Turning Left

figure 2-14(or 17) shows the truck going into the farthest lane when making a left turn. i got a written warning for doing that in my car,even tho i needed to be in that lane shortly. i did not know that was illegal. there was not a car in sight(except for him). do they allow trucks to do this and if so how big a truck can do this. do trucks have more leeway?

Ok, for those interested she's referring to figure 2-14 on Page 22 of the High Road Training Program.

In a car you can require someone to make the left turn and wind up in the furthest left hand lane. In a truck you'll rarely have that luxury because your trailer will wind up tracking into the oncoming traffic. So you'll normally have to swing pretty wide to make the turn.

Also, in the example given they're talking about making a left turn when there are two left turning lanes. A truck needs to be in the right hand lane so that means you're going to have cars inside of you turning at the same time. You're going to have to swing really wide to give them enough room.

Trucks always have a lot more leeway. It's often times a matter of simple physics - use all the room you need to avoid squashing things. Simple as that. Study the ways they teach you to do it for testing, but that's usually the "best case scenario". In the real world you do whatever it takes to make it around the turn safely.