USA Trainer Shortage?

From reading this forum for several months, probably the best answers I can give you are:

Most of the trainers that have come through your location already have students, or​

Trainers might be taking some time off around this week, or​

The "risks" of having a trainee drive your truck aren't worth the additional pay.​

If the trainer is riding second-seat during the time you (trainee) are driving (ideal situation, I would think), the trainer can see what's going on and hopefully help you avoid problems. I think it would be very difficult to sleep while a "newer" driver is barreling down the road.

BTW, what happened with the 9 (or so) drivers with experience? Did they get a truck assigned or get put with a trainer?

 

I am assuming that the trainer is getting paid for the miles he's driving plus the miles you're driving plus $45/day. If you're each driving 11 hours and getting your 10 hour sleep, that can be pretty lucrative for the trainer but not necessarily a good experience for you the trainee.

Just my opinion.

 

You should perhaps feel fortunate ... the last thing you want or need is to go to work for a company that makes anybody a "trainer". Few people are cut out to be truck drivers. EVEN FEWER are cut out to be GOOD and QUALIFIED driver trainers.

 

a friend of mine is a trainer for them .....i think he said trainees were given 600 a week for the first 90 days and as a trainer he is sitting second seat just driving whats left of his 14 when the student gets wore out i think he is averaging 1200 to 1400 a week while training but didn;t get too specific.....

 

i do not work for USA Truck, but i did work for two other OTR companies. I did a very short "stint" as a driver-trainer. at the time of my first job, i was 5 years experienced. the second job, i had 10 years.

i can tell you this from "my perspective" only.

when a student graduates trucking school he often thinks he "know's it all", and I HATE THAT.

cuz as soon as some dimwit thinks he knows it all, and actually alludes to that to me, i call dispatch and say, "send me out west, i want to go thru Colorado".

i can assure you, that i have broken many "know it all's" in those mountains, to near crying babies, and I DO MEAN..CRYING.

it is NOT easy to have some student tell YOU what to do. i put them into thier place right away. i sometimes make them want to throw up and beg for another trainer.

I WILL NOT PUT UP WITH "know it all's".

some students think that thier newly earned (yeah that's a joke) CDL ENTITLES THEM to a job that they thought was so easy. until i put them through thier paces and make mince meat outta them.

trucking IS NOT all that easy, life on the road ain't that easy. you need to have a good head on your shoulders at all times.

after a while of dimwits, and aceholes and "know it all's", trainers just say to the company, "i am done, get someone else to deal with these fools".

and they do, companies like Swift, will get a newbie driver, and after less than 6 months, ask that person if he wants to be a trainer. not only is the quality of HIM pee poor, so is his "training" of yet another newbie. i call it "the blind leading the blind".

i am frankly quite glad there are no trainers available at many companies. to me, this will thin out the newbie's enough to go home and seek other employment.

we need dedicated, people that ARE WILLING TO LISTEN to a trainer and DO AS TOLD, not second guess or argue or "know it all".