Going down steep grades and night driving

Completely normal reactions. In a few month's, they will become second nature.

 

we have all been there . Theres no shame in driving slower than everyone else... I'm usually always the slowest guy up ad down the mountain . Even the ones I've been up and down hundreds of times...don't let the chest beaters rush you into an accident

 

If you are not nervous, as a newbie, in those situations then you don't understand what's going on. Once you have a hundred successful examples in your memory you won't be as nervous. Drive like a cop & your boss are watching all of the time.

 

If there's one thing I learned driving 40 yrs. Everything from loggers to OS, you never know what's around the next corner. Run it cool.

 

The goal is no tickets, no accidents, not fired. It's not having a good excuse for when those things happen. Go as slow as necessary to have good results.

 

Take your time and do it safely. Nights can be tricky to get used to but I honestly love running from about midnight or so to about 0500 when everyone else is asleep.

 

If you were in a passenger vehicle you wouldn't reach mach speed by the time you reached the bottom of the pass if you didn't gear down and brake efficiently. The difference is the weight of the commercial vehicle will literally push you down the pass out of control if you don't mitigate that effect.

 

The extra weight, a loaded truck could weigh 20 times what a car weighs. THAT IS A BIG DEAL.

I expect passing or being passed by a truck in heavy rain is also nerve-wracking.

The thing is gripping the wheel harder does nothing for you. When you notice you are tensed up the only way to make anything better is to relax your body & focus on the key items you look at to control the truck. You are in the early stages of a new task where nothing is yet controlled by your subconscious & habits. It will get easier but you need to focus on doing things exactly as you are supposed to do them so your habits are good habits & not the weak & lazy habits most newbies slide into accidentally.