Hello Experienced Truckers...

Unless you know an owner operator that would show you how to shift and double clutch, my suggestion would be to find a school who would teach you the shifting and the backing maneuvers, it will be expensive but not as bad as starting over. The other option is to find a company that will train from the ground up but I dont know of any, perhaps swift or cr england

 

Ok, we've heard this type of thing a bit. Most of the time it's a school with automatics, but generally the same issues. One question: was the school certified?

One possibility is to call one of the training companies. Try to to find one that sends you with a trainer for 6 weeks +. I went with Swift, and sucked at shifting. I knew how it was supposed to work, but wasn't good in practice. At 2 weeks (300 miles a day) my mentor had me shifting pretty well. At the end of the 6 weeks, I was pretty good.

The company never even did a road test prior to putting me in the truck with a mentor (of course I had a road test before getting my own rig). Do not aim for one of the companies that wants you in a solo rig in 10 days. They wont help you enough in that short time.

That's my advice.

 

You're welcome, but I'm not pointing you at Swift. You need to find a company (or owner op) that will be able to work with you. In my case, Swift worked out well. Your mileage may vary.

 

Hmmmm...for $2400 you should have gotten alot more bang for your buck.
And they taught you on a 5-speed shifter?!?!?!
Seems like a CDL-mill to me.
What's the name of this "school" so other people will know to steer clear?

You could always try US Xpress, since they run 100% automatics.
But that will limit you if you want to try and switch to a company running manual shifters one day.

Or rent a 10-speed daycab from Penske or Ryder for a couple days since you already have a CDL.
Then just practice, practice, practice getting double-clutching down.
If you have a friend or relative in the biz, they could help teach you...and probably give you much better training than the school did for free.
Once you get it down, get re-trained via Schneider, Swift, etc.
Keep you nose clean and the left door closed and better opportunities will come your way in 1-2 years.