Passed Exam, And Cant Wait To Head To The DMV Monday Morning!

I’m bursting at the seems with excitement. After I upgrade this Permit to a CDL I can set a ready date for my Mentor. I know I need to breathe and really be careful this first few months. Any recommendations or tips for me besides GOAL. I don’t plan to be in any hurry to park anywhere so if y’all come up to a slow moving confused looking big truck try and be patient! lol.

Congratulations!!

Double and triple check everything you do, always do your pretrip, hooking, unhooking in the same order.

Double check everything if your not sure check again

Don't quit after a few bad days, good ones will come.

That hard back? One day you slip right in a be like "wow I got this"

Double check everything you do

Congrats!!!

A milestone completed.

Don’t rush and check everything twice. Develop your routine and stick with it. It’s when you get out of a routine, things will go bad.

The next year will be full of learning everyday. I’m still lesrning after 10 years.

If you start feeling comfortable, pay closer attention. Always be a little frosty!!!

Congrats Quenten!! One suggestion....burn this principal into your brain...

Your trailer has only 2 purposes in your life...

1) To transport your freight

2) TO GET YOU A PREVENTABLE ACCIDENT

Always watch your trailer. Anytime you turn that wheel and the truck isn't going straight, eyes in the mirrors my friend!

Godspeed!

There are so many pieces of advice to give. I will give you one.

Pay close attention to the navigation aspect of driving and learn as much about effective navigation from your mentor as possible. Good navigation skills can make you more productive and keep you out of situations that can increase the chances of accidents.

And everybody misses exits, especially when new. If you miss an exit don’t panic and don’t force a move to “catch the exit”. Let your navigation device re-route you.

Ask your mentor lots of well thought out questions to get the most out of your time with him.

Safe travels and keep us posted about your experience.

Thanks!

Congratulations!!

Double and triple check everything you do, always do your pretrip, hooking, unhooking in the same order.

Double check everything if your not sure check again

Don't quit after a few bad days, good ones will come.

That hard back? One day you slip right in a be like "wow I got this"

Double check everything you do

I’m bursting at the seems with excitement. After I upgrade this Permit to a CDL I can set a ready date for my Mentor. I know I need to breathe and really be careful this first few months. Any recommendations or tips for me besides GOAL. I don’t plan to be in any hurry to park anywhere so if y’all come up to a slow moving confused looking big truck try and be patient! lol.

Thanks for the wisdom fellas! I will definitely do my best not to become complacent. I will be double checking everything. I’m sure the real challenge is just beginning. I’ll keep y’all posted.

I’m bursting at the seems with excitement. After I upgrade this Permit to a CDL I can set a ready date for my Mentor. I know I need to breathe and really be careful this first few months. Any recommendations or tips for me besides GOAL. I don’t plan to be in any hurry to park anywhere so if y’all come up to a slow moving confused looking big truck try and be patient! lol.

Congrats!!

I would say what everyone else said but they already said it 🤣 So here’s one piece of advice. Throughout your career be careful of milestones. I don’t have any data to back it up but I was told by someone in safety at my first trucking job that drivers tend to become complacent after the 6 month, 1 year, 2 year, 5 year marks, etc. Milestones are a great time to celebrate but they’re also a crucial time to look back and study the trajectory of your driving habits and correct what needs correcting. I’ve made some very poor choices in my trucking career when I started to get complacent.

Driving is easy and that’s also what makes it challenging. There’s a reason everyone is saying to double check things and avoid complacency.

Good luck to you

Hello Quentin, and welcome to the fascinating world of trucking!

I love the advice given so far. I wanted to add something that I consider important. It's critical for your ability to adapt to the whole new lifestyle of trucking, and very important to your future in trucking.

My advice? Stick with your first trucking company for a full year or more. Don't jump ship easily due to frustration or misunderstanding of how things work at your company. Be resilient and persistent at proving yourself a professional in every way. Don't be late. Don't make excuses. Own your mistakes. Be safe, reliable, and easy to work with.

If you'll take the time to listen to this podcast, I think you'll get a good explanation of why all of this is important during your rookie year.

Stick With Your First Company For A Full Year

Congrats! I heard the same thing Pianoman said, that things start to click around six months and drivers tend to get complacent leading to incidents/accidents. That came from my company's head of safety.