How bad is it riding witha driver traniner?

I will be starting w/ a trainer Thursday, will try to let you know how it goes. Hopefully well, since it is for 8 weeks

 

I was a trainer at my last company and they tried also to match up the trainees with the trainers a little better also. HoweverI was what was called a finisher if they were assigned me I was THEIR LAST CHANCE PERIOD and they were told to listen and learn any back talk at all and he as the privalige to put you off at the next truckstop after collecting your fuel cards and giving you enough money to the bus station to get your ticket home on. Needless to say I treated them like they were gong to be treated real world not the hand holding way they had been thru school. Over 80% of mine ended up dropped off with the need for a bus ticket home. 3 of them did not even make it out of the uyard with me, one even said I am going to run over the first car I see and blame it on you.

 

And it was a "privalige" to put them off??? Nice attitude. And I liked the little line about "back talk" sounds like I use on my kids!

Okay now the question I wanted to post, I am a non smoker, do you get to request this or do you just get stuck with a smoker if it happens to be?

 

You have the choice to be with a smoker or a non smoker.

When I was going through orentation they asked all of us if we smoked or not I told them I do not smoke.
The next question was will you take a smoking trainer I said no it must be a non smoker.
So that is what I got a non smoker.
Now if they are short on trainers there may be a little problem because they may not want to pay for your hotel while your waiting. Depending on the company some are better than others.
My personal feelings is that if I do not smoke then I will not be forced to go out with a smoking trainer.

 

Thats good to hear. I am not a big dont smoke around me type but dont want to be in a cab all day and night with it, and having all my stuff smelling of it. And understand it would be like seating a restaraunt first available or non smoking kinda thing, depends on how long you want to wait.

 

Yep being in the cab of a truck with it is a lot different than being in a restaraunt with it.

At least in the restaraunt the smoke has alot of room to break down unless there are alot of people smoking .
In the cab it will just be full of smoke.

In one of the truck stop restaraunts here they have 3 or 4 air purifiers in the old smoking side they took care of the smoke pretty good.

I heard one guy complain that his trainer was a chain smoker man think what that must of been like.

 

No one had mentioned how to recognize the trainer from Hell:smt074 Generally, he believe's he's the top authority on trucking, and every book that had ever been published needed his approval. You'll notice there are not too many books in the market on trucking, except the ones that only prepare you for the CDL written test. This is a clue that there are not too many positive things veteran drivers can say about OTR trucking. The trainer from Hell will use drill-sergeant like training. He'll use fear and intimidation to pass his knowledge on to you. The problem with this approach, you're so freaked out of all his verbal abuse, you can't concentrate on the job. Instead, you're only concerned with not saying or doing anything to provoke his tirades, and you begin to question the wisdom of getting your CDL license to begin with.

The trainer from Hell gets away with abusing all his trainees because the newbies believe they're powerless to do anything about it. One way to get your trainer to change his attitude, is to carry a digital voice recorder. When he starts off on his tirades, reach into your pocket and turn on your recorder without his knowledge, and document all his verbal abuse. When you get back to the terminal, have the terminal manager listen to what this guy is saying, and in most cases, the terminal manager will either remove him from his status as a trainer, or will council & reprimand the trainer for violating company policy on not harassing and/or intimidating a trainee. Under federal Labor Laws, OSHA, and DOT laws, verbal abuse of trainees is illegal, and exposes the trucking company to safety liabilities. A newbie driver can't do his/her job safely if the trainer is creating a hostile environment with his non-stop tirades.

 

only 12 days??? what company is that? most are 30 to 60 days.

 

LOL... I was out almost 60 days with a slob who refused to stop to shower, to eat... and from day ONE had me running team while he slept. Never taught me a #### thing. I just drove and learned on my own. He would go ballistic when I stopped for showers (3 times a week) and to eat. He got so pissed he made me do all the night driving, and would run us 5 hours on and 5 hours off. I had to pull over due to fatigue and having maybe just 3 or 4 hours sleep so often. The guy was a nut case and about 400 lbs of fat stinking slob. At least he didn't smoke. I got what you don't ever want.

 

That would suck... I'd be dying... and I think this is post number 50!!! lol