Getting Your CDL: Career Advice And Passing Your CDL Exams

Getting your CDL training at a truck driving school is about one thing and one thing only - getting your CDL license. You will not come out of trucking school as a well-trained truck driver - believe me you won't. In fact, more than anything you will feel overwhelmed with the amount of knowledge that has just been piled on you, and the feeling that you really have very little idea what's in store for you on the road.

Every state has slightly different laws, different terrain, traffic patterns, and climate. There are a variety a different types of trucking jobs that you can take straight out of trucking school and generally speaking you will have no idea which of them will be right for you.

Your books and manuals will hardly fit in a suitcase and the seven thousand things you learned to check on a pre-trip inspection will have completely slipped your mind - well, except for something about air being in the tires and the tires being bolted to the rest of the truck somehow. But overwhelming as it may seem, don't sweat it. Every single driver that is fresh out of trucking school feels that way - that is, if they were paying attention - which many probably weren't.

Once you get out of school you will be put with a trainer for a month or two. You two will travel as a team and he/she will be your guide and companion on your new truck driving career and adventure. And believe me, it will be an adventure. But that initial training will also be the steepest learning curve of your trucking career. You will learn more in those first two months than at anytime afterwards....so pay close attention and ask a ton of questions.

But while you're in school you should simply concentrate on learning the specifics you will need to pass the CDL exam. There is a written test and a driving test. If you work hard in school, the written portion of your CDL exam is really super easy. I mean, the questions are straight out of the manual and they are pretty obvious questions. The driving portion is a little tricky and will depend not only on how close you paid attention but also how quickly you learned during your weeks of practice.

Here is a little advice for getting through your CDL exam:

• Besides paying attention in class, study the manual a little bit each night. Trying to cram all of that information into your head two days before the written exam is not a good way to retain knowledge and will put pressure on you during the test.


• Memorize a lot of numbers. They love to ask questions involving numbers like "How many feet must you stop short of RR tracks?", "What is the maximum weight you can have on a trailer axle?" and "How often must you stop to check your tires if you are carrying a hazmat load?" You'll see as you go through the course that most of the questions they will want to ask are obvious as soon as you hear them in school.


• Learn every time you get in the truck. The school will have you practice the exact obstacles you will be negotiating for the driving portion of your CDL exam. Every time you get in the truck, try to really pay attention to everything that is happening, why it happens, and what you can do to improve next time. Don't just go through the motions so you can hurry up and have a cigarette. Study it closely.




• Learn from watching others in the truck. Whenever you are waiting your turn to practice the obstacles, study what everyone else is doing. Note the problems they are having, see how soon you can see a problem coming, and decide what you would be doing in their position to correct it. After a few weeks of this you'll be amazed at how much you've figured out.


• Lastly, and this is funny but true! - get a small matchbox-size truck and practice with it on the table. WHAT? That's right - and I'm dead serious. I was fooling around with a little 6" truck one day and started backing it up into a pretend dock. After trying a couple things I picked up on some tricks! I mean, seriously helpful tricks! I started showing my classmates and you wouldn't believe how much we figured out in about 20 minutes that we just couldn't seem to see when we were out on the practice yard. Take the little truck and put it through a variety of obstacles. When you get it out of position, really try to figure out a few different options for correcting it. You will get a whole new perspective on ways to maneuver a big rig around in tight places. I learned tricks with that truck that I used over and over and over again for the last 15 years...and to this day I still laugh every time I use one because it takes me back to that silly little truck. Think I'm kiddin? Not one bit.

Truck driving is a lot of fun and it's an outstanding career for sure. Just please take your time, pay close attention to what you are doing at all times, don't get bent out of shape, and take the good with the bad - there will be plenty of both. But while you're in school, don't be concerned about the amount of info they pile on you. You could never remember it all and nobody expects you to. Study a little bit each day, pay close attention to the other students while they are in the truck, and ask a ton of questions. Most importantly, get one of those 6" or 12" tractor trailers and practice backing them up in different scenarios. Within five minutes you'll see I wasn't kidding!

We have a ton of great articles on this site including:

Getting Your CDL: A Great Investment For Anyone
Becoming A Truck Driver: How It All Started For Me
Becoming A Truck Driver Part3: How Do I Know If Trucking Is For Me?

....and of course my very, very thoroughly written book for anyone who is considering becoming a truck driver:

Becoming A Truck Driver: The Raw Truth About Trucking. It's a very positive but very realistic look at life on the road as an over the road driver. I've been driving for over 15 years and I've seen and done about everything there is to see and do out there so I wrote this book to give you a straight-forward, honest look at the realities of life on the road. It's filled with funny stories, real examples of what life was like out there for me, and tons of great tips and advice to help you decide if truck driving is right for you. Thanks for the time and best of luck!