Offer To Teach

I went to an independent school and my instructor was really good. He actually taught me how to back. School costed $3400. Financial aid paid $2900. I paid the rest.

His daily routine consisted of taking us out in the truck with a group of 3. We would drive for a while and switch it up every hr or so that way everyone got a chance to practice.

Same way with backing we went to this abonded plant and actually practiced with cones backing into a dock. We would practice 90, 45, and straight an hr per student backing into these docks and into the cones

He spent an hr every morning going through the pre trip with all 3 of us. We would have to word it the way he did so the dot officer wouldn't count it against us. We had to learn all the components and parts as well. Had to know how to do a brake test and check for air leaks.

If I was going to offer any advice to you teach your students how to back looking at their tires and not so much the trailer. That's what he taught us and its stuck with me ever since...

Total hrs 160. Entire school 5 days a week, 4 weeks.

 

Let me guess, Diesel Driving Academy.

 

I went to a independant school long ago and had instructors of all kinds, mostly working during the week and there on weekends to teach us. Maybe tell a few stories and solve problems of whatever kind.

They spent a awful lot of time in the right seat keeping an eye on us on the road. Most of the time we ran either the western maryland mountains, played in DC morning rush (Ugh...) or roamed the quiet areas of Beth Steel area which had everything you could want for a given scenario in trucking, such as a cloverleaf interchange so you can practice downshifting and getting into and out safely without traffic to speak of.

Once in a while they played games, a rodeo of sorts after the students gained a certain amount of skill and got good. Nothing like a experienced instructor hefting a big rig into the dock in about roughly 35 seconds and one move from the prescribed 100 foot line. One instructor racing barrels western rodeo style had his whole rig get away from him on the gravel and came straight for all of us physics dictating where that rig will end up. (Not him...) He managed by working everything in the cab to park the truck neatly with a thump into the dock side without damage.

Im not sure how that works when the whole thing is going sideways. But he made it happen and resolved it.

Our school was not too wild. It's just a place where you learned stories, learned truths and learned what not to do with trucking where possible.

I guess I did ok for the most part. The instructors were pretty good. One in particular, I hear him now and then in storms out of that right seat decades later. [preface last Mr, last name in a roar...] Now you don't forget about that trailer *Smack! (Physical abuse was not a thought in those days...) I was always forgetting that trailer heh.

Eventually you will want your students out of there on to the DMV testing. They can only pass or fail. If they failed well... they had a equal shot like everyone else and probably it's for their own good that trucking isnt for them.

 

Do you speak any foreign languages?

 

I don't think you need to be fluent but it might not hurt to learn some basic phrases in Spanish, Urdu, Somali, Hindi, Vietnamese, Russian, Hungarian, Polish, and any country than ends in 'stan.
Phrases like "Don't do that !", "Stop the truck immediately", "Take your foot off of the dashboard", "The little pedal on the far left is called a clutch", "Would you like a breath mint?", "Please don't run over the curb anymore, That's three times now and it makes us look stupid", "In your country running a bluff on opposing traffic while passing may be a form of sport but we don't do that here". "Please pull over immediately". "I know you forgot you had a trailer behind you. Please be more attentive" "Yes, we set the brakes every time we leave the truck", and my all time favorite..."Burger King is hiring".