Do any of you have days were you contemplate your job?

Only when I drive thru Atlanta!!
But it’s called a Job,and sometimes I have to work.

 

Never make a u turn on public roads. Most schools are there to train you to pass the state test to get your CDL. Trucking is very much on the job training.

 

If you've been thinking about it for years, you might need to go ahead and scratch the itch. You won't know until you go for it. You have to commit some time and money, but it's not like going to college and racking up a six-figure student debt.

A healthy respect for the responsibility you have as the operator of a heavy vehicle is a good thing.

 

You don't dock in flatbed very much, but when you do it's between what is essentially two giant concrete counter tops so your deck is level with the factory floor. You will also do plenty of backing when you deliver to job sites. I don't say that to worry you, but "flat beds don't back" is a myth and you would be better off with a more realistic picture. The good news is that when people say spread axles are harder to back, that isn't necessarily true. 99% of those people drove tandems first, and while a spread does feel different in that case, if one of those is what you learned on then you won't notice it. My company's step decks can close their spread to make a tandem, and THAT feels funny to me because I'm not used to it.

You will learn to back passably pretty quickly. To get really good at it can take much longer. One day it'll just click. Practice every chance you get. Every time you go park, do a 45 degree back into a space. Even if it's a pull thru, even if it's the middle of the day and you're the only truck in the lot. Look for double empties and park so there will be a truck on your driver's side but not your blind side. When I was learning I remember trying to park in an empty row is actually much harder, since it's too easy to lose sight of which spot you're aiming at if you do that. Either that or pick spots that have a massive pothole in the middle of them or something else you can use as a landmark.

 

If I wanted to be a surgeon, but got freaked out over pulling a splinter, I don't think I'd spend the time or money on med school.

You should probably find something else to do.

 

It would be simpler to count the days I didn't wonder. It's natural to be hesitant about any new venture. While trucking has become a no-brainer job, and not to be rude, but if you have 2nd thoughts and haven't even started yet, forget it. You have to really want to this, and the industry has a huge turnover rate from folks like you, that just weren't sure, but what the heck, how tough could it be? Do yourself a big favor, and pursue something you truly are interested in.

 

How do you know the person in the video isn’t an idiot?

“Well, they have lots of followers, Six.”

So does Kim Kardashian and her claim to fame was honking a bobo on camera before OnlyFans was a thing.

“But Six, she’s a billionaire!”

There’s a lot of pickles out there apparently. So, you go to youtube and try o educate yourself on the “lifestyle”…some submissive incel puts a camera in a truck to tell you what his life is like…and you’re wondering why you are having anxiety? How do you know the person is actually skilled?

When I went through the motorcycle safety course, the instructor show us this video and told us that by the next day, we will have to be able to do this:


I had never ridden a motorcycle before and I told the instructor that there’s no way in hell that any of us would be able to ride like this guy in a 2 day course. OBVIOUSLY, you can see the skill. How do you tell if a so-called truck driver making a video is skilled? You mentioned flat bedding…congrats on having stones to even look that way, but how can a flatbed driver tell if another open deck driver is skilled? Million mile sticker on a truck? No, that million miler might be a 40 year fair weather driver that only works banker hours with blue skies. How can one tell when a trucker has skills? Go to the flatbed/open deck forum and ask.

Now, I know you are worried about killing someone. Your focus is wrong. The goal isn’t to get a job, the goal is to be good at what you do. If you are good at what you do, the odds of you killing someone not looking for self deletion are really slim. You hit a curb in a box truck making a u turn. My first thought is that you’re not really smart. But, in your case, it may not be the smarts that’s the problem, it’s the indecisiveness. How does one learn to become Decisive as a driver?