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

Dont sweat it. After you "live" in a truck everyday ,you will "know" how much room you need and have a pretty dang good idea of where your trailer is without looking. Ask any olddinosaur trucker(your initial setup) will be the key to an easy back in. After you back in 1000 times it becomes second nature. Just go slow " Dont worry about Gordon drivers "eye balling" you. Just go slow and dont hit anything.All new drivers get the "fish eye" from veteran drivers looking at you to see if you can back. I still get the "eye" (for about 10 seconds) till they realize " this guy has done this before"

 

I'm going to put this bluntly and not sugar coated.
If you go the the hole-in-the-wall truck driving school and pay $1300 for the opportunity to drive a truck a limited amount if time you really deserve to get what's coming. You get what you pay for. sure if you pass the CDL test they will "help" you with job placement assistsnce. They have no guarantee you will be hired for a driving job after the school time is over.
if you go to a company that has it's own In house training dept with one on one training with an instructor you ae more likely to pass. Many of these companies will hire you after you finish the substantial number if weeks training you get on the road actually hauling fright in real world situations.

 

I'm not an ace backer by any stretch but you don't have to be that great to get by in really any job. OTR is hardest because of the sleeper cab and space requirements. I avoid losing sight of the back the trailer unless absolutely necessary. I like to get out and check my work at least once on a potential fender scraper, just out of curiosity.

Backing pups doing LTL work is much easier because the space requirements are so much less...you can usually swing it around hard enough to set up a simple straight line back with a short box.

 

I still have good and bad days, in my opinion, I am a perfectionist. It just takes practice.

One alternative that has not been mentioned is to rent a uhaul trailer and practice.

 

How about this idea, if you've got a good computer, get a Logitech G27 Racing Wheel and the Scania Truck Driving Simulator -works awesome! Check out some of these YouTube videos to see some examples ...#1 , #2 , #3 and for the setup see #4 .