How long did it take you guys to get your CDL?

Currently, going to a private CDL school, can't say much about this school except I learned everything on my own. The teacher threw us in the truck on the first day without any knowledge. Went through youtube for hours and learned how to offset, alley dock, parallel, and double shift and downshift on my own. -_-. I been going to a weekend only school (since they only have yard skills from 7-10am, 10-1pm, or 1-4pm). And driving once a week 8-11am on Wednesdays (They have driving from Mon-Thurs but I have work). I am sort of getting the hang of it but kind of feeling discouraged, especially the backing part, some times I can get the trailer in the hole, sometimes I over shoot it and sometimes it just sucks. I been attending the school since July 13th, so it's been roughly 8 weeks in school. I did make alot of progress on my own throughout these 8 weeks BUT the school is sort of forcing all the students to take the DMV test, whether your ready or not. There are people at my school who has been there for more than 8 months that have failed the DMV test multiple times. Only good thing about this school is that they don't really keep track of your 80 hours and you get to drive an actual 53 foot trailer lol. Any advice?

 

Make sure you have a manual transmission tractor to the test.

53 foot trailers are "Sweethearts" when it's time to hole them. Steer small. Be ready to undo the last input the opposite amount to follow trailer into hole.

Wont be long before you are wriggling trailers in between mirrors inside of each other at a 1920's produce rack.

 

Keep trying until you get that cdl.

 

4 weeks, 160 hour course.

Sounds like you’re already committed to that school so just give it your best and ignore the others who are failing after 8 months..

Here is some advice.. Your pre trip.. Find someone you can do it with. Meaning that you do the pre trip out loud, with them listening as a tester would do. Do it everyday any chance you get.

You won’t be able to advance without nailing the pre trip.

 

Thanks for the heads up, I can definitely knock out the pre-trip, I been studying it for a few months now. The only thing that would be a problem for me is my stuttering lol I have a mild stutter when I try to pronounce "ST" words but other than that I am not too worried. For the pre-trip we have a sheet to look over and also I took photos of 2 different trucks along with using trucking truth, so it helped tremendously. Im also a little worried about the air brakes test because in CA they are pretty anal on wording lol.

 

I know, I am not giving up, I spent thousands of hours on youtube educating myself as well as using this forum with the help of everyone here. It's just that I feel a little discouraged because the alley dock and parallel parking is kicking my butthole

 

Don't worry about the stutter. If something blew up and you choked on the G-g-g-G-G etc then you are in good company.

Did you know that Mel Blanc had a horrible stutter in his time and it was almost enough to make him a outcast. But creating voices for porky etc took care of that for him and how.

Even I stutter when I run out of words mentally and switch to sign language automatically forgetting that so and so don't know what the hell I am doing with some very surprising and rare exceptions. Thats why I use so much profanity, gets it all out of the system so I can convey properly.

 

Just remember your first trips underground at Civil War road at night into the food distribution will give you nightmares. How deep into the caverns can you drive and still get out. (Tip I use silver paint and make a dot on the side I turned at. Bread crumbs...)

 

lmao, when I interviewed for my first job after college I was a wreck "my nnnnnammmeeee is is is is _____" but it got better throughout the years as I talked more to people. But yeah I agree with ya, profanity helped me alot too.

 

I just went down and got mine with a construction company I was working for. We were doing bigger jobs and needed more people to haul them legally.

Just went down with truck and another driver. Took test. Got CDL