My U.S. Trucking Skills 1.049

As an experienced truck driver and trainer with nearly two decades of experience and over 60,000 backing-up maneuvers under my belt, I understand the challenges and fears that new drivers face when learning how to navigate with a real truck and trailer. That's why I highly recommend this truck driving simulator - it takes the guesswork out of the equation and boosts your confidence when it comes to backing up into any dock.

This app offers comprehensive CDL training, featuring various sized trailers (28, 35, 48, and 53 feet long) to simulate the real-world scenarios you'll encounter during your test.

For those feeling more adventurous, once you've mastered the normal campaign, you can try the hard campaign level. This level introduces blind spots, limiting your visibility to what you'd see sitting in the cab. However, there's a "Get Out And Look" button that temporarily disables the blind spots, allowing you to assess potential obstacles.

Based on user requests, the developers have recently added a steering wheel feature, allowing you to turn the truck using an intuitive interface that mimics real-life controls.

Alternatively, you can opt for the slider turning option. With this method, simply slide your finger left or right on the bottom 25% of the screen to make turns. It's worth noting that sliding your finger across the entire screen will enable full steers from one side to the other. The slider acts as a handy indicator for your steering position.

The top 75% of the screen is dedicated to controlling your speed. Slide your finger up or down anywhere in this region to move forward or reverse. If you need to stop abruptly, simply double-tap anywhere on the screen.

In terms of navigation, you can use a pinch gesture with two fingers to zoom in and out of the map, while dragging your two fingers across the screen allows for panning.

The truck and trailer in the simulator are equipped with red, green, and blue lines. The red line indicates the direction the back of the trailer is pointing, which is especially helpful in a top-down view like this game provides. The green lines help you gauge if your truck and trailer are aligned correctly, just as you would do by looking in your mirrors in real life. While less critical, the blue lines offer an additional visual reference when your steers are pointing straight ahead.