If you’re wondering what it takes to make it as a truck driver, let this be your guide to understanding and learning the truck driver skills you must master. Knowledge about the six truck driving skills outlined below will set the right tone for you to embark on this career journey and become a successful truck driver in the future.
Organization
When it comes to truck driving as a career, you must be organized. You have to balance several key aspects of the job, including maintaining your daily log book, keeping track of payments and truck receipts, maintaining the correct permits, ensuring you are on-time for deliveries, etc.
Being organized is one of the most critical truck driver skills. Ensuring you are organized will help you work efficiently and comply with all company and federal guidelines.
Focus
Next up on our truck driver skills list is focus. As a truck driver you may drive for many hours at a time. Staying focused on the job at hand and avoiding distractions will help you stay safe. You must not only be focused on your driving, but the drivers sharing the road. Regardless of the company you drive for, they will emphasize defensive driving techniques. Staying focused on these safety strategies will make you a safer driver. Many companies reward safe driving with bonuses and additional pay per mile.
Patience
As a truck driver, you’re going to encounter a lot of situations that will test your patience. You’ll have to deal with traffic jams, long fuel lines, reckless drivers on the road, waiting for the cargo to load and unload, etc. To deal with all these situations, you’ll have to learn one of the most essential truck driver skills – patience.
If you want to become a successful truck driver, then you must learn to be patient and comfortable with untimely delays and understand that you have no control over such situations. Furthermore, if you’re less stressed about such situations, you’ll enjoy truck driving more as well!
Basic Mechanical Skills
Another critical skill on our truck driver skills list is having basic mechanical knowledge about your truck. If you have the basic mechanical knowledge about your truck, you’ll be able to deal with flat tires, change lights, conduct a thorough pre-trip inspection, replace the truck fluids, check the engine for any difficulties, etc. This knowledge will help you save time if a minor issue occurs while you are on the road. In trucking, time is money.
Excellent Driving Skills
Let’s face it, to become a great truck driver, you need to have good driving skills. If you want to keep your truck driving license safe and secure, then it’s important to avoid accident and unsafe driving behavior. In CDL class and at your company orientation, you will learn numerous driving maneuvers. Mastering each maneuver for testing is the easy part. It is staying vigilant in following the safety steps of each that will lead to a long and prosperous career. Having a strong, safe driving record will enable you to take advantage of the numerous types of truck driving jobs.
Superb Navigation Skills
Even though certain technological advancements such as GPS have made it easier for truck drivers to get from one destination to another, these technologies are not accessible in all areas. They are sometimes not even 100% accurate. Furthermore, trucks are super large vehicles, so it’s sometimes difficult to take your truck in the direction that Google Maps suggests.
Therefore, you must have the skill to read a physical map and navigate your truck accordingly in case of the absence of technological aids. Before you advance on your consignment delivery journey, ensure that you thoroughly study the map to the destination to avoid any navigation errors.
If you have basic organizational skills, an attention to safety and the desire to learn our network of CDL schools can teach you the driving skills needed to get your CDL. Like anything in life, being great at something takes focus and determination. To get started and talk to a career specialists, fill out the interest form below.