Switching instructors

This is my advice, I dont know all the details or his side of the story... you can proceed how you see fit.

If the guy is teaching you to drive and handle the truck... you feel you can continue to get along and learn enough to pass the test and feel safe doing it, then dont rock the boat. Get through it and get your CDL... its only 3-5 weeks total.

Sounds like this guy wants just to make money off of you... Ya, he is getting a little extra while instructing you, and ya he gets a bonus when you pass your test... However...

The better money, for him is after you pass the test and run team miles with him... Here is how you #### block him. Why should you help his wallet if he isnt willing to help you...

Dump him after you pass the test. Pass the test, and having your CDL in hand will be a great advantage when going to the training managers and making your case for getting a new TRAINER. Explain that the guy is only giving you info to just get by, and that although you understand the whole truck is a businees, you want a trainer that appreciates the mutal benifit of having a trainee... He makes a extra money, for taking a little extra time to teach you about the business.

Get another trainer. Interview the trainer... ask him what he expects from you, and tell him what you expect/looking from a trainer (learning mechanical/maintenece stuff in addition to freight operations/paperwork etc)... Its a two way street.

Although it may seem attractive, DO NOT go home to wait for a trainer. You will pretty much get whatever they send your way to pick you up. Stay at the Terminal and you can practically cherry pick a trainer.

 

WTF? Trainees are supposed to be walked through pre-trips once per day until they test out for their CDL. Straight from the mouths of the powers that be just yesterday afternoon in the conference room at the Springfield terminal. At least once per day. I know you guys don't do pre-trips after you get your CDL's, I get that. And I know they throw you a bone for training folks up to get their CDL's. But if you're not willing to show them how to do the job right in the first place, you have no business training. I'd call the front office in a heartbeat and tell them he's refusing to help you with pre-trip.

 

Although I can sympathize with having a bad trainer. At some point YOU need to take some initiative and learn some on your own. I can tell you NO trainer is going to have enough patience with a person that is too scared to open the hood of a truck, and they shouldn't. OPEN THE #### HOOD! Thats ridiculous, and very scarry to think I have to share the road with another CDL Holder who cant do something as simple as opening a hood. Right now, you are the poster child for "steering wheel holder" of the year award.

 

That right there sounds like some pretty ###### sound advice. Although at this point, I'm sure the OP is good to go by now. It helps me, and the others reading this thread following up. Thanks, man.

 

I agree with the premise of your post. You can't be afraid to open that hood up and start looking around. I know ZERO about these trucks, so of course I'm not going to start messing with stuff. I am, however going to look at my pretrip sheets and try to find stuff on my own, and ask for help if I can't figure it out.

The pretrip portion is on you to study and be prepared for. However, you should be shown a pretrip once per day. I don't imagine my instructor is going to want to take 45 minutes every single day to do it, but I do expect that if I have questions, he'll take a few minutes to show me what I need until I get it down. From there, I'll handle that on my own.

If I'm wrong here, someone please enlighten me. This is my new life, and I want to get off on the right foot, and get that ###### CDL.

 

Umm... speak for yourself. A good pretrip takes about 10 minutes when you know what you're doing, and will save you bundles of $$$. Get pulled into the scale house because they want to scale you, rolling over that scale with a burned out marker lamp is all the excuse the DOT needs to look more in depth - and those fines add up quickly. More than ever with the new CSA point scheme, even your employability will depend on whether you do at least a cursory pretrip. Finding that screw in a trailer tire (especially with wide singles) before you venture out into the middle of nowhere will keep you rolling - not sitting for multiple hours waiting on a service truck. And then there's fuel economy which is a major deal at Prime - you'd best be checking your tire pressures quite frequently if you expect to be getting a fuel bonus. BTW - that's a good way to not meet the 6.75 mpg minimum... rolling down the road on underinflated tires.

That's a bad way to be dude. Best educate yourself quickly - the more you know about your truck even as a company driver, the better off you'll be. Tailor your under the hood time when the truck is going to be sitting for awhile - pop the bonnet while you're in the loading dock for example. Agreed, its hard to do a pretrip on a truck that isn't there, but 90% of learning the pretrip is just plain ol' memorization - you don't need a truck for that. Shown a pretrip??? YOU need to do the pretrip.

And before you drop a dime on your instructor - you might just want to talk to him about what's going on. IFM in my opinion must have been a royal pain from the instructors view. I'm sure she didn't see it that way.

A final thought... even though you are being trained on that truck, keep in mind your instructor, if he's a lease-op, has a truck payment that doesn't stop just because you're on the truck. Even a company driver doing this has to make some miles to generate a paycheck. There are limits to how much sitting around a truckstop he can do just so you can do pretrip practice - at some point those wheels have to be turning so 1) you can practice driving (much more important I'd say,) 2) the freight you're hauling can be delivered, and 3) your instructor can get paid so he can provide you with that fancy learning tool.

 

I appreciate the tips Ironpony. I haven't been assigned an instructor yet. That should come tomorrow, or sometime early (hopefully) next week. I don't even want to come across the wrong way here. I need to be shown some things in the beginning, but I'll take the time to learn myself as I go. I don't expect anything to be handed to me at all. I just don't know anything about the trucks and won't until someone shows me where things are, and I have a chance to dig into them.

As far as the pretrips go, I was just stating that off of what other drivers I've met since orientation last week told me. I'll be doing the pre trips because like you said, once you know what you're doing, it should be able to be accomplished in 10 minutes.

Not trying to project a bad attitude there, just going by what I was told in orientation about pre trips and whatnot. That's honestly my biggest concern, because I know so little about all that mechanical stuff. I'll learn though, because I'll take the time to educate myself.

I'm a n00b, and I know nothing. I'm relying on a good instructor to give me the tools to change that. I'll take care of the rest.

 

I think I have a better idea. Now that my D.O.T card should be in, I'll hit the training pad first thing in the morning and go through as many pre trips as I possibly can. I'll take notes, draw diagrams, do whatever it takes. The last thing I want to do is cost a trainer money. I want to make a trainer money. Sincerely. If you guys have any other tips on what I can do to be an awesome trainee, please let me know.

 

Why do you have to wait four months, when they ran out of students this week and I am out solo now....