Driving a truck is harder than it looks. While a truck driver may make it look easy, driving a truck is a lot more involved than driving a car. While you would like to say that you are always paying close attention to the road when you drive a car, there are times where your mind tends to drift a bit and you go into a bit of “auto-pilot mode” where you are paying attention to the road, but only in a way that you will stay in your lane and not run into any car that is immediately in front of you. When you are driving a truck, you cannot allow your mind to drift, nor can you allow your eyes to come off the road. When you are driving a truck that is carrying tons of weight, you need to always be engaged, which can be a little bit tough after hours of driving in the middle of nowhere.
One of the first things that they will teach you in Truck Training is that you need to be ready for anything on the road. Even something basic, like a lane change, is something that needs to be done with maximum respect for what you are carrying, and what is around you. When you drive a car, you can take a quick look around and see who is beside you and who is behind you. When you are driving a truck, you are driving a vehicle that takes up a lot more space, meaning that you have to not just know who is around you but be sure that there is no one quickly gaining on you. A simple miscalculation on a lane change can cause a major accident.
When you are looking Chicago truck driver schools, make sure that you go with an option that gives you a good amount of time behind the wheel of a truck before you go to take any type of test. While you can learn a lot in a classroom, it is not until you get behind the wheel that you can be sure that you know what you are doing.