Time out on the road while training

I spent a year as a trainer with Swift. A trainee is required to log at least 200 hours behind the wheel on drive time. The first 50 hours the trainer is required to be in the passenger seat. After that the trainer has the option to upgrade the trainee to qualify for running team.

Training is grueling work. Typically at Swift in the first week dispatch will put you on "super single" loads for the first few days. Super Single means you have to load and go and deliver without stopping to take a 10 hour break. A typical Super Single load is about 800 miles, while a solo driver in a governed truck might be lucky to get 500 to 650 miles after delays for loading, fueling, mandatory breaks, traffic, etc.

On a Super Single load I would start the day driving, with the student in the sleeper berth. I would get the load, then drive the first 300-400 miles before turning the wheel over to the trainee. THEN I had to log On Duty in the passenger seat as the trainee drove, made delivery, and got us parked for the night. Some days I had to be awake for well over 20 hours.

Some trainees, as alluded to earlier in this thread, have NO concept about what "on the job training" means. The most IMPORTANT word in that phrase is "JOB". This IS a job. We have customers with deadlines and we are providing a service THEY are paying for.

Some trainees got in my truck thinking this was a big, joyous road trip. They got tired after 300 miles and wanted to stop and get some Popeye's Chicken or some such thing, then get on the phone for an hour and yack with their buddies about how, "Oh YEAH! I'm using the Jake brake and EVERYTHING!"

This is on the JOB training. Take it seriously.

After that first week, if I upgraded the trainee to run team, I "slept" with all my clothes on and the curtain open. I was ready to jump into the passenger seat in a heartbeat. Anyone think that's a good scenario for sleeping? Sometimes I would set my alarm clock to wake me up about 15 minutes before an expected difficulty, like negotiating rush hour traffic in a metro area, or getting up and over a two lane highway going over a steep, winding mountain grade.

Yes, training can be a lucrative part of the trucking profession. I may consider doing it again, but I would NEVER do it as an owner operator. The transmission gets TRASHED from newbies trying to go all Mohammed Ali into the next gear.

Swift would be a good choice for getting on with a training program out of OKC. Their terminal is on 10th about a mile east of Morgan. I turned in my Swift company truck at that terminal 5/15/15. I then got into pulling flatbed to the oil field.

By the way, Halliburton in El Reno also has a driver training program. It might include the need to work on a frack crew. Driving oil field requires another level of skill set, you will be required to haul up to 110,000 gross weight through muddy, slimy "dirt" roads to get to or from oil wells.

 

The El Reno yard has a driver training school. I don't know whether you already have to be a Halliburton employee, like on a Frack crew, to qualify to enter the program.

Every Frack Crew has a handful of CDL drivers. There might be 40 trucks that need to be moved from Fracking site A to Fracking site B. Maybe 10 Frack crew members have a CDL. The other 30 trucks are now moved by Drive Away drivers, these are from another company that supplies drivers to move trucks. I have done a lot of drive away for Halliburton and other companies over the last few years out of OKC, when I am not driving my own truck.

Drive away is often cheaper for oil companies, because for example a Frack crew member with a CDL won't have hours available to drive a truck. All their OSHA work hours count against their DOT work hours.

The El Reno yard also has a cement plant, so there are quite a few dedicated Halliburton drivers pulling bulk pneumatic trailers to oil rigs.

One thing that all Halliburton drivers and hands say is that the benefits are awesome. Many have put in years for the medical benefits alone. Some get their CDL through Halliburton, then leave to get another oil field driving gig that pays more.

 

I will add that yes indeed Halliburton has an extensive fleet of trucks. They are red Kenworth T800's with either a GUTLESS Cummins or Caterpillar engine. 350 horsepower intended to pull up to 110K gross weight up muddy slime on grades over 20%.

For experienced truck drivers they know what I mean. A freeway grade of 6% pulling a 80,000 gross can be an exercise in patience. Pulling a "sand chief" trailer that's over sized and 110K up a wet road in central Oklahoma slime is another level of WOW.

If you have to do a long haul with that gross weight, watch your fuel gauge. They have ONE fuel tank that gives you an effective 100 gallon capacity (more like 90 gallons). At those weights you are LUCKY to get more than 2.5 mpg.

 

Student dhoush ask the companies that she is considering giigo with. If she has a CDL ehen hired, training time will probably be 3 to 4 weeks. If she gets her CDL from the company she hires on with, I would think she will be with the trainer 3 or 4 weeks longer as the CDL training is done on the road.

 

I was out 6 weeks straight. I was living in Atlanta at that time and terminal was in Dallas area. Two trainers because the first one was fired from being a trainer.

 

Not necessarily.

There is one on the Oklahoma Arkansas Border that reguires you to come off a 8% into a 5 mph signed curve. Just one problem. That curve's (Left hand around the spine of the "Hill") has jersey barriers on the right edge facing sky. You will see many heavy truck brakes go straight through off the edge when they realize that 5 mph meant less than 5 and see sky for the last time in life on the way down. The jersey barriers are replaceable aft the bodies are removed.

If it's not hills there, it's tornados that chase you. A couple had my name on it now and then. whew. But it's all good. Just avoid the bingo parlors.

This is one video that is a favorite, most people don't realize that every one of those gravel paths on each terraced part of the cliff will eventually have to be traveled early in the morning.

 

Even in central Oklahoma you would be surprised at the steep grades you find, usually on the county roads that are laid out in a square grid. None of this "let's bend the road around the hill to make it less steep". Drop straight down to a river or Creek and climb straight up the next hill to get out of a ravine. There's been a few times I unbuckled my seat belt. If you are getting close to topping out and get it to first or Lo and the rpm's drop below 1000 that's the time to get your left hand on the driver's door handle and prepare to bail if you stall out and the parking brake won't stop you from rolling backwards. It happened to a driver I know, on a slick muddy road. He bailed and fortunately the trailer tracked left into a bank and stopped his rig in a jacknife position. The rig sent a bulldozer to pull him the rest of the way up the hill. No real damage but for a bent ICC bumper.