The emotional downs and ups that most of us experience while learning to operate a large rig are one thing that many people are unprepared for. I have seen this in so many individuals that I believe it to be a widespread occurrence that we need to talk about. I have seen a guy go from grinning and enjoying himself while driving a large truck down the street to yelling obscenities and threatening to “beat his trainer within an inch of his life.” That all happened in a couple of seconds. Everyone was completely caught off guard since it occurred so rapidly. When you combine the adrenaline rush that many of us experience when learning to operate a large vehicle with the exhaustion that results from being unaccustomed to working such long hours, it is easy to see how you may quickly slide into an emotional breakdown.
When we worked out how to start in this profession, we faced a steep learning curve, and the majority of us had no concept of how much there was to learn. Another weird occurrence is when we make a move well one day, only to find that we cannot repeat it the next time we are back in the vehicle. We have disappointments like these and thrilling events that seem to indicate that we are beginning to understand the principles, only to have those hopes dashed by a serious error that causes our equipment to seem bent into a pretzel form. This continual swing from self-assurance to complete humiliation might seriously disrupt our emotional equilibrium. You may as well be ready for some of this, as it often happens while learning to operate a large rig.
False Expectations
The main reason for this is often the false expectations we acquire due to hearing a recruiter offer us just enough information to get us fired about what we will undertake. We begin gathering our belongings and preparing our bags, but we still have a week to wait before catching the Greyhound Bus. After those suitcases are packed, we feel restless and unsure what to do with ourselves.
In reality, most of us have trouble falling asleep at night, so we spend a lot of time online attempting to confirm that we have “made the proper choice” of an employer. Naturally, it backfires on us, leading to a frantic review of our sanity and judgment. Finally, we conclude that there is not a decent company out there, so we simply accept what is given to us to improve a poor situation. Due to that concept, we now have much more difficulty falling asleep at night. We are now so exhausted—we have not even been inside an 18-wheeler—that we are debating quitting the program altogether in favor of something much simpler, like becoming astrophysicists or biochemists.
Crazy bus travel is the next stage in this extremely taxing journey towards truck driving. The road to get us there looks like the most ludicrously planned logistical nightmare. One has to question whether the bus operator’s software to direct its passengers from point A to point B was created by a room full of drunk monkeys. I have taken these bus journeys often enough to know that they can be dreadful. Driving your vehicle will take you there in roughly six hours, but using the bus would somehow extend that to twenty-two.
When I was once picked up at the Greyhound station, the bus was nearly entirely made up of newly released female prisoners! I mean it. You would not believe some of the talks I overheard when riding the bus alone as a man. Other truck drivers traveling to other orientations were on several of the buses I had taken. The chats among the truckers are more discouraging than hearing the female ex-cons rant about what they want to do as soon as they get home. Do not even think of attempting to sleep while on the bus. There is always one person there who believes they have been sent on a mission by God to keep everyone on their toes.
Starting Rumors About “Bad Company”
You are so worn out when you finally get to the hotel that you can not wait to collapse into bed. You then find out that you are staying in a room with three other would-be truck drivers. They are all very caffeinated and energized. They had no other way to cope with their individually crippling bus voyage. Now they are attempting to talk to you to see whether you have heard all they have learned about this firm through internet videos and trucking forums.
In addition to being worn out, you are sure that picking this firm was a mistake. You all retire to sleep about one or two in the morning, but the alarm goes off at five, so you can get ready for the shuttle bus. You have already heard horror stories of students being expelled for skipping the shuttle bus, so you know you do not want to experience that on your first day of classes. Each of you comes to class on the first day looking like you have just come off a three-day binge, and practically everyone else in the room seems to have gone through the same ordeal.
The First Days Are Hard.
To get you in the mood to operate one of those big rigs, they are now beginning the day with some graphic movies of 18-wheeler collisions. When they grab you all and ask you to pee in a cup for your drug test, you struggle to stay awake for the annoying films and wonder what will come next on the schedule. Why did they not inform you that they would be doing that? You just left the bathroom as 18-wheelers were colliding with each other. You reasoned that if you took a break from the video, you might be able to avoid experiencing nightmares while staying at the hotel tonight. Now that you are trying to force a few pees drops to flow into that little plastic pill container, you are straining and on the verge of giving yourself a hernia. If it is not one thing, it must be something else.
They want to take your blood pressure now that you are anxious about everything. Wow, Louise! Why could they not hold off on taking the blood pressure readings till tomorrow?
They send you the stuff you need to know for tomorrow’s class after around eleven hours of classroom films, drug testing, and stripping nude in front of a doctor who appears to be attempting to discover whatever little problem he can with your body. Wait for a second! This document contains 65 pages of information you should read tonight at the hotel. Once again, it seems to be going to be a long night. Are there ever any days off around here? Are we expected to spend the whole day at school completely exhausted?
It seems unreasonable that they require us to bring down the CDL training materials for tomorrow’s session. They expect you to be prepared for the CDL permit exam on the fourth day of class. Even so, is that possible? It is understandable why so many individuals fail to complete paid CDL training. The strain is getting to be just too much!
A Mess Is Getting Behind The Wheel
The people who successfully obtained their commercial learner’s permit are finally allowed to begin practicing driving trucks after some individuals are ultimately sent home. The so-called straight-back move comes first. The term “straight” may be a bit deceptive. That makes this seem simple. Straight should be simple, but why is the truck so tilted that, when performing a straight back, you can see the business emblem on the side of the trailer in your rearview mirror? There is a problem here. Are they certain that this trailer does not have a problem? It will not move directly.
Even if you keep spinning the wheel, things only seem to worsen. You are certain that you will flunk this and get expelled. You can see the teachers laughing at you over there, or at least it seems like they are laughing. When you do it, there always seems to be an invisible force tugging the trailer in one direction or the other, even though you have seen others do it, and it seems to be simple. You are becoming anxious since this is not going properly.
They provide roughly twenty pages of instructions on doing a pre-trip examination the next day in class. They tell you that if you want to pass the exam at the DMV in a few weeks, you will need to know every word of it. What? Do you mean to say that we will be taking the exam to earn our CDL in the coming weeks? Right now, everything seems a bit overwhelming. Simply put, you are too worn out to digest it all.
Why is CDL training completed so quickly? Your body is utterly exhausted, your mind is spinning, and your emotions are flitting about aimlessly. You had no idea that this would be so difficult. The recruiter’s description of everything made it seem exciting, and you were eager to begin a lucrative job. You are starting to understand that trucking will need significant dedication and determination to truly dig down and make things happen. That evening, when you check into your hotel room, you discover that two of your roommates have already been sent home, which makes you even more concerned about your chances.
The Busy Schedule
You find it difficult to believe you have just been here for one week as you put your head on your pillow that evening to get some rest before beginning up again the following day. Even if a lot has happened, there is still much to discover. After learning anything, you immediately forget how to do it the next day. Some pupils seem to have it all together, while others do not even seem bothered by their lack of advancement. The instructors bring up scheduling you to take your CDL exam at the testing center even though your growth is moving far too slowly for you to feel comfortable.
These are the kinds of problems that brand-new, inexperienced truck drivers must handle. At truck driving school, there is a lot of strain placed on the students, some of it self-inflicted. There are legitimate reasons why truck driving schools are run this way, and one of them is to get rid of students who will not become competent drivers in the first place. This line of work involves a lot of strain. Therefore it calls for those who can act quickly and decisively and maintain their resolve in the face of adversity. Being an efficient professional takes time to grow in this line of work. Those who can show tenacity and persistence in school are often eager and able to make it through their first year on the road.
Everything Will Get Simpler
Once your stride in this business, that emotional roller coaster gradually levels down. I recall that my first year was rather stressful, but I was working hard to achieve a level of performance that I was satisfied with. Now that I can consistently produce some large miles, it just feels like the cherry on top. I am no longer anxious, and I no longer have emotional ups and downs. My dispatcher treats me incredibly well since we have a history of working together to complete tasks. You will always have to go through your first year as a rookie before things shift. Despite taking a week off this month, I still traveled more than 11,000 miles. Keep your composure while you ride the roller coaster of your first year. When you become better, it gets better.
