How did you learn to drive?

I took a 2 week class with S&S. My current job wouldn't allow me to take off to take it so I missed a week of the two week class. Showed up a month later to take the DMV test and past. There was no CDL then, It was a ARTICULATE license, (I think I spelled that correctly) with no classes, It did have endorsements. 100 guestions for common knowledge and 30-50 guestions for each endorsement. Got a job with a small local company and never looked back. Had a fender bender within my first six months that I payed $900 out of my pocket for, employer never found out about. Ran all the major cities in NJ, CT, NY, Pa, De, and MD. Even today I believe I'm smart enough to know I'm not that smart. Always listening.

 

well my uncle had 10 wheel dumps old autocars with a quad box
he says go to the pit and do this do that
i says i cant drive that
he says you can by the end of the day
1972

by 76 i had my own tractor had an otr driver show me how to back up one afternoon
next day left mass for the outer banks of
north carolina
loaded up a 40 ft great dane grossed out 98000 lbs and went to
ny ny fulton fish market

came back do buisness in 2011
had to do the school and newbie hire routine
and be legal

 

Now for the difference. NOT TO BE MEAN...But by observation... Most that enter into this industry now-a-days want the "easy way". Its what some of us call the need for "hand holding". We hear drivers say its IMPOSSIBLE to find your way around the country without a GPS or a computer. Its not being mean, we did extreemly well without them for many many years. We had to learn how to get things done and didnt complain about it. So, I think it just put ONLY a type of person behind the wheel compared to today. We once learned how to think for ourselves and figure things out for ourselves. In which goes back to the "hand holding" thing. We used to learn how to solve our own problems (helping one another and such) instead of MAKING society invent something to solve our problems. It just isnt a job for just anyone. Gotta love what you do and be honest with yourself.

 

I have 2 gps and also my phone has a gps.But do i ever use them,only when im close to the cust so that I dont miss the street.Otherwise its the atlas.

 

As a kid back in the 60's, I rode all over with my Dad so I knew about trucks.We had a farm also, so driving 'something' everyday was normal, even at 10 years old. Time I was 20, time to go trucking by myself. In 1973, we bought a 1970 COE KW, he made a short trip with me, maybe 100 miles, then turned me loose for a coupla produce loads going from southeast to Baltimore and Boston After making maybe 2,000 miles by myself [ mostly 2 lanes, not much interstate ] , he rode with me for a week or so to 'fine tune' my training:smt065.
I have never had to take a driving test, Florida's chauffeurs license was only a written exam, and sign a statement you knew how to drive a big truck. When CDL's came along, I was grandfathered in, due to no tickets.
Back then, insurance companies would cover a younger driver. Kind of a "don't ask, don't tell" deal, so long as an older driver was also listed.Still with that insurance agent after 40 or so years. Left a few times, always came right back.
Trucking was a lot more fun back then, I guess.Lot less luxuries than now, harder work, tighter delivery schedules, probably more net profit then.The public respected us more, and not everyone had their hands in our pocket. Folks seemed to get along better. Drivers DID help each other more, had more in common with each other. Mostly country boys, farming background, friendly type. Not all but most.
Most of the newer drivers of today would not like trucking back then.

 

I learned as youngen on the farm,back them a farm plate on the truck was you needed.and as HwyPrsnr said you got to love what you do or your just wasting your time.

 

Raised on my Granddads' dairy farm in NE Penna. By the time I was 11 I could run all of the farm equipment from tractors, dump truck, dozer, and all of the equipment that went with them. To be honest though, I didn't actually drive our semi till I was about 12 or 13.

On the farm, everybody was always busy working, you were pretty much were left to your own devices if you wanted to learn how to run something, that was an education that you can't buy anywhere and has served me well throughout my lifetime.

 

I grew up around the construction and trucking industry...majority of my family drove trucks or operated heavy equipment. I learned to drive dump trucks on saturdays with my dad when he was doing jobs out away from people or in the middle of no where. I graduated school...did construction work , then went to trucking school to "officialy" learn. I really just needed a truck and trailer to get my test done from them. I got hired with another construction company and been doing it ever since. It was pretty much born into/self taught. I notice alot of truck drivers dont consider me a real truck driver since I do local stuff and never crossed the states and such..but thats my story.