Fear/anxiety With The Big Rigs

Hi all, I am comfortable driving straight trucks, but for some reason, the big rigs scare me. My fears are specific: getting a red light ticket after the "point of no return" has been reached when the traffic light turns yellow. I also have the fear of truck scales: the cops giving me (and every other driver) the close look, to see what they can write the driver up for. I also have fear of, say, a tire blowing that could cause an accident in which another person (or myself) could be killed or badly injured. The shrinks might call this "social anxiety" or "situational anxiety", or "fear of humiliation" (with cops writing me up), I'm not sure. Surely many of you have had these fears/anxieties as well. Please let me know how you dealt with those thoughts and feelings. Thanks very much.

Simple... experience. You won't be on your own for awhile.. so by the time you are you will feel comfortable. My first week on the truck I would move to the right and hug the shoulder... the trainer asked why and I said "big scary truck passing" after a week I was a big scary truck passing the others.

I feared a blow out and when it happened I didn't even know it. I didn't hear it and another driver slowed to tell me. I drove nights so most scales are closed... and because I work for a large company with a great safety rating... I rarely even get pulled in tone weighed. Been solo 5 mos... so u are fearing for no reason.

Traffic lights. Just assume the light will change before you get there.... slow way way down. .

Hi - Im not even in school yet, but from what I've seen here, I guess everyone has their fears, me as well and I'm working on being more positive and realistic about stuff instead of my negative thoughts turning into a self fulfilling prophecy. I'm afraid of jackknifing one day, but if I constantly worry about that I may some day do the thing I've been thinking about (bad thoughts lead to bad feelings lead to bad actions I guess...) then I'll never get anywhere.

Hi all, I am comfortable driving straight trucks, but for some reason, the big rigs scare me. My fears are specific: getting a red light ticket after the "point of no return" has been reached when the traffic light turns yellow. I also have the fear of truck scales: the cops giving me (and every other driver) the close look, to see what they can write the driver up for. I also have fear of, say, a tire blowing that could cause an accident in which another person (or myself) could be killed or badly injured. The shrinks might call this "social anxiety" or "situational anxiety", or "fear of humiliation" (with cops writing me up), I'm not sure. Surely many of you have had these fears/anxieties as well. Please let me know how you dealt with those thoughts and feelings. Thanks very much.

Thanks very much , Rainy and Worrywort.

Doing a proper pretrip before every shift and posttrip at the end of each day will help immensely in quelling those fears. Also scale each and rvery load and you'll never need to be concerned at scales either. Oh and as for traffic signals, as long as it's not red when you enter the intersection, you're good to go. Just slow down a bit, watch for cars waiting that may have tripped a light change. Also realize the majority of DOT or Vehicle Enforcement Officers (as they ptefer to be called) are everyday people just doing a job to support their families just lile we are

Knowledge, training, experience, more knowledge, more experience, and eventually confidence will overcome most of your anxiety. Fear on the other hand, the healthy kind is ok to carry around with you. Keeps you sharp and focused.

I cannot say I ever had anxiety with truck driving, but definitely a healthy respect for the magnitude of which we have under our control.

My number one suggestion is to take it one step at a time. Don't worry or obsess over step 5 when you only just begun step 1.

If you haven't already done so, probably a good idea to spend some time with the following links:

• Truck Driver's Career Guide
• Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
• High Road Training Program

Good luck!

You have all those same possibilities in a straight truck but I find that the combination would be more stable in a blowout.

Thanks very much, Sue D., G-Town, and Pat M.

There's a book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell about people who are recognized as being great achieved that. From Wikipedia, "Gladwell repeatedly mentions the "10,000-Hour Rule", claiming that the key to achieving world class expertise in any skill, is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing the correct way, for a total of around 10,000 hours."

This is often applied to athletes, musicians, and others, but think about 10,000 hours of driving a truck while practicing doing everything the correct way. That's going to be about a half million miles, or four years of driving, all while consciously practicing safe driving habits. I can tell you for myself at least that not quite two years in, I don't always practice doing it right. I do catch myself, but after a while some things seem like second nature.

During the initial phase of learning to control the truck, most people are hyper-vigilant. The truck seems so big, the space between the truck and whatever it might hit seems so small . . . and then there's shifting and braking and turning wide and backing. It's a little overwhelming since you have to start practicing those skills all at once. It's not like baseball, where you can practice batting for an hour, then throwing and catching for an hour, then running the bases or sliding.

But the main thing to remember is that just thinking about doing it isn't the same as doing it. So do what you can to get ready, then do it. Don't worry about something you haven't even had a chance to try! That's like worrying whether you can hit the curve when all you've done so far is play tee ball.

Thanks very much, Bud.