No matter how seriously you spend your time in truck driving school classes and earned your CDL license with true dedication, there is a big difference between real truck driving on the highway and the truck driving lessons you learned at the school.
When you are on the road for the first time, there will be a mixed feeling of excitement and nervousness, as you will not be aware of what awaits you as a professional truck driver. The wealth of information that has been accumulated to you by the time of the course will suddenly fall short of the real trucking knowledge that can only be gained from years of experience.
The training provided at the school follows a standard set and pattern for all trucking jobs. However, actual trucking jobs depend on different traffic and driving regulations prevailing in different states. There is a variety of weather types, available cargo type, terrains, and traffic patterns that you have never encountered at your trucking school. There are different trucking jobs available with different trucking companies, ready to hire you as soon as you finish driving school. But this will be an important decision for you as you need to figure out what kind of trucking job is best suited for you.
When you’re ready for a drive down the road, your first pre-trip inspection may find that the seven thousand things you learned in your driving school are no longer applicable in this situation. You may remember only the basics, but you just can’t remember the rest. Don’t worry, this happens to the best drivers in their early days.
The best learning time when you can get the real road and trucking knowledge is when you will start your career with a trainer for a month or two. She will partner with him on some of his initial trucking assignments. These walks will be full of adventures and challenges. You will get used to the trucking lifestyle at this point. This will be the time when you can learn more. So ask as many questions as you can and clear all your doubts regarding loads, trucks, roads and driving practices. Pay attention to their driving styles, troubleshooting techniques, handling loads, and dealing with freight forwarders.
You may not have been paying attention while you were in the truck driving class as the main purpose of studying lessons at that time was to pass your CDL test. The theoretical tasks of the CDL exam consist of direct and simple questions from the manual. But gaining the relevant knowledge from his coach right now will lay the foundation for his successful career as a truck driver.