How do experienced drivers think new drivers should be trained

@MartinFromBC I like your training routine! A little at a time and gain experience in different rigs with a very experienced driver at your side.

You’re doing some of that “Ice Road Truckers” #### up there!!! Someone has to do that work and I greatly respect anyone who does Ya’ll rock!!!!

 

With sleep in their eyes. And not allowed for a bit.
Just saying what I think.

 

I’m not sure what you mean, but ok. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

 

Rub your eyes after you yawn in the middle of the night. Than you will understand when they start itching, and burning.

 

Oh lol I do that even during the day!

 

I had a background in pulling big boats behind pickups for 30 years.

Drove a dumping flatbed hauling lumber at a lumber yard and a dump truck hauling corn both when I was in my teens.

Went to a CDL in Gary Indiana 2 years ago that I thought was reputable .

We spent 80% of our time doing pre trips while we waited for what might be our next replacement instructor.

Total Joke .

I passed the CDL class by the skin of my teeth because of my poor shifting. I drove maybe 2 hours total during the class.

Only one other student in my class passed.

Never went to work for the Mega.

Got checked out by a milk hauling tanker operation 3 months later.

An hour of Checkout with a instructor hauling 50 thousand in a smooth bore tank, never hauled anything but an empty trailer in school.

They had me driving all alone driving 20 mile roundtrip local hauls for a week than sent me out shadowing experienced drivers doing cross country.
2 weeks of Shadowing they asked me if I felt comfortable. I said mostly

My very experienced guy I shadowed gave me his number and said call him anytime if I needed advice. He was kind enough to check up on me weekly.

My background of hauling big boats went a long way to help but my Shadow guy taught me more of the other stuff like dairy procedures that changed from dairy to dairy.

 

Martin is right.

Off road driving will make a man out of you. I laugh at the comments on here sometimes about steep hills and what not.

It’s a hill on pavement... not really a big dead unless you go barreling into it. Then you’re just dumb.

Driving off road isn’t a big deal once you’re used to it but it takes some getting used to. You’re gonna feel the truck lean a lot harder and it scares people new to it. You’re going to have wheels in the air, you’re going to go up hills so steep you can’t steer because you have no weight on your steers and all you can see is the sky.

It’s pretty fun taking a 6x6 though the mud though and seeing how much mud you can fling.

I find just driving boring as all hell. I guess that’s why I do what I do.

I don’t know why anyone makes fun of guys driving dump trucks and trailers hauling gravel. I guess they are mad we make more than them and don’t sleep in a truck.

 

They just don’t appreciate how hard y’all work or how essential you all are. My dad recently told me how much he respects drivers who haul sand. He had friends who did that when he drove a cement truck but said he tried once and the shifting bothered him too much. Was too stressful for him.

 

@tommymonza That dairy outfit sounds like they cared about you and about your training

 

Yeah, I used to drive a cement truck now I work for a paving company with a gravel pit so I do it all from shovel asphalt to haul gravel to flat bedding moving machines.

A manual mixer can kind of suck like your dad says. They are waaaay better off road but if you’re doing curb all day it gets old