What to bring to Orientation and Training

A screaming meanie is an alarm clock..by far the best on the market..guaranteed to even wake up the dead!!!! Trust me on this one..you will want to have one of these..they are worth their weight in gold..this is your reaction the first time it wakes you up..

 

That's funny right there!

 

yea, you can wear the denims several days, but you can't shower and put those cheese stained underwear back on.

 

There is no way I could wear a pair of jeans for several days.. gross!!! For another, I work out here, and that means my jeans get dirty.. so in the dirty clothes bag they go..

I take showers and wear clean clothes.. there is no reason for me, or anyone for that matter, to not shower and wear clean clothes out here.... By law, I have at least 10 hours every 24 hours where I can eat, shower and sleep... and I do.. on the rare occasion that I can not shower, I have babywipes, dry shampoo and all to be clean and I always, always have clean clothes to wear...

I do not use my truck as a restroom.. I have walked to the restroom in Rain, snow, cold, and yes at 3am or whenever I need to go...

I don't just bring a sleeping bag, I bring a couple sets of sheets.. just like at home, you gotta change your bedding.. I do laundry once a week.. so there is no reason what so ever for me to have to wear dirty clothes, or sleep in dirty bedding..

Clean clothes and good hygien may not be important to everyone.. but it is to me and even out on the road I can be clean, have clean clothes and a clean truck...

If you want to wear a pair of jeans for several days that is your choice.. but, I want others to know they can also wear clean clothes everyday if they want.. I do!

 

From personal experience when I was a trainer, I was assigned newbies who were transferred to me because their previous trainer had issues. The number of truck accidents is a reflection of the number of incompetent trainers. Commit to memory this adage;
There's no such thing as bad students; only bad teachers.

Here are signs you have a bad trainer.
He sleeps in the evenings and lets you drive all night until 8am, then he drives all day while you sleep in the daytime. A good & FAIR trainer will split driving both at night and daytime, so you both get some sleep in the evenings, when your biological time clock is causing you to feel fatigue sooner between 11pm and 7am.
He believes in fear -n-intimidation to teach and manage, and talks to you like a drill sergeant, calling you "stupid, idiot, etc…" and threatens to leave you stranded in the middle or nowhere if you don't do as you're told. This is "verbal harassment & intimidation," a violation under federal Labor Laws. You need to call dispatch and file a formal complaint. Under federal law, They're suppose to a-ssign you another trainer and your abusive trainer must be stripped of his title as "driver trainer."
Take notes of dates, time, what was said, whom you spoke to, and what was done after you complained. Most companies assume newbies are too stupid to file a formal complain with DOT and federal authorities for violating your legal rights. When you file a complain with federal authorities, you must be specific on dates, time, what was said, whom you spoke with, what action was taken, etc… or your complain will be dismissed for insufficient info.
If he ask you for $$ to pay for motel rates, you need another tainer. The only out-of-pocket cost from you is food. Your showers are free. When you refuel at truck stops, tell the cashier you're team drivers, and they'll issue two shower vouchers, good for 3 or 4 days. Say you fuel at Flying_J, and the shower waiting list is 3 hours. Get back on the road, drive to the next Flying_J along your route, then stop and see how long is the shower waiting list at that location instead of waisting 3 hours waiting for the next available shower. Advice you leave 50¢ to $2 for the shower cleaning person if the shower is clean and he/she did a good job of cleaning it for you. This shows the person has pride in their job, in spite they make minimum wage.
A good trainer knows you're on a tight budget, so he should at least park near McDonalds, Subway Sandwich, etc… places that offer cheap food for tight-budget travelers. Beware of ready-made hot food. Ask the attendant what time they had heated and prepared the food. Most ready-made food are frozen, then thawed out and reheated. After 4 hours from when it was made, they're suppose to throw it out if not sold after 4 hours. If you don't see a sticker of date/time the food was made, your'e risking food poisoning. Same with cold sandwiches, burritos, etc… from the cold deli refrigerator. The absence for an expiration date is risking food poisoning. I speak from personal experience. Carry Pepto Bismol, just in case. A good place for cheap food-2-go is Sams, Walmart deli department, or any grocery supermarket that has ready-2-eat hot or cold deli department. If trainer keeps stopping at truck stop restaurants and expect you to spend at least $10 a meal, you need another trainer. I survived on bread, tortillas, cans of Campbells Chunky soup, canned meat, etc…. as a struggling owner operator, and managed on $3 per meal budget. A good trainer should be understanding you have bills to pay and a family to support, so he should help you keep your food cost down.
Keep a digital audio recorder handy to record the verbal abuse the trainer shouts at you. He'll deny it and claim you're lying, so be ready to substantiate your claim of verbal abuse and harassment. Some cellphones have built-in audio recorders. Familiarize yourself with how to activate and en-able the audio recorder. When the trainer bad-mouths you, hold your cellphone up and say "keep talking, so I can record everything you're saying." This usually shuts them up. If your cellphone has no audio recorder, just go to "menu" option and start pressing buttons to make it look like you're about to turn on the audio recorder. Some of these trainers were the school bully when they were young.
At orientation, they'll try to pitch their 401K retirement plan. What they won't say, you need to stay with the company at least 5 years to be "fully vested." Say you put in $1,000 of your $$ into the retirement plan, then they match it with $2K to triple your money. If they require 5 years to be fully vested, and you quit or get fired 18 months later, you're only entitled to the $1K you had put in. If their policy is 50% vested after 3 years, then you quit or get fired 38 months later, of the $2K in interest and funds they added into your 401K account, you only get 50% of that, so you're only entitled to $2K of the total $3k balance in your 401K retirement plan; plus there's a processing & administration fee to get your $$ out. So say for example, if the processing fee is $200, of the $3k balance, you're only getting 1K (the principal), 50% of the $2k in interest and funds they added (1k), minus $200 administration/processing fee, so you're getting $1k of your principal and $800 in interest and matching funds they added. You're being penalized $1,200 for leaving the company less than 5 years. Had you stayed at least 5 years, you get $3k instead of only $1,200 of the $3k balance. This is a contributing factor why carriers have a high driver turnover. The mechanics, administration clerks, janitor, maintenance, etc… are fully vested with the company after only one year, but drivers must stay at least 5 years to be fully vested. So don't sign papers agreeing to deduct your earnings towards their 401K scam retirement plan. You should ask "how long before I'm fully vested and I get every penny of the interest and matching funds the company added to my 401 account?" After giving you the number of years, you ask "how many years before the dispatchers, administration office workers, & truck mechanics are fully vested with the company?" If they say "I don't know howtheir 401K program," it means you're not going to like the answer.

 

From personal observation and talking to newbies who were transferrred to me from other trainers, verbal abuse by trainers is common. Remember this adage
There's no such thing as a bad student; only bad teachers. the number of truck accidents is a reflection of how many incompetent driver trainers are out there. Signs you're with an incompetent trainer and you should not trust his advice.
He sleeps at night, makes you drive all night, then forces you to sleep in the daytime while he drives mostly daytime hours.
He gets a motel room, then ask you for $$ to pay for half or some of the motel rates. As a newwbie driver trainee, the only out-of-pocket cost is your food. Even showers should be free for both you & the trainer. When you fuel, you're issued a shower voicher good for 3 or 5 days. So if there's a long wait on the shower waiting list, you have the option to get back on the road and take your shower at the next truck stop along your route. Say for example you have shower vouchers from Pilot truck stop, and the shower list is at least 2 hours wait. Then head down the highway until you reach another Pilot truckstop, then stop and see how long is the wait on the shower waiting list. If the shower room is clean, decent thing to do is to give 50¢ to $1 to the person who cleans the shower rooms.
He screams at you like a drill sergeant, and calls you "stupid, idiot, etc... and threatens to leave you stranded somewhere along the way if you don't do as you're told. This is verbal abuse, which is a violation of federal labor laws. You need to call dispatch, complain of verbal abuse by trainer, and under labor law, company is required to assign you a different trainer. If the trainer accumulates too many complain of verbal buse, they're demoted back to OTR driver status.

 

Yeah, what he said. Thanks passing trucker!

 

On wifi, Most McDonalds & Starbucks offer free wifi. With Google-map, Mapquest, or Yahoo-map, you can route yourself to your destinations. With Google-map-street-image, you can see what the intersection looks like where you need to make turns, and see landmarks like restaurants, gas stations, etc… so you don't miss your turns. If you're picking up or delivering in Chicago, ILL area, this is the low-bridge capital of the USA !! Bridges & overpasses were built before trailers had increased to 13'6 in height. There are several trailer repair shops and they're all doing good business from newbies who had never been in Chicago before. Some of these trailer repair shops are open 24-7 for drivers who can't wait till Monday because the load is sensitive to water damage. At the truck stops, they sell "low bridge map" for Chicago, so stop & think why anyone would market such a map? Maybe its cheaper to buy the map than call dispatch to report you tore a huge hole in the trailer? With Google-map-street_view, you can bring up an image on the clearance of overpass bridges along your route. Some of the overpass bridges, if you're on the right lane, it will clip and damage the top right corner of your trailer, so it might be best you stay on the #2 lane or the next lane over after the farthest right lane. As you come up on these bridges, you can see the nick damage where some newbie didn't move over, and more likely, that driver is either terminated or had quitely dropped the trailer at a terminal drop yard or customer (to preload) and hope the next driver doesn't notice the damage, hooks up to it, then gets the blame.

 

Just curious, PattyJ, where ya off to?