Comments By Aubrey M.

Oh, and if you don't already, watch others back. See what works and what doesn't, and see if they set up as you would have. And don't get set on having to do one kind of set up for every back. You'll learn much more of you force yourself out of your comfort zone. If you pull into a truck stop for your break and there are three or more open spots side by side, then practice a blindside back, or if there are 5 or 6 spots then try swinging into them to cut your trailer back around and do a straight line back into the spot. I've made backs at tight shippers easy because i worked at developing these skills when there was no pressure.

And don't get lazy like these guys do when driving forward. Just because there is no car in the left turn lane, or there is a big shoulder past the white line to run over in a right turn... Don't. Make a point to always clear the lines on the road and you will learn a lot more about setting up your trailer for backs as well. Also stay off of the truck skirt in roundabouts unless it is actually needed. Many are not.

You're right, it's not really a click. You, and no one else who drives or has driven a truck, will not someday have a magic click and be able to suddenly execute every back perfectly in the shortest amount of time possible. The click is more like a series of small ratchets that culminate in a final click. The final click being a knowledge base that you can coordinate with your motor skills and make the trailer do what you want it to do (most of the time). Backing over and over begins to ratchet you closer to the final click. Each back is different, but we as humans always recognize similarities, so you gain a new piece of knowledge after seeing the trailer react in the same manner in different situations. You also learn muscle memory which helps to take some of the thinking out of the equation (as in which way do i turn the wheel, how fast do i turn it, do i have to slow or stop the truck, etc.). Those things will become second nature and let more of your brainpower go toward seeing where the trailer is going.

I'm not saying this applies to you, but one of the biggest errors i see people make that messes up a good set up or start into a back is too much steering wheel movement. They run from stop to stop when just a minor correction would fix the situation. That's the bad thing that studying for the cdl road test instills on my opinion. The offset back and the 90 ingrain the habit of working the steering wheel from stop to stop. In the real world where we can set up on a dock at an angle there is no need for such aggressive wheel play and doing so id usually what results in ruining a nice set up and costing us more time to back in.

Speaking of time. Don't time yourself, and don't think about the time it is taking you to back. We always think it is an eternity and then rush, mess up, and cost ourselves more time. If you take it intentionally slow from the beginning and practice that for a number of backs you'll find you will take less time to back. Actually you will become quicker at backing because you're fixing mistakes before they happen rather than after.

Hopefully this makes sense and will help you out.

Go with a company program, any of the ones on here you like or will accept you.

Stay with that company for at least a year whether you like them or not, and even if a supposed but money job comes along.

Never lease a truck.

Fast food is still being served but you can't sit down inside to eat it. Roller items vary by truck stop and State, but most have at least something hot to eat.

Hello all, Im wanting to get some of your thoughts on Roehl's CDL program. Also avg. Weekly pay. They offered me Dry Van national at .36 per mile. The recruiter said i would do about 2300 miles a week. Per my calculations this is far from the 60k a year they advertised. Thanks

There are no GYCDL drivers at Roehl making 60k their first year, and I don't think you're going to find any company where a trainee makes that. Roehl has a good training program, good customer base, good equipment, good insurance, and is showing growth in an industry where companies are regularly going bankrupt or closing now. To me, these factors and the training and experience I've gained balance out the low first year pay.

My w2 was just over 32k for last year at a pay rate of 38.5cpm until november when I went to 41cpm. I started dec 31 of 2018 and went solo on february 20, 2019. I put in over 100k miles and finished my 120k contract the last week of january this year. I'm currently a bit over 130k miles. All of my pay and mileage is posted in the above link if you want to look closer.

You have to get experience and pay your dues somewhere, and Roehl is a good place to do that. I was just raised to 43.5cpm on my last paycheck and I am due for a supposedly more significant raise at the end of April.

A note though, apparently recruiters are still telling new hires that they will get a penny raise after 3 months and 2 cents after 6 months, this is not true and the DRG has been changed as of last April or May to reflect this.

Oh Goody! What could go wrong?

Silent yard tractors, driving themselves, probably still going 25 mph faster than everybody else. Since there will be no human, who will we ask for directions, or the location of that elusive empty trailer?

right, or to pull out a trailer that's parked too close to another to get to the landing gear. because in some yards all the trailers are parked that way given the limited space.

I wonder how the remotely operated tractor will cut door seals, open trailer doors, close trailer doors, raise and lower landing gear, etc. there's not even going to be an efficient and quick way that they can come up with to hook up the electrical line and airlines the way they're set up now.

There are certain jobs that should only be done by humans. further I can't understand why as the population expands we keep trying to come up with ways to eliminate jobs for that population.

Do you numbers work out to be approx. $41,750.00 from 2/7/19 to 2/7/20? In that time period does this indicate approx. 310 on the road and approx. 55 days at home?

Yes that should be about right.

Depending on year make and model, holding or weighting the fuel pedal down should idle it for about half an hour instead of five minutes. If it's an auto the brake thing won't work on the new ones because you'll be in neutral instead of drive.

Sorry, the mileage did not post as I had formatted it. if you need clarification let me know.

In order to space things out, you have to hit enter twice to drop two lines instead of one.

Like this.

Thank you. I was trying to be lazy and cut and paste...to no avail. lol. Tried a different avenue with the snipping tool.