No 90 Degree Alley Dock In School At AZ? Knight Transportation

So looking over schedule for the remainder of school (I know, exciting Sat night) Im puzzled. The only parking maneuvers we get trained on and test on all the way through to our CDL test are Straight line backing, Offset and Parallel parking. We still have the road test and pre trip inspection of course. Is this an Arizona state thing? Im a tad confused because the state regulations say that we may be tested on an alley dock. I will ask my instructors about it on Monday, Im assuming that perhaps its taught during training after we get done with school.

It's possible. In Pennsylvania, it's straight back, off set 1 side and either alley dock or parallel park. It varies by state and I couldn't find anything detailing Arizona's skill test. I'm sure your instructors will be able to provide info.

Yeah I think it’s an Arizona thing. I’m a resident here and all we were tested on was straight line, parallel and offset. No 90 degree.

In my honest opinion that's pretty dumb considering once you get out of school most of you're backing will be angle backs, I've yet to use an offset and I've only had to parallel once. In my opinion what they should do is teach straight line backing, ally docking 90 and 45 degree both sight side and blind side but that's just my opinion

We can all agree that this is dumb, but we have to realize that this phase of training is merely to get you the CDL. Here in Texas it was the same way. I thought it was crazy! Why did we need to parallel park a big rig? Later in my career I realized that being able to parallel park a rig showed that I understood how my efforts in the cab controlled the whole rig. We will do a 90 degree parking maneuver much more often than a parallel maneuver, but that parallel parking demonstrates an accurate understanding of how to control the vehicle in reverse.

It is really not important at this point to master the 90 degree parking. You will get plenty of exposure to it during your company training. Remember everything is learned in steps. You will be learning many of these steps over the next year or two. Right now you are focusing on what the state requires for your CDL. Later you will focus on the things you need to master so you can be efficient at being a successful trucker. Take the steps as they are presented to you. It will all come together in it's proper time.

Old School asks questions:

I thought it was crazy! Why did we need to parallel park a big rig? Later in my career I realized that being able to parallel park a rig showed that I understood how my efforts in the cab controlled the whole rig. We will do a 90 degree parking maneuver much more often than a parallel maneuver, but that parallel parking demonstrates an accurate understanding of how to control the vehicle in reverse.

If you want to stop at a rest stop on I-40 in Arkansas, the parking is actually parallel parking on both sides. But you know no one does it in the official way, they just pull in and pull out.

Part 2: the way you perform your CDL Skills test is exactly what O. S. says - show your stuff. No one does an offset move like you need to do in Skills, same for the Alley. If you can control your trailer like you have to for the Skills Test, you should do OK in the Real World.

Actually both the parallel and the offset are 45 degrees once you get past the initial set up. I still use the "tandems to the white line then cut it hard" as a reference point.

Lots of rest areas are parallel and I have gotten so good for that reason that I do it better in my truck than a car.

I used to allow dock all of my doors because I felt like I could see it better as it was going in. Now I 45 it more often than not

Yeah the state of Arizona doesn’t require it as part of the test but knight will probably have you do it once you finish up with your trainer. I know at swift I had to do one in order to pass my test to go solo. Is knight training at their yard or are they doing it on swifts property since they merged? The swift training course was a licensed third party testing facility so it was super helpful to be tested on the property we trained on.

Thanks for the input, I figured that the purpose of the maneuvers were doing is that they contain skills needed in any kind of backing, or most kinds and its designed to get us our cdl. If the teaching were getting at the school is indicative of the training we will get, I have faith that I will be taught what I need to succeed solo. I was told that all of my training will be done as a solo truck, not teaming so I feel comfortable with that. I also have a week of top gun training here after school, although Ive heard that is mostly simulators, on the other hand, Ive talked to folks who went through it and they said it really helped. Ill still ask the instructors about it on Monday.