To drive a vehicle safely, you must be able to control its speed and direction. Safe operation of a commercial vehicle requires skills in:
-Accelerating
-Steering
-Backing
-Shifting gears
-Braking
-Steering
-Backing
-Shifting gears
-Braking
To start, fasten your safety belt when on the road. Apply the parking brake when you leave your vehicle.
Do not roll back when you start. You may hit someone behind you. Partly engage the clutch before you take your right foot off the brake. Put on the parking brake whenever necessary to keep from rolling back. Release the parking brake only when you have applied enough engine power to keep from rolling back. On a tractor-trailer equipped with a trailer brake hand valve, the hand valve can be applied to keep from rolling back.
Accelerating
Speed up smoothly and gradually so the vehicle does not jerk. Rough acceleration can cause
mechanical damage. When pulling a trailer, rough acceleration can damage the coupling.
Speed up very gradually when traction is poor, as in rain or snow. If you use too much power, the drive wheels may spin. You could lose control. If the drive wheels begin to spin, take your foot off the accelerator
Steering
Hold the steering wheel firmly with both hands. Your hands should be on opposite sides of the wheel.
If you hit a curb or a chuckhole, the wheel could pull away from your hands unless you have a firm hold.
if you are a good manual transmission car driver, this part would be the easiest of this course.
Find a training lot. A disused airfield is the best idea, because it has long straight stretches (the runway), corners (turn way to runway entrance) and wide open spaces (the area in front of the hangars). If you are not so lucky as to have a disused airfield nearby, you may look for these three things separately. You may use abandoned country roads and disused parking lots that contain your truck.
remember that practice makes perfect, you cannot become a truck driver by practicing only on a computer.
