What Was The Most NERVEWRACKING Aspect Of CDL School For You All?

Dealing with traffic while attempting to pull out and make a left turn on a busy 4 lane highway that has no traffic control within 5 miles of the school.

That can be a pain even to an experienced driver (I use that term loosely)! I can't even imagine the stress of having to deal with that every day while in school.

It is DEFINITELY no fun. The right turn out of the school doesn't bother me near as much.

Since testing starts at my school this week, I'm going to say that the actual test has me worried. I feel like I've gotten pretty good at all the skills, but I'm pretty anxious about testing because a monumental brain fart is a very real possibility with me. The alley dock and backward serpentine had me worried, but I learned that a good approach is key. Also, downshifting was a handful. I'd seen people talking about it here and thought "how can that be such a big deal?". Well now I know.

In my first post on this topic, I stated that:

I have been talking in my diary about how I have been so nervous about doing 90s. I was wanting to know for those of you in CDL school now or even experienced drivers, what was/is the most NERVEWRACKING aspect of CDL school for yall? Feel free to chime in here. Thanks.

Change that to the ON ROAD SKILLS TEST. That is the TOUGHEST test you will EVER take in all of your life. So far as of this writing, I will be going into my 3RD ATTEMPT at it. That is NUTS for someone who has EXPERIENCE.

Mine was backing for sure. These days I welcome the challenge of a difficult back and had 2 of them today. I'm on the 4th and final drop of a forklift load. The first 2 stops in Chicago were the stuff nightmares are made of for a new driver. Both were blindsided and involved blocking streets. The first was a blindside into a building and I think it was worse getting out lol. I had to make a left turn going out and it was so tight, I had no choice but to jump the curb with my right steer to get out.. I certainly wasn't the first, but with all the rain last night and the huge holes from previous drivers my right steer just sank in the mud. I managed to get unstuck without any tire damage and for that, I'm grateful. The second was at a location at a dead end street and their across the street neighbor had put the lovely huge boulders all along the curb. I hadn't been there before, but after a few minutes figured it out. They were amazed I got my sleeper truck in there and said they've been telling my company to only send day cabs there hahaha. My third stop was a cold storage warehouse and that was so easy. Miles of room compared to the others. So we shall see what the fourth and final entails bright and early tomorrow.

There was a lot of different parts that made me nervous. The test itself stressed me the most. I had a great instructor. Very relaxed laid back kinda guy from Alaska. But, because I was doing well, he made sure to "push" me. I live in and went to CDL school in Clarksville, TN. Clarksville is the 5th largest city in TN and right on the heels of Chattanooga. My 2nd time driving on the road I was taken down town. When I was able to pull that off, next was narrow, curvy 2 lane country roads with lanes just wide enough for a tractor / trailer with absolutely no shoulder. Not to mention all the tiny towns along the way, lol. My instructor Chris would always find something even more challenging and difficult. I readily admit him pushing me, made me a better driver. Most of the students spent days just driving around the industrial park where the school is at. I spent about 15 mins the first time I drove on a road there. Chris would take me into WalMart and other large crowded parking lots, Road Construction, anything and everything he could find to make my life difficult. But at the same time he gave me a lot of latitude. When we did the trip thru Nashville, instead of going thru the headache of the 24/65 and 24/40 junctions, he let me take Briley and bypass all the BS. I think he might of got yelled at by the senior instructor for that though. They had route planned going thru the junctions. When I asked about Briley; because, it was just after morning rush and the intersections are still a cluster, he was like you're the one driving. If you think a different route is better than go ahead.

I must admit my training from school and even continued thru at my company didn't follow the norms. In school I went places that the other students didn't. My training at my company was brief. I spent 2 weeks training at my company before upgrading to solo when most spend closer to 4 weeks. It is what it is. After 8 months solo, I am doing fairly well. In the end, that is what matters.

Drive Safe and God Speed!

sorry for the long meandering post.