Mechanical Aptitude Test

Had a car blocking the entrance to a truck stop. A man was outside the car, family in the car, engine running, AC on. I get out of the truck and ask the guy if he needed some help. He said yes, he couldn't push the car by himself. I asked him why doesn't he just get inside and drive it out of the way.

"Oh. Didn't think of that."

 

If you're smart enough to read and pass the aptitude test, you're golden. People are turned away from becoming cops in certain places for being too smart and this might apply to trucking also. Ha.
They need the skill to do an in-frame once they wear my truck out, but not smart enough to wonder why.

 

A simple test would be all that's needed. Take a person that wants to be a driver to a big parking lot. Have a truck with a 9 speed parked on one side of the lot. Have a trailer parked on the other side. Have a line marked on the far end of the lot FINISH LINE. Tell him that you will be back in an hour. And that's all you tell him.

Don't tell him what to do or how to do it or how long he has. If he, without being told, the truck hooked to the trailer, and the landing gear up, and the truck across the finish line, hire him and train him the way you want him to be. At least you won't have to hold his hand.

If he's Stupid or a slacker, he won't have it done.

 

yup

 

If he's smart, he'll leave it sitting. You rack up out of route miles without a fuel solution & pre-plan. He'd also need to commit to the load. And don't forget the pre-trip and trailer inspection and the 2 hour wait getting a mudflap on after contacting road assist. And maybe Arrived @ Shipper and Leaving Shipper. But you gotta have that pre-plan....

 

these fellas are free thinkers from yesteryear. the new age of you're not allowed to think for your self hasn't reached them yet.. by the way.. its still ok to change a light bulb with out written authorization.

 

wait, come to think of it, changing light bulbs requires training.

 

he read the thread last week on proper drop and hook and applied all theories inappropriately. Nothing in trucking can replace the loss of common sense on a whole generation

 

I vaguely remember taking a mechanical aptitude test. I think one question was how to properly hold a shovel, with pictures, one pictures showed a person holding a shovel upside down??

Amazing.

This could have been a practice test back in private trucking school, I don't recall.

 

So, uh, are you planning on allowing said drivers to strap their $7,000+ toolboxes to the tractor somewhere and will your insurance cover loss of their tools or the entire toolbox? I used to turn wrenches when I was younger and I was ASE certified in Electrical, but none of the other areas. Even with my small selection of tools and modest toolbox, I still had around $6,000 worth of tools. I knew some guys that were ASE Master techs with 20+ years experience and those guys had $20,000+ worth of tools and a $10,000 toolbox. Besides, most of the ASE Master techs make way more money than your average driver.

Some sort of basic mechanical aptitude test is fine. Something along the lines of "Here's a situation. Show me how you would fix it on your own while out on the road." Disconnect an airline and take the gladhand seal off. Or raise the landing gear up high enough that a tractor with the air bags inflated can't get under it. Stuff like that - common problems that a driver is likely to run across in daily travels. Don't expect them to be able to rebuild an engine on the side of the road with a hammer and a wrench.