How to know when ready to go solo?

My reply might not be what you want to hear. Hopefully however you will read it closely. No student is ready to solo when assigned a truck. It is impossible to be taught how to handle every situation you will be tossed into. Hopefully you have been taught the basics of the job and can build your career from.

 

How do you feel about your safety? You will be by yourself many times when you had somebody to watch your back, which brings up backing, you will have to be that extra set of eyes and hands to get the job done, get used to talking to yourself and answering back.

 

Worried about going some place unfamiliar. Well, that's natural. Trip planning will give you the edge you need. You have a cellphone. You have google maps. Look on google maps to see if you see the truck entrance. If not call and double check with your shippers and receivers. Most places are right off the major highways. If you have to go to a place that isn't, find the truck route on a map. And then call the customer to double check. Don't just blindly follow a GPS.

"But Six, I have a truckers GPS..."

Until the time comes where a GPS manufacturer guarantees against screw ups and will cover all fines, do no blindly follow a GPS. If you are diligent about doing your homework by trip planning every trip, you should have no issues other than the normal big city traffic.

Luck in battle.

 

Then when you alone figure out the safety bit, like the seat belts through door handles when asleep and what to look for, you will get some good sleep sometimes then.

 

To me, if it's going to take you half an hour to back into a dock or a parking spot [with trucks on both sides], you're not ready. For every task of driving from Point A to Point B, there is a required task of backing. For many this is the thing they just can't do without serious issues, and this is a problem for all concerned.

If backing doesn't generally worry you too much, then you probably also have a pretty good handle on the other aspects.

 

OK, now I'm somewhat concerned. Shouldn't this be a separate post?

 

On backing, some of us can hit it every time perfect for years..then one day you have to take a long time to get into a spot. depends on the set up, sometimes everyone is in perfect and then it is easy, then there is the time you pull up and one went a bit crooked and the rest followed.argh!

 

Understood but that's not what I'm addressing. I'm talking about those who can't do it an hour ago, later today, tomorrow, or any later day in the week. The simply can not back and have no sense of orientation when using mirrors ... they're out here and frankly have no business out here.

 

They the same that park at the pumps, are always in the way, do things at the last second, are always in a hurry, kind of the reason I got off the road, I will wait until the carnage is over and then I might return...might.

 

and then they always walk up to the front of the line and try squeezing in. I really do not want to go to jail so I had to get out, I was the one always 1/2 hour early and never appreciated the lazy that think they can be first without any planning and effort.