Trainers!!! How long before one should be a trainer

i think 20 years is a little too long.

i'd say about 5. and with a trainer that had been doing 48 and done the winters and chaining.

6 months, he's still a rookie. and hasn't even done his first winter. and they don't even teach the guys how to chain up.

i seen lotsa truckers sitting on the road becuase they don't know how to chain. then you've got a 50 mile backup during a snow storm. even worse when a driver actually tries to climb the hill and doesn't make it.

 

The time frame is not the important part. I know guys who have been doing this five years more than capable of teaching the basics about operation, utilization, professionalism, courtesy, and cleanliness. I have met people with twenty years that couldn't teach someone how to not pee on the foot and vice versa.

An endorsement on your license after say 500,000 accident, ticket free miles and a straight forward advanced general knowledge tests would be my suggestion. I know that puts between 4-5 years instead of the 8-10 and it would never work because there can be no tracking system for numbers that would not be overly burdensome so a flat 6 years(?) accident and ticket free with a clean PSP?

We also need some real testing regulations not the joke used now.

 

I was just thinking. If 90% of new drivers don't stay with the job they are being trained to do, then you can logically surmise the current system trains people to fail. FUBAR I say. FUBAR.

 

To teach in any of the state-certified technical schools around the country, you have to have five years of verified experience. What makes training CDL drivers any different?

 

You have to be state certified to teach at a school. I don't see anything different. The road trainer has to deal with a lot more than a classroom. There needs to be minimum standards and a test administered. I'd say five years experience. Until a driver is seasoned, how can he teach stuff he doesn't know?

Take a new driver turned trainer that knows how to shift but just doesn't have the feel to grab a gear by sight and sound. Then take a new student who can't shift good at all and loses it. How is the trainer going to correct him when he's not sure of the right gear himself? Little stuff like that becomes big stuff.

Or take a new trainer that hasn't figured out how to handle an irate customer yet. Then the both are sitting there 7 hours because they pissed the customer off. This is how it's done!

All that stuff comes with experience.

Even school teachers fresh out of college start as an assistant or aide.


Edit: Typing while you posted IP. Thinking alike!

 

Screw that, and then nobody will train as an additional endorsement will become a legal liability, and make the trainer responsible for all actions of the trainee.

We don't need more laws!

 

well i think at least 10 years....i know many will say thats too long....but really...admit it....what do you know in 5 yrs??? or even 7...no i am not insulting anyone...and yes some just have a knack for driving and possibly teaching...but these 6 months...1 yr even 3 yr exp. "trainers"....they are still learning....i am honest enough to admit that i would have had no business training someone when i was still so inexperienced myself..and i was told, i was a natural... as for those guys that road test you that DONT EVEN HOLD A CDL...ha , dont get me started....i know for me...if i was just learning to drive...i sure in heck wouldnt want someone with very little experience "teaching" me...as if they even could....what could they teach when they are still learning themselves??? granted they would know more than someone brand new....but still...

 

As a flatbed trainer, I'd say a minimum of five years. That gives you enough time to have loaded and tied down the majority of loads you will encounter, experienced a few winters, and know the road network well enough to avoid any big surprises.

 

I've been at it for 9 months, only 3 as a flatbedder. I was asked if I wanna be a trainer but turned it down, if I'm still learning so much new stuff every day I don't wanna get a student and then it be like two students on the truck ya know. I consider myself a student still, plus I'm not ready to share my truck

Ethan

 

There should be a distinction between "trainer" and "instructor" I think. The instructor provides classroom,range and on the road instruction for student drivers and perhaps new hires or perspective hires. The trainer is a co-worker showing the new driver the ropes and supposedly furthering their skills and advancing their knowledge of the transportation industry by drawing on a vast wealth of knowledge and experience.

The instructor side is more likely to get some control as to credentials. My state regulates CDL training and requires a special license from the commissioner's office to provide paid CDL instruction. You have to interview, take a road and skill test given by the boss of the examiners and also take all the written tests and another exam based on the state mandated CDL curriculum. This system or program is based on the federal rule for CDL instruction that has been approved but not implemented for quite a few years. There was some movement on it in the new highway bill, but it sounded like they approved sitting on it for some more time. Link to rule: Proposed Rule - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration