Greedy trainer

why do american trucker and amateur trucker have such similar names and signatures

 

My trainer let me swipe my card when I was the one driving and got fuel and he swiped when it was the other way around. The more stories I read on here the more I realize I was lucky to have the guy I did.

 

Haha I thought the same thing.

 

My trainer uses his card every time we fuel to He lets me swipe every now and than but the way i see it is his truck his rules But the cool thing is he uses his card to get me showers and such. Hes also really cool because he said that since I'm making him money he buys me meals every so often. i got a really cool trainer i think.

 

Sure the dude is greedy but so what. If this is your biggest complaint, consider yourself lucky. Suck it up and in a few months you will have your own truck and your own worries.

 

The "training companies" find they can make more money by paying 3000 drivers 20 cents a mile and replacing them every 6 months than they would if they paid 3000 experienced drivers what they're actually worth (meaning whatever it takes to RETAIN them). The costs of orientation, bus tickets, motels, trainers, etc. is actually offset by the fact none of their regular solo drivers are paid worth a ####.

Their turnover is so bad, their most experienced drivers only have about a year's experience, and that's why they use rookies to train students. Most drivers either quit by then or they stick around to "train" because they're paid enough to make it worth it.

 

ha. guess im not the only one who noticed that.

 

That's only somewhat true. A nervous rookie may tend to be more careful, but the experienced guy has "been there, done that" and knows how to react in certain situations like when the brakes totally fail. (I had that happen on the Indiana turnpike once. Bad air dryer, freezing temps)

 

happened to me once...when the truck picked up too much speed i just ran along beside it and drug my feet

 

I was just tooling along headed east somewhere in the middle of winter, and kicked off the cruise to start slowing down to go into a service plaza. I jaked down to about 55 mph before the ramp, hit the brakes and started onto the ramp and nothing. I pushed the pedal harder and harder and nothing was happening. I was already beyond the "point of no return" meaning I'd probably roll the truck if I tried to swerve back onto the highway, so here I am going 55 mph into a service plaza with no brakes, loaded like 77k. A Cummins, even though it has an engine governor, somehow senses panic sometimes (hard to explain) but you can momentarily redline the engine sometimes, and I managed to throw it down I don't know how many gears I skipped but I was pushing close to 3000 RPM with the jake on full, I went through the car side because I knew I couldn't handle the curve into the truck area. I just stayed on the jake and kept dropping gears until I was going slow enough I just hit the parking brakes. By this point I was already on the ramp going back onto the highway, so I backed up and found a parking spot and called my company's shop and they sent out a fix-it truck.
It turned out the tractor protection valve or something was full of ice and nothing was getting through. Not really sure how that prevented the service brakes from working on both units, but after the dude switched it out they worked fine. Then I went straight to a Volvo dealer for a new air dryer. The truck was a 2006 and I think this was the winter of 07/08 so it's not like it was an old junker truck or anything.