My experience training with a trainer

Somebody started another thread recently about the worst experience in truck driving, and most said it was training with another driver. You're almost done, hang in there. I hated every second of my training with a complete moron. Every stereotype you hear about truck drivers generally fits with trainers. They think they know everything, they're slobs, and they don't shut up about themselves. Those are the only idiots they can get to train new drivers.

 

Not all of them. Not sure which bottom of the barrel training program you went thru but they aren’t all like that. Sure there are some probably at every company but they don’t last long as trainers.

 

Snowez I hope you can hang in there for another week. Are they routing you to a terminal next week so you can test out and go solo? I know what company you went with so I'm disappointed that that's how it's going as they're on a short list for me.
Good Luck

 

If you’re too tired to drive stop man.
never, ever, ever drive when you’re too tired for it to be safe. Find the limit before it finds you.

 

I had a real crazy trainer doing OTR. I’d probably get banned for ‘trolling’ if I told the story but it involves reptilian shape shifters, dentures flying across the truck into my lap, a walking pharmacy, and last but not least an “incident” on the side of a busy highway in New York involving poop, a “broken tail light” and some guy named “mr gorov”

but at least he let me use the radio

 

Oh no, you can't tease a story like that and then walk away!

 

Ill have to update it later when I have time, there’s a lot of wild stuff I can tell you about that experience lol

 

Reading these descriptons of OTR training, I am really glad I was mostly involved in taking proven drivers and making them into tanker yankers.

More of 'how to', haz mat, chemestry, plumbing, and hose huggin' 101...

"this is a tank, here is how you make sure it is clean, dry and odor free"...now we can go load and unload it...

Matlack's teams always pushed real hard coming anywhere near north NJ/NYC wanting to arrive early so Central would drop their load on us and send them on their way giving a lot of pump off deliveries all over the Metro area.

Sometimes I would be stuck explaining my way around sketchy delivery locations.

Like a place in Brooklyn where the delivery instructions [provided by the 'quality focused' shipper] sent you down a residential one way street the wrong way so the pump discharge would point at the customer's garage door but made no mention of the big plastic tank sitting on cinder blocks that shook like a bowl full of jello.

The best was a paint plant in Patterson that called for 120 feet of 3" hose with 2 products across a 3 pot trailer. A pickup full of hoses, the trainee and I pulled inside an old building.

First product thru 80 feet into a normal looking tank. Kinda' thick had the roper pump knocking at an idle.

Then the plant adds the rest of the hose and hoist it up to one guy standing on this huge wooden 'box' tank lookin' like a coffin for the jolly green giant standind up on one wall with a little guy sitting on this 3" hose stuck into the top which is bumpin and shaking as the stuff is viscious but thinner than the first.

Any minute I'm expecting to see the hose really jump and see thst guy riding the hose as it jumps free of the 'box' propelling him across the buiding.

I got in trouble for writing my honest thought on the customer's delivery 'Quality Report'.....

 

Many of us consider the weeks we shared a truck with a trainer as the hardest period in trucking. I certainly do. I couldn't sleep while rolling. My trainer was friendly & experienced & helpful.

I think you are wise to just tough it out instead of starting over with a new trainer. Living is much much easier solo in your own truck. Make sure you are good at backing so you can get into parking spaces. It will get better.

 

I truly was one of the lucky ones. Had a fantastic trainer. We speak over the phone every week.