I bought a truck from the classified ads.
The guy who (sort of) trained me for OTR was a retired trucker that I had bought a dump truck from.
He was embarrassed to let me back up & such so I got a week or so of verbal instruction but not much else.
Coupla things I remember from my first week...
Backing in at Faultless Starch at the bottom of the 12th street viaduct in KCMO.
You had to take the traffic lanes and the sidewalk to line up for the dock while missing the fire plug and fire escape on the opposite side of the street.
and there was about 2" on either side of the trailer doors to avoid hitting the mirrors on the trucks you were backing between.
Lots of traffic.
I had it hit once and pulled out to circle the block hoping somebody would leave.
But nobody did.
After I finally got in a guy came up to me and told me I had to pull out and shut the doors since they opened them from inside the dock.
Once I started sobbing he told me that they could load me like I was but to leave the doors closed next time.
Would've made a huge difference.
Another time in PA right after I started, trying to get 80k going up a damn 45 degree incline from a stop light.
After 3 or 4 failed attempts to feather the clutch without rolling backwards I set the brakes and released them once the clutch started to engage.
Sounds goofy but I didn't know hop close the car behind me was and I was about to shit a brick fretting over it.
Those first few weeks I'd show up at my delivery at 2 or 3 am and practice backing into the dock(s) a bunch of times.
Heard a guy on the CB one night say, "That guy don't know WTF he's doing!".
Well, NO SHIT SHERLOCK!!!