Who needs trucking school.

Did the same thing myself TSP....learned on the farm driving a milk tanker as a teen. Went on to drive for 2 companies....a west coast operation for a couple of years then with GSF for the next 33 years. Did it without any "formal" training and not a single accident either....This was however back in the 60's too...different times back then.

 

Good point!

 

A awful weak argument gpsman. Even with your limited experience you know much better than that. It takes the correct attitude , plenty of patience , and the ability to recognize potential bad situations and be proactive in your actions behind the wheel to not be involved in an accident.

 

I'll grant you that schools could be much better and self taught is not far behind. I would say that going without school and learning by someone else all depends on how much that other driver knows. Schools are now the best way to go simply because of insurance reasons. Every once in awhile there comes along a school that starts the driver in the right direction. But most teach how to get a CDL and that's all they care about. I personally did not go to school because they didn't have them when I started. But I was taught by a group of drivers that had many years hauling gasoline and they made sure that I did not embarrass them or give them a bad name. In other words they all watched me like a Hawk and taught me the right way which turned out to be just like the Smith System of today. But those days are gone and there's no more head slapping. So schools are in the best interest of the driver if they want to go on to be successful. When I say successful I mean you retire with a proud record and plenty of cash to live the way you want to.

 

But how hard is it? Guys loaded up on weed, whites and wine managed to not crash, probably some still doing it.

Rookies manage to not crash straight out of the box, most of those do their 6 months or a year w/o crashing.

Can we not assume most OTR drivers on the road today have 1 crash or fewer...?

Can we not consider the empirical evidence? Can we not agree the truck that is not speeding and following too closely will be... ASAP?

 

Wow. Talk about being sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fired!