Well as I am sure you can infer from the todays post title, today was not my best day. My rampant success often exceeding my peers in my class came to a crashing halt today. Today, I failed my Alley Dock Backing Test. Worst of all I didn't fail only once, but twice! Needless to say I am not exactly thrilled with myself. I practiced doing Alley Dock Backing for about 2 hrs today, then decided that I was ready to take my test. I had to pass 3 out of 4 attempts to pass.
Test attempt 1, Attempt 1 of 4: I completed this first attempt with text book perfection that would make a seasoned professional driver with 20 years under his belt proud. Attempt 2 of 4: Absolute disaster! Things started out well but right at the critical point I let the trailer drift too far to the far side of the dock slot and even with a pull up I could not correct for the abysmal position of my trailer. FAIL! Attempt 3 of 4: Attempt 3 went as good as attempt #2. Only difference is that I cut the trailer too far to the inside on the dock slot and once again was unable to correct for the terrible trailer position. FAIL! That killed my chances at the test attempt.
My instructor sensing that I was pretty upset with myself told to take lap or two around the Keller Driving Course, clear my head and try again. So that is what I did.
Test Attempt 2, Attempt 1 of 4: Just like the my first attempt, it was nearly text book perfect. Not quite as good as the other first attempt, but still very good. Attempt 2 of 4: Again, this time I let the trailer get too far to the far side of the slot, but thought that I could correct it in time. WRONG! So I attempted to fix it with my pull up and knocked over a corner cone in the process. FAIL! Attempt 3 of 4: Again I let the trailer go too far to the far side of the dock slot and even using my pull up was unable to correct it. Things got so far out of whack that a "simple" alley dock backing maneuver turned into a really bad blind side backing maneuver (a blind side backing maneuver is when you back towards the passenger side of the truck and you cannot see anything behind you nor can you see where your trailer is or where it is going. It is the most difficult and dangerous type of backing maneuver). Needless to say I once again FAILED!
Now I could be like some of the other students and blame my failure on other trucks driving far too close to where I was backing, causing a serious distraction, However I know that the only person to blame for this failure is ME! In the real world there will always be many, many such distractions.
I don't feel any of these things were to blame, just my lack of practice and experience. So tomorrow I will be back, practicing my backing till I get it perfect the first time, every time! Then I will ask to be tested. Granted, for my CDL I only have to pass one time, but that is not the point. This is a skill that I will have to use on a daily basis, so I really need to be good at it! The good thing also is that there is limit on how many times I take the school test, however I only get 1 shot at it for my CDL.
My driving partner went and took his written tests at the DMV today. He only took the mandatory 3 tests, General Knowledge, Air Brakes, and Combination. He only passed 2 of the 3, he failed the Air Brake Exam. So he will have to retake that test tomorrow. He did however pass his Alley Dock Backing test today. Maybe that is why my failure today with my backing test is bugging me so bad. Ohh well, nothing I can do about it other than practice like hell tomorrow and try again.
I got some more worrisome news today from the admission department. There is a separate fee for us to take our CDL test that is not part of the normal course fee. So i needed to inform admissions that I wanted to pay for the test with my financial aid account. However, when they tried to do that, they told me that for some reason my financial aid is not showing up for the summer session of my courses. So now I am like WTF!!! Now, I admit that I don't fully understand how financial aid works as far as semester schedules go, but it seems they make this process 10 times more difficult that it is. I have $1200 or so dollars available in my financial aid account, I feel this is like a mini bank account that gets used for school related expenses, and whatever you don't use they cut you a check for at the end of the term/year or completion of your course. You in turn have to pay back that money as it is a loan. But, apparently this is not how this works or there is a mix up somewhere. So I have to talk to financial aid tomorrow to get this straighted out. The thing that pisses me off though, is that I was just at the admissions office last week to verify payment of the last 7 weeks of my course and was told that EVERYTHING was good to go! My financial aid account would be debited for the cost of the course as they became due, and now i am told by the same office less than a week later that this is not the case. Driving me nuts! I pity full time college students that are in degree programs that have to deal with this kind of crap.
On a separate and positive note I got a check today from my client that owed me the $200!! I was shocked to say the least. But I am also relived that I won't have to deal with all the legal crap to collect it. Now I just hope the check is good.....
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3 comments:
Sounds like you had a lovely day. Perhaps a little patience would be in your favor?
Thanks for the tip jarad, this was with a 48' trailer. I think my problem was I was going to fast and not taking my time as much as I needed to.
kap95, Well so far we have had recruiters from Swift, Crete, Sneider, and 3 other local companies come in. And there will be many more in the weeks to come.
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