What important skills of truck driving did you learn after your first year of trucking?

Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by expedite_it, Dec 17, 2024.

  1. SmallPackage

    SmallPackage Road Train Member

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    So in 10 years of driving you never knew that at a traffic light, or in bumper to bumper traffic, or parked if a car is less than two car lengths behind you, you may not see it in the mirrors?
     
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  3. Speedy356

    Speedy356 Medium Load Member

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    It’s safe to say he/she has probably never set foot in any kind of big truck, but he/she has one hell of a fantasy going on!:confused::D
     
  4. FullMetalJacket

    FullMetalJacket Road Train Member

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    Deja Vu senses tingling..........
     
  5. MACK E-6

    MACK E-6 Moderator Staff Member

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    I assume you’re also looking for shadows back there as well? It won’t work on cloudy days obviously, but on clear days that can come in handy.
     
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  6. FearTheCorn

    FearTheCorn Medium Load Member

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    You know I have learned after a long time of driving OTR? All the old guy drivers telling you the chicks get their boobs out all the time. Effing lie.
     
  7. Hammer166

    Hammer166 Crusty Information Officer

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    Off all the boobs I've seen in my 60+ years of living and 40 of driving, the one set I can honestly say I wish I hadn't seen was a gal flashing a truck. If you can call rolling a cranberry on a pancake "flashing", that is.

    Definitely not common most places, although near any spring break travel areas improved the odds substantially.
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2025
  8. D.Tibbitt

    D.Tibbitt Road Train Member

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    That'll take the op another 10 years to learn...

    better yet put him in a 13 speed and it'll take at least 40 years to figure out how to downshift at the rate he's currently going.
     
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  9. Powder Joints

    Powder Joints Subjective Prognosticator

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    What important skills of truck driving did you learn after your first year of trucking?
    Honestly don't hardly remember the first year all that clear, But pretty sure making sure of what is around my rig was one of the important points.
    Seems to me the first thing you would want to know is who is where, and how close or far are they. I was taught by my Dad back around the middle to end of the 70's 78 or 79 I think, Produce KW W900, pulling a Utility stainless steel refer, mostly Salinas to Hunts point, with Chicago back to Vienna Sausage or Farmer John Los Angeles.
    Things were a bit different back in the day, better or worse hard to say.

    But a constant is knowing whats around you all the time.
     
  10. Lennythedriver

    Lennythedriver Road Train Member

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    Yeah, they also tell you you’ll have girlfriends in every state. What a lie that one was I’ve been trying to set up a single date out here on the road for almost 3 years and it’s never happened yet. No time for it. Lol who has time for a girlfriend in every state?
     
  11. Powder Joints

    Powder Joints Subjective Prognosticator

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    Who would want one in every state. If a driver does not have the skills at home, they certainly do not improve when on the road. You have to know how to read people, then Grasshopper you will know.
     
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