Students do the strangest things (Or, the Tips for Trainers thread)

As a trainer you will learn as much about yourself, as your students will learn from you...
Your motivation should simply be to teach and train a future driver how to perform essential operations of the job description...and to teach them safe, very safe, driving skills...cause one day, you or your family member, could face one of your former students on opposite ends of the road...

I hope that helped...

 

All very valid points... To bad a lot of the people who are going to become trainers dont read and heed this post. I certainly hope that I get a trainer like you if and when I go back to work.

 

Ye, sometimes I'm saddened when i here some of the horror stories from students about their former or current trainers.

A new student places a lot of trust in thier trainer, the student wants to believe that their trainer is really looking out for them, and even cares for them. And when a trainer violates that trust, be it physically or mentally, it saddens me.

I was very fortunate to get a 'system' trainer when I started...when i say 'system' I mean profesional.

He wasn't there to question or judge who I was as a person...instead he was there to train drivers to do their job...he wore a uniform...and was kinda a 'Uncle Jessie' type on the Dukes of Hazard...

He was thorough in what he taught me, with a strong emphasis on safety.
He had a loving wife also...I think that really brought balance to his life...

One day, we were well ahead of scheduale, and ran out of hours near where he lived...He invited me into his home and made me feel like one of the family...we all went out to eat...and he paid for everything.

He never stopped being a trainer, and always understood I was a student..I wish there were more like him...I'm sure he's retired by now...

 

I have mixed feelings as to what makes one trainer or training method better than another, based partly upon my own experiences which include some time as a trainer and some as a trainee. Mix in the influence of my relatively short time in a college teaching position and I have proven to be better at being a trainer than a trainee.

I mostly agree with what has been said already in this thread and can add that if nothing else a trainee will reflect the methods of training used and the personalities of the persons involved more than in other professions. I think the level of responsibility given to a truck driver versus that in most other jobs has the effect of making a trainee more likely to do something wrong because even a minor mistake can be both deadly and expensive.

The person getting the training may not think much of the risk involved before getting into it but we become very aware of it once placed behind the steering wheel and sometimes in a bad way. I never screwed up as consistently when learning something as when I was being trained to drive a big truck and that was in part due to the way I was trained compared to being trained on other types of vehicles.

Whether yelling at me, ignoring me, scaring me or coddling me it did not matter so much as how I felt about operating the vehicle and what could go wrong if I had not learned the basics before ever getting behind the wheel. From observation and listening to others this seems to be pretty common and while a trainee might not seem at least a little scared in some way we probably all are starting out.

The drivers I trained to operate smaller vehicles while under my guidance at jobs in my younger years always first heard that they were expected to screw up and accepting that was one of the primary rules. They usually still freaked out to a degree but at least they heard what many instructors and trainers seem reluctanct to share and that is that mistakes are just as much a part of the learning experience as anything else so deal with it and get on with the training or go home.

The pressures of both the trucking schools and trucking companies upon employees to get the newbies on out the door ASAP seems to be behind that and I hope in the future it changes for the better. Those in my past who taught me the most and from whom I was able to learn from the best were always the ones who kept it real and kept it right.

 

This is not meant to be a statement, more of a question to ponder. . .

I wonder if one reason that so many new truck drivers have problems with their training, is because of their age. For many of us, this is a second, or maybe third career. We are a long way out of school, when we start out in this job.

Many times, the person who is doing the training is ten, or twenty years younger than we are. And while they may have "six months experience" in driving, have very little in "life experience" as a whole. In other words, they are kids with no experience, teaching old goats with years of experience. Just not in trucking.

Whatever it is, I think you must be far better off with a trainer at first, than without. When I started out, I was sent out on one trip, about 1400 miles round trip with four stops. Then cut loose on my own. Shoot, I didn't know my "butt from a hole in the ground" when it came to trucking.

Sure, I could handle the rig. But we were pulling refers, and the actual operation of the refer was never even touched on. Because of the type of stops we had, I had no experience with lumpers. Didn't even know what a lumper was. I thought you went to a drop/pick, and the dock people just "took care of things."

The very first time I drove a big truck in the snow, was late at night on Vail Pass in Colorado. Now I was born and raised in Colorado, and had years of ice and snow under my belt.

But not in a big rig. Also, I had spent the past twenty some years on the coast, and in the deserts in California, so I had been away from true "winter driving" for many years.

That first trucking job was really good for me though. I ran between St. George, UT and Denver, then on to Kansas or Nebraska. Then to the coast. Then all over again.

It seemed that everytime I went to Colorado, it was during a bad storm. Everytime I went to Cali, I hit the tulle fog in the San Joaquin.

This was a small company, no longer in business. And they were a true "Cheatum and Chiselem" father son operation. I worked there long enough to get enough experience to go somewhere else, and was gone. But starting out like that, made me appreciate a good company when I found one.

 

No trainer should ever yell at a student...
When I had students, I never so much as showed any sign of frustration or anger...just possibilities, hope and solutions...

Yelling has nothing to do with training...nothing at all...it's abuse...and frustration...it's no more than a verbal backhand...

Before I would ever yell at a student...I would, and did once, just tell them that are session was over...and that they were now my passenger and that I would be taking them to where they would recieve a new trainer...(This particular student just would not listen to instruction when it came to driving to fast for conditions).

My tone never changed...but they new I was serious about it...
And when they were put with another trainer..they would call me and say how they regreted not still being together...

And they, the student, was a lot older than me at the time...they even invited me to their 'nude beach' I guess they were like the President of some exclusive nude beach...but that's for another story...

 

why oh why arent you gonna be my trainer?!?!? LOL thanks for letting us new people know that there are a lot of good trainers out there.

 

I would like to switch gears a little and ask to touch on maps and logging. I am more concerned about learning those 2 and not getting lost going to my destination. I will be investing in a GPS if anyone would care to refer me to a good one. I also think about things like accidentally getting on a route that has low bridge clearence etc... I want to do this right. I am not a young man, however I am young to this profession so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Most likely be starting training next month.

 

As for my exp with training you can read my post earlier in this thread. As for a GPS its a great thing to have if you use it properly. You need to learn how to navigate by using maps and company and shipper/receiver directions first. Then you can get one. Just remember they are for navigating cars not trucks, although some have truck navigation but do now have low clearance avoidance on them. The way i use mine if for getting exact mileages and the speed is always spot on compared to your speedometer lol use a combination of your companies dir. GPS and ship rec directions. The good thing about GPS is you can zoom in on your receiver while still getting loaded at the shipper gives you time to learn your route to the detail and the names of roads and streets. Be safe and good luck....