My Experience With the Night squire program

Oh, well, where did the other drivers go? Follow the herd...

 

Best of luck to you. You'll find your calling. Just keep at it.

 

I sure hope this comes out right and you take it the way I intend. You have school experience only and some miserable experiences with training. After reading your post a couple of times, I have these insights:

1. You seem to have gone into this with the (perhaps unrealistic) expectation that you would be out in training for 4 weeks or so and then kicked out on your own. Period.
2. You seem to push back against their requiring that you drive through Winter conditions with a trainer before being allowed to do it alone.
3. You seem to push back against having to demonstrate your ability in 'real world' situations to a trainer.

Now my input.

1. You get the training you need to satisfy your employer that you can handle their very expensive equipment and take care of the freight that their customer has trusted to their care and control with a reasonable expectation of success. My original training was set for four weeks; it actually took less because I met their standards. Other drivers took longer; some twice as long.
2. Honestly, you're a little bit arrogant and very unaware if you think you can drive an 80,000 pound, 70 foot long commercial motor vehicle in the kind of nasty winter conditions you will experience without proving it...and learning from someone who knows.
3. You will always be tested and asked to prove yourself. And asked to demonstrate your abilities over and over. Get over it.

Honestly, you're not nearly as good or prepared for this job as you think you are. Your CDL training only prepared you to pass a test. Nothing more. You were not prepared to back into the docks you will encounter or how to maneuver your truck on black ice conditions or when the wind is blowing 50 mph or so.

I've been driving long enough to have experienced all that and more. I've had great experiences and several "almost but not quite" experiences. But if you look at my Trucker? status, you will see "Student" listed. The reason is simple:

I will be a student until I know it all and no longer need to be taught. Hopefully, that will never happen.

You still need to be taught and you still have much to learn, like it or not. Stop thinking you know it all. Suck it up and put your ego away. When you woke up this morning, you put you Big Boy pants on. This is a very tough business and all trucking companies' insurance providers require certain assurances.

You don't know as much as you think you do and aren't nearly as good as you think you are or will be when a trainer finishes with you. Even then, however, you are still just a beginner with a very steep hill to climb.

I wish you well.

 

I remember my old Trainer at CRST Van Expedited 10yr ago lol.. He SUCKED i had nothing to my name 22yr old just got outta the army, and Trucking seemed like a good ideal.. HE Sucked he didn't Teach me Jack. I wasn't even allowed to back the truck.. and my 1st night on the truck he sat down with me watched me plan my trip then went back into the sleeper and laid down i was on my own.. Thank God for military training... Just Suck it up and Drive on Driver, Pretend to get along with whomever they stick you with and get it over with, your not really going to learn anything in 4 weeks anyway except getting more comfortable with driving a big truck. A Real Training Program would be a Year long or better, and that's what your first couple of years in this industry will be Trial, Error, and learning.

 

Right! Just having a lot of experience will not make one a good trainer. And there is a WHOLE lot to learn after a driver leaves the trainer's truck.

 

When I went with a trainer, drove pretty much the whole time. 3 weeks later I was solo. Knight sounds like they have a hand holding program, and teaming you, making more money off you for longer.

 

Forcing you to shift like that is wrong. A good trainer will help you learn the basics down good and then, near the end, expose you to some of the shortcuts like floating gears, which you will perfect on your own over time. Your second trainer should never have been one; it seems for him it was all about the Benjamin's, not teaching.

I wouldn't blame the company, though, or put too much faith in your nephew's experience with PAM. I roomed with a former PAM driver whose training experience was much like yours, horrid; it's all about who you get, not the company. If you don't like your trainer, ask for a different one, no matter what your trainer says. Training is about you, not him.