Just finished orientation

Probably and a lot of the NYC drivers don't want, 40 dollars to go in but you lose a whole day..... Not worth it. I live in nj and I only see it when I get home time besides that they won't touch nj.

 

This is a slow forum. Get used to it.

As long as you're fluent in english, you're better than half the students in a trainer's eyes.

Take a shower when your trainer says its time to take a shower. You won't get one every day, but that doesn't mean you can skip them when you get the chance.

Get at least 9 hours of sleep on your 10 hour break. Being fully rested is more important than you can imagine, and if you're fatigued, you won't even notice the mistakes you're making. This will stress out the trainer more than anything.

Its the trainer's truck, so he makes the rules. Be back in the truck when he says to be back. If he says no cell phone, it means no cell phone. If he wants your butt in the jump seat after a 10 hour break, set an alarm.

Respect your trainer. Yes sir and no sir unless he says otherwise. DO NOT TALK BACK. However, make sure to ask questions when you have them. The only stupid question is the one that goes unasked.

Follow your trainer like a fly follows a cow's ###. It irks a lot of trainers if all you do is sit in the seat and hold the wheel. When they get out of the truck, you get out. Learn how to fuel the truck, wash the windows, check the fluids, do a real pretrip, deal with customers, and interract with other drivers until your trainer tells you its alone time.

Its more important to some trainers than others, but if your skin color doesn't match theirs, you're walking on eggshells. Tread softly. This ties into what I said about respect.

 

You will most definately have to figure things out yourself because your FM knows nothing. Talking to people at shippers will help you a lot. You'll have to work your way up to prove that you are a dependable driver to be able to get the good runs. Your FM has to know that you will get there and on time.

 

Don't forget that "on-time" to a lot of FMs doesn't mean anything unless you're 2 hours early with at least 6 hours left on your 14.

Some of them feel really screwed over when you leave them biting their nails and show up out of hours so they have to bounce your preassigned load onto someone else.

 

Now that cracks me up, LOL. Yes sir,no sir my ###. I spent years in the military showing proper respects to people who deserved it. Just because you are a trainer for a trucking company does not make you any better than the person you are training. It will be a cold day in H.E. double hockey sticks before I would ever "yes sir, no sir" a trainer. Give me a break. You can show respect in other ways.

 

no such thing as an Experianced Werner Driver . A Vetran driver at werner has 1 yr of exp




American Trucker

 

OP asked what the biggest complaints trainers had were. Most of them are on a power trip, being high rolling money makers shoveling newbies through the machine, and have no problem with being an ### all day every day if their ego gets stepped on.

Posturing yourself as the trainer's equal can be dicey, but asserting that you are superior to them for any reason is a good way to have a "bad trainer" to cry about on the internet. Erring on the side of caution never hurt anyone, and since you could be living with the person for 4-10 weeks, I don't see it as a poor investment.

 

No joke, they usually consider you a veteran if you make it through your first two trucks without bringing them home a fat insurance writeoff.

I was going through a pretrip refresher after I'd gotten my first year in, and it was me, a 2 million miler, and 4 kids fresh out of CDL school. I wasn't allowed to answer the easy questions because I was "a veteran".

Had a chuckle over it with the 2 million miler and watched the entire company do a 180 whenever they noticed I'd been there more than 12 months of my own accord. If they treated everyone there half as well as they shaped up for me, they could cut their turnover rate in half.