Trainers

A huge chunk of the trainers out there are just driving a glorified team truck. You want to get a trainer that's actually teaching you. Make sure he's working with you on backing, mountains, and insanely importantly, the non-driving part of your job.

Living with another person on a truck is hard. You really have no privacy. And some people are impossible to live in a small space like that with. Make sure you agree on rules from the start, like how loud the radio can be, storage space, fridge space... You're probably getting top bunk when the truck is parked, because lots of trainers just like that rule.

It's very possibly going to be the worst experience of your life, but once it's done, it's all worth it.

 

I've trained.. right now I am taking a break.. it is quite a task to teach a know it all.. i just dont know if i want to do it anymore

 

Right, if the trainer is still telling you something after a week or so you aren't doing it correctly. Do your best not to get upset or annoyed at his instruction. He is only telling you it for your benefit.

Recently a student told me he had backing down and that he backed a truck up before he went to the academy. (His dad drives for coca cola) well some of the things he has done with the truck while backing is scary. Got to the point where he would tell me that how would he learn if I'm instructing him? How would we team drive? Well I told him unless I was comfortable with his backing and a few other areas we would not be teaming. Told him if he were to hit something there would be no teaming we would be mandated to do the rest of his hours as a solo truck.

He wants to be able to mess up and fix it on his own. Understandable, I'm all for that, but not around other trucks and or objects he could hit and damage. At a terminal, miles away from trucks and trailers, sure have at it, but not in the real world where if you mess up and hit someone's brand new shiny truck, Big Trucker Guy and his wife will chase you down and pummel you, while I'm long gone. He decided he doesn't want to learn how to properly setup the truck for a back. Asks me why I intervened. I tell him because he is doing it incorrectly. When he does it correctly he won't hear a peep from me. Sadly he disagrees.

If the student hits anything while backing I believe it's alot to do with the trainer, now if the trainer is yelling stop and the student disregards that because he knows better and what he is doing because he is from a long line of truckers then that is the students fault.

Don't be a know it all. Please, you're, as in you in general, are in training because you do not, per company and insurance rules, have a clue what to do; to prove that you do there is a road and backing test when applying. Unless of course just coming out of school with no verifiable experience. That is why a trainer is assigned. It's a great feeling to be in a truck and have a question and have someone that knows the answer and or how to do it and explain it properly.

 

What was he doing wrong? Just curious, beause I've had a few times where I got yelled at by random OTR driver because I'm set up to back wrong because I keep my setup really shallow.

 

Doing a sight side back he would turn out decent enough but would not turn back the other way at a 45 degree angle and would have the truck jack knifed or at a 90 degree angle and not turn back under it to get straightened out. I would intervene before he had the butt of the trailer hitting the trailer on his left. Also while getting under it, he would pull up a little, after being instructed but not pull up enough to get his tractor back under the trailer straight. He would immediately put it back in a 45 degree angle and start backing again. I told him space is our friend, use it, because some of these places we deliver do not have any space at all and he would be wishing for just a tiny bit more and not have it.

 

Also for some reason he wants to do a blindside back. Not sure why. At one of our terminals I'll let him give it a try but he has to have sight sided down before even attempting blind side.

 

sight side aka drivers side

 

So you're saying he would turn to the right to swing the trailer out, but not turn back to his left? Because if that's the case, I wouldn't even trust him backing a car.

 

At the beginning that's what he would do until I told and showed him what to look for. He still doesn't see exactly what he is looking for, hence why I keep intervening. I'm going to show him the proper setup again and then let him do it on his own to see if he truly has it.

 

Keep him out of whorehouses, Casinos and make him bathe at least once a week. OH! What's it like? Well, It's sorta like living with a monkey that never changes his diaper, won't get out of bed and plays the stereo too loud at 4AM and you bounce off the wall every bridge you cross until your ears bleed. Other than that it's quite pleasant to eat Arbys every day for 3 weeks and to have everyone out there hate you, including your trainer and dispatch and to either be late or have the Consignee say,"We did'nt order that!"