As a company driver, what driving habits should I develop before buying my own truck?

[ChrisP94]

(04-12-2020 )Magard Wrote:  So just one thing with all the ridiculousness here. If you we’re driving my truck and I caught you starting off in third gear I would freak. You would get a tongue lashing about clutches and all. I wouldn’t fire you. I would teach you right. If I caught you again that would be it. I realize the stupid dmv and truck school says start in a really high gear so you don’t have to shift through a intersection. Yeah that’s bullshit. I would teach you how to do a hybrid float shift. That would probably eventually turn into a full float and that’s ok with me. I start a load in low a lot. Float from there. Low rpm rise in lower gears and work my way up rpm wise. That is true progressive shifts. Your truck only goes to 1500rpm. Yeah they would change that or I would be finding new employment ASAP . Working for idiots is not how you learn anything. You should be looking to downshift at 1500 rpm when pulling not governing out at 1500. Maybe find a small company that runs more of a owner operator type operation. Maybe find a old owner operator to learn from. Put off your dreams of being a owner op for a minute until you get some good driving habits. I’ve taught a few people from the ground up and hired them. Mostly family. Its frustrating watching the abuse your truck takes for a minute but the ones I have taught go on to be good problem free drivers. Learn to not tear up equipment before you try and get fuel mileage.

How do you shift at low RPMs in the low side? It’s either near impossible to get it out of gear without sounding like something is dropping to the ground and going into the next gear it near jerks me out of the seat. I just gave up on trying to progressive shift. I can do it fine empty because that’s how I was trained but when I’m loaded it just sounds and feels painful to push it into neutral in anything under 1400 RPM