How did you learn to drive?

I started driving @ ECC elgin community college truck driving 18 weeks of hell but got through it then hooked up with a good company that put me through another 6 week training with skid pad ( defensive driving ) and otr

I highly recommend anyone starting out do the same.

 

I grew up in Elgin. LHS class of 76. Small world.

 

Went to drivimg school im denver,co been driving for a flat bed company. Traning was 3 months witj company and 3 weeks in school, o think you shuld ride with someone for at least a year, winter is here and i drive I70 in co all day and night and ive had a few close calls on the passes and im tarified of whats to come, but i learn better by doing just wish i had more training.

 

I grew up in trucks, Dad had a shop done alot of local hauling too. Rode with his brother every chance I got from when I can remember till I took my first load. He taught me the big 3 No horned cattle on top, keep torque on the drive line in a curve, and keep the brakes cool. Also told me all the time you just drive your truck driver you can't drive mine. So many today want to drive the other guys truck IMO. But the best advice he ever gave me is "Boy you can't haul chickens if your lights don't shine." BTW to my knowledge my first trip was the only time BIG MABEL left without him.

 

Started out moving to a new area, leaving a union warehouse job for a delivery driving position with a food service company. No license, just a permit and a metric ton of bills (house car wife baby). My first few weeks were pretty mild with my first trainer, just restaurants around Hartford CT. My next trainer had back to back runs to Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. Talk about out of the frying pan into the fire! Of course being an overconfident arrogant New Yorker by birth as well as having lived in Brooklyn, it was less shell shock than others might have encountered. I stayed with him on that run until getting my license, and covered it quite a few times when he was off. Since then I've worked a bunch of other places, some large carriers, some regionals. Currently driving my own under a smaller regional outfit.

Don't have the house, car or wife anymore but I've got my son, plus a few more. I will still go into the boroughs at the drop of a hat. I suck badly at giving directions there because I just go on visuals.

 

I am self taught.

I started out towing and driving a straight truck hauling bobcats, scissor lifts etc. I had worked for the company for 2 yrs before I was asked to drive an old Mack that had a 21 spd spicer with 3 axle RGN behind it. Company stayed busy hauling heavy equipment for 5 or 6 different construction companies. Never a short supply. I was paid by the hour back then. We worked 8 - 12 hr days. Usually just 5 days a week. Maybe a couple hours on the weekends. $50 day per diem if I left state. We were put up in motels. Were never away from home for more then a week at most.

Back then for $8 or $10 and a 25 question multiple choice test you could get a class A Chauffeurs. This was pre CDL days. No road test, no hoops to jump through.

I showed a strong fortitude and had a good work ethic even at only 21 yrs of age. Thats why I was chosen to fill in for the heavy haul crew. I took my job very seriously and always had a knack for learning equipment very quickly. I drove straight truck for 2 yrs and Class A for 6 yrs before get out of trucking for 15 yrs. I've never had an accident or any kind of ticket while driving commercially.

Some people are naturally adapt to get into trucking, while others struggle or never quite get the hang of it.

Personally I am of the opinion that you can not be 'Taught' how to drive a truck. You can be shown how, and shown what every is. But its up to you and only through experience and time in the seat that you will honestly learn.



Hurst

 

I learn to drive a truck by my friend who teach me when he has a free time. I like to drive a truck that's why I want to have my own CDL.

 

How did I learn to DRIVE? Mom taught me, she's pretty good.

How did I learn to DRIVE PROFESSIONALLY? I got a job with a Taxi company out of college. Some teens cruise around town all night, I got paid to do it.

How did I learn to DRIVE WELL? 3 seasons chasing a guy around a race track for a cheep plastic trophy. www.scca.org

How did I learn to DRIVE A TRUCK? Trucking school. The above might have helped.

 

Can't vote in the poll. You can put my answer where you best think it fits because it was some of all. Came along during a time when Uncle and the real "Old Guard" ruled the roads. Then deregulation and the CDL Laws came into play about the time I was old enough to start driving. They were new enough and not well regulated or enforced so I got to learn old school, (keys and go) but new enough the industry was changing. I learned to get my (they were just calling them) CDL by "here's the keys and truck". When paychecks started bouncing I had to go to a big company that didn't recognize my time so I had to go through their training program. It was a good thing. Self/Family taught left a lot out. But it had a lot that the big company training didn't. Self reliance and a "just get the load delivered no matter what" attitude for a start. Truck breaks down - fix it. Hours short, fix it. Fuel tax on the Bingo Card shy or load heavy - go around the scale - fix it. No mater what just get the load there on time and roll with the tools and knowledge to be able to fix whatever and keep rolling.

The big company said: here's the new world, HOS, Drug and Alcohol compliance, new equipment, breakdown calls, running legal . . . ish, Com Cards for fuel and IFTA (no more Bingo Cards), sliding tandems, fifth wheels and run the big road, safety and compliance are important but still - get the job done best you can - back then. Proper training was coming into play and I got it.

I learned how to survive living in a truck without going broke and shaking America's freight across all lower 48 from both old school and new school people that actually lived the life and cared about a young kid learning to do it right. Be Safe and Compliant, but get the job done when things go wrong, which they do. Quite often. Live out the truck, but don't give all your money to the truck stops and weasel flops. What "Pop" said about snow and ice ain't exactly right. He got lucky. Don't rely on Luck.

Bit of all of it, you see. 1.5 million miles. Another 1.5 million in the bag yet to make. Not a single accident, not a single thing on my 10 year MVR and now they have this PSP thing and I don't have a single point there either. 15 years and I have NEVER been charged with a late load either. Sure some of that has been Luck. I think most of it is because I had the best of both worlds as my teachers and I carved every lesson form both of them in stone. I make a real good check each week, though, and nobody gets hurt. Not bad in this business or life itself I guess. I have plenty of aches and pains from things gone by both personal and professional but life in trucking has been good to me. I got no complaints to speak of. None with merit anyway. If I'm being totally honest I can put most of my bad experiences right back on my own shoulders. Did something I shouldn't have done or didn't do something I should have. Some I knew better, some I should have known better but just wasn't thinking straight at the time and some were just part of learning. Thankfully I never tore anything up or hurt anyone physically by an accident. Few ladies and children I owe apologies to, though. Living on the road and being gone all the time you miss a lot of things you wished you could have been there for. Somebody's got to pay the bills, though, and trucking is what I do. Shook that truck's hand too long ago to change things now, though. Honestly I don't really want to. It's kind of like being in the military. It's not a job; it's a way of life and you're never at home as much as you want to be. We adapt, though, and America keeps free and moving as a result.

God Bless: Be Safe and make that next mile the way it should be made so we all get home. It's Thanksgiving time and there's a warm fire and fresh home cooked food for a couple of days in my windshield. Don't get that often as I like these days so I'll catch y'all on the flip. I got toasties to roast for a few hours.

 

I went to mnx trucking driving school for 3 weeks, then went out with a trainer for 2 weeks, then teamed with another guy out of my class. This was in 1990.