Big Rig Intimidation

As a Newbee I can tell you that everytime i get behind the wheel I get nervous. As my trainer has said(25+ yrs. exp.) he is still a little nervous behind the wheel. I am slowly getting less nervous but inclement weather and mountains still make me clench up a bit.

 

I remember being more attentive when hitting the road with a rig after a vacation. I assume I would be more attentive if I drove a COE after all these years in conventionals.

Stay loose, don't freeze up with fear. Take the lane you need for the corners. This is business and industry. You have paid for your license and you have a right to use these roads. Fasten your seat belt. You are the captain of the ship. Nothing will go wrong if you practice what you were taught.

When I was about 10-years-old, I visited my grandmother and her second husband on a farm in Ontario. The old man had me driving the tractor and pulling a load of loose, not baled, hay. We were on a two-lane, turtle-back road. I knew that cars were trying to pass, and I was easing over to the right. The old farmer scolded me. "Stay in the middle otherwise we tip over." I learned to take what is necessarily mine. Back then, I was nervous, but not now.

 

I took my driving test and I was more nervous than a puppy at a family gathering. I had a lot of pressure from my company to get my cdl. I was given a lot of advise before I took the test. Two guys in my shop did not pass the test when they let their licenses expire. One hit a curb with the trailer and the other sped through a school zone. The biggest anxitey for me was driving a semi and trailer through Indianapolis. I hit a new construction zone on a side street. They had my lane rerouted through the turn lane with orange cones that were not spread out very far. I got the truck and trailer through there without hitting one. The drving instructor told me after I got it through there that he thought I would pass the driving test with no problem. I still get nervous in trucks in heavy traffic.

 

Heck, heavy traffic can still make me a bit edgy even in my 4-wheeler! Too many idiots with the potential for too many things to go wrong all in one area.

 

From the title of this thread, I thought it was about driving techniques required to get through L.A.

 

Or anyplace where merging is a personal challenge!