Training

22 years exp. dam! Wish I would have had some one like you as a trainer. Been in both seats in my little time trucking, really really bored so I give you both sides. I will do my best to make it completely unbiased. Hope you got a couple minuts to read it all.

As you know there are three main types of trainers, Classroom instructors, Phase I OTR trainers who get students mostly with zero driving experience right out of the class room, and Phase II trainers who get students after they graduate class, and there Phase I training.

Phase I trainers are a hard breed to find. They get mostly zero sleep so at docks ets... any break they are snoozing, when not snoozing the truck is rolling. Dont know how other companies push Phase I trainers whish i did hear from more, so I have nothing to offer you other than how CRE does it sorry.

With CRE a phase I trainer will get usually only one or two solo runs than its balls out as a team. Some Phase I trainers have dedicated team routes so its balls out from minut one. In my opinion all this OTR training is insane. You get your student, you should have a basic very lenient set of truck rules. No smoking, eating drinking is sleeper. No pizzing in truck ever. No talking on cell phone when driving. Always put on gloves when touching anything involving tractor or trailer especially fueling. Radio cannont be above volume level 6 ets... Keep the rules as light as possible on the student, they are stressed out enough as it is. Your new student comes in from the class room. They dont know what all the buttons or nobs ets...do, they dont know where the cruise ets.. they basically know nothing. So you ease them into it without overwhelming them with to much info. If they are having a hard time with gears make a big diagram of the shift pattern tape in on dash, know before they get into truck they will miss, grind gears, maby stall out going up ther first hill or two ets... this is natural so know this ahead of time and be super easy on them as to not discurage them. Shifting when to and not to use engine break, turn signals, how fast to take corners when to start slowing down for onramps, how to take a shower, (I never took a shower at a truck stop untill I got on my first trainers truck, didnt have a clue what the system was, felt stupid had to ask. Do I need my own towl? Do they cleen them after each use? Groupe shower like gyme or private? thanks for the paper shower slip, what do i do now?) Not only do you have to teach them to drive from ground zero, but you also have to teach them how to live on a truck live as a trucker. All the stupid stuff you just normally do and not think about will be forein to them and some questions will really catch you off guard and make you laugh. If your on a company like CRE the first day or two will be fairly gentle. Then it becomes a reall bear. You drive your shift, then you have to stay awake almost the whole time working with your student, just a quick 5-10-15 minut cat nap here and there then you drive again. For the next few weeks if you have a hard student, or a student who is having some difficulties. Realize that different people learn at different speeds, you will get some really good people who learn slower than others its no right to be hard on them as much as you want to, my opinion. This is how it goes for a CRE Phase I trainer. Getting about 2-5 hours sleep a night for weeks on end with an occasional slow day about once a week dew to HOS when you sleep hard. I never let a student drive at night, a lot of trainers do I personally think students driving at night should be illegal, heard a lot of horror stories from other students. Some trainers just throw a new guy or girl behind the wheel take a few sleeping pills and hit the sack hope for the best. Very very screwed up but lots of trainers do this. Should also be illegal or at least a terminate-able offense policy by all companies but its not aether, from what I heard everybody seems fine with it. Really all I got to say. You do what you got to do. I often ran a few times on my students logs as is also the norm. Its easier and less fatigue to stay awake and drive than it is to stay awake and hold somebodys hand threw every corner, gear change, every car coming off an onramp, every lane change ets. You have to do what you have to do. More money, but if you do it, do it wright. Do it wright by the students standards not yours even if it means you suffering. Lot of trainers get killed or get in wrecks by there students, often they dont see an offramp till last second, scared of being yelled at by there trainer they take it anyways thinking maby they can make it, confusion, fatigue poor judgment ets... I personally feel most that do happen result in the trainer not doing there job but thats just my opinion.

Phase II OTR trainers dont make squat extra for there work at CRE maby couple hundred extra bucks a week. Not worth it. I would get students off there phase I trucks that aether slept the whole time or drove on there logs. Its balls out from minute one with someone who had a pizz poor phase I so has not much skills or knowledge past what they got in the classroom. Last Phase II student I ever took. This 400 pound walrus. Drove about 8 hours even with GPS got off on the wrong highway think two three times first shift. Stayed awake whole time with him, drove my shift. Next day his turn to drive he keeps telling me how he needs to stop and take a break every hour or so. Then eventually truth comes out. My phase I trainer was a drive-aholic. He drove both our logs (illegal substances) dude Im just here for the ride, kick me off if you want I am giving you an extra set of logs to drive on for free. CRE will get me another, if they do kick me I just go to another company. Six weeks I drove on two sets of logs five six seven months still feeling the pain from it serious tramatization, tried to talk to placement coordinators at CRE, even safety I ratted on myself. PC wouldn't let him off my truck less the cops got involved for assault ets..., Safety your exaggerating I know this happens a little you gota do what you gotta do, but come on its really not like that we both know it. Phase I was hard on me as well. I personally am not cut out for it, very few people are. I dont know anyone who has done it more than a few years at the most. Burnout as a trainer is extremely fast.

My experience as a student phase I. My trainer not good. Drove day cab for 5 years, homeless in Sacremento CA park for 6 months CRE gave him a 10 day refresher and gave him his first phase I student, i was his second. This guy would stay awake the whole time, which is good. He would yell at me constantly for everything even made up crap to yell at me for that I didnt do. Pulling off interstate I eather slowed down to soon, or two late, went to fast or two slow ets... Yelled at me for everything almost every minut I was driving. Turn signal wasnt on long enough, turn signal was on to long ets... First shower a couple days later. I had never taken a shower in a truck stop before. Tells me to stand over by door and waite. Hands me a peice of paper with some random numbers on it. I am like OK what do I do with this? How Fing stupid can you get you ##### ######! Just bad. Wouldnt let me back into anywhere, or even go to any shippers or recievers.

Phase II trainer. A drunk I learned a lot from him though. He drove during the days, at night I drive he slam a 5th and lights out. He was always passed out, so I never got yelled at once. I was able to breath while i drove and actually focus on what I was doing and really teach myself. Not scared of making the slightest mistake and getting yelled at made a lot less mistakes than previous truck. Was able to gradually refined my driving. During the day I would stay awake and ask his advise about this or that after he drove for a couple hours he usually always in a good mood and proved to be quite knowledgeable and 10 times more helpful than my first trainer ever was. The few times I had to dock he would back off on the bottle so he would be awake and was there to walk me through it usually in a quite constructive way.

Not sure if this is what you are looking for if not throw it in garbage you aint out nothin. Bored as hell. Good signal was playing chess, there was some little kid cheating got pizzed at him, aint allowed to play for a while so inhabiting this forum tonight.

 

You need to be easy going,have a good sense of humor,not be shy,be real talkative, and dont stare at and harrass the student while he cant shift worth a **** when going down the road. I was never a student but I went with my uncle a few times in his truck while I had my permit to get my cdl years ago and he just got pissed cause i kept scratching gears and looking at me too.Gets people nervous. I then got good and used his truck to get my class A cdl and I got it. Good Luck!!! You talking about mentor or regular trainer at school? Id stick with regular hours its up to you!

 

I was an employee with CRE until i got screwed because they failed to inform me that i needed to possess a license for 3 years i had mine 2 years 11 months. The Phase I trainer i had was laid back about most things but had his set rules and enforced them. I was not allowed off the highway unless he was riding shotgun, no floating gears, no talking on cell phones, no eating while driving. The few times he did yell at me it did not help i was already stressed because i was messing up and now i have somebody yelling at me, it would have been alot more affective to talk me through it. We ran on our own logs and for the most part i did run daylight hours but there were sometimes i had to run at night. Backing practice is essential to the student, the first stop i had i had to parallel park the trailer i was in for a rude awakening because it was nothing like in the yard at school. Most of all be laid back students are nervous enough.

 

I certainly don't miss this about "the good ole days"

As to the topic; good to hear you're willing to share your experience with future drivers. Patience is certainly key. Some trainees will push you to your limits, and others will pick it up like they were born to it.

When I trained there were two things I would not be moved on. "I" was doing the training, not the company. While it was true that I would follow much of the company's protocol ultimately it was my choice if I would put my stamp of approval on that trainee's record. If they passed me, they did ###### fine and turned out to be one hell of a driver.

Please remember to teach them not only how to drive the truck like most companies want, but teach them about finances, relationships, cleanliness, maintenance, and personal safety while out here.

Again, patience, patience, patience. Keep in mind that you will likely have someone in your truck who knows little to nothing about trucks, aside from what they learned when being taught how to get their license, but will not know about your own personal idiosyncrasies. It will be a major period of adjustment for yourself as well.

Two people, who don't know each other prior, confined to the cab of a truck for days and weeks can easily lead to some serious amounts of frustration for both of you.

Humor is a great stress reliever.

 

being "laid back" is ok, but you HAVE TO "LAY DOWN" the law (BEFORE they enter your truck), on the trainee's, otherwise they will not pay attention to you and do things THEIR WAY...

if a trainee screws up, you HAVE TO do what is right, even if that means you "turn him in" and he gets fired. they will all try to be your friends...

stay away from this, stay on the straight and narrow, wish them well when they pass and get thier own truck..then go onto the next trainee....

 

Ok, I'll try!

 

In my experience training new drivers, you need to be flexible. Remember not everyone picks it up at the same pace. It can also be a learning experience for you. For instance you probably float gears and haven't used a clutch in awhile. I had to start using the clutch again just so I could help them with the timing of it. Yes I float gears, I also teach that. Teaching someone to back-up is probably the hardest. Watch how other trainers do it, it's not the same with every student either. Of course use the terminal parking lot when laying over for backing practice. And don't expect your student to back into a dark tight parking space early on. Have him watch you do those at first. Figure out early on what his strengths and weaknesses are, ask him on the first day what he/she though was easy and what was difficult to master in school. Oh yea, a pair of cheap cobra walkie talkies at Walmart come in very handy, especially for backing drills.

 

i am having a problem with "some of" your posting...

a "trainer" and i am speaking of a driver-trainer, where the student HAS his/her CDL, is NOT SUPPOSED to do ANY MORE TEACHING on how to back up a rig....that was the SCHOOLS JOB, and the students RESPONSIBILITY TO HAVE LEARNED....!!

once a newbie goes with a driver-trainer, all the driver-trainer SHOULD DO is teach how to do the paper work, use the Qualcomm, how to talk to customers, how to scale out a load (as no school has scales to work with), how to follow directions, how to fuel,.......but to teach how to back up...????

HHmmmm......no.......

if the student CANNOT back up, that student should go back to school and get it done there.

as an example......we use the state DMV yard, the very same yard mind you the state actually tests the students on test day....

they LEARN the backing skills at the "home location" then get sent to the test site....once there...they do it themselves, as if they were being tested, NO MORE holding of the hands and walking them through..!!

all bets/training is OFF.......we DO NOT teach anymore on how to back up...!!

they MUST back up, on thier own.....

if they cannot do it...??

they STAY at the home office till they get it down.....

wanna see how fast they LEARN how they MUST DO IT after that...???

they get "drilled" by us, once they go to YOU......there should be NO MORE backing training.....

at least, we train them right....you must be dealing with a mill........