CDL School

When you're in an accident and not seriously hurt, you need to act to prevent further damage or injury. The basic steps to be taken in any accident are to: protect the area, notify authorities, and care for the injured.

Stopping is not always the safest thing to do in an emergency. When you don't have enough room to stop, you may have to steer away from what's ahead. Remember, you can almost always turn to miss an obstacle more quickly than you can stop.

The total stopping distance is the total minimum distance your vehicle has traveled, in ideal conditions; with everything considered, including perception distance, reaction distance and braking distance, until you can bring your vehicle to a complete stop. At 55 mph, your vehicle will travel a minimum of 450 feet.

You need at least one second for each 10 feet of vehicle length at speeds below 40 mph. At greater speeds, you must add 1 second for safety. If your vehicle is 40 feet long and you are traveling at 50 mph, your following distance should be 5 seconds or more.

Strong winds make it difficult to stay in your lane. The problem is usually worse for lighter vehicles. This problem can be especially bad coming out of tunnels.

The B:C type fire extinguisher is designed to work on electrical fires and burning liquids. These are usually the following types of fire extinguishers: Regular Dry Chemical, KCl Dry Chemical, Carbon Dioxide (Dry), Halogenated Agent (Gas).

Never leave your vehicle unattended without applying the parking brakes or chocking the wheels. Your vehicle might roll away and cause injury and damage.

Protect the accident area: if your vehicle is involved in the accident, try to get it to the side of the road, if you're stopping to help, park away from the accident, put on your flashers, and set out reflective triangles to warn other traffic.

You should brake in a way that will keep your vehicle in a straight line and allow you to turn if it becomes necessary. You can use the "controlled braking" method or the "stab braking" method. 

The gross combination weight (GCW” is the total weight of the GCWs of each unit of a combination vehicle – truck/tractor and trailer(s) added together.

When driving a loud bang, vibrations, or heavy steering can indicate that a tire has failed.

Remember that when the road is slippery, you need much more space to stop, and should keep more space in front of your vehicle.

Whether or not you load and secure the cargo yourself, you are responsible for inspecting your cargo, recognizing overloads and poorly balanced weight, knowing your cargo is properly secured and does not obscure your view ahead or to the sides, knowing your cargo does not restrict your access to emergency equipment.

You must review the inspection report made by the previous driver. Only if defects reported earlier have been certified as repaired or not needed to be repaired, should you sign the previous driver's report.

If an oncoming driver has drifted into your lane, a move to your right is best. If that driver realizes what has happened, the natural response will be to return to their own lane. No one is likely to be driving on the shoulder, but someone may be passing you on the left.

Explanation: To drive a vehicle safely, you must be able to control its speed and direction. Safe operation of a commercial vehicle requires skill in accelerating, steering, stopping, and backing safely.

Explanation: A skid happens whenever the tires lose their grip on the road. Most serious skids result from driving too fast for road conditions. Drivers who adjust their driving to conditions don't over-accelerate and don't have to over-brake or oversteer from too much speed. 

A hazard is any road condition or other road user (driver, bicyclist, pedestrian) that is a possible danger.

You should check your mirrors every 8 to 10 seconds to know what is going on around your vehicle.

With the stab braking method, you apply your brakes all the way and release brakes when wheels lock up. 

Before you change lanes, you must first make sure that no vehicles are hiding in your blind spots.

Snub braking method is used for steep downhill grades, in this method apply the brakes just hard enough to feel a definite slowdown. When your speed has been reduced to approximately five mph below your "safe" speed, release the brakes. When your speed has increased to your "safe" speed, repeat.

Short breaks can keep your alert. But the time to take them is before you feel really drowsy or tired. Stop often. Walk around and inspect your vehicle. It may help to do some physical exercise.

Watch for: vehicles that may drift over the lane divider lines or within their own lane; vehicles traveling at inconsistent speeds; drivers who are preoccupied with maps, food, cigarettes, cell phones, or other objects; drivers who appear to be involved in conversations with their passengers.

If the load is more than two feet wide and extends more than four feet behind the rear of the vehicle, two square red flags must be placed at the end of the load.

Most good drivers look at least 12 to 15 seconds ahead. That means looking ahead at the distance you will travel in 12 to 15 seconds. At lower speeds, that's about one block. At highway speeds it's about a quarter of a mile.

Blocking is used in the front, back, and/or sides of a piece of cargo to keep it from sliding. Blocking is shaped to fit snugly against cargo. It is secured to the cargo deck to prevent cargo movement.

Preventing drowsiness before a trip: Get adequate sleep (8 to 9 hours), prepare route, schedule trips for the hours you are normally awake, drive with a passenger, avoid medications that cause drowsiness.

Front-end header boards ("headache racks") protect you from your cargo in case of a crash or emergency stop. The front-end structure should block the forward movement of any cargo you carry.

Empty trucks actually require greater stopping distances because an empty vehicle has less traction. It can bounce and lock up its wheels, giving much poorer braking.

Explanation: Don't roll back when you start. You may hit someone behind you. If you have a manual transmission vehicle, partly engage the clutch before you take your right foot off the brake. Put on the parking brake whenever necessary to keep it from rolling back. Release the parking brake only when you have applied enough engine power to keep from rolling back 

Rear wheel braking skids occur when the rear drive wheels lock. Because locked wheels have less traction than rolling wheels, the rear wheels usually slide sideways in an attempt to "catch up" with the front wheels. With vehicles towing trailers, a drive-wheel skid can let the trailer push the towing vehicle sideways, causing a sudden jackknife.

Accident statistics show that the chance of a crash is much greater for drivers who have been drinking than for drivers who have not.

 If possible, avoid using the brakes until your speed has dropped to about 20 mph, and gently return to the road.

Explanation: ¾ second to 1 second. At 55 mph this accounts for 61 feet traveled.

The tire load is the maximum safe weight a tire can carry at a specified pressure. This rating is stated on the side of each tire.

Slow down to a safe speed, and downshift to the right gear before entering the curve. This lets you use some power through the curve to help the vehicle be more stable while turning. It also allows you to speed up as soon as you are out of the curve.

If the surface is icy, reduce speed to a crawl and stop driving as soon as you can safely do so.

Braking when a tire has failed could cause loss of control. Unless you're about to run into something, stay off the brakes until the vehicle has slowed down. Then brake very gently, pull off the road, and stop.

Inspect the tires more often than usual, or every two hours or every 100 miles when driving in very hot weather.

No matter how small the cargo, it should have at least two tie-downs.

Do the following to correct a drive-wheel braking skid: stop braking letting the rear wheels roll again and keep the rear wheels from sliding; counter-steer as a vehicle turns back on course, it tends to keep on turning. Unless you turn the steering wheel quickly the other way, you may find yourself skidding in the opposite direction.

Too much weight on the steering axle can cause hard steering. It can damage the steering axle and tires.

Some vehicles have sight glasses, see-through coolant overflow containers, or coolant recovery containers. These permit you to check the coolant level while the engine is hot. If the container is not part of the pressurized system, the cap can be safely removed, and coolant added even when the engine is at operating temperature.

Cargo should have at least one tie-down for each ten feet of cargo. You will need two tie downs for a 20-foot load.

Perception Distance + Reaction Distance + Brake Lag Distance + Braking Distance = Total Stopping Distance

Basic method for shifting up: release accelerator, push in clutch and shift to neutral at the same time. Release clutch. Let the engine and gears slow down to the rpm required for the next gear. Push in clutch and shift to the higher gear at the same time. Release clutch and press accelerator at the same time.

Your CDL will be disqualified after two or more convictions of any state law on texting while operating a CMV. No motor carrier shall allow or require its drivers to engage in texting while driving.

You will lose your CDL for at least one year for a first offense for: Driving a CMV if your blood alcohol concentration is .04% or higher or driving a CMV under the influence of alcohol.

Most vehicles now have an ABS light on the instrument panel that will light up briefly when the vehicle is started to alert you that the vehicle has ABS, you can check to see if the vehicle was built on or after March 1, 1998, or you can check for wires from your brakes.