Pre-Flight Checklist

As both a pilot and a driver that's a hilarious thought of actually having a kneeboard. That thing will just get in your way and you'll trash it inside of a day lol and you sure aren't going to be laying out the charts on your lap that steering wheel gets in the way and has this pesky habit of needing to be held onto unlike a yoke which pretty much stays where you put it once you roll in the right amount of trim hehehe

That said, and all sarcasm aside, your school will give you a good checklist of pretrip items to go by and expect you to study and know it. The one my school had was 4 pages long and pretty thorough.

 

Once you earn a working understanding of how the truck functions you'll be fine.

This can take anywhere from a day or two, to years for some folks.
It really depends on how mechanically inclined you are, until you have a full understanding of the mechanics of a truck; just look at everything.

When it comes time to take your test, and you're standing with the CDL examiner the best route to go if you're no sure is to verbally analyze EVERYTHING; "This is the hood mirror, I'm checking that it's secured, there's no rust on the mounting bracket, the seal on the mirror is not cracked or missing, the mirror itself is clean and pointed correctly." Yadda Yadda Yadda.


AND btw Mike, when you've been driving for a bit, come back and let us know if you're still doing those full pre-trips before you run that rig every single day

 

I've got commercial / instrument / multi and over 2500 hours. Used to do right seat in the 727-100 before moving into the management side of things. Much like trucking, the longer you've been out of the seat the harder it is to get back in. I miss it, but for what they're paying newbies to fly regional jets now I'm making twice that or better driving. The old high 5 into 6 figure pay scales have all but vanished in today's world of aviation unless you get lucky enough to fly for delta or ups.

The way you had it written it read like you wanted an actual kneeboard and that did conjure up an almost cartoonish hilarious image in my head. Checklists are a good tool and starting out you'll need them. By the time you're a few years in you'll just go back to them for reference from time to time.

Good of luck getting the ratings. It's a very rewarding pursuit and even with all my flight time when I go on the weekends now it's still just as much of a rush when the wheels leave the ground as it was the very first time.

 

Well it depends, I go through a mental check list I got into a habit of ... once the load is on the truck, I put up the skirts (the truck I regularly drive has bed skirts), put my chains on the load, put the binders on then walk down the line tightening everything. Then I check each one, making sure I didn't leave anything on the bed.

Once that is done, I get off the bed, check each skirt latch, even if they were not removed, and do a walk around and check to see if anything is behind me or ahead of me.

I get into the cab putting my gloves in their place, check the paper work and if there is any notification for delivery needed. make sure it isn't in gear, start the engine, check my mirrors, push the brakes off and put it into gear, checking the mirrors again. Once that's all done, I'm out of there.

 

Interesting that I have also thought about the pilot checklist as a tool for pre-trip. If DOT is so hung up on touching and explaining the 110 things on the "list", that list ought to be a list! I also have a flying background and would think having a check list would encourage more checking rather than just memorize the items and then mostly not look thoroughly after the DOT inspector has granted the CDL.

 

You're in Garden City; that's good tanker/hazmat country with good paychecks.