Way back there when you were a newbie....were newbies better drivers?

Perhaps one of the biggest differences, when I started in the mid 70's there were about 100 million less people in the country! So there was a whole lot less traffic, and less stuff to run into!
But I spent almost an entire year training/co-driving with an O/O. Now I have heard drivers say they were trainers, with less than a year's experience, haven't been thru a winter yet, and it scares me to death!

 

When I started driving back in '77 the first job i had i went with a trainer for 1 week. The other companies that i drove for only wanted to know if i knew how to drive. When i drove for a grain co. the road test was taking a load to a elevator & unloaded it than returned it to the yard.

 

I came straight out of the army as a driver and BSed my way into a 13 speed KW pulling tankers. No trainer, just me trying to adapt to the civilian side. Talk about a learning curve...

 

Your kiddin' right ???
We're not building rockets here we're driving.
and besides the highways will not be safer and regulations will not be affected by a driver apprenticeship.
And no company is gonna join two drivers at the hip for a year... no way.
I take my cdl road test next week and I'm trying like crazy to find a company who will give me minimal training,pat me on the ##### , and let me make some dough.
Its the soccer moms in mini vans that need the apprenticeship...not
commercial drivers.

 

Yeah; you go student...

 

(Emphasis mine.)

A year-long apprenticeship is excessive, no doubt, but you should want as much training as you can get. Just because you earn your CDL, it doesn't mean you're ready. In fact, at least in Pennsylvania, the CDL exam is an outright joke, and most of the schools that claim to prepare you for it are even funnier. Learning by rote how to parallel-park a big rig (lol, how often does that come up in real life?) does not equal knowing how to drive.

There will be a lot of stuff that you'll have to learn on your own, it's true; no amount of hand-holding, whether it's from someone at your CDL school or from a driver-trainer, is going to make you into a solid truck driver. You will be thrown into the fire eventually, and if you're smart you won't feel terribly confident about it when it happens -- but you shouldn't be in any rush to get there.

Try to have a healthy respect for what you're getting yourself into, and above all for the 72-foot, 80,000-lb vehicle you're asking to drive. Your very life may depend on it.

If you're in a blind rush to make cash, then disappointment likely awaits. I hope, for your sake, that a little disappointment with the pay is the worst of your problems.

Drive safe.

 

new drivers need to realize that they are new and dont know everything. talk to the guys who have been driving 10,20,30 years and listen to there advice. i've been driving for 2 years, i stoped at a truck stop today for breakfast, there were 3 other drivers sitting next to me, we talked about alot of stuff and i will listen to alot of what they said, because when it comes to the vets us newbies DONT KNOW A #### THING! so newbies take some advice from a newbie, ask questions, alot of questions. any veteran driver will talk to you and ansewer almost anything you ask. you will learn alot, i learn something new every day.