Who needs trucking school.

Cabwrecker is this you in the video?

 

I didn't go to a school (taught myself), and until a couple of months ago (feb) I had never been OTR........

If you have access to a truck, then I would agree with you, but most don't, so I think it's necessary in most cases

 

Some folks need the schools, some have the common sense to drive and figure it out without tearing up equipment. Myself I started driving without schooling or a trainer, but as a kid I always paid attention to what my dad did when I rode with him.

 

Just grow up on a farm in the prairie. If you didn't, you're probably never going to be a real super trucker.

 

especially pulling a set of doubles

 

Naw man, I was just joking. I'd own up to if it were me.

Rest assured I did something similar at a low bridge in Evergreen Alabama, but I realized that I wasn't gonna make my u-turn and just called the local police to come out and help me.
Made it out without a ticket and zero damage to the truck. DM was a little upset but he got over it.
Was just working on the stereotype that W-E is a second chance company.

 

"The self taught man seldom knows anything accurately, and he does not know a tenth as much as he could have known if he had worked under teachers, and besides, he brags, and is the means of fooling other thoughtless people into going and doing as he himself has done." -Twain

Without training you have little to nothing as a basis for evaluating the quality of your OJT. A truck driver is not necessarily a "teacher". "Experience" means exactly "squat". The experienced may have been getting away with doing it wrong for 20 years, and the positive feedback just keeps on coming, until it stops.

Formal training comes in handy for insurance purposes. Without formal training your employment options become very limited.

 

So are you saying those of us that don't go to trucking school are dumb in the ways of trucking? I've done this job for years without a wreck. I must be doing so,etching right I've drove for the same carrier for my entire career except for a month or rep.

 

I personally used to think that since I taught myself how to drive, and never had OTR experience that I was "dumb in the way of trucking"........ I just automatically figured that there HAD to be "something" that everyone learned going to a truck driving school that I just didn't know.............THEN I found this place and registered on here and found out that I was needlessly knocking myself- that most of these places prepare you for the BARE MINIMUM to get your CDL......

With that said: I WILL say that my recent and ONLY OTR experience made me realize just how much I DIDN'T know about trucking..... But those "lessons" (how to use a Qualcomm, using a log book, proper etiquette at a TS, how to pay for gas at a TS,etc, etc) I wouldn't have learned at a "school" anyway (I don't think-correct me if I'm wrong) ...... I WOULD HAVE LEARNED THEM if I went to a mega ..... But that isn't school, it's actually working for them (on the job experience)......

So do people need school to learn to drive a truck? ..........IF they don't have access to a truck- YES......

I think the better question is: Does a person need OTR experience to be a driver?............ I used to think: NO!........

Now that I had a small amount of it- my answer is: YES (with the following caveat) it might not be "necessary"(just like school isnt "necessary"to get your CDL), but it SURE HELPS make you a better driver......... Don't believe me? Which type of experience do you think insurance companies put more emphasis on? A small amount if OTR, or YEARS of local?

 

No, I usually write what I mean, and I managed it that time, I think.

Well, that's among the things you can learn at trucking school, the general tendency is to measure driving performance by absence of wrecks (and/or tickets), which are among the absolute lowest standards.

And the next tendency is to falsely blame others/something else for the wrecks. This is glaringly obvious in the tendency of the media to fallaciously report fog or other conditions responsible for crashes when, somehow, they don't cause everyone subject to them to crash.

Something about motor vehicles... it might just be wheels... appears to cause the human brain to go into neutral, unless one consciously puts it in gear, applying "knowledge".