About 10 hours in and I still haven't got the Alley Dock and Parallel down

might sound stupid but hop on gta sa or v , get a truck and trailer, and just try parking. you can even ally dock at the loadups near the airport in v. Use it just to get a general idea of how to do it, you can you different cameras to look at the manuver as you do it

 

That time on the range is not nearly enough time to master the alley dock for some.If you have to retake the course and if this is something you really wanna do then I would strongly suggest shopping around for the best school possible with more then a couple instructors.I recommend a college.Alley dock was my weakest also.An instructor worked with me one on one till I finally got it.

 

Why not look for a job, even part-time, spotting trucks?

You'll get tons of practice. And $$ for doing it.

Frankly, a lot of jobs don't require great backing skills, don't involve much other than making a big turn in front of door, then driving forward away from door until you see it in your rears and easy backing in.

Especially some OTR...

 

Don't feel bad.. Took me 5 tries before I passed my CDL test LOL

1st. Failed the 4 point air brake test because I said "Turn the compressor on instead of off" on the first part.
2nd. Passed the air brake test but couldn't parallel.
3rd. Failed Parallel again.
4th. Finally passed parallel but since I hadn't practiced driving for over a month, failed the road test. LOL.
5th. PASSED!!

When I failed the parallel, I went back to my school and rented one of their trucks and they provided an instructor for an hour. He worked on my parallel for the hour and gave me good pointers on setting up. My problem is that if I am not set up correctly and I cannot see the perfect set up of the back cones in my left mirror, I have a hard time adjusting the truck so that I do get the proper view.

The old saying is true. When one door closes another one opens. If I would of passes the first time, I would be with Schneider now. But because I failed the first time, I missed Schneider's orientation date but I found a local job that has me home every night, off two days a week, and pays over $22.00 an hour.

The worst part is the waiting game and all the roller coaster emotions that go with it.

 

If he ever does city driving or works hauling containers out of rail yards he will need to learn how to back up properly and to do it quickly. 90 degree backing is what he will need to know how to do for those type of jobs since you won't have the space for straight line back or a 45 degree back.

 

That's actually great advice.

Did the spotter thing for about two months as a seasonal thing for UPS.

Had a guy working with me that was just out of school. On his first day, he couldn't really seem to back up the trailer into the easiest of spots. Two months later it was nothing for him to easily back into spots that looked impossible to get a trailer into.

Even as an experienced driver, it did wonders to improve my backing. I got more out of that two months than I would in 10 year OTR.

 

OP 10 hours practice is nothing for backing maneuvers it takes doing the maneuver a few hundred or even a few thousand times to really get it down pat to the point where it's easy to do and you don't even think about it when you are doing the maneuver. So don't beat yourself up if you are still having trouble with the maneuver. I failed my first cdl test because I didn't pass the parallel parking...lol looking back between then and now it's a day and night difference. The reason why I'm a 1,000,000x better now than I was then is that repetition with all the backing I've done. The more backing you do the better you will get at it.

One thing I want to add OP is that you will need to learn how to do a 90 degree back. You are going to deliver to places where a straightline back or a 45 degree back aren't possible to do because you'll lack the space needed for those maneuvers. Get your CDL and after that really work on the 90 degree backing.

 

I know this girl who took 4 months to learn it. When she finally got it down she started getting all ####y and virtually forgot how slow of a learner she was.

You will be driving it like you stole it in time.

 

Exactly, i would rather accumulate years of safe driving/no accidents than get nervous and try to rush myself because im concerned about what some knuckledraggers in truck stops might think of my backing skills (i am actually told my backing skills are quite above average for a noob but im just illustrating a point).

 

I still like the buy a toy semi trick, already mentioned. Its about understanding what that #### thing behind the cab is doing and WHY wont it listen when i yell at it!