Feeder school

[crystal_ball]

Is feeder school scheduled for 5 days everywhere? 1st day all paperwork, day 2, 3, and 4 pretrip, parking, backing and on road driving, and day 5 testing. Seems like alot to know with only 3 days of "in cab" training. Package car training was longer IIRC. Is it the same for UPS freight? Any thoughts?

 

[Jones]

2 weeks here. 1st week is pretty much just like you said, if you pass that then you go get your cdl. After you get your cdl you do your 2nd week of training which is pulling live loads, learning the IVIS, all the UPS feeder stuff. No idea how they do it in freight.

 

[Johney]

Here you have to pass your week in school and pass your 40 hour production week before they let you test for your CDL.

 

[Wally]

Is feeder school scheduled for 5 days everywhere? 1st day all paperwork, day 2, 3, and 4 pretrip, parking, backing and on road driving, and day 5 testing. Seems like alot to know with only 3 days of "in cab" training. Package car training was longer IIRC. Is it the same for UPS freight? Any thoughts?

You didn't look in the crystal ball for the answer?

 

[Pickles]

They trained me on a holiday week. First time ever in a tractor was on a Tuesday. By Friday morning I was getting road tested for my CDL. It wasn't pretty.

 

[Over 70]

Must be feeder school season

 

[Cementups]

4 weeks ago I never drove a tractor a day in my life. First day, spent half the day in the office cramping my fingers, second half he showed me how to drive (shift) it. Second day we hooked up a trailer and took a ride about an hour away and back. 3rd day he had me backing. 4th day I was with another trainer who had me drilling pretrips and rook me out to do some more backs. 5th day, more pretrips and a ride to make sure I had it all down. Day 6, took me for my CDL test. I actually failed my road test the first time and they took me back out a couple days later and I passed.
Day 7-10 was with an on road sup who trained me how to hook up doubles and driving them as well as taking me out with 53 footers.
Day 11 I was out on my own. In the last 3 days I have been on call and been to 3 different places, no problem.

3 important rules. Take the right trailer. Take it to the right place. Don't hit anything.

 

[barnyard]

My training went the way the OP describes. Took my CDL road test on the 5th day. Pulled my 1st set of doubles during my productive week and pulled my 1st 53 a year or 2 later.

I thought the training that I received set me up to do the job fairly well, except the IVIS. We spent very minimal time on that. I had no idea how to do CPUs or adding legs or any of that. I had to do some unscheduled feeder work for my building several years ago. Spent 15 minutes on the phone the next day, explaining my time card to someone. Evidently, it was a mess.

I learned more about the IVIS here.

 

[Mugarolla]

UPS is different everywhere on everything.

Here, you need your temp CDL before even starting the training.

Day 1 is usually all paperwork stuff.
Day 2 some paperwork but also get used to double clutching a tractor and pre-trip
Day 3 more pre-trip practice and hooking, backing and driving a pup
Day 4 more pre-trip practice, hooking doubles and possibly going on road with doubles.
Day 5 more pre-trip practice and on road with doubles.

The second week is the production week. You are with a sup for the whole week (Have to be. You only have a temp CDL), usually doing an actual job, trying to hone your skills.

If after the 2 weeks, the sup passes you, you then go take your test to get your CDL and you are placed on the feeder qualified list.

 

[fedx]

They trained me on a holiday week. First time ever in a tractor was on a Tuesday. By Friday morning I was getting road tested for my CDL. It wasn't pretty.

I have no idea how you passed at all with only 3 days training. There is no way you could learn all the pre-trip, double clutching, backing in 3 days. If you learned all that and passed in only 3 days, then you could do about anything you put your mind to (fly an airplane with 2 weeks training?). Why UPS would even put you in such an unheard of situation is crazy too. Most community college truck driving schools are a month long. FedEx class A training is 3 weeks long and UPS condensed 3 weeks into 3 days? That was really unfair of them to do that to you.

 

[Jones]

I have no idea how you passed at all with only 3 days training. There is no way you could learn all the pre-trip, double clutching, backing in 3 days. If you learned all that and passed in only 3 days, then you could do about anything you put your mind to (fly an airplane with 2 weeks training?). Why UPS would even put you in such an unheard of situation is crazy too. Most community college truck driving schools are a month long. FedEx class A training is 3 weeks long and UPS condensed 3 weeks into 3 days? That was really unfair of them to do that to you.

That's pretty much how they do it. I had 4 total days in a tractor with a trainer before I took my CDL.

 

[DriveInDriѵeOut]

Day one, paperwork, off by noon. Waste of valuable learning time, could have done this paperwork before the class.
Day two, practice shifting, hooking, and driving a pup.
Day three, same as day two but more time on road, then a little practice backing.
Day four, build a set, take it on road, then more backing practice.
Day five, take a set to a hub an hour away and back, off by noon.

So basically three and a half days. Kind of a joke, but hey, that's a day and a half more training than I got for package.

 

[Cementups]

Most community college truck driving schools are a month long.

Most community colleges are also teaching several students at one time. You go to a class and one guy is practicing driving and 4 other guys are standing around watching and talking about the game last night. Not sure about FedEx but at UPS it's one on one training For all 10 of your days. gets drilled into you hard

 

[Brownslave688]

gets drilled into you hard

@Indecisi0n is very interested.

 

[barnyard]

I have talked to several that did the community college route, they all say that I had way more 1 on 1 training than they did.

 

[Coldworld]

4 weeks ago I never drove a tractor a day in my life. First day, spent half the day in the office cramping my fingers, second half he showed me how to drive (shift) it. Second day we hooked up a trailer and took a ride about an hour away and back. 3rd day he had me backing. 4th day I was with another trainer who had me drilling pretrips and rook me out to do some more backs. 5th day, more pretrips and a ride to make sure I had it all down. Day 6, took me for my CDL test. I actually failed my road test the first time and they took me back out a couple days later and I passed.
Day 7-10 was with an on road sup who trained me how to hook up doubles and driving them as well as taking me out with 53 footers.
Day 11 I was out on my own. In the last 3 days I have been on call and been to 3 different places, no problem.

3 important rules. Take the right trailer. Take it to the right place. Don't hit anything.

You'd be surprised how often a load goes to the wrong location...or miss service..

 

[Coldworld]

Must be feeder school season

Feeder "school"....

 

["Phil"]

2 weeks here. 1st week is pretty much just like you said, if you pass that then you go get your cdl. After you get your cdl you do your 2nd week of training which is pulling live loads, learning the IVIS, all the UPS feeder stuff. No idea how they do it in freight.

Do off the street feeder drivers attend any type of school or training?

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Do off the street feeder drivers attend any type of school or training?

Yes----they go through the same regiment, mainly to "undo" any bad habits that the applicant may have picked up along the way.

 

[Johney]

Do off the street feeder drivers attend any type of school or training?

No such thing as off the street feeder hires here.