I Drove Only 30' Trailers.

During CDL school I drove kenworth's that were more for construction duty with 30 foot trailers. They were very sensitive to oversteering. I never drove an OTR truck with a 53', so am I going to have a tough time passing my orientation? (Off-sets, alley dock, straight-back)

There will definitely be an adjustment period. But remember that the shorter the trailer the harder to back it up, shorter trailers respond very quickly and as soon as you oversteer there's hardly any chance of you recoving without doing a pull-up.

A 53' trailer is a lot longer but its much more forgiving than a shorter trailer.

I think you should be fine. If you were good at backing a 30' trailer then you should be able to back a 53' trailer. Just take it slow and remember to consider that a 53' trailer has a lot of extra trailer beyond the trailer tandems. This acts like a tail and can whip across your lines. So when backing it up make sure you keep in mind the very back of the trailer to ensure it won't cross the lines.

Robert, for most company orientation and training programs you will not even be road tested until after your time with your trainer. So you should get around four weeks of practice with the proper trailers before you are ever going to be tested. That's plenty of time to get the "feel" for a real trailer.

There will definitely be an adjustment period. But remember that the shorter the trailer the harder to back it up, shorter trailers respond very quickly and as soon as you oversteer there's hardly any chance of you recoving without doing a pull-up.

A 53' trailer is a lot longer but its much more forgiving than a shorter trailer.

I think you should be fine. If you were good at backing a 30' trailer then you should be able to back a 53' trailer. Just take it slow and remember to consider that a 53' trailer has a lot of extra trailer beyond the trailer tandems. This acts like a tail and can whip across your lines. So when backing it up make sure you keep in mind the very back of the trailer to ensure it won't cross the lines.

My instructors said the same thing, that if you can back up the smaller trailers you can back up the 53 footers for sure, so thanks for confirming.

Robert, for most company orientation and training programs you will not even be road tested until after your time with your trainer. So you should get around four weeks of practice with the proper trailers before you are ever going to be tested. That's plenty of time to get the "feel" for a real trailer.

I think it might be different for May Trucking. They test you on orientation day with a short drive to see if you can shift, and also skills tests. Prime does the same thing, but it's on a simulation rather than an actual truck.

I would double check that if I were you, my experience has usually been that if you come in as an experienced driver you will be road tested at the beginning, but if you are a student/recent graduate, they don't road test you until after spending time with a trainer. Every company is going to road test you, that is a requirement, but they treat recent graduates from trucking schools differently than they do experienced drivers. I'm sure it is possible that they do it that way at May, but they have got to know that there will be no expert shifting going on in that examination, so I would think they would have to be fairly lenient on that initial test.

I wouldn't get myself too worked up about it, if you can pass the driving test to get the CDL , you should be able to pass that one also.

It really depends on the company. At my previous company we were tested on backing and driving before we ever got into a trainers truck. You had to get your actual CDL before you got on the road with a trainer.

These specific companies run their programs extremely fast paced. They expect you to be able to pass after only a short period of instruction.

However, as my buddy Old School said, they are usually fairly lenient on that initial test.

Just stay relaxed, remember that a million other people have been in your steps right now. If they did it - you can too!