Is It Possible To Just Jump Into A Truck And Learn Enough To Get A CDL Without School?

Glad to hear you have another option that you feel may work for you.

I'm still interested in eventually transferring to that tanker job. How would that work as far as verifiable driving experience? Do I just keep copies of all of my driving logs?

One issue you still may run into is the lack of schooling/certificate if you're basically a fill in driver. Also unless the tanker job is local, many of the large OTR companies dont consider local driving to be experience. Some job postings for experience list "OTR experience", while others are only looking for "tractor trailer experience". I'm not sure how your company operates but where im at we use peoplenet for our ELOGS and it tracks mileage on a daily basis and submits that to our office for verification purposes. Being a fill in driver i think would make learning and getting in the groove a little more difficult, similiar reason many feel weekend school isnt a good option.

Glad to hear you have another option that you feel may work for you.

I'm still interested in eventually transferring to that tanker job. How would that work as far as verifiable driving experience? Do I just keep copies of all of my driving logs?

One issue you still may run into is the lack of schooling/certificate if you're basically a fill in driver. Also unless the tanker job is local, many of the large OTR companies dont consider local driving to be experience. Some job postings for experience list "OTR experience", while others are only looking for "tractor trailer experience". I'm not sure how your company operates but where im at we use peoplenet for our ELOGS and it tracks mileage on a daily basis and submits that to our office for verification purposes. Being a fill in driver i think would make learning and getting in the groove a little more difficult, similiar reason many feel weekend school isnt a good option.

Hmm...that complicates things a bit. I'm actually not all that interested in driving OTR. I'd be more interested in the postings I see where they say you are home every weekend, sometimes every other weekend. I guess those are usually "regional"? I'm thinking that since I live in Houston, TX, I could probably find something like that driving a tanker, but then again maybe not. I'm pretty sure our company uses the ELOGS. There's a computer on the dash(looks kind of silly on the 1980's ford I've been practicing in) and the drivers also carry around this thing that looks like a tablet...

Is there a certain number of miles they normally look for to consider you "experienced"? I've read some things that say there's like a 3 month, 6 month and one year mark as far as different levels of experience go, but I assume that applies to OTR driving? I'm estimating that it would take me 3-6 months to rack up 160 hours of actual time behind the wheel. Probably closer to 3. It just depends on the time of year, and we are coming into the slow season... I think if I were to stay for a whole year, I could probably log 750-1000 hours easy.

I'll get some more details on how we log hours/miles as I talk some more and report back with that, along with my progress.

I got about another hour in this morning. I hooked up a trailer, pulled it around the building and then backed it into a dock. I was able to get it pretty close, but the dock foreman ended up lining up the last bit for me, because I kept getting it just a foot or two off center. I think I'm also going to hook up my small trailer to my car and practice backing. That's the area I feel I am going to need the most work in.

I'm about to head outside to hook up another trailer and back that in.

Just remember that a car and trailer will react very quickly compared to a tractor and 53' trailer. There is even a very noticeable difference in reaction to the tandems being sucked all the way up and slid all the way back.

I'll get some more details on how we log hours/miles as I talk some more and report back with that, along with my progress.

I got about another hour in this morning. I hooked up a trailer, pulled it around the building and then backed it into a dock. I was able to get it pretty close, but the dock foreman ended up lining up the last bit for me, because I kept getting it just a foot or two off center. I think I'm also going to hook up my small trailer to my car and practice backing. That's the area I feel I am going to need the most work in.

I'm about to head outside to hook up another trailer and back that in.

Just remember that a car and trailer will react very quickly compared to a tractor and 53' trailer. There is even a very noticeable difference in reaction to the tandems being sucked all the way up and slid all the way back.

I guess my thought process is that the quicker reaction time of the smaller trailer will help me learn the concept more quickly(and will save my left leg some soreness!)

I liken it to how I learned to sail a boat. You learn a lot better on the small dingy's, because any input gets immediate feedback. When you take the same concepts to a big cabin sail boat, sailing the bigger boat is a piece of cake, because the reaction time is a lot slower and you have more time to make adjustments.

On that note, I was able to get the trailer lined up at the dock all by myself this time! Man this is exciting!

I think I'm also going to hook up my small trailer to my car and practice backing.

I wouldn't do that. It's not going to help and will almost certainly confuse things. The timing, reaction speed, visual feedback, and wheel input is vastly different. It's like driving around fast in a pickup truck hoping to get some practice in for your upcoming NASCAR race. The feedback you get from using your car and a small trailer simply isn't going to transfer to the big rig.

The most common mistake that new drivers make while learning to back is oversteering and not waiting long enough for the trailer to react to your steering inputs. If you practice on a small trailer that reacts quickly requiring large movements of the steering wheel you're probably going to exacerbate the oversteering tendency of a new driver.

The most common mistake that new drivers make while learning to back is oversteering and not waiting long enough for the trailer to react to your steering inputs. If you practice on a small trailer that reacts quickly requiring large movements of the steering wheel you're probably going to exacerbate the oversteering tendency of a new driver.

Thanks Brett, I'll just double down and try to get as much time in the truck as possible in that case. It looks like I'll have the opportunity to practice back just about every day. I'm going to look up some YouTube videos on backing techniques this morning, before I go out again.

BTW I really appreciate what you are doing with this site. You could definitely be charging money for your High Road program if you wanted to. As a fellow web developer and prospective truck driver, I have a lot of respect for you.

It is possible, but not in the way you might think.

Many local distribution companies (like beer delivery) will hire drivers without a CDL. They train you and pay for the CDL , BUT there is a catch. You must complete a year of service with that company. If you quit before your required amount of time, you will get fined and or sued. A friend of mine did that in Raleigh North Carolina. He did the CDL training with a company and was required to compete one year with them. He fulfilled his obligation and has been with that company for three years now. He knew a guy that did the same thing with him and then quit 2 months after he got the CDL. He was fine $3500 dollars and had to pay the company back. The company took him to court and he lost big time. The situations are becoming more rare though but some companies still do that.

Some major carriers also do it as well, but all have the same obligation of required driving