My fear, winter driving.

Get your fear resolved before going trucking.

 

You will learn the same way others have.
Experience with a great deal of respect.
Hundreds of thousands of drivers deal w "weather " each day. Winter in the northern half of the country happens each year and no you cannot take it off unless you own the equipment.
Hopefully you will have a trainer that can show you the ropes of inclimate weather operation of all kinds.
We all deal with it and you can to.

BTW I am headed out with 4 stops to northern Minnesota this morning..snow and double digits below zero, no problem.

Good luck.

 

We have in the past had drivers that take off the winter months. I don’t like those drivers.

 

Just protecting their Cdl.
They can probably live with less

 

Driving a truck in bad weather isn’t much different than driving your car, the important thing to remember is to slow it down as conditions require, and park it if it gets too bad.

As for driving at 60 mph, I predict that won’t last long. Once you get comfortable behind the wheel, you’ll drive with the pace of traffic. It’s much safer, for one thing!

 

There is a difference between "fear" and "respect". If you have a fear of winter driving that is so intense you might want to consider working local and south of I-40. Another point is to learn your boundaries. When stopped during a storm look at what other drivers are doing. If they are not leaving I would highly recommend you STAY PUT. Many years ago I was parked near AmarilloTexas on I 40 and ice was all over the roads. I advised several rookies to stay put. They said they had freight that had to get there and reports were the roads were getting better to the west. I walked back to my truck, sit down, and called my company telling them I was parked. They were Ok with it, in fact, there was a company mass message coming soon from safety to the drivers via QC to stay parked. One of our drivers was already waiting on a hook to yank him out of the median. Later that afternoon I had my full clock and headed East. I saw many trucks (and cars) all over the medians and sides of the road for close to 100 miles. If the gut says stay parked, stay parked. Now I am going to repeat something here I have said many times. If the company makes a threat to fire you, don't back down. NEVER and I mean NEVER allow the company to overrule your safety decisions. Honestly, I had much rather be explaining to a prospective carrier I was fired because I refused to run in bad weather than to be explaining I was fired because I lost a load and did thousands of $$$$ worth of damage.

 

Well I never drove in the snow and ice until I got into a big rig. I learned a lot reading this forum, about what to feel for in the steering wheel and in the seat and then went out and put it to test... my first winter was a bit nerve racking but I faced my fear and gained experience... now it's nothing for me to run thru snow and ice or chain up over Mountain passes multiple times a day.

 

Standard WY winter driving...