It’s always a little nerve-wracking to get started down a new career path. In truck driving, it’s particularly difficult, since most of us have little in the way of actual experience with the trucking industry.
There are also several different types of trucking schools, and while each may take a different approach to instructing you on how to learn to handle and drive a big rig, you should still have two things you are largely expecting regarding your trucking school experience.
The first is lots of time in the truck. This counts for both sitting and driving time. After all, this is truck DRIVING school, so you should expect plenty of time in the cab. You will get a comprehensive overview of the truck’s controls from steering wheel to axle, all before you even start up your truck, much less drive it anywhere.
But fear not; soon you will be driving, and your truck driver training will be in full swing. You’ll spend many hours in the truck over the course of those weeks, learning how it handles, how it starts, stops, and maneuvers in traffic and on the highway. This is the physical part of the job, the core of your truck driver education, and something you will be continuing to adapt to throughout your career as conditions change in the industry.
The other part of the job is the mental part of being a truck driver, and the other thing you should expect a lot of from your truck driver training: learning the rules and regulations governing truck drivers both on the road and off.
This includes the traffic laws you will have to abide by while out on the road, from which lane you are to operate in to yielding to speed to just about everything else there is about driving. These rules are often similar to those governing all motorists, but as a commercial driver you will have additional rules you must abide by.
The other part of the mental side of the job includes the rules governing you as a driver. These include things such as required home time, the maximum number of hours per day you are legally allowed to drive, and similar regulations. These are of course linked to the job of driving the truck, but you will be taught the rules and regulations separately.
These are largely in place for your protection and safety, both to ensure the trucking company doesn’t force you to drive longer hours than you are physically capable of, to reduce driver fatigue and the accidents that can occur as a result, and so that you abide by them yourself.
These are the two things you should expect plenty of during your time in trucking school. You will of course have other expectations, difficulties, and challenges, but if you can absorb these two key parts of your experience, you will have no problems rolling through your coursework, learning the truck and how to operate it, and moving on to earning your CDL.