Class B CDL = lost cause?

You need to learn how to shift, that's pretty important.

 

I think the school could've worked with you on your shifting instead of just giving up on you. Your instructor was too impatient. Maybe he wasn't fully communicating what you needed to do. Nobody starts out intrinsically knowing how to double clutch and you have no guarantee of being in an automatic when you do hire on for a class B driving job. Don't let them keep you from learning how to shift whether you're going for your B or your A. Chances are good you will still need that skillset.

 

I had a blow up in school over the clutch break. I was stressed and the instructor had little patience. It was muscle memory from driving a manual car so long. It broke eventually and I even impressed the state trooper on the road test. He thought I had been driving tractor/trailer for awhile. It's frustrating. You just have to keep at it until you break your muscle memory. It reminds me of golf. If you swing like garbage for a long time it becomes hard to fix because of muscle memory.

 

I went to Roadmaster and got frustrated as hell with double clutching and the instructor got frustrated with me. I let him AND the double clutching get the best of me. I ended up getting class B instead of sticking it out. Biggest mistake I could have ever made. Good luck to you and hang in there!

 

Well it doesn't pay all that well but they're always looking for school bus drivers
(the advertised hourly is often high, but the hours are short, 4-6 per day with a 5-6 hour break in the middle)

Garbage trucks are B, pay can be good. Better to be the guy in the front of the truck than hanging off the rear.
(I've yet to see a manual trash truck)

Honey wagons, (septic trucks) will probably take rookies, heck they'll take anyone willing to do the work.

Cream of the crop are the B-dumps. I don't think I've ever seen one of those that wasn't totally pimped out.
Who knew gravel paid so well per mile?

 

Depress clutch, place in neutral ... depress clutch, place in gear ... going down, throw a rev in between

 

This is my 2 cents, but I'm not a trucker, just a CDL school student...

Don't quit, keep it up so you can accomplish what YOU want to accomplish…don't let a bad instructor change your mind about what you want to do! How do I know he's bad? Because if he was getting "pissed off," he's a horrible teacher…might be a fantastic driver, himself, but if he can't teach without losing his patience in less than 2 days, he needs to quit teaching...

I'm in school now, as I mentioned…we go out in groups of 3 with an instructor, and one of the guys I'm teamed up with still has some significant trouble shifting, and we're in our second week, today was day 7 of driving, and the instructor is still as patient as can be, doesn't get upset, doesn't berate the student…he TEACHES, as an instructor should.

Sorry to hear that this instructor you have the misfortune of finding yourself with has failed to grasp the importance of effective communication as a necessary tool as a teacher, but man, don't quit, you may regret it.

Best of luck