Was Anybody Nervous Or Afraid When They First Started Trucking?

Hello all. My name is Nate and I am from Columbus Ohio. I'm in CDL school and haven't started driving anything yet. Driving and being on the open road is something that I've always loved doing. I have a few family members that were truck drivers and always considered it when I was growing up. As a young adult I drove box trucks for a little bit, but being stupid I crashed one, and fortunately, nobody or anything besides the bumper got hurt. A few years have gone by and I'm a little older now and more responsible. I've never really been afraid of driving. I have chronic PTSD. Now that I am getting ready to drive, I find myself being slightly terrified of the trucks and the thought of potentially hurting someone. I'm now as cautious of a driver as can be, and I don't take any risks, but for some reason find myself thinking about the old accident and am developing a fear of the trucks before I even get in them, both for their size, and their potential to hurt others. I am determined to overcome this fear, and make a career out of doing something that could potentially be so rewarding for both me and my family. I was wondering if anybody has ever been in a similar situation, could offer any advice, or just any experience. Thank you for whoever took the time to read and respond to this.

Welcome, I think what your experiencing is normal. I was older when I started, but I was very nervous. It is a big change in your life. You start secound guessing yourself and that leads to more nerves.

My best advice is to first of all not second guess yourself and keep your mind on the task at hand. Don’t let anything else in your foscus. School is kind of like putting a puzzle together, one piece at a time. It will all fit together at the end.

As for your prior crash, you need to put it out of your mind. It is over and done with. In your case it is much easier said than done but you need to find that way.

I have seen people loose their foscus on the task at hand thinking about something later on and mess up the task they needed to master. The school and instructors know what they are doing. Have faith in that.

Best wishes for your journey.

Welcome, Nate!

Many people who started were a bit fearful when they began trucking. These trucks are big and heavy. A little fear about driving a semi-truck is a good and natural thing for people with a conscience.

If used correctly, fear will motivate a person to do a lot of things they thought they couldn't do. You expressed a fear of hurting someone else. This is something many of us feared at first. I know I did and still do. But, what used to be a little bit of fear has turned into a lot of confidence in my ability to handle my truck in traffic. I always err on the side of caution when I'm driving. For instance, traffic merging in from my right lane to the left is open but a fast-moving vehicle approaches from behind in that lane. I slow down and allow the traffic to merge onto the highway. Why, because I can reasonably assume the person speeding in the left lane will always make a second riskier decision such as speed up and try to squeeze by on the left or immediately swerve and try to go around me on my right which would put it on a collision course with the merging traffic.

Also, you mentioned that you are determined to overcome this fear. That's the motivation part. Once you get the training you need and start driving, you will feel more comfortable about it. At first glance, I'd say your attitude and approach toward trucking show that you already have tremendous respect for trucks and the awesome responsibility it is to drive one. That alone suggests your decision-making will be on the cautious side.

I speak for nobody else but myself, the road would be a safer place if there were more drivers with a healthy respect for the damage they can do with a truck.

Best of luck to you!

I can't speak to the PTSD, but I agree with PJ on making the goal your primary focus and, with Bill M., that fear can be a motivator.

Scared? Hell yeah I was! Hey, I'm now 61 years old and don't care if others think that's a sign of weakness.

My first load was in January, out of Lebanon, TN, into Kentucky and it started snowing. As with all paper loads (unless you're hauling finished TP or paper towels), it was heavy. I had to navigate 90 degree turns in a small town and I was all alone. After what seemed an eternity (but was probably just a couple of hours), I got to a small Pilot to scale the load and there was one parking spot left. I scaled and parked the truck. The snow had stopped and as the sun set, a small break in the clouds appeared and the sun shone through. I took that as a sign from God, that He had my back.

Since that first load, I've made some mistakes and had a lot of success. None of the mistakes were serious and the successes (if nothing else) have kept me earning a good paycheck (which was my goal all along). I'm still on my second company and hope I can retire from here. Slow and steady wins the race.

You'll be given lots of advice, by lots of people and you have to decide what gets you closest to your goals. I've found the following few things (among many others) very helpful;

1. Reading my daily devotional. I grew up going to church, but for many years just went through the motions. For the past 8+ years I've taken 5-10minutes every morning, to read that same daily devotional.

2. Don't take on other people's drama. People who work for the same company tell me how horrible it is, what the bosses are doing wrong and how they'd improve the company, if they could just get someone to listen to them. Other drivers around me cut me off, 'cause they're late and about to miss their exit right in front of me. Don't let 'em control your mind.

3. Every day, I remind myself of WHY I do this. And occasionally, I treat myself to something different to eat or a tool for working around the house. Mostly, it's time with my family.

So, hang in there. Nobody talks much about the fears and I imagine it's because that'd quickly devolve into whining and being counterproductive. You've overcome in the past, you will again. This is a beginning and those are always challenging.

Good luck and DRIVE ON!

It's been many years since I drove, but I still remember the first time I was on my own. I drove for a corrugated box manufacturer, and had been riding/driving with the senior driver for a little over 3 weeks. That first trip was a simply drive across our small town to a garment factory, and I had done well in my time with the senior driver.

Leaving our plant for the first time on my own, I came close to stopping, going back into the shipping office, and telling them I can't do this. But I kept going, head on a swivel, taking my time. I got to the customer, got unloaded, returned to the plant. The shipping supervisor kept me close for the first few weeks, but slowly worked me up to our longest day runs, which would take about 10 - 15 hours to round trip (rules have changed now, but back then you could drive 10, work up to 15). I gained confidence, at one point a little too much, until a near miss caused me to re-adjust my thinking back to the more cautious side of things. Point being, beware of getting too comfortable or over confident.

Use your nervousness/fear to help you develop an alert and cautious approach to all you do. You'll be fine!

Nate, this topic in one form or another pops up here on a regular basis. Why? Because we all deal with the fear and nervousness factor.

Every driver is different as to how they are affected by this natural intimidation. But driving is much about overcoming our fears and gaining confidence in our experience and abilities. This takes time and perseverance.

So like the others have said, embrace the fear and use it to your advantage.

Remember Evel Knievel? He was a fearless dude. Would he have made a good truck driver? Absolutely not.

There are many things beyond our control on the road. Accidents happen. Other drivers make bad decisions. Equipment breaks down.

We can't control these things, but we can increase our chances of avoiding/mitigating them by following the common sense defensive driving habits we learned in school. Creating a "safety bubble" around us while on the road. This allows us more time to react to accidents. It also gives us several options for avoiding potential problems:

•greater braking distance to stop/slow down to avoid accidents ahead of us

•the ability to quickly move left or right to avoid danger

•more time to signal our intentions to other drivers on the road

It is also essential to pay attention to all road signs while assuming that other drivers might not be so vigilant.

When I first started out with my trainer, I was very nervous about taking exits for places to park. For the first two weeks, I wouldn't take an exit until he would tell me that there is a place to park at x exit and which direction to turn upon exiting. When I first started out solo, I was really nervous about missing an exit and what to do, or missing an entrance to a customer and what to do.

It's natural to be nervous. Embrace the nerves and allow yourself to feel more confident over time. Eventually the nervousness should go away. There is no set rule as to how long it takes, but I think it's safe to say that after 6 months to a year, a driver shouldn't be feeling nervous any longer.

I was very afraid of everything from failing to being late to ending up on bonehead truckers of the week.

I used those fears and still do to build systems, habits of best practices for everything I do in a truck and in my job as a whole.

Everything from the mundane, making my bed, to parking to trip planning is a system of obtainable steps that brakes down the complex to simple.

If a student isnt nervous, i kick them off my training truck. They are too stupid to drive a semi.

Be calm and be safe. Good luck