Not really a bad company but a bad experience from a Good Company. Transport America

This is totally on you and no one else. You ever hear the phrase " you can never be too careful"? There is a lot of truth to that. That's one thing. 2nd is that you said a lot about what you would have done. Well, what you have done is know it all right out of a job. Be a little humble the next time. And keep your truck in gear. "coasting" means you're not in control.

 

To the original poster, go back to flipping burgers at a fast food resturant. This is the problem in the trucking industry today. Drivers who don't pay attention! You had a 40,000 lb load and did not want to scale it out for free? are you aware of CSA? you have a preventable accident and don't want to report it? YOU COAST TO A STOP! YOU IDIOT MY WIFE AND KIDS DRIVE ON THE SAME ROADS YOU WOULD!

I WOULD LOVE TO SHAKE YOUR TRAINERS HAND FOR DOING HIS JOB AND PROTECTING MY FAMILY AND EVERY OTHER AMERICAN FAMILIES OUT HERE ON THE ROADWAYS!

THANK GOD THERE IS STILL A FEW GOOD TRAINERS LEFT TO TEACH YOUNG DRIVERS THE RIGHT WAY!

 

After 7 years,

if you needed to go out with a trainer,

something is not right !

 

i dont understand a 7 year driver failing a road test to start with
a long term steering wheel holder???

 

I didn't say we don't curb and coast in the real world. I do it myself. I was speaking only of a driving test. Once you pass that and get hired you can drive the truck. You are onto something about the pullups, however. I never really understood that. As long as you don't take 1/2hr to back in what difference does it make if you pullup 5 or 6 times as long as you get it right.

 

I rarely if ever scale a 40,000lb load. We have the same type of trailers throughout our fleets and I'm pretty good at eyeballing the way the freight is on the trailer as is most other drivers. I only scale the load if it starts into 43-44,000lbs

 

A tad odd but you have to hand it to him. He didn't get angry and start cursing the company, he sucked it up and gave it a go because he wanted a job. However, the outcome wasn't so hot.

 

we all have habits that should be corrected. we all do things different than other drivers do. As I see it, the trainer tells you one thing and does the same when alone, but he is in control at that point. I drove for Southern Cal Transport before Tranport America bought them out. I have known of several drivers that left the company after the sell. I dont know nothing about Transport America, so I will not comment on them as a company. Hold your head up and another company will hire you and with your experience, you wont have a trainer.

 

This was well said.

He is completely right. The devil is in the details. And when those things do rise up to bite you, often as not, there is venom in the bite - meaning you can wind up paying huge $$$ in fines, tearing something up or, or hurting or killing somebody, this somebody just as likely being you.

I can sympathize with you about your trainer though. I would have difficulty dealing with someone like that. The smoking part, maybe not -as I'm a smoker, myself. But as to this business of hitting up on customer personnel and catcalling out to women on the street, it is completely unprofessional, and I wouldn't have tolerated it. I would have called the company on him immediately, me being a trainee or not.

I in fact, just recently got off of a trainer's truck (I am training for a specialized carrier) because the dude had all sorts of angst and passive aggressive issues - cussing people out on the road, flipping them the bird through the windshield, and on and on. And it all started to become directed at me, when i refused to let him drive on my log book. I got off of the truck and stayed in a motel, and wrote the company a very detailed email about it, detailing my experience with the trainer and why I got off of his truck.

The company apologized to me and put me with another trainer on a different truck.

But serious business, downshift and roll to a light or a stop sign in gear. Be careful of scrubbing curbs. When you aren't sure, scale the load.

This all might sound like driving school nonsense, but there are reasons the rules are there.

As for what the trainer did... Well, you were at the truck's controls. Truck first, spotter second, regardless of the fact he is your trainer. You are the one responsible when you're the one who is behind the wheel.

I am guessing too, that there is more to this than you're telling us. Did you get red with management when you discussed the incidents with them? If so, it'd be my guess, that that is what got you fired, not that you rubbed a sidewall on a curb.

Best of luck to you, at any rate. I hope the job search goes well.

 

Nice detailed post. Well said, and well read.

But; I tend to feel you do not have 7 years experience. And if you do.....you need to step back and take a good long hard look at where you've been, and what you actually got out of it.
People with 7 years experience and get hired as experienced drivers, do not end up in a truck with a trainer.