Trainer stabbed and killed by trainee in Texas.

I guess you better not piss off any Werner drivers or you may regret it.

 

I drove for werner and was a trainer for a short time.. my last student was a difficult one who was off... I was her 3rd trainer... and there were problems with the first two... of course, it was a lot of he said she said... so werner put ner with me, knowing that I am a decent, stable and well liked individual and was a good and considerat trainer...
She was a difficult woman... and we had problems the second day.. an argument over passing a DOT inspection and getting a sticker on your window... whlie eating together at a sit down truck stop restaurant... she stated that she had passed a level 1 inspection in her trainers last truck and DOT put a sticker on his window.. she was upset that she was not able to take the sticker when she got off the truck.. I calmly stated that generally the sticker does stay with the truck.. she very harshly angrily stated that was Bu## Sh## since he, her former trainer now get a free pass at weigh stations for a year... I calmly told her that it wasn't a free pass for a whole year, the stickers are good for the rest of the month they are issued and DOT can still inspect you if the want..
well.. she went off.. was all red in the face.. and telling me how in school she was told by her DOT teacher that it is a free pass for a year.. that I dont know sh##... and how was I supposed to trainer her if I dont know that kind of stuff...
i just said, okay, maybe I am wrong, we will stop at the next scale house and have the DOT officer explain it to me.... jt takes a bigger fool to argue with a fool..
well it just kept on like that.. as well as her numerous health issues.. from sinus problems, headaches, stomach complaints and even toothaches..
I finally had enough.. she was lazy and all she would do is drive.. she wouldn't even hook up the glad hands or lower thethe ttandems because of her pain...
so I said well I cant let you drive if your impaired.. if the pain is too much to get out and hook up the glad hands or lower the the tandems then it is too much for you to drive..
so she went back to bed and Idrove to the end of my hours...
I also told werner about it and the other problems we were having.. so the were going to route me to Omaha to drop her off..
well.. when she woke up and I told her we were going to Omaha and she would be getting off my truck she flipped out.. it took everything I had to not let myself get angered and not to ##### slap her cause she was on my nerves with her venting, name calling and bs..
i called werner cause I really had enough of it... but.. they explained that as a trainer I and werner are responsible for getting her back to a terminal.. which, I do understand..
but it is reallh not easy when you are in a truck with an off balanced person.. the truck get smaller by the minute... not to mention the toll it takes on you... when you are out of hours and need to sleep so you can get to a terminal.. and right above you is a freak.. talking loudly on the phone venting their side to their family about how mistreated they are being..
anyway., I actually lucked out.. after 5 hours of that bs she had a friend come get her..
werner wanted me to try and talk her into staying on the truck and getting to the terminal.. but I wont lie.. i did a verh lame attempt at it.. i just said werner wants you to stay on the truck so I can drive you to the terminal... and let her rant uninterrupted for 45 minutes till her friend arrived.. after that I went in and took a nice hot shower.... when I got ba k to my truck.. there was a message to call werner.. I did, and they were nice and understanding... I was under a load, but also spent.. that #### wears you out.. so they pushed back my delivery to give me plenty of time to recoop..

i dont know what happened in this situation.. but I do understand that werner does have a responsibility to students, even difficult ones, to get them to a terminal.. as a trainer.. we were not allowed to kick out or drop off our students anywhere but a terminal or in some cases a hotel if approved by werner.. but, things can flare up fast..and at a truckstop where you have no HOS.. so, I understand werners responsibility to students.. ensuring that trainers are not allowed to just kick them off the truck and abandon them..
I was also a student who had a bad trainer.. so I knlw that frustration too...

I will also say that the werner bashing also plays a part.. I was well aware of the low opinion that some, maybe many hold of werner and werner trainers.. so, when I was in that truck with a very off her rocker student.. who even stated shewanted to bash my face in.. I thought about going to the trucks next to me for aassistance.. but that thought was over shadowed but the thougnt that if they were a werner trainer hater I would now be out numbered...

IMO.. if you have not spent days of even just hours in a truck
With a co driver.. whether student or trainer who is unbalanced.. and maybe just due to the stress of the life change of becoming a trucker and being so far from home..whater the reason for the melt down.. if you havent been there then you really can only offer lopsided opinions...
Which is why it is easy to blame the company, blame the student, blame the trainer...

in truth... it is a recipe.. each ingredient plays a part... and it is more than just the company, trainer and student... there is also DOT regulations.. out of HOS and even thougn I am only 4 1/2 hours from omaha.. i have to stop for ten hours with an unstable student... when I was on paper logs and my trainer flip his wig.. that company let me get to the terminal.. yes it was illegal.. I drove when I was out of hours.. but i was safer driving out of hours than stopped with him having a melt down...

if we forget for a moment how much we hate werner and want to blame them for everything and anything.. and just look at the whole big picture... it is the whole way students are trained.. IMO.. i dont thing training should be done OTR..

With werner.. I feel it would be better and safer to train new drivers on netops.. one of the home daily accounts.. then maybe at the end do some OTR.. when I was on netops.. I backed up twice a shift, and did drop and hooks and docs.. when OTR I can be under the same trailer for a couple days and go a couple days without backing up...

This is a tragedy.. and many lives are affected.. the trainers family and friends, the students family and friends... we can learn a lot from this tragedy..

it would be great if this tragedy can serve more than just remaining ignorant and bashing companies, trainers and students...

 

I read his post and did not see any justification for the student murdering the trainer. There is a world of difference between a reason and justification.

 

So much bad information being passed off out there in CDL schools by both staff and by students who act like they know everything. And no doubt there is a lot of "mis-hearing" going on too. Trouble is, some people can not be reprogrammed. This is why so many trainer carriers want new guys who've never driven or been in an outside CDL school so as to hopefully avoid a lot of the BS many students are prone to pick up in the crazy environments of many CDL classes.

 

STEXAN. .. that is a big problem... the thing is, the schools only teach what is needed to pass the DOT tests and get a CDL... and most of the time they are very familiar whith what questions are on the test, and teach students how to answer them correctly... so, a student may know how to answer a question regarding the Bridge Law.. they have no real understanding of the Bridge Law..

The schools in no way prepare a person for a career as a truck driver... and in my short experience as a trainer.. most students are very unprepared to even begin training... they arrive broke with no means to eat.. many have not worked in months and are now going to start putting in long hours, often a 12 to 14 hour day.. which is a lot for a person who has not worked in months to adapt to.. which is why so many feel they are being abused... treated as slave labor... drivers who came from careers where they worked long hours do adapt better and dont feel they are slave labor.. most students are used to being around family, friends or familiar co workers.. the solitude of trucking makes them feel vulnerable and alone..and leads to a lot of emotional imbalance for them...

so, the typical student is financially impaired and stressed, out of there comfort zone and support, dealing with a waves of emptions while hungry, stressed and physically tired... not to mention their bodies adapting to moving all day, trying to sleep in a bunk with a stranger in a parking lot full of strangers and dont even know if this is want they want to do..

too many people make a huge financial commitment to a CDL and a huge commitment of time only to discover trucking isnt what they thought and what they want to do..

 

I used to be a trainer with one of the Mega companies years ago. My last student was the worst. Arrogant, ignorant and lazy. He even threatened me. He was a real certifiable nut case. After his big blow up with me it was very peaceful and quiet between us on the truck. The next time I went through a terminal I told him to get his gear out of the truck and go see the terminal manager. I found that the money I made being a trainer was not worth the extra money, stress and aggravation I put up with. I never trained another student again. You never know what type of person is getting in your truck, and you are literally putting your life in their hands when they are behind the wheel. I noticed most of my students had personal issues in their private lives that was causing them stress in addition to being trained to drive a truck. A lot of them where failures at their previous jobs and relationships and had a lot of built up anger and frustration inside themselves. Since your the only person close by you will become the target of their aggression.

 

I did some classes and testing to get my Texas cat adjusters license a few years ago just for the heck of it (ex wife talked me into going along with her) We passed but the week was brutal. long class hours, long "homework" hours leading to maybe 4 hours sleep most nights. The class administrators later informed us that this was all by design, and they wanted to know the students could deal with stress and little sleep, and still do passable work because that's the life of a cat adjuster following a major storm system or hurricane.

 

I agree whole heartedly with the first part... about some people only "SNAP" when immersed in a situation that they have no control of or no understanding of...

of course, the scary thing is most, pretty much the majority of students find themselves immersed in a situation where they have no control of... that actually a big part of trucking... and students and most rookies lack a lot of understanding about the trucking industry...

as for putting my money... or placing blame on the trainer.. or the student.. or the company alone I do not agree with..

It more than likely is a dangerous and unfortunately deadly combination of many factors big and smal that lead to it...

A friend of mine just became a trainer for her company.. it is not a trucking company.. and at no point do they ever have to sleep or live together like you do in trucking.. yet, she had to take go through a psychological test to determine if she had the emotional and mental stability and aptitude to be a trainer..

Hmmm... wonder how many truck driver trainers would pass the psychological tests if administered... I wounder how many wohld even be willing to submit to be tested to see if they were psychologically and emotionally fit to train...

 

Air Breeze.... you are spot on...

A lot if the students I encountered had major problems in their personal lives.. often times it interfered with training..

I remember one time stopping for fuel and to change drivers.. students turn at the wheel... when I returned to the truck she was in the drivers seat on the phone.. in tears having and argument with her boyfriend... she was a frigging mess.. and I had to call dispatch and tell them and that I needed time to get my student clamed down and in shape to drive... they understood.. she however didn't know why I didnt want her driving a truck pulling a fully loaded trailer with tears streaming down her face, hands shaking smoking cigarette after cigarette, and blabbering about all she has gone through over her life...

I had a male student melt down how he is about to loose his wife, his car and his house because of werner and their crappy pay.. he worked for werner for two weeks.. but it was their fault he hadnt may a car payment for 5 months and his car got repossessed.. hadnt paid rent in 3 months and was being evicted and his girlfriend he met in CDL school at CR ENGLAND is breaking up with him...

Seriously... with students like that.. not being able to back up or knowing their left from their right is the least of their problems...

But, I do not feel it was just one person at faut.. I think it was a sum of all the contributing factors... I mean..
if you open a cake mix (company.. whatever company)
Crack in a rotten egg... ( could be student or trainer)
Add a cup of sour milk (student or trainer)
Add a table spoon of rancid oil (DOT REGULATIONS)
Add a cup of dirty water (trucking industry)
Poor it into a dirty pan (truck stops)
And put it in a broken oven

isnt it kind of dumb to think a different cake mix would of made a difference... or just a fresh egg.. or just fresh milk into the crapy mix would work...

 

I told my second trainer he was ####ty at his job. At that point point, I relized I should of said that, at the terminal.