How Are Trainers Trained?

6 months experience and can fog a mirror, Viola we have a trainer.

 

Theyre self-insured

 

There are a couple things at play.

First of all is profit. Most training companies have the truck running at least Super 14s if not outright teaming. As such, the training truck is generally more productive and profitable than a solo truck. Getting more trainers means a more profitable truck. Spending time and money developing those trainers is "an expense with no corresponding revenue ". That is a direct qoute from a mid level Safety Critter to my criticism of our trainers annual qualification day (which is an absolute travesty of a caricature of good pedagogy). Plus, if becoming a trainer is too "onerous ", fewer people will become trainers which means fewer team trucks.

Secondly, one must heed the Legal Begals. From a legal standpoint it is more important to follow a cookie cutter farce that ticks the important boxes than it is to actually train someone. It is why companies use training videos and CBTs because they can demonstrate in court that the information was provided. The more involved and qualitative a training is, the harder it is to prove its worth and effectiveness.

The next hurdle is that the only effective way to learn how to teach is to do it. I have a degree in education and was a licensed teacher. The teacher prep courses helped, but not nearly as much as actually running the class myself. It would have been beneficial to me (and most needed teachers) to take some of those classes over again after two years in the classroom. Having perspective brings out nuances.

Finally, trainers tend not to train for long. It's as much of a revolving door as the rest of the industry. The barriers to entry are too low and there is too little value in keeping long term employees. Even the "better companies " that have lower turnover benifit from this system. I have no viable solution to this monumental problem.

 

Well I backed up for 2 weeks went forward a week and alway I went. This was in 1980 and there were NO women trainers just my uncle.

 

Great question actually who does train the trainers based on the ones I've been put with it like they've just picked their names out of a hat, most of them have no comprehension of how to "teach" a person, while they may very well understand how to drive and operate a Prime mover, but its a totally different story trying to teach that to someone else.

 

This. So many bad habits that are now accepted behavior go back to this. Trained by an idiot trainer, who was trained by an idiot trainer, who was... Ad nauseum.

We're in the situation today where most drivers have had zero exposure to anyone with real-world hands on knowledge.

 

I don’t know if it still is but May Trucking it was 3 months. So basically the guy who’s never driven in winter conditions was teaching me how to drive in winter conditions….