I was chatting with a former owner-operator, now company driver, recently about the changes the industry has seen over the years.

Our chat landed on the training of new truckers. It's not the first time I've had this conversation, and it pretty much goes like this: there are too many new drivers on the highway with too little experience to be handling the loads, routes and equipment they've been entrusted with.

In the good old days, potential truckers put in time. Truckers like the one I was talking to put in thousands of hours of practice before ever being let loose on the highway, where there was the potential to do serious damage. He was given jobs shuffling freight, trailers and trucks around yards on private property.

On more than a few occasions now, I've heard this opinion from veteran drivers: the difference between the newbies of today and the newbies of yesterday is practice.

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense because I got my driver's licence the same way, with lots of practice.

I started off like most kids: a few hours in a parking lot behind the wheel of my father's car, followed by some classroom training and about 10 hours of in-car instruction.

But that's not how I really learned to drive.

A friend and I, along with our advanced youth wisdom, decided to start taking his Dad's truck out at night.

As a 16-year-old, there is hardly anything more important than Slurpees and snacks at midnight. Unfortunately, the closest 24-hour corner store was almost an hour away if we walked, which wasn't very appealing.

Car keys belonging to sleeping parents, on the other hand, are irresistible.

I managed to get plenty of practice driving on those late-night runs. We were relatively out of harm's way on quiet residential streets at an hour when other motorists are rare.

Oddly enough my friend's parents didn't see it that way and when our adventures were discovered it didn't end well for anybody. Well, except that I aced my driver's test and my instructor was blown away with the progress I made.

Now, I'm not suggesting illegal activities are the only way we're going to get experienced truckers on the road. Just simply that there are certain things that can't be taught and there's no substitute for good old fashioned practice.

If someone really wants to be a trucker, they'll put in the time. Or am I dreaming? ★

Steve Macleod