"Soft skills" and self learning

x1Heavy · Jan 2, 2018

FozzyNOK said: ↑

Map reading..(knowing all of the information available in an atlas) is a dead skill..it shouldn't be. It's an American theme of "I want the best _______________ in the world... but its got to be free" continues here. We had (at the school I taught at) 4 hours of map reading using ONE of the Dakotas (don't remember which). Most people unless they were in the old iron sights infantry don't know maps anymore.. which leads to following electronic maps.. which is the bane of new and some stupid old drivers these days
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And the electronics fill the cab of the 18 wheeler? Ha....

FozzyNOK · Jan 2, 2018

x1Heavy said: ↑

And the electronics fill the cab of the 18 wheeler? Ha....
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Sadly.. its what people do.. they drive into disasters.. and never see it coming

LeadFarmer · Jan 3, 2018

Jim Harvey said: ↑

If you want a QUALITY training curriculum for Commercial Vehicle Driving, (I feel I am shooting myself in the foot here because I work for a "for-profit" private truck driving school) you need to look to your local Community Colleges. Many have vocational training and Commercial Vehicle Driving courses. Most of the Community Colleges' course curriculum is at least a 320-hour curriculum (8-weeks) during which you are taught a multitude of different topics (including map reading and time management).

I put the program together at Florida State College at Jacksonville. It is a multi-million dollar facility with TWO truck driving simulators that you drive before actually getting behind the wheel on the practice track. It was the best in the area, however, many were reluctant to sign up for the course (even though it only cost about half of what a private, for-profit school charges) because it was 8-weeks long and the private, for-profit schools were only 3 weeks long. The end tangible result was a CDL for both courses (as many looked at it) so they chose the more expensive, shorter training route relying on their follow-on company apprentice training as a 2nd seat driver, to acquire what was missed while drawing a paycheck, albeit not much of one but something is better than nothing...sometimes, at the same time. (Agreed, 8 weeks is a LONG time to go without a paycheck and the shorter, the better...when you look at it that way.)

Many of the major trucking companies wouldn't differentiate in the amount or required training time a student driver, regardless of what course they came to the company from, was REQUIRED to have before being released as a solo driver. I was a member of the NAPFTDS (National Assoc. of Publicly Funded Truck Driving Schools) and got into a heated discussion with the VP-Driver School Relations at Werner Enterprises (John Frey, CDS) as to why my students from FSCJ (320 hour course) were required to endure 275 hours with a company trainer, at $350/week training pay, the same as a student from a 120-hour course, when FSCJ students could often (as quoted from the student's trainer) drive better than the trainer from the start. His statement floored me when he said "We really don't seee much difference."

When you figure in the fact that most company trainers are paid at a higher than solo driver pay rate for ALL miles the truck travels regardless if the trainer or student are driving while the student draws only his meager training salary. When a trainer gets a student that can drive without much or any supervision, the "Training Operation" turns into a very profitable "Team Operation" with the trainer raking in a sizable chunk of pay. Often, a less than scrupulous trainer will employ his "steering wheel holder" for the maximum amount of time with little training involved. This isn't fair to the trainee as he often lives on homemade peanut butter sandwiches in the truck and his family at home have a hard time warding off the debt collectors. Some better companies release a student as soon as the driver trainer feels the student is ready for solo and can pass a proficiency test. I had one company affiliate that had NO FOLLOW ON TRAINING for a graduate of our school as they were known to be "ready for the road" out of the box. (Now that's scarey, even for an excellently trained student. There's nothing like BTW experience.)
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Sadly no community college in my area offers CDL courses. I would have went that route if it were available to me.

LeadFarmer · Jan 3, 2018

NNJ, right by the tunnels and bridges.

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