Rookies training Rookies

You're exactly right, a 10 year driver will have experienced more:

1. DOT Inspections
2. Stories about hitting deer
3. Encounters with poor shippers
4. How many near misses he's had with idiot drivers
5. How many times he has driven in snow and not wrecked

I don't get how you can say someone with a year or less wont understand the regs, but you have no experience and you understand the regs already? *head scratch*...

How do you know a driver that has less than one year is not capable of being a good trainer? It's an absurd and baseless comment. You keep saying that anyone with less than a year, wont know how to teach you things to make life easy and good as a truck driver.

What you are failing to understand, in the 2-3 weeks, you will be taught and told a lot of things. The only way for you to learn is to EXPERIENCE things on your own. If you don't know how to save money, where the best places to run in the country are, or what is safe and what isn't on your own, then you have trouble. There is nothing wrong with asking your trainer questions, but what do you do when your trainer eats fast food at every stop, parks on the fuel island for a 30 minute break, stocks soda for 3 weeks in the truck, refuses to shower for a week, tells you to log 5 minutes for a pretrip. PLUS, tells you to tail gate cars in heavy traffic so you don't cut off, are you telling me that you would believe him because he has 2 years? He is preaching the gospel, it must be true.

I'm a pretty smart guy, there are things I listened to and there are things I just threw right out the window. You've got the wrong attitude to start driving a truck with. I believe you will have a hard time thinking for yourself with out someone there to tell you what to do. Just so you know, my mentor was good, but liked to park 45 minutes on the fuel island and idle the truck needlessly. But, it seems you would be the perfect type to blindly follow and condone poor behavior, when a driver with 6 months can tell you this is wrong.

 

never said that 1 year experience didn't know regs or anything like that I'm talking stuff you don't learn in a book people that been on the road seeing stuff you don't see in a 1 year of driving.

I guess it's wrong attitude to have a driver that knows what he's doing to train me.

 

My first trainer at Werner had less than a year of solo experience. We would get to a truck stop to split a load and he would just sit on his phone chatting with his girlfriend while I parked, dropped the trailer, called the other driver, found him, swapped trailers, and did all the qualcomm information. I asked him lots of basic questions like Do you use the jake brake on mountains when you're empty and it's raining? What do you do in certain situations, etc and he had no answers.

My second trainer was hardly any better. He had 2 years of experience but didn't bother to do any teaching. We ran as a team the entire time, he was only concerned with getting as many miles as possible, the only time he gave me instructions was when we were getting close to a shipper/receiver and he would give me directions (usually with 3-4 seconds before I had to make a turn) He never wanted me to back the truck, and he never did himself unless it was to get loaded or unloaded. He even pulled into the fuel island for 30 minute breaks...

I learned more in CDL school than I did "training"

It makes me want to go into training when I have several years of experience. But none of this team training ########. I will sit shotgun and help instruct the student and answer any questions they have as we go along. Let them do all the trip planning, fueling, dealing with shippers/receivers, dealing with DOT, scaling loads. Everything. And help them whenever they don't seem confident or ask for help.

These piss poor training programs are a big reason why there are so many unsafe and uneducated drivers on the roads. If we want to turn this industry around it starts with making the new guys professional drivers, not steering wheel holders.

 

I know what I'm doing, but by your standards I don't know what I'm doing. 1 year, or 2 years, you've experienced the same thing. Have you heard of the expression, "Same shizzle, different day?" In one year or two years, we've been cut off, we've up shifted, down shifted, been on grades, been in wind, scale inspections, dangerous truck stops, tight places. It's evident you've never been in a truck. We've already experienced the same thing.


I understand what you're saying but I don't think you're getting the point. You can have a driver that drives 5 years and has experienced a blow out, and have a driver 6 months that has had a blow out. But what it comes down to, is WHAT THE DRIVER IS WILL OR IS CAPABLE OF TEACHING YOU. It doesn't matter if he has 1 year, 2, or 5 years. If he can't articulate and come down to your level and explain things, what good is that experience?

Experience is vital, but its the ATTITUDE. Picture the military, you can have a soldier that's been in for 5 years, and a soldier that has been in for 1 year. That soldier that has been in 5 years may not be able to lead soldiers like the soldier that has been doing it for a year. Are you still going to give that position to the soldier of 5 years because he has more experience? NO. Some people shouldn't lead, and some people shouldn't train!

 

Wanttotruck, good examples. But also, as a trainer in the making, there are simply drivers that couldn't turn a truck around if you gave them 40 acres and tow truck.

I will laugh when the person wanting a trainer with 2 years experience ends up with one of these b00bs who does anything but training! "BUT I thought they had 2 years, they would know what they're doing!" Yeh, how's that working out for ya?

 

I've always subscribed to the idea that I can learn something from anybody, but since training lasts for a significant time, I sure hope they have some depth to their knowledge.

I'm kind of obsessive compulsive about soaking up details, so I most likely will know more about regulations and company policies than he does if he's newer. It's just the way my brain works. What I need help with is the real world stuff. So if my trainer is a competent driver, it makes no difference to me how long he has been driving. On the other hand, if he isn't that great of a driver, or can't communicate, then training isn't serving much of a purpose.

 

If you are trying to refer to me read my post again. I went to cdl mill I know I didn't learn everything I'm not saying I should have somethings you can't teach but like you said learn from experience. That's why I'm saying I'd like to have a experience driver. So you can get off of your high horse now and realize all I want is a good trainer to show me the professional way and the safe way of working for company. If I get a 1 year experience driver I guess I'll deal with it and have to learn things the hard way. Not every trainer like I said will be the same and teach you everything but someone that wants to sit there and act like we are team driving I will not deal with.

 

Haha, I was actually one of those guys wanting a trainer with more experience. My first trainer got suspended for something that never happened (later confirmed, but I still had to switch trainers) when I heard my new trainer had a few years of experience I was ecstatic. I was actually going to learn something!

Boy was I wrong...

Unfortunately you're right about the students that just can't drive a truck. I think the most important thing a trainer can do in that situation is to tell them "this job isn't for you" a CDL gives you many more options than just driving a truck. There are plenty of day jobs that require a CDL and you will just be driving a pickup or shuttle bus. It may not be what they signed up for, but it puts them and the rest of the motoring public in a safer place.

 

Plenty of experienced drivers with less than a year. But, you will never get to find out how good they are. You say, if you "get a 1 year experience driver I guess I'll deal with it and have to earn things the hard way." There you go, you assume they suck because they have less than a year. You will learn things the hard way with the attitude that being experienced makes you a good trainer. But, do as you wish.