Millis OTR journal

Some of the best advice I can give you is don't let 1 #### up snowball into another #### up. Thats what gets alot of guys out here in trouble. You miss your turn? Ok that sucks, but slow down, stop , whatever you have to do an assess the situation. After every #### up, just stop or slow down and analyze what needs to be done next without making things worse.

 

I really wish you were my trainer. 3500 miles down, only feedback I've gotten is "doing fine."

 

Well....at least he didnt say you were doing terrible lol

 

Okay, I am not trying to stir the pot here, I don't know Steve, but if you feel there are issues or things you need you are not getting from your training talk to him about it, or talk to dispatch and ask for a different trainer.

I got lucky, my trainer and I clicked on pretty much all levels right off the bat, which made the process still hard, but much easier, but not everyone is like that with everyone else.

Do not be afraid to ask anything, even up to switching trainers, if you feel you need to.

 

I'm kind of torn, Steve's a great guy, we get along just fine on a personal level.

But on the training side of things, maybe I just have an unrealistic expectation of what I thought the road training would be.

As an example, on my 2nd alley dock ever, it was a blindside with a trailer on the long side, open on the near. He had me set up in a really weird way, but I followed his instructions explicitly. Eventually I banged into the dock at about a 75 degree angle, nowhere close to where I should have been. It wasn't a big deal really, he pulled me up, straightened me out and we got docked, but the instruction was almost like partial, fill-in-the-blank type and when I asked him if he was giving me partial instructions to see if I'd correct properly on my own, he got pissed and jumped out the truck to give commands outside while grumbling about how he's just trying to help. I meant no disrespect, I'm just trying to figure out how he wants me to do it.

Yesterday, driving through Bowling Green, we get to 3 lanes on 65. Most of the way up it's been truck-restricted to the 2 right lanes. Then I come up on a "End Truck Lane Restriction" sign pair, still in a 3 lane section. I go to do a quick pass in the far left, he tells me I can't be over there. I mention the signs a few miles back to which he responds "I don't remember KY ever allowing trucks in the left lane." Ok, so am I going on your memory or the posted signs? He probably would've seen the signs himself if he wasn't on his 6th hour of scanning his Facebook feed. Of course I didn't say that, I just said ok and stayed in my lane.

Again, not a big deal, but being his avatar isn't teaching me anything.

If he was a jerk, I'd certainly bring it up through the proper channels, but like I said, he's a great guy with a big heart, lots of experience and means really well, just not very good with communication. I'm not challenging the guy, just trying to learn what I need to know to be effective out on my own.

 

I should also mention the poor guy lost his wife unexpectedly in May and her birthday is next Wednesday, so I'm trying to cut him some slack and not cause waves right now. I'm doing everything I can to not add to his grief or be 'that student.'

 

If you get along with him and hes not yelling, screaming, stinking up the truck, etc then I'd just caution you with this...be careful what you wish for lol. The next guy could be a lot worse in a lot worse ways. As for the backing thing, quite honestly there isn't a whole lot of directions he can give you that will help. Backing is all about repetition. Again and again and again. Us standing outside your window telling you which way to move the wheel or waving our hands like we are trying to land a 747 does you no good. You have to move the wheel and see how the truck amd trailer react and fix it. Also as for him "setting you up in a really weird way" well you've got 3500miles under your belt and just a few backs so alot of things may seem "really weird" but there is usually a reason we have you do things no matter how weird it may seem to you. Please don't take this as me being a dick head cuz thats not what I'm trying to do. Its just that I have had guys get in my truck and question me why I had them setup this way, or do this another way, and as time goes by and they start to do things more and more all of a sudden they are looking at me saying "well #### now I know why you had me do that 3 weeks ago". Also talk to him about your issues. One of the 1st things I tell my students is "if you have a problem or questions why Im doing this or how I do things come talk to me". If hes training you hes trying to help you and should welcome your issues. Every student we get is different from the previous, and learns different than our previous.

 

Also what were your expectations on how training would be? I can tell you if you're unrealistic lol