How do experienced drivers think new drivers should be trained

Emphasis on harmless. Once in a while it goes a little different depending on the person. One of my favorite things is to see ahead within a situation that someone is dealing with and wait for the person to process the problem. Such as #### this trailer is long... Oh *&^%

Ulterior lesson, never forget to set parking brakes when out of truck stressed about some minor detail about a set of numbers on the seal back there. A loaded truck is such a witch at finding the tiniest slope towards the most expensive or devastating impacts to roll to at any time.

I feel fortunate I did not have too many trainees. One in particular was the most important, my spouse. Which in some days can be a very hard problem indeed. She came out ok, but has certain issues that makes it a good fit for me to take care of some days and likewise for me.

 

Thanks!
Nice to know that I am not alone in this. As for pay, a typical day for my drivers hauling gravel is around $600, give or take a bit. So not as good as pulling heavy haul, but decent enough pay.

 

#### that’s some good pay. I grossed 550 today but that’s because i make time and a half saturday.

You’re in British Columbia I assume?

 

Correct. Southeast BC, Canada.
The bigger money is for those who stay with me over a decade and start doing the difficult heavy haul, then 600 a day doesn't seem like a lot.

 

I mean if you’re gonna work you might as well make the most money possible the way I see it as long as you don’t hate your job.

That’s good money man, is that pretty typical for that kind of driving in Canada?

Canada is sounding better and better lol.

 

Well our dollar is worth 23.3% less than the American dollar, so making $600 a day here is more like $460 something a day there. But I like the lifestyle here, i can live a 5 minute drive from town, on an acreage, in a nice house, for a reasonable price. I have the mountains to snowmobile, ski, dirt bike in summer, lakes and rivers to boat and fish all around me, the freedom to do things without being so over controlled like many other places, and crime here is extremely low. Wages are a LOT better in most industries, and people don't have to work insane hours to make an okay living. Most of my drivers either work 4 days on and 4 off, or 6 on and 6 off. If they want extra work they can simply ask me, and about 9 months a year i have unlimited work for them, even if not driving truck, i have work they can do. But it seems they like the lifestyle of having the choice to get days off and do whatever they like. World class fishing is 5 minutes drive away, a world class ski resort is 25 minutes, my neighbors are all awesome, air is clean, i can drink water from a stream if i wish to, and i do so often, people are mostly friend, a traffic jam is pulling up to a stop sign and a car is behind me, if I'm in the big truck I can still usually find a place to park in town no more than a 2 minute walk from where i want to go, oh and parking is free, just like my employees medical costs are free for them because I pay it. I know people by name, and they can text or call me directly if they wish to. Nobody has a long commute to work, and I promised them all to not be away from home ever for more than 5 days, but usually it is not more than 2 or 3, they get a nice hotel room if away from home, and no need to eat artery clogging food in dumpy truck stops. So people come here for the lifestyle more than anything else. Either people love this lifestyle or hate it, not really any middle ground. They also like the first year of employment with me they get 4 weeks of vacation annually, and its paid vacation time. About 90% of my employees own a motorbike, boat, and snowmobile, they go camping and fishing regularly, ski, hike, a few rock climb, and more. Again its a lifestyle choice.
Some people may like traffic jams, road rage shootings, gangs, etc...They don't come here!

 

This is how I was trained. I had a "trainer" who rode along, but I did everything.
I still have questions, from time to time. But mostly I get them figured out myself.

 

How do experienced drivers think new drivers should be trained
Well. They should be trained well.

 

Sounds awesome man. Nice balance for sure.

You sound a lot like my boss, we only work 6 months a year and during that time you can work 40 hours a week or 80. Whatever you need to do. If you need more hours you can run a machine or wrench on something or just haul more aggregates. We also get our health care for free and he writes letters to our families telling them thank you for letting him take us from them for the summer lol.

He’s super cool, throws parties at the shop all the time and buys out a bar and grill for us in the fall for our party and gets all the kids presents specifically for them not just some generic toy. It’s an invite only job so I’m really happy I got in here.

The industry needs more guys like you running the show.

 

Cool boss!
Congratulations on having a good job.