Do you need to work continually to keep skills?

It is easier to accept that there is no skill set to speak of when you consider what you really don't yet know. Your first few years will determine success or failure of your venture into trucking.

Eventually you will get good at something. Revel in that newfound #### Im good doing this y'all. Watch this!

Even today I can probably get a trailer into a formal dock in one move. It would not be pretty and I would be rusty, but I have no shame. And no pride either. That thing will get into the dock. Kind of like riding a bike you never forget. Same thing with the truck. Once you have a wife you know what needs to be done correct. You will be fine.

It's the first year that is a threat to you. Hitting stuff, breaking stuff, running over things, making excuses like a schoolboy etc. That separates a bad driver from the industry before they really had a chance to calm down and get professional in a few years.

 

Hows the old saying go ? "If you don't use it you lose it" i don't necessarily agree with that statement, i haven't ridden a bike for nearly 30 years i'm quite confident i could just get on one and ride the same with truck driving a few months without driving won't really effect your ability sure you may be a little rusty however depending on your abilities you should just be able to start right up again. eg i'd hadn't driven a truck in almost 6 years from 2011 - 2017 just jumped in one for a test run with a recruiter we just went and drove for a couple of miles up the road and back to the depot he said he couldn't tell that i hadn't been driving at all changing the R/R like i'd always been doing it started the job up the next day.

 

I am really reluctant to get on a bike, most of my youth in a Sears 10 Speed 26 incher in those days had a territory in about 4 states and 65 miles radius. Twice that if I had a spot to sleep the night.

I still have that bike. I need to find a way to determine how those welds are. I would not risk myself on that thing now. Yet. Things have changed a great deal in the last oh.. 40 years. I hope that I can resolve that little issue at some point within a year.

 

According to Extra Super Duper Trucker Insurance Company known as Dewey Screwem and Howe:

If you stop driving for as little as three months, you have forgotten absolutely EVERYTHING (including how to walk upright and chew gum at the same time) and must forthwith IMMEDIATELY attend a full refresher course with one of our finest large training carriers!

You will be immediately reduced to straight outta school rookie, and will be paired with a true professional driver with at LEAST three months over the road experience! DO NOT attempt to instruct or advise your professional trainer in ANY way relating to your prior experience! The trainer has been trained to the VERY HIGHEST standards of cheap labor while YOU were busy off doing non trucking stuff that didn't make the carriers any money (you scuzzball you!)

Once our trainer is willing to sign off that you have been appropriately brainwashed.....errr... trained to exacting company standards, you will then embark on a whole new exciting trucking career, starting (of course) at the bottom.

Enjoy reclimbing that ladder to once again be titled "Veteran Driver"! Should only take six months or so....if you survive that long....

 

####. Killjoys all. Ive dreamed of breaking out a few fun games to share with our esteemed professionals.

One example.

Load trainee with bunch of make work questions. Then hand trainee a little seal for trailer, ask same to walk back and verify number on logbooks and bills which should be a pile of papers filling both of his hands. It works best in windy condtions.

Allow the truck to hiss off the brakes and drift backwards as now angry trainee marches stiffly towards the back trailer doors. Make sure your speed is half his walking. Keep it straight.

At some point Trainee should yell, #### THIS IS A LONG TRAILER WTF!?? and stop walking short. Be ready to do that too. See if you can repeat when trainee starts seriously make a effort to get back there.

I think they should box me up and bury me. Stuff that we used to do to people long ago or had done to us.. memorable but perhaps out of time and too harsh for our esteemed sensitive snowflakes.

 

Do you lose everything? Heck no.

Are you as sharp as when you're running and gunning? Not even close.

 

It's like shooting. If I maintain a attitude of seriousness about my aim and keep working on cutting cards facing edge on at 10 yards in the range eventually I will cut a few cards now and then. Not every time. That's for the pros and show offs.

IF I did not shoot a while, I get rusty. That card edge becomes a saucer plate for all practical purposes of putting rounds within say 5 inches across center mass. It will take a certain amount of ammunition before I can feel sharp again to put the round within 1/3 of the inch of what I want to hit at 10 yards. Anything greater than that in distance I get iffy vs man sized realistic targets. I can still hit em but I rather get closer.