Are You Ready to Be A Mentor?

I have to agree with some of the others on here. You can have a 168 IQ and be a great teacher but you can't teach what you don't know. You might be a quick learner and smarter than your average bear but with what? 7 or 8 months experience there is a whole lot that you have not learned. Granted you might have seen/done quite a bit in that time but essentially your still a new driver and still learning and in my opinion it's wrong for a company to send trainee's out with new drivers.

 

I would not take it so personal. You can if you want but whats the point. I don't think the responses are directed at you personally but at the idea of someone so new teaching someone so new. And I don't think the thread was hi-jacked cuz if you read the title it says "Are you ready to be a Mentor?" and the responses were about..............mentoring. Your right, there are many "old timers" out there training that shouldn't be but if you could find stats about which group the trainee learns more from, it would probably the geezers.

 

Yep , doing just that Scott, you tell me where there are 2 professions that can affect the lives of people not only permanently but with more importance. If either one makes a poor UN-educated/in-experienced decision then someones life could be in the balance. It's really simple. That is the comparison I was trying to make. I'm not trying to school you or the OP , not piling on , or trying to make you look bad either...I was merely trying to point out that while you may be the safest , most courteous driver around , you are still in-experienced with only a short time in. But with your answers to not only my post but the others like PJ and marmonman...you are only proving our point for us. As far as the OP goes he is getting a lesson that he'll never forget , just by reading through this thread...I only hope he takes from it the right thing.

Now as too the old school guys becoming trainers I can only speak for myself...I trained a few drivers at the company I worked for , worked there for over thirty years , Started driving as teen on my uncles dairy farm in the 60's. Ended my career in 2011 when I retired...had an entire career of well over 3 million miles without a single accident , not saying that to brag , but I am proud of that fact. I'm 65 now and don't have to worry about trucking any more really...so I don't have a dog in this fight...I was merely trying to point out to you and the OP what I thought being a mentor was supposed to be. Our takes on it are very different Scott , I get mine from a lifetime of experience to draw from (never had any other kind of a job). You take yours from ...well I don't know where....but I'll tell you this in all honesty sir.....OVER-CONFIDENCE.....can be a killer....like you said you'll go through your career as you see fit....mine is finished. Happy Trails to you and the OP. TTTD............

 

I DID NOT have to go to some truck driving school.IF I were to start out and have to in today's climate of rules and regs,I just do not think that I would want some driver with less than a year of experience training me.

per your profile thing to the left,you have < less than 1 year of driving.What kind of company would put such an inexperienced driver at the helm of mentoring/training another newbie? That fact absolutely boggles my thought processes and frankly scares me to death knowing that I am on the same roads.

My post is not a personal attack. your post deeply concerns me however.

 

Yeah,I bet 1 year trucker now trainer got the condensed version of trucking in that 1 year and knows too much to take these negative posts to heart and feel insulted. the plethora of hands,seasoned and newer, that disagree with him/her are simply too simplistic to be cognizant of all that osmosis learning that has taken place on their behalf.all that knowledge absorbed in that eternal year transcends our cumulative hands on so much so that the ceo of that 62 mph truck company they drive for is now coming to this abnormal 7th world wonder for advice on running that very company.

as the 1 year driver now trainer posted,we will never know the amount of trucking they soaked in during that year and it could very well equate that of our 2-3 decades worth.

I just hope that this driver is an organ donor not to potentially save another's life but to allow scientists the opportunity to dissect the brain of he who knows all without first experiencing it and is able to/ can pass that aquired knowledge to those of lesser time,as he is behind the wheel performing the duties generally and logically assigned to more seasoned drivers the critical role of mentoring/driver training, through reverse osmosis.

I hope that i do not get into a homage related accident thinking that,were i younger,I could possibly have been trained by such a gifted individual.

 

I'v trained four or five times, and I been trained three times in my 20 plus years of trucking. To me it does matter as long ### you can deal with winter.