I thought we still owned a piece of that. I can't keep up. My trainee and I run solo for the first week and a half. I will run a couple hours here and there during that period. After their first 75 hours I will run team with them if I am comfortable. Even with teaming I have them drive as much as possible. Also, we are not forced to run teams at all. One reason I do run team us to give them a feel for it as most of them will have to run team right out of training for 8 weeks. They arr still learning things they will use as solo, such as finding a place to stop As far as how the company treats me...they treat me great. I don't sit. I decide if and when I want another student. I have no complaints.
Ive gotta say, its nice to know theres real trainers out there. I had 2 at 2 different companies. Neither actually cared or taught me anything other than driving. They rely didnt teach much about that either. Thank god i was a natural...
The real trainers aren't in it for money. Its stressful and tiring not to mention sharing your personal space with another person. Ours are either classified as first stage or second stage. First stage is a newbie who will run with a trainer solo or SuperSolo for1-2 months or until the trainer is comfortable teaming. When they finish their 3rd month they come on mine or another NE finishers truck for 2-3weeks. Then they're done training. Second stage is someone with a decent amount of wheel time just not recent or OTR exp. I am at odds with our training program. I feel the students should be on salary. Instead they pay mileage and cut the trainers rate. So say 2nd stage trainee gets .20 and the trainer gets .26. You force the truck to team so that the trainer makes his $$. Then you are supposed to train/observe/document them and rest yourself to be able to run at the end of your 10hr break. Not to mention that the trainee is making a huge paycheck. Theres no incentive to get out of training!! Some trainees are bringing home $1700-1900 bi weekly IN TRAINING!!!!!
I decided to become a trainer because I had so many co-drivers who didn't know jack. I always wondered how they even made it out of training. I decided I wanted to turn out some drivers who knew what they were doing. Yes, it is stressful. Too stressful to do it for no money. 26cpm would not be enough money to drive solo, much less train though. At least you get them after they have experience. The company I trained with wanted us teaming pretty much right out of the gate. My trainer was a lease driver and he taught me how to run hard.
HAd a very productive home time but am now back on the road. Picked up in Arcade, NY and headed to Amsterdam, NY. Then went to Lawrence Mass and picked up a load going to Alcoa, TN. I hate fueling at the Pilot in Mass. It takes at least half an hour. From Alcoa I went to Dayton, TN and picked up a load going to GM in Wentzville, then brought empty containers back to Dayton. Then they had me DH to Tunnel Hill from there. I got here yesterday...two days early for my big dinner thing with the execs. Meanwhile, my final student is finally on her way to Shippensburg for orientation tomorrow. She was supposed to start Monday but the recruiter screwed up on the Greyhound ticket. She got to Greyhound on Sunday, but no ticket...duh. Hopefully everything goes smoothly from there.
