[rjallen]

All

I have posted about wife's and my experience in truck driving school. Yesterday, my wife suffered a setback and I wanted to draw from everyone's experience.

After 3 range sessions [2 sessions for me] we were taken out onto the streets. Our initial route was through a typical truck type industrial park next to the school. Some of the streets were only 24 feet wide. The businesses were trucking companies, salvage yards and construction companies. There was light traffic.

I did fine but I did find one thing strange. My wife became scared and asked to return to the school because of the same problem. At two points of the route, we went by salvage yards that parked junked vehicles next to and sometimes partially in the 2 lane [24 ft] roads. At several points these junkers narrowed the passable roadway to 1 1/2 [or slightly less] lane width. At one point ,with these old vehicles on all sides and one vehicle well in to the roadway, we had to make a 90 degree right turn. There was some traffic entering and leaving the junk yard which made it necessary to stop well in advance to avoid a conflict. Now you experienced drivers would have no problem with this. But a first time student?

Now this would seem to me to be a great advanced place to practice space management and lane control but for the first road experience?! As I said before, it was doable but my wife was too uncomfortable to do it :roll:

My question for you. What was your first road experience like? I would have never picked such a place to train a beginning auto driver. And yes, there were other more rural places with wider open less congested places near the school.

Thanks for your input.

Thanks :?

[matcat]

Well I have yet to step into a rig, but from my experience, I have found it's best to learn in tough circumstances. When I first learned how to drive a regualar vehicle, I had to learn in a 3/4 ton 1970s van (and this is only a few years ago :P), thing had 3" of play in the stearing wheel, and for a regular car on the road this thing was huge. After I mastered parking that thing, I NEVER had a problem with any other vehicle :P Same as with lane control as well, and turning.

[bigo1969]

my first road experience was pretty casual road, but my third was a llittle nerve wrecking. we learned a valuable lesson on slowing down before turns. we all saw a trcuk rollover right in front of us. needless to say i learned alot from that.

[Uturn2001]

Lets face it, while what you described seems somewhat harry to a newbie, in the grand scheme of things that will be the least of the challenges you will face as a professional driver. If you limit your experiences to the easy stuff or mostly easy stuff when you get out there you are going to have real issues to deal with.

[golfhobo]

RJ:: My first road driving included all you mentioned, and much MORE!

Railroad tracks, overpasses, traffic on all sides, tight turns, you name it!

You mentioned a "first time auto driver." Remember, neither of you ARE one! You've been driving for years!

Trucks are not so different. The main thing is that you need to drive the CAB straight forward into the intersection further before turning, and ALWAYS "hug" the outside of any curve to allow room for the "offtracking."

The school probably took you through this route PRECISELY to get a feeling for your "comfort level." They are NOT stupid. They want to know at what level you will LOSE your confidence. Or what aspects of driving a truck they need to work on for you.

They may adjust their training to fit this level, or they may wash you out!

Trucks are BIG.... but the world remains the same size! YOU must learn how to fit into it, and you must learn to be confident that you CAN!

I'm not gonna bust your cajones with my usual saying that Trucking is NOT for Wusses! You are both too new to deserve that!

But, I WILL stress that you must be CONFIDENT that you can do what every OTHER trucker has learned to do!

Your career will be FULL of such situations! There are very few "easy" routes.

I don't know, or expect, that either of you are as fearless and confident as I was, but I will relay a story that may give you some comfort.

When I hired on to my company, and was in the "training period," I was a bit white knuckled at the start. This was mostly because I was ALONE with the truck (trainer in the sleeper) and started at night in the mountains of Tennessee.

After the FIRST week, I told my dad I had whittled this big rig down to the size of a station wagon. After the second, it was no bigger than the family car. After the third, it was the size of my midsize sedan.... and after four short weeks on the road, I had it down to the size of a sports car!

What I am saying is.... it looks TOO BIG to you right now. But, with time and practice, it SHOULD become as much second nature as driving your own vehicle!

To put it another way, how confident were you of your FIRST kiss? Or on your FIRST date? How ridiculous does that sound NOW?? You must PROJECT yourself into your OWN future to see yourself in total command of this beast! It WILL happen, as surely as does every OTHER aspect of life!

Somehow.... I believe..... if you can SEE yourself being confident and capable in your NEAR future, you will understand that there is nothing to FEAR from these early experiences.

ONLY if you let yourself say, "I'll NEVER be able to do this," will it become a fact!

I wish you both the best!! I CAN'T do it FOR you.... and you wouldn't WANT me to! But, I and every other driver on this board, are BEHIND you 100%!!

Now..... go look at yourselves in the mirror and ask: "Is that idiot HOBO any better at this than WE can be???" :lol:

I MEAN it!!! Go to the mirror and DO it!! You will feel SILLY.... and that's JUST what I want you to feel! You'll have a good laugh, and you'll realize that it is SILLY to think that you can't master a few basic rules of geometry that govern truck driving!

And don't worry about having to "return to the yard" the first time that this happened! Thousands have done the SAME!! What will make you (or your wife) a DRIVER, is the will and confidence to get BACK on that horse and BREAK it!!!

Hobo

[Deus]

It can be intimidating at first, but just follow the number one rule and you will be okay. DON'T HIT ANYTHING. Don't feel rushed in any situation. Keeping the motoring public that you may be delaying by taking your time in a tight situation is the least of your concern.

Also it helps to visualize every manuver you're going to make ahead of time. Most of us don't have that habit starting out because let's face it you don't need to plan a turn in a car.

As you come up to a tight intersection, imagine in your mind how the rig will look moving thru it. Imagine where the trailer will offtrack, and how you need to move the tractor ahead of time to cause the trailer wheels to move that way.

Always try to stay calm is the best advice I can give. Concentrate on what you have to do, make sure you don't hit anything (don't be careless), and take as much time as you need to do it safely.

I agree that the school did the right thing here. Hobo is right, you're going to experience MUCH worse out in the real world. Best to learn now what to do in those situations.

If your path is blocked by another vehicle, wait. They are not in a truck, you are.

I can't tell you how many times I've had the same type of situation where I'm going down a narrow street and have to take a right and some yahoo will roll into the intersection and expect me to take my right turn and get out of his way. It just isn't happening. I'll sit and wait until the car moves, however long it takes.

[Deus]

Originally Posted by golfhobo

To put it another way, how confident were you of your FIRST kiss? Or on your FIRST date? How ridiculous does that sound NOW?? You must PROJECT yourself into your OWN future to see yourself in total command of this beast! It WILL happen, as surely as does every OTHER aspect of life!

I have been on many dates and am still a nervous wreck ops:

[golfhobo]

Originally Posted by Deus

I have been on many dates and am still a nervous wreck ops:

WUSSY!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Seriously.... Never was good at THAT, myself!!!! ops: ops:

[rjallen]

Thanks for replies- interesting mix.

As I said, I did OK. I went on to do 103 miles during this session. That included coming back through the downtown part of Missoula on Hwy. 200. Nowhere was there any constriction as bad as the first part of the drive. I graded out as progressing, very good to excellent performance. Now if I can just learn to down-shift. :twisted:

The congested part of this drive was exactly at the 3rd turn of the session, less than a 1/2 mile from the school driveway. Maybe I'm being protective of my wife, but it doesn't seem too professional to me. You are all right in saying a driver must learn to deal with such obstacles but I have never been of the "throw them in to the water and see if they swim" school. Please remember we are paying for the privilege of these sessions.

Please- I'm very interested in what you all think. Seems, from what has been said so far we should not be concerned about the school's methods.

[rjallen]

Originally Posted by golfhobo

RJ:: My first road driving included all you mentioned, and much MORE!

Railroad tracks, overpasses, traffic on all sides, tight turns, you name it!

You mentioned a "first time auto driver." Remember, neither of you ARE one! You've been driving for years!

Trucks are not so different. The main thing is that you need to drive the CAB straight forward into the intersection further before turning, and ALWAYS "hug" the outside of any curve to allow room for the "offtracking."

The school probably took you through this route PRECISELY to get a feeling for your "comfort level." They are NOT stupid. They want to know at what level you will LOSE your confidence. Or what aspects of driving a truck they need to work on for you.

They may adjust their training to fit this level, or they may wash you out!

Trucks are BIG.... but the world remains the same size! YOU must learn how to fit into it, and you must learn to be confident that you CAN!

I'm not gonna bust your cajones with my usual saying that Trucking is NOT for Wusses! You are both too new to deserve that!

But, I WILL stress that you must be CONFIDENT that you can do what every OTHER trucker has learned to do!

Your career will be FULL of such situations! There are very few "easy" routes.

I don't know, or expect, that either of you are as fearless and confident as I was, but I will relay a story that may give you some comfort.

When I hired on to my company, and was in the "training period," I was a bit white knuckled at the start. This was mostly because I was ALONE with the truck (trainer in the sleeper) and started at night in the mountains of Tennessee.

After the FIRST week, I told my dad I had whittled this big rig down to the size of a station wagon. After the second, it was no bigger than the family car. After the third, it was the size of my midsize sedan.... and after four short weeks on the road, I had it down to the size of a sports car!

What I am saying is.... it looks TOO BIG to you right now. But, with time and practice, it SHOULD become as much second nature as driving your own vehicle!

To put it another way, how confident were you of your FIRST kiss? Or on your FIRST date? How ridiculous does that sound NOW?? You must PROJECT yourself into your OWN future to see yourself in total command of this beast! It WILL happen, as surely as does every OTHER aspect of life!

Somehow.... I believe..... if you can SEE yourself being confident and capable in your NEAR future, you will understand that there is nothing to FEAR from these early experiences.

ONLY if you let yourself say, "I'll NEVER be able to do this," will it become a fact!

I wish you both the best!! I CAN'T do it FOR you.... and you wouldn't WANT me to! But, I and every other driver on this board, are BEHIND you 100%!!

Now..... go look at yourselves in the mirror and ask: "Is that idiot HOBO any better at this than WE can be???" :lol:

I MEAN it!!! Go to the mirror and DO it!! You will feel SILLY.... and that's JUST what I want you to feel! You'll have a good laugh, and you'll realize that it is SILLY to think that you can't master a few basic rules of geometry that govern truck driving!

And don't worry about having to "return to the yard" the first time that this happened! Thousands have done the SAME!! What will make you (or your wife) a DRIVER, is the will and confidence to get BACK on that horse and BREAK it!!!

Hobo

Golfhobo

Thanks for taking the time to draft such a thoughtful reply