Schneider Trainers - questions...

One week on the road is plenty

IF

You show up already understanding the fundamentals of backing, driving and logging.

If these are foreign concepts, then no, one week isn't enough.

The other factor is your desire to learn - do you just go through the motions or do you take ownership of your own craft? Do you read the manual, do you pay attention to the videos, or do you just hunt and peck for the answer so you can move on? Do you grab the atlas and qc at night and review or do you just except the trainer to babysit you?

Its a wide spectrum, but those who take ownership of their learning do real well.

 

One thing to note...
Most companies that train for 4-8 weeks only really train for a week anyway. The rest of the tine the truck is ran as a team, with very little actual training going on.

 

True these companies usually run you as a team after a week or so but you do have an "experienced" driver to turn to if you need it. Training a week and putting two new people in a truck together is a recipe for disaster. A week as a team you'll wind up having more questions than answers. Take your time and ask all the questions you can.

 

As a former Schneider employee, where Schneider was my first company. For me that one week of road training was perfect. If you absorb information easily, go in with the right attitude all goes well.

I don't think I would have survived my training if I had to be in a truck with someone for longer than a week. And my TE was fantastic, awesome guy. Learned a lot from him.

I'm not a teaming type of guy, I like being alone. I have major trust issues, hard for me to sleep in a truck with someone else driving, constant thought of what are they going to do, or not do that kills me while I'm sleeping, so a week in a truck with a TE was awesome... For me.

 

once released to the fleet, a driver is paired with their 90 day dbl. available to answer any question etc. they ease you into things.

have you been safe in school? exercising situational awareness? continue your diligence moving forward and you guys will do fine. its a GOOD thing to be somewhat nervous and not overly confident. You guys WILL make mistakes. Analyze them for the lessons to be learned, apply those lessons and get down the road.

 

I liked that idea with Schneider but I did have a bit of nervousness at the CDL school and feel a week wouldn't be long enough for someone like me. I'd benefit from at least a couple weeks.

 

I'm sure if requested, schneider wouldn't have an issue extending the road time.

 

As a side note. When i trained 20 plus yrs ago the trainer spent 2 weeks teaching the proper way to run paper logs..... wink wink