I am currently in the process of getting my CDL. I just recently failed my state exam and have been trying to better understand what’s going wrong.
The issue I’m having is with the setup for 90 degree docking. When we practice maneuvers in the yard we just pull in and out of the box in the same place. I have no issues with the maneuver itself at this point. At most I’ll need one or two pull ups to clean it up, but I feel that I understand the maneuver itself pretty well at this point.
When it comes to the test, I actually drive over from where the offset and straight line backing is performed, passing the dock on my left and then have to set up for the 90. This has never been explained to me. Which is really disappointing considering I’ve been in school for weeks at this point. I literally hadn’t even thought about it until the exam. I felt really confident going into it because I’ve been performing really well in the training yard. So this has been really frustrating.
A lot of other students are reporting the same issue, but not all of them understand what’s wrong. The school administration just seems to assume everyone is incompetent, but at this point it just seems like a gap in the curriculum. I plan to ask my instructors for help, but there’s not really a way we can practice this with how the yard is laid out.
I’ve tried twice now. The first time I was too close to the dock, then I was too far away (hitting the outer boundary) so I’m spending precious pull ups just trying to correct my terrible setups and still struggling to get it in the box.
I guess I’m writing this partly to vent. Because I feel like CDL school shouldn’t be as much of a shitshow as it has been. But I would also like some help.
How do you set up for an alley dock maneuver? What should I be looking for in terms of positioning?
Also, maybe a long shot, but does anyone know how I could get practice at any of this outside of school? I really wish I could just have some time with a truck to experiment and figure things out.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.
