Is this normal with a trainer?

Tell the company you want an OTR trainer because this local work isn't teaching what you want for OTR experience.

 

Do the safety and driver courtesy thing that is an instinct for you. You are better than him on that and will come out on top in the end. Maybe you will be doing his route because the customers you encounter enjoy dealing with you and not him. In the mean time give it back to him. When he blocks the mirror with his big head just brake check him and stare right at him and tell him to move back so you can continue on. Mirror blocking in the passenger seat is a pet peeve of mine. He should now better then that.

 

Just remember, if something goes wrong, you get the ticket. I'd ignore his b.s. and if he complains, get another trainer

 

Sounds like you need a different trainer. He doesn’t sound like much of a trainer.
The Pre Trip thing is something you will see when you drive the same truck everyday you will notice little thing before they get to be a big problem like air leaks or lights not working.

You should move over if someone is parked on the shoulder if it safe to switch lanes. If not then you might want to slow down a little. If car is merging on highway mover over if you can. You can also speed up or slow down. The main goal is to avoid an accident. Most car will slow down for you in truck. But if they don’t you can slow down to avoid accident.

 

Go ask for another trainer. When they ask why, show them this post.

 

You are serious OP?

Here are the things I focused on.

I wouldn't been polite about it, I would have told him as long as I am in charge of the truck I will do a pretrip, and if he doesn't like it, too ********** bad. Pretrips are required and I am not going to screw up my career here.

I would have said "great, you should be an instructor then"

I had a driver a long time ago I drove to his truck and he kept doing that exact thing, I finally got pissed and told him either he keeps his head out of my line of sight or I cut it off.

Never ever tolerate this behavior, no matter who the person is.

Yep, I would have asked 'you want to drive?' and if he said yes, the truck would have stopped right there and I would have gotten out.

my rule is this for my fleet, do not slow down enough where you will cause an accident in your lane and don't try to avoid a moron who won't merge right. I have spent money on defending a couple drivers who where hit by idiots who should have slowed down and gotten behind the truck, and did so successfully.

OP, remember two things, the first is you are in command of that truck when you are logged on and sitting in the driver's seat, he isn't. He is there just to fine tune some of your skills and not let you go off in a ditch or hit a bus load of nuns.

The second is no matter what, the company doesn't like to hear that their trainers are sh****. If you doubt things like the speed limit sign, you can send a message to safety asking if it is correct to go over the speed limit or ask for cameras so you can see your mirrors through his head.

Get what I am saying??

 

I would not be fast about showing the OP's post to the company. I would print out the text of OP's post, with no username or URL, just plain office paper. Also, when posting I would deliberately change details of the time, city, customer so it doesn't point exactly at one person, last Tuesday, in Denver, at the Costco DC with a broken trailer. Being too careful online has less risk than not being careful enough, I don't care what the voices in my head said.

 

As a teacher you know students are differant Their needs , attitude and strengths , weaknesses are different . Adults the same , some adults only understand agression , maybe you need to give him some of his own medicine. A good understanding makes for no misunderstandings if you catch my drift .

 

“Is this normal Niceguy behavior?” Absolutely. Opening post, Day One, whatever you learned in school doesn’t work in the real world so we are going to do the opposite. What does OP do? What could he have done differently? Is the trainer stating a fact or an opinion? How does the trainer know what OP was taught in school? Is the trainer trying to build his student or gaslight him into believing something that isn’t true? How should OP had responded?

Moving over for vehicles on the shoulder with flashers. OP was asked by the trainer, “Why did you move over?” People, why should you move over for vehicles with flashers on the shoulder if possible? “Well, I was taught…”. Common sense, people. Do you want to be rolling by a parked car at highway speeds and a 3 year old kid jumps out into the lane? Safest thing in every instance is to avoid bad situations if all possible. “Oh a cop will pull you over and give you a ticket for switching lanes.” Is this true? Or does the trainer like being A Holish and the student being more safety minded burn the trainer’s conscience? If you are the student, do you comply? Or do you keep doing what you were doing? What does compliance mean in this case? It means you’re going to get stepped on.

Hey gang, we teach people how to treat us. If you reward bad behavior with compliance or good behavior, does the bad behavior get better or worse? Also, as a student, you always have a contact person in the office. You always have options.

Six back quiet.

 

Very good suggestion.