are expectations high for new CDL graduates?

Practice makes perfect man! Eventually that big truck will feel like another appendage on your body!

One thing you can do that will really prepare you for school and the real world is to study your Motor Carrier Road Atlas. There is a wealth of information in there, everything from logs, pretrips etc.... Also really good to practice your trip planning. Trip planning is going to be your biggest hurdle and most crucial skills! Backing will come easier than trip planning! Good trip planning is how you make good money. Personally I don't think schools and trainers spend enough time on it. I think a lot of trainers are either used to it or not good at it and don't spend time with their students teaching them how to do it.

In order to really maximize your miles, time and profit you must be proficient in trip planning. This will also make your dispatchers job easier and allow them to make better decisions regarding your loads.

 

When you get your cdl the DMV is saying this guy can probably drive a truck without an extreme risk of killing someone. Nothing more. Like the others said, cdl school teaches you how to get a license, otr training (hopefully) teaches you how to operate a truck, and you won't learn how to make it out here until you solo.

Thinkabout when you got your class E. Were you a perfect driver after the test? If you say yes you're lying to yourself.

 

backing is something your are going to have to learn, and with any skill it will take time. if you have trouble backing im sure someone will take there time and help you. just remember no one was a perfect trucker just starting out. i drove for 44 years and i learned something new on every run. just take your time and b careful. jon ps dont let a lot of kinda new drivers blow smoke at you, lots of luck

 

Turn the cb off till you get semi decent at backing. Listening to the wonder-boy's just makes you self conscious. Once you get the hang of it turn that cb back up. I've had drivers on my blindside spot for me over cb. That's a real gift after 14 hours and trying to cram the thing in a hole made for 48's

 

I hope this is a joke...

Anyone who comes out of a CDL mill driving like a super trucker (ie "perfectly") has had prior experience. Period. The company I started with didn't even care if you could shift, just as long as you were willing to learn and didn't "take out any stop signs" during your road test. You can't learn everything there is to know about driving a big rig in two weeks. Or even two months. And whats worse with these mills, your actual behind the wheel time is probably a lot closer to two hours in total than two weeks. I remember I had maybe 20 minutes of backing practice and an hour and a half behind the wheel shifting. Thank God I own my own utility trailer and my dad insisted I learn to drive a stick at 18, or else I would not have passed my dmv test.

 

Speak for yourself!

 

Let me give ou a little perspective from the view of a school owner. There are three types of "Schools". Private CDL operations, Bridge Training Facilities and Tech schools. Trucking companies that have training programs are considered private. I hope you did some research and found a good school. There are good and bad in each category.

If you have selected your school well they will have conncected you with a trucking company that has a training program. It looks like they have. If is works like it is supposed to, you will go to a company that has a trained driver trainer. It is the responsibility of the trainer to build on what the school has done. If the trainer starts out with "forget everything you learned in school" there might be an issue. Talk with your trainer and get some sense of how they want to handle your training. Does the trainer do better by doing and showing you what to do, is there some reading you need to do to help you understand and most importantly what are the rules the trainer wants the truck to operate under. (housekeeping, sleeping arrangements, ect.)

You will not be perfect when you leave any school because the definition of perfect changes. A fleet trainer has a little different defintion. Best to find out what it is so you can move to get close to it. Time is what is needed. At the point you leave school you have only acquired the knowledge. Time will help you with the more important skill...the judgement. When to apply some of the many skills you have now learned is the key to longevity in the industry. I think I can say that since I have been helping drivers and their trainers make it work for over 30 years.

 

Good post there trucktrainer!

Heck even the old hands have their bad days out there where they feel like complete rookies and can't seem to do anything right!

 

It wasn't until my last week of CDL school that I thought I even had a chance at passing the test. But even then I was nervous. I just decided to look the tester in the eye, speak forcefully and be confident, like a pitcher brushing a batter with a 98 mph fastball

But I was still a pathetic driver (not that I'm not a pathetic driver now, but I'm far less pathetic than I was, lol)

Company training was like starting all over, but youre in phase 2.

when you get to phase 3 .. on your own, the learning process will kick into hyper-drive and you'll really feel like you've progressed.

Basically echoing what everyone else said in this thread!

Good luck!

 

you will see a lot of fellow drivers out there that can backup very well, so don't worry about it to much . It took about 12 months before I felt like i could back in safely anywhere I wanted.