Finding a O/O to practice with before heading to school...

First is insurance..Most owner ops with their own trailers etc are independents who carry their own load insurance and so on..there are strict restrictions

along with what the previous posters said..Now..if you wanted to practice in a controlled environment, call a local trucking company and see if they would allow you to practice small thins like shifting in their yard..Some will some won't..they may even allow a driver hanging around the shop help you with backing and I guarantee it will be in the yard queen but hey..its worth the shot..

A typical company yard queen truck is about the equivalent of a school truck anyways..wore out, beat up, and falling apart lmao

Petey

 

stop worrying about it.

Most instructors worth their salt want you to succeed. They are not going to go out of their way to fail you out.

Just go slow and don't rush things. The bigger a vehicle is, the more you have to finesse it.

 

its not that hard, if this guy can do it you can do it....















American Trucker

 

At least his shirt is tucked in.

 

O...M...G...

 

All I can say to that pic..is..Wow...

If you graduated high school then the book side of things won't be hard at all..

the driving side..if you can drive a stick shift car you can pick up shifting a truck..its more gears and more to the shifting..but it is still shifting and is all about remembering the pattern...it quickly becomes second nature..and even after 6 years off the road I can still shift an 18 speed in my sleep..and if somebody else is driving and they about to hit somebody or something I still go for the imaginary clutch...I still catch myself swinging wide to make a 90 degree turn in either direction too..

Bottom line..its just learning new habits..once you have them..they are stuck forever...

Its just like smoking..doesn't take you long to catch on to it..but takes a life time to kick the habit..and a lot of the smoking habt is the comfort of holdin that cig in your hand

after you start driving within the first month you'll be shifting smoothly without a second thought..within 3 months you'll be backing and nailing it for the most part although there WILL always be days where you'll be glad to get it in the dock after 20 tries..that habit will develop once you get used to how your truck turns the trailer while backing that you can almost always nail your setup to back in...

A year from now and it won't be a second thought unless you have to blind side one in..then the pucker factor will come back in a hurry..but any more there aren't a whole lot of places you have to blind side....I think the whole time I drove I only had to blind side a trailer into a dock 3 times?..maybe 4....its all about planning ahead in most cases...every now and then you get that dingbat architect that puts an addition on a building in just the wrong spot too close to that one dock door so you have to blind side in..but it was rare...when it came to truck stops..I just didn't do it..if it was the only spot available i would go nose in first before I would blind side....then back back out in the morning...nice thing about a pete or kw..they didn't take a whole lot of wheel to keep a trailer straight backing up..Getting it to turn when you wanted it too took some planning..LOL..(long nose and long time to get back under it...too much angle and you never would catch te trailer..and would have to pull up and straight up to less of an angle..

petey