Have thoughts on what training new drivers to the industry should have?

Common sense

 

Seems like its a PR stunt. Like they really care what drivers have to say. I'm feeling really pessimistic today.

 

The lack of certification standards for instructors and schools is one of the dirty little secrets of this industry. Its good that they're looking fixing this but I'm not holding out much hope. The mega carriers have a lot of influence and a huge chunk of the driver training 'industry' is in bed with the mega carriers.

 

yeah...great idea. give em some ammo to create some new regulations, thats JUST what the industry needs. not to mention the country. didnt we learn from the hos debacle that mostly when they make new regs it takes away safety as much as it improves it? take away the split logging, and require drivers to do up to 11 hrs of driving within a 14 hour window...great call-encourage more drivers to drive while fatigued rather than take a few hour nap when they need it. i used to split log 80% of the time, stopping whenever i felt the need to, and always made deliveries on time. and drove legal (ok...mostly legal). since the new rules your choices are..keep driving when you shouldnt be, stop to nap and get "creative", or dont keep appts.
ill get right on that whole "call the government and help them come up with more ways to restrict the industry" thing...the day after the world ends.

 

yeah a simple one teach them how to drive the truck.

 

Drivers with just months of experience being "trainers"........that is BS man!

I do some driver training for my company and some of these new guys just don't get it!

 

I'm going to qualify this by saying I'm quoting you here but my comments may not apply to you directly. When a trainer complains that the those he or she is training 'just don't get it' I think it reflects more on the trainer than on the student. The student isn't supposed to get it at least not when they first show up. Its the trainers job to make them get it. If the student still doesn't get it, the trainer has failed not the student.

Now there are limits to this of course. Obviously we don't all have what it takes to learn to be brain surgeons. But trucking ain't brain surgery. All but the most intellectually challenged should be able to learn it pretty easily. That this isn't the case says a lot about a misconception that is prevalent in this industry. The misconception that anyone who is good at driving will automatically also be good at teaching others to drive.

There are far too many trainers and instructors in this industry who have no earthly idea that being able to train others is a skill which needs to be learned and developed. There is a method to it. Several methods actually. But most trainers don't ever consider that. So when they train someone who 'just doesn't get it' they simply write the student off as being an idiot never once stopping to consider the possibility that if they themselves knew and understood more about the method of teaching than they do, perhaps the student would get it.

I'm not sure any regulation is going to be able to change that, But if a regulation could, I'd be all for it.

 

Coaching is a skill that is not very difficult to learn, the basics at least.

Its also very true that being experience or good at something does not automatically translate to being a good coach or teacher, you only need to look at numerous examples in sport to illustrate the point.

About 60% of the trainers i know consider shouting the method until the student complies to be method of choice. This leads to student frustration and any coach knows that frustration is your worst enemy, as most people stop learning when they are frustrated and need to be directed elsewhere until it passes.

There are a couple of very basic acronyms used by a lot of coaches.

The first is KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid, self explanatory really, don't overburden the student with complicated or irrelevant facts for what your trying to get across right now.

The second is IDEA.

I. Introduce the skill your trying to convey with a short statement. e.g. "Now we are going to learn how to descend a hill safely".
D. Demonstrate the skill in an easy to follow way
E. Explain what you are doing more in depth.
A. Attend to the student as they practice the skill.

Coaching skills are generic, able to be applied to teaching most things. It also does not take long to get the basic formula across.

In trucking a lot of the time the trainer is not at fault either. Most companies do not require them to be certified or to attend a trainer course, so a lot really have no idea the best way to go about it.

I should also say there are probably trainers on here who get amazing results using systems they have developed themselves over years of experience training, however if you are asked to train and need the extra money it would be nice to have a framework to use that has been provided by your company.

Its hard to believe that the big companies don't take this approach and monitor the results.