Co road tests for new drivers? How are we supposed to pass them?

Wow... I haven't had any applicants *that* bad off... aside from a couple fresh graduates applying for spotter jobs (the only place we'll take a fresh graduate).

Although there was an applicant that tested in January with my co-worker who failed... took a left too sharp and took the sign down in the median. One accident report later, and he was dismissed from the property.

 

If you have a CDL at a minimum you should be able to operate a Tractor-Trailer well enough to stay safe and not hit anything. Nobody is expecting you to be able to spot a truck like a 10-year veteran can. Honestly, if you can't do the minimum things I start wondering if you got your CDL out of a box of ----

 

Advice:
Call a nearby truck driving school and book a 2 hour refresher course.
Practice backing to your heart content until you become a master of your craft.
After you get your job, come back here and share your experience with the forum community.
Good luck.

 

It happens more often than you think.

 

Makes shifting difficult...

 

I do the hiring, firing, training, test rides, and more.
Sometimes newer drivers are better, because they have not learned a lot of bad habits, but they better listen well, and learn quickly.
Some of the worst i have tested, were old men, with lots of experience, or so they claimed.
How anyone can drive that badly after 15, 20, 25 years, as a trucker, is beyond me.

 

Before my first road test someone gave me advice I will never forget. Dont make the instructor feel like jumping out.
I will add that you will be anxious so be mindful to make sure that no cars are coming for a longgggg way before pulling out from a stop sign.

 

Weirdly enough, that would be me. Five years driving and have never pulled a box trailer or any trailer with a regular set of tandems. First two years pulling a spread axle and the last three years pulling three and four axle tanks. Don’t know the first thing about sliding tandems. Surprised that would fail a road test.

 

If the examiner is any good, it won't be a fail, but a teachable moment.
Not everyone pulls around a fragile little van trailer, plenty of 25 plus year drivers, have never pulled one. They hauled other stuff, in heavy duty trailers.
In this region, tandem vans are the minority of trailers.

 

While a majority of trailers have sliding tandems, that's not a failure item, as we get a lot of guys from the LTL or flatbed world who have never touched one. That is the time in which the actual road test portion is paused in order to train the driver on how to operate the pneumatic sliding tandems with which all of our trailers are equipped. It is most definitely not a failure point.