Fail my CDL Road Test, so disappointed. Maybe CDL not for me?

I totally agreed with you. But, knowing how to drive doesn’t mean that you will be A driver .
If there is an issue , The company trainers will detect if there are issues ( I hope so )
And I think that happens in many other careers. Some people finish college and can’t get a job .

 

As a crew boss I do not yell at anyone.

If the entire crew is moving in one direction according to established daily objective of attack, I am literally quiet. I give them thanks and encouragement. Very little mind you. Don't want them rotting off on the sweet.

Once in a while I find that someone has a issue. I herd that one out of the rest of the crew and say is there a problem today? And wait for either waterworks if there is any. Whatever the problem is I try to fix it. And point that person back into the truck and have it going to the barn.

I think I yelled about 4 times all year with my crew. Usually they all freeze particularly the onery one who earned it. I tell him or her if I have to spend my time yelling for the rest of the day so you can do this simple task for everyone I might as well make you boss of the whole thing and go home right now.

Eyes get big as they process the looming problem of 10 or whatever number of people versus whatever was aggravating them like burr under saddle. Oh no... I'll be fine leave it be. etc etc etc.

Anyone thinks being a boss is a good thing? No. Not when you have a bigger boss intent on watching the entire outfit perform adequately.

I had a boss once in my life who was very profane. When nothing was going well today and everything is somehow in a systematic sabotage of everything he tries to fix with people, with money, with parts or plain profanity when nothing works... we hide. It's not funny. But there were days he could not see us for trying. And when he did see us show up we were engaged in something towards the objective of the job. Ok, that's great cools him down a little bit.

But give him a chance to understand that I don't know which way to put that truck at the moment, he knows that he has to do something to get me moving in the correct direction. So he points. We are moving well enough to that point.

We have been with him long enough to understand it is not us that is the problem. It is he customer tasking us that is the problem. One job in particular requires a two axle dump truck on very bad ground in a forest to build a gravel road. It's spring and rain has been pouring. There has been several converstations from the boss saying, we cannot do this in the rain correctly to make your road as best as it can be without spending tons of money. Customer does not want to hear it. Especially those with more money on hand than brains. So a road must be built where one wont be.

When you dump that load of gravel and it all stays as a solid block in the tray above your rear axle due to the wet gluing it together and your front end goes vertical needing the backhoe to pull your truck back down and then break up the lump of gravel that got out and shovel it somehow into a road. It just sinks into the mud. Requiring ten loads to do what two would do on good dry ground.

Those are the days in which the boss is not profane. Every time the customer wants to know why the job cost is now 5000 dollars in stone instead of two the Boss would be quietly and politely remind the customer by pointing into the rain sky above. That is the problem here just like we explained it to you yesterday and the day before. That's why you cannot get a road yet until this dries out.

At that point you know the customer has a choice to make. So with all of us watching, they either choose to throw down another 5000 dollars in a futile effort to build a road against three more days of rain or they think, ok come back when it's dry. It does not bother us either way at all.

at that point you know that you can enjoy life, even when a heavy truck goes onto it's dump gate and face the sky. It's not a problem.

 

You are right at the basic level. However, my post and words of encouragement were directed to people that want to quit out of fatigue. It does not automatically make someone a dangerous driver just because they are a slow learner. This lady I spoke of had been subjected to a lot of sexist crap and was close to quitting. I hope that was fixed, I did my best to start the process.

If The OP is not cut out for this job that should be something they come to realize after careful sober evaluation and not after a bad outcome in one phase of training.

One more point about the Swift comments. I am not a Swift basher. I do some humorous bashing from time to time. However, I also did that going back years ago with other carriers. Honestly today I find a lot to bash with just about the entire industry. However, I will not advise someone to leave just because they are not learning at a pace I think is proper.

There are some simple things most dangerous drivers have in common. My largest beef is they refuse to pay attention while driving. They rather make hours-long cell phone conversations or text. They won't clear an area first before backing. They follow to close and drive way too fast for conditions. Will the OP be this way? I don't know. I rather give them the benefit of the doubt and offer some words of encouragement in the meantime after a frustrating day for them. If that offends, well I'm sorry!

 

Yes, some people cant even drive a car properly. And getting into trucking now, might be a mistake, as with automation, trucking will need lots less drivers, particularly OTR. The days of 3 million milers are coming to a close, IMO. Keeping your cool is mandatory behind an 80k pound rig. No road rage allowed. Someone flips you off, you just laugh or give them the peace sign.

 

We seem to live in a world where people seem to think that everyone can learn to do (put job/gig here) That is just not the case. Take music for example in my case. I dont have the ability to ever become good at playing ANY instrument and I know it. Others can play multiple instruments like pros, or sing like a bird, as they have a gift I simply don't have at all.

Thankfully I am a natural when it came to driving, and I never had a hitch getting my CDL. Other people don't, and never will have that gift, and they really shouldnt try to force it. Besides trucking has been going downhill for ages now, and the pay, respect, laws have all become worse over the many years and decades I have been driving.

Thankfuly I will be retiring soon so it wont matter to me how awful it gets as automation takes over the biz. Cant stand auto-shifts anyhow. IMO, they just make it easier for a bad driver to be able to stay in the industry.to me. Were it up to me, no auto shifts would be allowed to pass
the CDL testing, in fact.

 

When I started you were given a day to deliver, usually sunrise and sometimes in the evening depending on the customer's needs. And as long you made it there usually before that day and empty, there is no problem getting reloaded.

Very little was JIT, take auto parts for example. That's pretty hot, because the plant it's going to needs it there usually a certain time. The place you picked it up at is making more. So as long you are on time to the minute no problem. It's how your cars get built.

Unfortunately somehow over the years everything that fits into a truck that is not hot stuff like auto parts received a appt time. For decades there is no point in arriving to the minute at say Walmart and then sit 12 hours before getting a dock with 50 other trucks. Or any number of other customers. I worked exactly one night as a temp in the walmart at searcy and we were responsible for 9 docks. All of the 8 and 12 trailers we took care of in 4 hours flat were store trailers from walmart trailers. Vendors (Outside trucking) unloaded their own or lumper in another part of the place.

So with a crew you can unload many trucks in a hurry. We are not there in interest of cost vs profit by having three people man a nestle 100 dock block with 2 forklifts. It will take a while.

If trucking speeds up, the shippers and customers must speed up as well. The less detention time it takes to get a rig empty is better, particularly when a freight is not that important.

 

Couple things

1. Starting in 4 makes it easier to stall not harder. Takeoff in 2 or 3 instead.
2. Skip gears on your downshifts. Brake til you drop to like 6 or 700 rpm then clutch in neutral clutch out rev 1000 and drop it in gear. Don’t worry about clutching the 2nd time on your downshifts they won’t even notice.

 

This thread and subject remind me a bit of something I have tried to live by my entire life. Never make important career decisions while angry, emotionally tired or when you are not feeling well physically. If you do it is almost inevitable you will make a mistake or burn an important bridge. I'm not talking about just trucking here. I'm talking about life in general. This is why when I am confronted by this subject I try to offer words of encouragement.

Most intelligent people will sit down and think about their status as a driver. If it is not working out (and that decision was not made for you) inside you know it. After sleeping on it and being sober in thought get off the horse and go find another job. Not one thing wrong with that.

The rate that drivers get out of this industry after those first 2 years is very close to 50%.

Getting a trucking job is generally easy. Keeping it is NOT!

 

I can appreciate everyone trying to help. But suggesting he learn via automatic?

...Come on.

Like there aren't enough people on the road who only know how to hold a steering wheel, and not very well at that.

But to the OP, no one that is any good at driving learned how to do it 10 minutes a day. Some people are "naturals" and some people aren't. Driving is a skill like anything else, anyone who puts in enough effort and time learning can do a decent job at it. My advice, find a place where you can learn how to drive more than a couple hours a day, and if it still doesn't work, then maybe you really aren't cut out for it.

 

When I got my CDL a few years ago, the DMV employee who gave me the test said that they were running at a 70% failure rate. Granted, this was California and that was probably because most of the fails didn't speak English, but don't feel bad. Just study harder and do it again.