Let me make sure that all of you know the purpose of CDL schools. They are not there to teach you how to be a driver. Their one and only purpose is to get you a CDL. All of the skills you do are with one goal in mind, vehicle control in order to show the examiner that you have some idea how to control the truck and trailer. Sure, they show you some things with maps and paper logs, all the basics that will be on any states written portion of the exam. They don't teach you how to drive a truck and trailer. They do give you some hints and ideas on backing and parking, but they have to assume that you already know many basics of rules of the road, aquired during your time as a regular 4 wheeler driver. They don't teach you how to drive a truck and trailer. A good school will weed out some of the worst in the class for one reason or another. Many mediocre drivers will get by and are then passed on to the trainer who sometimes has to tell Swift that the mediocre driver can not cut it. It is with the trainer, or mentor in Swift's case, that begins to teach you the basics of driving a truck and trailer. You have to remember that they can't teach you all there is, because they don't know it all either. Some of them are the mediocre drivers that barely got through a few classes ago, I #### sure know that they don't know it all. I can tell you one thing, the absolute worst thing you can do is become complacent with what you are doing. If you come out of school or even off the mentor's truck thinking you know it all, believe me I don't want to be anywhere near you on the road. I've been driving for almost 9 years, all with Swift, still a newbie to some, a veteran to many, and whenever I think I have seen it all, some idiot does something so stupid that it scares the dickins out of you, but makes you sit up and take notice AGAIN of how dangerous our job is. All the miles on the interstate, all the mud roads in the oilfield or logging, it is all just training for the time you need to call on all your skills to avoid the big one that could take your life or worse, some else's life. The school is just the beginning not the end. They don't teach you to drive a truck and trailer. But once you get out on the road, that's the real school. Every time you crank it up, put it in gear and ease off that clutch, you are in the classroom again, learning something everyday.
If the CDL schools were meant to get you to the point that you were a good driver, meaning that you knew everything that was needed to know to be a professional driver... Well, it would take 4X the time and money. That being, at least a year of training and at least 30K for that training. We, as truck drivers, are not considered 'skilled' labor. Unless that changes, well, neither will the job requirements.
Thanks You for the insight. As a wannbe patiently waiting until I am able to become a truck driver, I try and read this site for practical advice and useful attitudes which, hopefully, will allow me to be a better driver. Thanks again!!!
