2 weeks of school left, scared to drive local?

Take a look at a couple dollar general stores and where their delivery door is, then try and figure out how your going to get your trailer door close to that door. Trust me, 6 months on Dollar General, and you'll be pretty good at backing up / driving

 

This is a bunch of bunk. I've never gone otr and never had a trainer with me since the day I passed my state exam. Sure the first time I came up on some docks I thought I was gonna need a change of underpants. Many years and hundreds of thousands of ltl miles later I've never had an accident or ticket. My advice is practice backing some weird positions in school if you get the chance and GOAL as much as you need in tight spaces. Soon those nasty blind sides accross streets will be nothing. Don't worry about the four wheelers or supertruckers breathing down your neck to get it in the hole. Just take everything at a speed your comfortable. If you misjudged something stop and assess, don't power through.

 

By the way when I see a trucker struggling to hit a dock I'll ask if I can help them. Makes my day go quicker and makes their day easier. I wish more truckers would help instead of sitting in a truck telling themselves how awesome they are and how stupid the trucker they are watching is. Even with my experience there are days I need a few extra pull ups.

 

I have helped a lot of drivers back up. But if he is already scared of backing up and driving in the city...and he hasn't even completed school yet...AND he is going LOCAL where there is BOUND to be tight spots, weird maneuvers and much more...I don't see it ending well. I seriously think he needs to go regional on a account where there is ALOT of backing and challenging backing at that.

 

Family Dollar, Dollar General, or something like that. If he is nervous before leaving school, he needs to cut his teeth somewhere OTHER THEN DOWNTOWN. I don't want to be seeing this guy on twisted truckers and/or the news or worse.

 

And this is how people these days end up on the news with everyone going "what the hell / how the hell" Your throwing someone who is ALREADY scared to the wolves. If he wrecks you'll be the first person to blame the school or his lack of training. You cant have your cake and eat it too. I would be willing to bet you everything in my checking account...that if he wreck and causes damage and hurts someone or kills someone, YOU will be the first person screaming he should have had more training, or should have been OTR or regional first. Make up your mind.

 

I've made up my mind. No screaming for more training from me. Best way to learn is to do it in my opionion. Otr hitting docks with huge setups for a year still isn't gonna help with the tight ltl docks. Take things at a pace your comfortable and don't worry about other vehicles trying to speed you up. I was nervous too.

 

I've seen guys with a fresh CDL jump right into local and do just fine. And I've seen some get canned.

I think it depends quite a bit on how the company you get hired on with trains new drivers. Also depends quite a bit on the driver.

All you really have to do is not hit stuff. There's a lot that goes into not hitting stuff, a good company will help with that. Being a patient driver who makes good decisions will also help with that. You'll learn all that, and it will be up to you.

Not sure what would have happened if I went local without some OTR exp, I'm thinking it woulda been pretty rough lol. And my local job is pretty easy, prolly a lot easier than regular LTL p/d.

 

I agree with your points about take it slow and easy, what I have a problem with is this guy is already scared, and everyone is telling him to just go do it. But I garuntee you, if they see his wreck on TT or TDWTFM or here for that matter, they will be screaming he should have had more training, and shouldn't have been allowed to be local without at least a year or 6 months OTR or regional. If your on TT or TDWTFM or even here for that matter for longer then a day...you KNOW that's what people will be claiming. And I WHOLE HEARTEDLY agree with them. This guy has no business being local, with no experience. Especially if hes in CHICAGO, L.A., NYC, or MIAMI. A total rookie who is scared and has no experience trying to make his way around CHICAGO, or any of the cities I mentioned...will be a CLUSTER ###!

 

Hell, forget about TT or TDWTFM, how about what happens if he hits something and ends his career before it even starts, due to the fact that he has no REAL WORLD experience and is thrown to the wolves right out of the gate?