Advice FROM a new driver TO other new drivers...re: Tweaker Mentor

Not really hard to become a "trucker". Hell if one has some ambition and a small rental fee you can go get a license for under $200.

Part of the reason it is so easy to become a trainer. They don't really think it takes anything special. The only reason they bother is the appearance of culpability in a lawsuit.

"Well we insist on industry standard training". Hell 15 years ago they all bought that Smith System that was well known to drivers just codified and phrased in catchy sayings just to be able to walk into court and say "We exceed industry standards".

####ing smoke show.

 

The information about the trainer leaving the truck not coming back till the next morning, the toothless girlfriend, and an alleged restraining order were meant to cast the trainer in a bad light.

Take away that information you have a trainer that does not communicate in a way the trainee prefers and a trainer encouraging the trainee to maintain speed with traffic.
I wish the guy well but if he fires the next trainer he might be a case of the trainee thinking he knows more than the trainer.

 

I can't agree. The trainee was being decriptive and if his descriptions of the trainer are a product of honest observation based on prior experiences with similar modes of behavior - and given the trainees past occupation he should certainly be qualified to judge aberrant behavior - I think the trainee should be given the benefit of the doubt.
The trainer's actions, both personal and professional, raise too any red flags.
We tend to see and judge things based on our own experience. That's not always a valid method but in this case I think it's accurate.
The trainee is the person with the best claim here.
Lets see how he does with his next trainer.

 

What is the trainer doing yelling at other truckers on the cb then? The guy is out of control, and not a "teacher".

 

That old saying "There are no bad students, just bad teachers" isn't always true but it's pretty close.
If a trainer yells at a student, if he cusses him, belittles him, insults him or berates him he's not cut out to teach anybody anything.
One of the toughest guys I know, a logger who has taught the trade to probably hundreds of other guys, never raises his voice. Ever.
He says that if he has to yell at somebody he's not communicating to begin with.

 

I was nice to this one....until I couldn't be.

I asked intelligent questions. I never acted, or thought, I knew it all because I didn't and I don't. I wanted to learn from him so I asked "Why do we do X Y and Z" or "In your experience, what is the best way to do this?" questions so I would understand the mechanics of what we were doing, and about trip planning, and how to handle the truck and manage speed in conditions I never drove in during school in Phoenix. When we came to really tight turns with encroaching turns or cubs, I would always say "In school, they said do it this way...but how would you do it?". Once he told me once...he never had to tell me again because I was an active student and I listened.

Remember, I was a cop for 25 years. I trained rookies on the road...for six months to a year each. I fully understand that if you run into an ####### today...then you ran into an #######. I also understand that if you run into three ########...then you're probably the #######.

 

Another great lawman, deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens said the same thing

 

My question is why is the OP peeing in a bottle in the truck instead of walking into the restroom?

Without that statement, I'm 90% behind the OP. With that statement some red flags go up that make me wonder what the trainer's version of events is.

 

Because is was freezing cold, raining hard, and the restroom was a good, long way off...and the "pee bottle" was recommended in threads I have read here as well as by instructors at CDL school for the "late night call". Better than standing on the steps and peeing into the wind right? But I apologize if that offends your apparent tender sensibilities and makes "red flags" go up and if that is the only thing that alarms you... SMH

As for the "trainer's version of the events"....if they differed from mine...it would be a lie. Not a lie of omission, but an out and out bold faced lie.

BTW....I am still employed by the company after they looked into it...so, you might want to put your red flags somewhere.

 

Mainly because we don't play well with others...
Lol