first, you sit in the classroom for four weeks, learning all the rules of the road, how to fill a log book, read a map, etc. Then you go to the Secretary of State's facility and take your written test. In Illinois, it's all on computer now, but I think I actually had to write answers in. My memory's not too clear on that. Once you have your permit, you can go behind the wheel, as long as there's an instructor in the cab with you. It's interesting how you develop friendships and cameraderie with your classmates. Of course, like any class, you have your brightest (star) pupils, your middle-of-the-road (my group), and your "losers," for lack of a better word. But we encouraged each other
to succeed. I don't know about the others, but I always wanted my classmates to do well.
You don't actually go out into traffic once you have your permit, NO! We could only drive around the parking lot the first couple of weeks or so. "First and reverse," one of our instructors would say; that's fine, because you had to learn backing and maneuvering the truck anyway, for
your road test. So, we had these two old day cabs, and crappy, empty beat-up trailers to practice with. I don't recall how everyone did, but I think I backed the truck up pretty well.
They had cones laid out in the parking lot exactly how they would be on test day. The nice
thing about it was the Secretary of State testers/inspectors would actually come out to our place, rather than us having to go to a strange facility; so the parking lot in which we were practicing was the same place we would be taking our test. This gave us quite an advantage, and
a "leg up" on others who had to go to South Holland for their test.
After "mastering" backing, turning and maneuvering the truck, it's time to go out into the streets. I always wondered if our instructors were as nervous as we were. For this part of the
class, we had a sleeper cab, with 3-4 seats in place of the bunk. I remember there were two
International Pro Sleepers with standard 10-speed transmissions. Getting the shifting down was
probably the biggest challenge, since we weren't allowed to shift in the parking lot, and now it's March, and we were still getting snow now and then, so you're learning how to drive in the dark, and sometimes in treacherous weather conditions. Looking back, this actually helped me enormously, although we generally just went down the street and back. Eventually, they let
us go onto the expressways...
Next - test day

More soon,

Steve