What to expect during my mentorship

THAT reminds me, you aint found a pair of boots with about a inch heel or so.

Go get yourself a pair. Learn to plant the heel against the seat plate on the floor and work that clutch. Mind the Clutch Brake. If you have a shank installed in the sole thats even better. Transfer the forces over without breaking that foot. (And it will over a time)

 

Missing family, etc is the hardest part of OTR for most drivers doing OTR. I was single and almost homeless when I started CDL school. I'm an introvert, though not severely so. I had to quit after 1 year because I was so lonely and sad all of the time. Back in the mid-1990s there were few cellphones and talk time was expensive. There was no internet, podcasts, just a rumor of satellite radio. Now, cellphones & internet are everywhere.

You weren't shortchanged by your CDL school. You probably got the same tiny amount of practice & training the rest of us got. Today it seems more people than in the past expect to be instant experts. In the past we just accepted we were going to be lousy and just got better with practice. In a month of daily driving you will likely achieve proficiency in the easy manual truck skills of up shifting and have less & less difficulty with the more complicated shifting skills like downshift and picking the right gear when cornering. You will certainly get surprised by a traffic light and grind gears or stop because you didn't plan to get a green, so now you don't know which gear to grab, etc. That's normal. You will upshift hundreds of times a day so you quickly master up shifting. You may downshift a lot less so that takes longer. And picking a gear when you are surprised is maybe a once per day event, so it takes much longer to take it.

Some new drivers are overly self-critical and that wrecks their confidence which sets them up to stay mediocre. You are learning a new skill. There's no reason you should expect to be instant expert at it.

The rest of us can help with learning stuff if you ask specific questions. Lots of people with less talent and desire have learned this job. Spot your own improvement and recognize that means you can get better in the skills you haven't mastered yet. Most importantly, don't avoid doing the skills you are not great at now. That only causes it to take longer to get good at it. Avoiding the difficult tasks also inflates how difficult it will feel when you do try to do that skill. Everyone has trouble backing. Suppose it takes 1,000 backs to be good enough. If you avoid backing except when at a customer, you could go 2 years before you master backing. My trainer made me back into a parking spot every day and more than once on many days. Whatever is giving you difficulty, practice that EVERY day. It's just a skill. It's not an IQ test or measure of your value as a person. Half of the drivers out here are new drivers.

 

You are probably starting in too high of a gear. Don't add fuel until after truck starts to move. Let up on clutch like you have all day to go from clutch fully down to clutch fully up. At some point the truck will try to move. When it does, FREEZE the clutch and let off of brake. If the truck moves forward let off more clutch. Once clutch is fully up add a tiny amount of fuel pedal.

 

This thread is useless.. Types of trainers vary wildly..

 

####. Guy made a post to maybe help him feel better about his new job and get some guidance along the way.

So door slammer, what mega do you drive for?

 

LOL.

1) you can expect to not be treated fairly when with a trainer.
2) you can expect your trainer to think he can bully you around.
3) you can expect to see some bad driving worse than your own (presuming your a good driver).
4) you can expect every company to treat you like you are a indentured servant (slavery is alive and well).
5) all the glory stories you will hear are from people whom are no longer in training
6) Dont believe the recruiter EVER!
7) Dont plan on doing anything until after you get done with a trainer. No customizations, no bling.

Finally, if you get a good trainer whom respects you. Dont ever annoy them. Stick it out and toe the line.

 

At least your in a air ride cab and trailer and A.C.and cruise control power steering etc , back when I started you carried a roll of dimes for the phone and carried a bushel basket full of city maps and no I dont want a gold star or pat on the back.

Bias tires and split rims , after you went thru Chicago everything in the truck was on the floor , and I often wondered how the axles didn't snap.

Trucking has always been a lonely life for me never had a pet or co driver , I think the worse day I ever had was spending Christmas Day in a truck stop in Indiana , I wasn't alone either there were other drivers there and we all made the best of it.

Drivers are isolated now the lunch counter B.S. fest is now gone along with talk on the CB and the back row barbecues layers over on the weekend's , you dont even check call by 10 anymore , its all done in your dark and lonely cab on some stupid box they invented so dispatch don't have to talk to you anymore.

 

Trucks and trannys (manuals) VARY WIDELY as well. Gotta find the sweet spot; he'll get it. Then it becomes muscle memory and LISTENING to the tranny.

Wife kept the windows open when I taught her (many moons ago) to LISTEN and feel with her feet, and of course, watch the tach.

Best of luck to ya, @Penumbra . You have gotten a HECKUVA LOTTA great advice on here. Ignore the naysayers.

ps: If it's been said, I'm missing it (sorry I was too exhausted from a 16 to even get ON here yesterday....) but WHAT GEAR do they have you starting in? I've heard some schools anymore have you start in 4th. In a 10 speed, empty, IDKY.

Hang in~!
Tomcat

 

If you actually know road speeds for your gears you can do pretty much anything the ratio will allow for the weight. These guys who have to float gears up and down who still brag that they understand it wills screw up especially on down shifting..

If you can't down shift 15MPH at a time from 65 to 5 on a Eaton 18 or spicer and never float or over-rev you're just a BS artist.. I think a lot of drivers who started in the two-thousands who brag but can't even do that on a 9 or 13 speed fall in to this category..

 

I wish we had a face... but your 1st paragraph is correct. Your second? No clue. I learned in the late 80's and got 'certified' to regs in '03. My dad drove twin sticks. Not me, just started on an 18. Correctly. Taught my wife on a 13, and it's a non issue. No bragging needed, from any of you / us. Yes, I've missed a gear or ten, yes, I've over revved, yes I can (and do) float. Can't do ANY of that for testing, IIRC.

I'm just encouraging this man to learn correctly, HIS way...trainer nonwithstanding.