and yet the only mechanism available to teach them the intricacies of such a heavy and large vehicle was to get out and do it. There is no starting out with a "small" version of an AZ class vehicle or air brakes.
To start out with, you have to be 18 to get a class A licence. You also have to have, at a minimum, a class G licence already. So, applicants have been driving for a few years with the acquired BASIC driving skill experiences which is my main point here - anyone going for their class A licence has already spent a few years driving and learned the ins and outs of the roads.
Further to that...
New truck drivers, assuming they're going to a
reputable school, start out in a private parking lot putting MANY hours behind the wheel before they ever see a public road.
And when they DO actually go out onto public roads, they're usually bobtail to start with.
And they focus almost exclusively in low-traffic commercial areas for the initial baby steps.
When they get to pull a trailer for the first time, it's empty, not loaded with 40+K of freight.
And when they do get their licence most
reputable companies put them out for at least their first trip with a driver trainer.
And when they get cut loose the very first time the
reputable companies usually give them a light load on simple equipment..but by that time they're likely to have several thousand kilometers under the belts already under very close scrutiny.
So yes, there's a training slope, and most of it's done under a watchful eye. They've also spent a few years driving a car or smaller truck (class D perhaps) to begin with meaning they actually have a clue about what to expect from themselves and, most importantly,
other drivers.
Your comparison is apples and oranges to a kid getting his M1 and heading out into Toronto traffic all alone having never even driven ANY motor vehicle before in his entire life.
And lastly, you'll notice I used the word
reputable several times. Yes, we all know that there's quite a few GTA based non-repultable driver mills out there that pump out woefully untrained and clueless class A drivers, but that's a different ball of wax, and if you want to get into the nuts and bolts, my argument still stands - NONE of those drivers are getting cut loose on our roads with ZERO driving experience - they've all got experience, albeit class G experience at worst, but experience nonetheless. Many of them are not successful in the industry and go elsewhere very quickly because they either can't get hired (reputable companies won't hire poorly trained drivers, a road test weeds them out in a heartbeat) and many more rack up enough small accidents very quickly and become uninsurable by fleet policies, therefore removing themselves from the industry by default.
