Drivers who didn't go to school

1ne of the Guys in Truck driving school told me 30 years ago....if u knew how to shift gears in a truck....they brought u in & gave u a license....u aint even have to know how teh alley dock.....& for the Air Brakes Test...all u had teh do was goverener cut in & cut out.......

 

I don't think there were truck driving schools back in 77 when I got my commercial license (pre cdl) I took my test in a single axle daycab with no trailer.
Lngtaltxn

 

I never had to take a driving test in a big rig.Never went to school.When I see all the BS some of you guy get I probably never would have been a driver.

 

I started driving grain trucks when I was 13-14 years old. Just straight trucks. Farm stuff. Then in '97 I hired on with a guy for a while hauling/operating equipment. Did that for about a year then went into carpentry for 5-6 years. Ended up back hauling equipment. The old guy I worked for sent me to a two day CDL course to get my license. I haven't wanted to do anything else since.

 

I'm 20 years old and have had my CDL (w Doubles) since I was 18, and drove semis around my neighbors farm since I was 15, and worked for a custom harvester (3rd summer this year) I bought my first truck in April and have hauled Combines Tractors Excavtors Bull Dozers, pulled a South Dakota Road Train, All it takes is some common sense and a little know how, Truckin is what Im doing and what im going to do

 

I grew up driving a bull wagon and horses since i could reach the pedals you just have to pay attention and have some common sense u dont need to go to a school i dont think they can teach u to drive in such short time u cant experience everything.

 

No school for me.
Back when I was younger I got a job at a big Trucking company here to wash trucks and trailers in their wash bay. They had an old Gasser truck that was used to pull the trailers from the yard into the pull through wash bay. When you left out of the bay it was a very tricky turn and wide swing to the right like a downtown tight corner in a way.

Well the Mechanics got tired of me always having to go ask them to shag me another trailer and told me to do it myself.

Well that was my training after a few months I was whipping around 53 footers like it was nothing. Even backing them in the bay just cause I didn't feel like making that hard right hand turn. Then taking them out to the yard and backing them in tight spots.

They let me use a truck one weekend and I got my CDL , and then they eventually let me shag in town, then do short trips, then full on solo driver.

 

My first day on the job was my schooling...May 5th, 1972.

 

CA Makes it challenging to get a CDL without school because if you apply for the permit it mandates that you learn with a certified instructor. But if you already have the skills you could just rent the truck from a school and the trainer with it, go to the DMV and do it there and not bother doing the actual training program.

But since I have very little driving experience, I wouldn't want to teach myself how to drive a tractor trailer unless I owned it and lived in the middle of nowhere.

 

I went to a school. They will get you started but theres still thing s to learn.