A Thread for the Trainer

I just droped off a student driver. He told me he had to stop at different times, five times a day to pray. It had to be within 10 mins of those times. Sorry, not going to happen, not in my truck.

 

Oh my! (sorry, but just had to laugh!)

 

Oh that's nothing!The Atlanta Braves had a player who missed a game and it turned out he couldn't figure out how to get off I285 either! He was from one of the islands south of Key west!

I had a trainee back in 94/95 who couldn't read worth a crud! I had to write what roads he needed to take. He took the wheel at Effingham and was to take I-55 to I-44 to the yard. I went to sleep after writing this down and drawing it on paper for him. I wake up hearing him cussing under his breath but loud enough I heard him through the curtain in the Pete.

I get up and look out the curtain to see mile marker 109 go by and I knew he wasn't on I-44! I tell him to get off at the next exit and stop and I pull out the map and hand it to him and make him figure out where he was and where he needed to go! Took him almost 30 minutes to figure it out and I told him to write every turn he needed to make to get back to the yard. Of course he got out of the truck when we got to the yard and went home on his own knowing he needed to learn to read. Nice kid just came from out back OK where work was more important than education!

 

Back in about 1982, I came to work and found a total stranger sitting in my truck with a big smile on his face. So I introduced myself and asked him if he was a new driver and he said that he had been with the company for about 4 years but he was a new driver and had just gotten his Commercial license. So I asked how long he had been driving and he admitted he never had actually driven a truck in his life.

His name was Calvin Rector from Lawton Oklahoma and I was going to teach him how to drive! You see, back then all you had to take was a written test and if you passed it you got a stamp on your forehead that read "I are a Truckist" and you were free and legal to go out and kill anyone that was dumb enough to get in your way. I told Calvin that he was going to have to learn to drive by the time we got to Sweetwater Texas because that was where I was going to sleep.

And he did! He told me how badly he wanted to be a driver and how he used to work in the hot warehouse and envy us drivers because we got to travel around listening to the radio and he wanted that. So I taught him how to drive and road trained him at the same time. He made a good driver for the company and was willing to do anything they wanted him to and I got stuck being a trainer for them and I use the term "stuck" in a lighthearted way because I enjoyed it.

I admit that I am out of what is left of my mind.

 

I have seen students that had to take the written test orally because they can't read. I used to say they should never have been there in the first place but you know how the school recruiters are, if you have a pulse you are in! But I have been surprised by a few. I did some map reading studies and one of these non reading kids did well at it. So I asked "How is it that you can read a map but not a menu"? He said it was kinda like reading a blueprint. I found out the kid worked in construction from an early age an just never had time to learn to read.

I saw him in a truckstop about two years later and he had taught himself how to read using books on tape and reading along in the actual book. He said his favorite author was Louis L'Amour. I guess you just can't keep some folks from learning and he took to driving like he was born to do it.

He may not have had all the book learning, but he was a wise young man.

 

Did you drop him off in Mecca Mississippi? LOL!

 

That's the way I see it . If they really have potential they are not going to come out school after 6 to 8 weeks needing their hand held .
There are probably too many Calvins out there with their applications buried among thousands of wannabes that don't have any chance of lasting more than a month .

 

Guys like Calvin are hard to come by these days. What i mean, he wanted to drive after watching and thinking about it. The new trainees are dumped into trucking only for a paycheck, not the lifestyle it is. Trucking has become the dumping ground for those who can't get a job. Like Rick said, most don't make it. They have know idea what it takes and is involved to make out on the road. I can tell you, the 14 people i have trained, 1 has made it past a year

 

I was a trainer at the Last company I drove for. I can not figure out if my Epilepsy is from my Trainees breaking my Brain or from a rear end accident in my Personal car. I had one that could not Shift a Stupid 10, one that refused to drive more than 400 miles at a time the company was a TEAM oriented Produce hauler. But the BEST ONE WAS THE IDIOT THAT THREW THE TRUCK IN NEUTRAL GOING DOWN PARLEY AND SCREAMED WE ARE GOING TO DIE. I WAS IN THE BUNK AND WAS IN MY SHORTS. WELL I RIPPED HIM OUT OF THE DRIVERS SEAT STOOD ON THE BRAKE PEDAL BURNED THE LININGS ON ALL FIVE AXLES SOMEHOW GOT IT TO THE BOTTOM OF PARLEY WITHOUT NEEDING THE RUNAWAY RAMP STOPPED AT SAPPS THEW HIM OUT OF THE TRUCK THERE.

Then put my truck and trailer in the shop for repairs needed all 5 axles worth of brakes and drums and springs for the brakes. Got out of there after a few hours went to Wendover found out delivery was pushed back a day and then went to the Casino for Dinner. Found out that the Student was hired by England that same day. Wonder how he did there. I had 5 trainees total and 4 flunked only one made it thru my training and to this day I would also mortage everything I had to get him a truck if needed.

 

Okay, i am going to chime in here even though I am not a trainer and am actually a trainee. For those who know me or have read any of my post I don't gripe a lot and stay on the positive side.
I have been riding and being trained by an OO and things were going good, but he had some stuff come up and was going to take time off. However, he put me in with a guy driving one of his other trucks and I thought it would be good to also see how another driver runs and all.
Sunday I met up with him and we headed out. He is an alright guy, he has a lot of experience. However, he never does any pre-trip or post trip. That really caused us some hoopla and a day when we ran into trouble at a weigh station. We took off with no pre trip, at the ws we got pulled over and told we were over on our steers. He also never keeps up with is log, so he tried to get it caught up in a hurry, but the DOT came out to the truck and told us to come in. Then he was pissed and was slamming around trying to slide the 5th wheel. The reason we were over, was that the rear suspension was flat, however, he didn't notice that until after slamming back and forth trying to slide the fith wheel, we ened up with a busted air hose and more, not to mention a $165 ticket for being over weight and he got a warning about his log book.
This guy just pretty much leaves the truck running 24/7. i got in the truck on Sunday and it wasn't until Wed we had to shut it off when being loaded inside. Then, the truck wouldn't start because the starter is bad, so I had to crawl under and jiggle wires until it started. We still haven't gotten a new starter and so when ever we shut her down I know I'll need to crawl under under to get her started.
Now we are in Cali waiting for a load, last night he woke me up in the middle of the night because he wanted to start the truck and run the heat for a bit, so I had to get up, get dressed and go out in the rain to crawl under and jiggle wires.
He has a lot of confidence in his driving, but I find it a bit scary at times. Our windshild washer doesn't work either and I really didn't feel comfortable driving through the mountains at night with a dirty winshield. I was taking it slow and he told me I had to pick up the pace or we wouldn't make it on time to unload. Well, had he not over slept 3 hours that morning we would not of been so pressed for time. Well, I was going fast enough for him so he took over, then he missed a turn or took a wrong one and we ended up 89 miles off course and didn't make it, so would have to unload in the morning, which also meant we lost a load and would have to wait. Grrrrr

Anyway, this guy is not the kind of driver I want to be. I could grip and whine about it. But to be honest, running with him has taught me a lot. He has reinforced a lot of what my first trainer taught me, like the importance of pre-trips and good work ethics.

No matter what kind of trainer you are, your trainee is only going to learn what they want. A good trainee can still learn from a bad trainer, but a bad trainee won't learn from even the best trainer.

For me, the difficult thing now is, I know my boss would not like the way this guy drives his truck, he is very hard on it, he over uses his jake, he trashes the inside, he is also quite the litter bug, even at the shippers, he will just toss his trash anywhere. He is exactly the opposite of my boss. He has only been with my boss for 5 months, so who knows, maybe my boss knows how he is and I am his replacement.