What to expect during my mentorship

Hes not ready for cross bronx or the GWB just yet. It will eat him up. Like anything in life that time will come.

 

Did you stall the truck going from stopped to getting started or did you stall it trying to continue ahead or turn at the intersection?

Truck clutches are very durable.

Almost everyone that ever went to CDL school never had any truck manual transmission experience. More people, in the past, had some 4-wheeler manual transmission experience. IMO, have some experience shifting gears in 4-wheelers makes learning to do that in a truck much harder. You use the clutch and fuel pedal in VERY different ways between a 4-wheeler and a big truck. You cannot shift well in a truck if you try to shift like you shift a 4-wheeler.

In CDL school you typically only get a day or 2 of practice 5 minutes hear and 5 minutes there in the yard and then a few minutes on local roads. You will shift so many times every day the skill improves VERY quickly. Not every part of shifting improves at the same rate. Newbies often have some trouble getting moving. Then they have some trouble upshifting (accelerating), and they always have much more trouble downshifting (slowing down).

It's just a matter of practice. Some trainers think yelling will make progress happen faster. If the yelling is problem calmly tell the trainer to lower his voice and you will listen. AND DO WHAT HE SAYS. 100% of newbies freak out thinking the car drivers around them are 0.01 seconds from doing something because you screwed up. EFF the 4-wheelers. They will wait or go around you. Focus on what you have to do, let them worry about what they have to do. You're not the first truck driver to learn any of this. You can do it.

 

Just don't go thru the Lincoln Tunnel what ever you do , rolling down to Javits Center.
How about parking on the sidewalk on Canal Street , we used to hit them all Lincoln Center , Madison Garden , Kennedy Center , you better be on your A Game.

 

Any time there are days that cause you to question the fallacy of the entire human race in trucking, just keep in mind you thought it will be fun to learn to drive those big rigs.

The learning itself is the hardest, the doing is not too bad.

 

Is the splitter up?

 

What gear are you in? How heavy is the load? Are you on a hill?