Any one here self taught?

Ummm before Truck schools there was Uncle Fred if you were lucky. Otherwise it was the school of hard knocks.

 

I rented an uhaul truck with a trailer and practiced with it. You just gotta make your brain work in a different way when backing up.

 

I have been towing cars and boats since I was 21. Before I got my CDL, I had been towing an 11 foot tall, 53 foot trailer for years. I was comfortable with the size. Had to squeeze in a lot of places at NHRA races. When I went for my CDL in 2001 I asked for some consideration. The guy pointed to the yard dog with trailer and said show me what you got. After 30 minutes of audition, I got the abbreviated course, mainly classroom. I still learn things all the time though, like how to properly put the landing gear down so the next guy doesn't have to wrestle with it. Sometimes, you don't know what you dont know.

 

Yeah and I remember those days of $500 a year insurance, lawyers not allowed to solicit or advertise and a lot less idiots with cell phones on the road.

I have my insurance company telling me that the days of just hiring anyone with a cdl may be coming to a close because of the high cost of litigation and liabilities thanks to idiot drivers.

By the way op, I was self taught, I started driving when I was 14, but when I got into a truck, the owner said here are the keys, lets go. That day I drove 200 miles without a word from him.

 

I am forced to agree with @Ridgeline. The days of being "self taught" are over. My father taught me the mechanics of "how" to drive and was there if I had a question later, As he said, the liability is too much. The comment made by ridgeline is why I said what I did in the insurance thread the other day in regard to being self insured. If these carriers had to pay for insurance based on the actuarial tables it would put most of them out of business.

 

I feel that the increasing heat brought against the CDL process is getting to where will exclude large portions of the population otherwise able to get a CDL in my time.

Ive been exposed to big trucks as a very young boy.

You wont believe this, if this is the little story Im fixing to tell gets me laughed out, fine so be it.

The School for the Deaf in Columba in the mid 70's secured a LaFrance Hose/Pump truck, two axle 6 wheeled. COE 9 speed on a Cummins if I am not mistaken give or take a little. I think it saw duty as a airport truck until the pumps probably failed the annual pressure testing making it surplus.

I would be up there in that cab and knew the low and high range off the shift plate on the bottom of the doghouse. And so on. After several years of exploring it I felt I had a pretty good idea what it takes to build and run a big truck.

It would not be until I got into a formal driving school before we got a chance to drive a 18 wheeler. Mostly a few hours of scratch a gear until you learned the two RPM numbers to shift at properly and when.

 

I remember those days; some drivers would brag about how many wrecks and how many tickets they had.
Some carried several drivers license; they'd get licenses from many states just in case they had a license revoked, they had a few spares. Those days are over and for good reasons.

 

Being self taught or going to a "school" has little to do with liability. My insurance never asked if I went to cdl school or anything don't know about anybody else's.