My Carolina Cargo Review of Orientation / Training and Driving

Yea team training is such a great system. At least you seem to have a good attitude. I wish you the best.

 

If your team mate is sleeping that much, he may have diabetes that's not being treated with medication.

 

I had a trainer that slept as much as yours does.It was beyond his control.I would suggest requesting another trainer unless you feel you can do the remainder of your training like you have been.First major city I went thru without my trainers help because of his sleeping condition was Chicago amongst awhole lot of construction and lane changes.Don't think I wasn't scared.Then driving thru North Platte on a very windy day some lady hit the back of my trailer totaled the passenger side of her Bronco.Getting the trainer up was like pulling teeth.I yelled at the top of my lungs and he still wouldn't budge.Finally he woke up while I was outside talking to the officer and lady that hit me.Its not your trainers fault for sleeping so much he has some condition that's causing it.But I do think he should be downgraded to company driver.

 

The gps will take you to the wrong exit on a lot of truck stops. Even the company people net systems and the Profesional Trucker ones. Always look for a sign telling you that a truck stop is coming up, if it says there is a Loves at the next exit then go ahead and take that one.

All truck stops will be just a few hundred feet off of the highway exit usually. If you see your gps telling you to exit somewhere and then drive a couple miles extra to get to a truck stop, the thing is incorrect.

 

If it were me, id be getting another trainer as others have suggested. But that's me. My first and only otr job was like that. Do what you think is right.

KH

 

I suggest you get a PC Miler GPS or one specific for a truck!

 

First, I'm really glad to see you're not blind, and that goes for a few aspects. You're not being fooled by the company or the trainer, but you're doing your best. That's awesome bud! Sounds like you're adapting to team driving really well, and that's pretty useful. Many, maybe even most guys on here can't or won't do it, but it can bring you a pretty nice paycheck while you're still inexperienced enough for other positions. There's some perks to teaming that I miss.

I'm not sure what to say about getting another trainer. I think you realize the same thing as I'd warn you about, that you have no idea what kind of trainer you could get instead, or if the company would care enough to get you another. If you've gotten this far, pretty much on your own, then just finish the training. It's very unlikely that you're going to get the dream trainer that people act as if everyone should have. There's very few of them... Training is a draining, uncomfortable, and borderline inhumane. Just get it done, as long as your trainer is not trying to force you to drive illegally. If he gives you tough backs, make sure you GOAL (Go Out And Look). Let the old farts in their trucks watching you sit and wait for you to get in. They used to be new too, lol. You seem to already realize that any accidents that occur while you're driving go on YOU alone. He can brag as much as he wants about how great he is, that he's trained for years and can guide you into any door. The fact is he really doesn't care if you hit anything, he most likely just wants you to get it in the door ASAP so he can get more beauty sleep. On the other hand, if he lets you do NO backing, make sure you speak up. You're running cross country as a team, you only back a few times a week, make sure you get as many as possible.

About the GPS issue, you'll get used to that. I haven't even seen the peoplenet GPS system, but I've used a Drivertech at USX and the Qualcomms GPS. Neither was as good as my Rand McNally, and I've been told that peoplenet is the worst of the E-Log systems, but that's just hearsay. The issue you had the other night is that the Love's would have required a Left hand turn, and your GPS didn't think you could make it for some reason, so it will do one of two things: 1. Tell you to go about 5 miles down the road and do a U Turn or 2. Get off at another exit that lets you approach the TS on your Right Hand Side. There's a few ways to work around this:
1. When you look at your miles to the destination and the distance until you take the exit for your fuel stop, if it says it'll be more than about 1.5 miles, check to see if it has a U turn in the directions coming up. If it does, it should be the right exit. If it has miles of turns, then it's almost always the wrong exit.
2. If you realize it's the wrong exit, pay attention to the signs within 5 miles of where the GPS is telling you to exit, or check your other GPS (since you have 2 in the example you gave, and you should save to get your own ASAP after training) to see if that matches up the distances correctly.
3. Check your fuel assignment message for the fuel exit. I'm assuming they give you an exit number for your fuel stops, but some carriers may not.
4. There are phone apps that will look up truck stop locations and give you the truck stop exit locations too, but this shouldn't be necessary in general.

This is going to be one of the first things that will make you wish you'd written down your load info so you can quickly reference it while driving, lol. Getting off the wrong exit can suck sometimes...

Some things off the top of my head I'd suggest you make sure you do observe or demand your trainer show you while you're on his truck (and if he absolutely refuses, then you may want a new trainer):
1. How to scale and slide your tandems. It's not rocket science, but it's very important if you want your record clean, and you'll find out quickly how it affects your driving.
2. How the peoplenet works. You may think it doesn't look that hard, until you're on your own and you're not really sure exactly what you're doing without a little guidance.
3. Fueling. Again, not rocket science, but you're going to be doing it nearly every day. Know how to punch the info in if he hasn't already. Probably wouldn't be hard to get him to explain the Pilot/Love's/TA rewards system to you. It's not vital, but it's helpful to understand their perks out here, make sure you're not wasting any.
4. Going in to talk to Shipper's/Receivers. Don't want to be on your own like a lost lamb at a customer, lol. I'm assuming you've learned this and fueling already, since your trainer wouldn't want to wake up, but...
5. How to read your load info. Some companies just give you a jumble of letters and numbers with a Pickup number hidden in there somewhere, lol. Make sure you can go on the Peoplenet, look at the info for the trip you just got and find the customer addresses, fuel stops, pick up number (occasionally a drop off number too), fuel stop info, special directions. On a side note, if you're at a new customer, right down the PO or BOL number if they give those to you as well. Both OTR companies I've been at screw up the PU numbers pretty often, but it would usually be another number they put in the load info.

I'm sure I'm missing things, I hope other people add in things to make sure you get out of training. I want to mention things you should get hands on training for, because my other advise is that you can always come on here and ask questions. It's not all gold on here, but you can usually get your questions answered eventually. Not everyone is the fountain of knowledge that I am, but these old guys on here are occasionally helpful.

Keep up the hard work.

 

good luck, and best wishes, brother.......it takes a minute or two, but you'll get it. Hang in there...

 

That's what I was thinking. I've looked at the pic twice.