Start CDL school in a couple days!!!

Focus on backing skills & shifting. If you've driven any manual transmission cars/pickups don't use any of those habits in the truck. Forget everything. EVERYTHING. You use the clutch very differently. When shifting in the truck, only push clutch1/3 to 1/2 to the floor. You only push clutchpedal to floor when you are stopped. EVERY newbie pushes clutch too deep and that causes you to grind gears. Press clutch, when rolling, just enough to get in or out of gear.

Backing technique can be explained in various ways. You are better off to listen to only 1 teacher rather than everyone with an opinion & a different explanation. Mostly you need to learn the 90 degree alley dock. You will do this at most customers.

Every newbie has trouble learning to shift. Usually they learn to up-shift (accelerating) faster and have more trouble down-shifting (slowing). It's normal. Practice is the only solution.

Every newbie has trouble backing. Practice, practice, practice. If someone teaching you is yelling and it really upsets you calmly ask them to keep their voice at a normal tone, but do what they say. If you don'tunderstand have them explain again.

Anyone can learn the skills you need. Also, try mot to participate or encourage storytelling in class. You'll need that time practicing skills. Most stories are wild exaggerations.

 

Indeedy. Lunch Counter, storytelling in class is very little value. It does have a certain entertainment value and it's place but frankly it's a waste of time and fosters disinformation that will hurt future drivers.

The one time we told as a group a insurance person in trucking insurance a billy bob waking his brother in the bunk so that they both will be awake for the smash coming up at the bottom of the mountain. The insurance adjuster had no humor As far as we were concerned, she thought we were heathens laughing about a multi million dollar wreck about to happen down at the bottom.

I hate it when people fail to loosen up doing story telling. No humor at all. Quite the opposite. I must wonder to this day if that insurance adjuster ever laughed in life and what stories it will take to make that happen. Do they ever know anything slapstick FUNNY in that line of work?

 

Look!

Truck driving isn't hard. The lifestyle change is what's hard.

Don't over think things. All that double clutching is just for the state test. Once you get with a trainer most of them want you to float the gears. When down shifting rev the motor and as the rpms come down feel the gear let you come in, not grinding be gentle. When backing, turn in to your trouble. If you don't want the trailer going left turn left. Stop over correcting a 1/4 of the wheel is usually all that's needed, unless you are doing a deep cut in.

In my 15 years of being a full time truck driver. CDL for about 20 years, always a company driver. I've been at 8 different companies and drove probably 30+ different trucks, 3 were automatic, some were 7, 8, 9, 10 13, 15 horseshoe, and 18 speed. They all shifted different. Some trans like to be shifted fast, and some had to be slow shifted.

Out here on the road you will be thinking about everything except what gear you are in, and what gear you need to go to. There are times you will be dead flat ground or climbing up a mountain. And, you will be thinking about your wife, kids, your load, your next load, your destination, your fuel running low, that last truck stop sucks, your back hurts, everything but your next gear shift. And, it's ok it will take a second to regroup and get back on track.

Just remember K.I.S.S. keep it simple stupid. Stop over thinking and just pass the test. You will fall into your own groove when you get out on the road.

 

Smart move; you'll make good money in tankers and have a great career ahead.

 

I’m a new driver. Things I wish I would’ve known.

Watch people park at TS. You realize quickly there’s a lot of people who don’t do it well or quickly. It’s not a race so get it in the hole when you get it right. Take your time and don’t rush. Never ever ever rush parking. #### ‘em if they’re in a hurry.

Don’t rush driving. Never ever ever. Bad #### will happen. Like wrong turns into non-truck route areas or worse. Take your time. Get it right.

Don’t move the truck until you are sure where you’re going, what your route is. What your back up plan is and until you checked your truck. Every time I get out of my truck and leave it unattended the first thing I do is check to make sure no one released the 5th wheel. Never ever ever hurry.

To simplify:
1. Never rush
2. Always know where you’re going before you move.
3. Have a back up plan
4. Check your equipment like your job and lives depend on it.

Lastly
5. There is a great wealth of knowledge here. Use it. Ignore the haters and the negative posters. You’ll find some real mentors here. I have.

 

My fav piece of advice from this forum...
"You can do it too slow a million times... but too fast just once".
Don't worry about ppl whining when you take too long, do it just as slow as you need to.

 

I told my trainer that. He repeated it to me many times when I would ask a question.

 

Here's my story. After 10 years as a shipping supervisor at a big poultry processing plant here in Waco, I got fired. They just wanted to try something different and I was all in for it. Best day of my career with them. I took my 401k and bought a truck and a belly dump trailer. I paid $1000 dollars to an agency in Fort Worth that walked me through the CDL test. Got my CLP on March 5 and my CDL on April 20. I spent about a total of 14 days with them, driving their Single axle with a short trailer, I forget how long it was. They knew the exact route that the inspector would have me go on, knew when and where he would have me have an "emergency stop" and what he would be looking for in the pre trip. In Texas, you have to pay a fee and fill out an application ahead of time to take the test. My instructor told me that the first day, but never mentioned it again. So, of course test day finally comes and I don't have the application done or the fee paid. Also, I didn't realize that my CLP WAS NOT A REPLACEMENT for my drivers license. As soon as I had received my CLP, I took my Texas DL out of my wallet and proudly replaced it with my shiny new CLP. So when I go to check in for my test, I'm missing my driver's license, my test fee and the application. My test was scheduled for 9am. The agency that I went through knew everyone at the DL office there in Fort Worth. He got the manager to reprint my licence, got a CSR to help me fill out the application quickly and take my fee payment. At this time I already have a truck and a trailer, just need a CDL. Finally I get to take the test. I did O.K. on the pre trip, thanks to watching hours of youtube videos and thanks to my instructor who was patient and kept telling to do it again. My driving test, I thought went pretty well. I had a couple of times that I missed a gear and forgot to look at a bridge height sign. Yes, you have to keep an eye on bridge height signs, they will ask you, "What was the clearance for that bridge?" It's better to just watch for them and tell the instructor the heights as you come to them. After all was done, the instructor spent a few minutes tallying up my score and finally told me that I squeaked by. My point of this long story is that I think I would still be trying to get a CDL if it had been for the help of the local CDL school. This isn't a school like ATDS, where you sit in class for 4 weeks and drive for for weeks and have to take out a student loan. I met the instructor at the gas station next to the DPS office each morning and just got in the truck and practiced driving and doing the parking tests. Their trailer even had pieces of tape on the nose that you line up with the cab of the truck to determine your steering angle. Like I said, I gave 500 down, and the other 500 wasn't due until I passed. After that, the next hurdle was insurance. Since I had zero experience and a CDL that was still warm from being printed, I only found one company that would insure me. 13,500 dollars for the year with 20% down and payments of 1118 per month. It took me 10 days from the time I got my CDL to running my first job because of having to search for insurance. Now I'm hauling dirt, rocks, asphalt and sand around central texas. I'm home every night and once I get a year of experience gone, my insurance will go down. It's kinda killing me now, but I'm making it work. I was also blessed to have some friends that are in the same business, so they hooked me up with brokers and loads. I didn't take the usual way that most truckers go, but it's working so far for me. Hope this kind of shows a different view of how to go and give you a little more knowledge.

 

My advice other than with learning is to make friends in school and get tips from each other as you learn. Keep in touch with those friends. Never know when you’re going to need someone to keep you awake long enough to get that last few miles to park. The life you save could be your own.

I still talk to almost everyone who I got my cdl with. Even some of the ones who didn’t make it or have gone on already to something else. Nobody who hasn’t been through a cdl mill or life on the road is going to understand you like those people. They have seen you lose your ####. They have seen you stressed as can be. You have seen the same. I would say that’s as important a tip as any.