New soon to be swift trainee!

Day 5 ended with 2 curbs ran over, two wrong turns, 1 missed turn, a bridge student thought we outweighed so he wanted to back the truck up 3-5 miles for the turn that was missed on a two lane road, instead of crossing the bridge like other trucks were doing, ended up taking over here and going over bridge to find a turn around and taking the bridge again to get us back on track. Two stops in traffic on this road, 2 awesome backs using proper setup technique and student becoming indifferent.

The two curbs being ran over and one of the wrong turns was due to student not wanting to listen to the advice that was given to him. Has/had a habit of making a turn but cutting it back sharply before the trailer was clear of curb. The wrong turn was due to I believe the student being tired and not wanting to admit it. I was pointing towards the turn, saying this is our turn, turn here, but he kept going straight. Shortly afterwards the second curb was ran over.

Student wanted to take a shower so I decided we would stop at our fuel stop for the night. Found a parking spot after fueling and was telling student about it. Student wanted to keep going with 2 hours left on 14, the time was 5:30 pm. Advised him I didn't think it was wise to pass up a parking spot that was guaranteed for a shot in the dark parking spot with his hours winding down. The parking spot was a straight line back, where we would back up and be able to pull out and not have to worry about anything blocking our exit. Well, he decided he wanted to get another spot blocked by the fuel island inbetween two trucks where he would need to do a partial blindside until he got passed the fuel island. I told him no, get this one right here so that all you have to do us pull out in the morning. You want to work smart not hard. Sadly his reply to me was, I'll listen to you while I'm in your truck but I'll do it my way when I get in my own truck. I just chalked this up to him being tired and not like being told what to do. I'm not a dictator by any means just trying to make his job and transition as easy as possible.

 

Day 6 started with student saying with all my intervening he could drive the truck blindfolded. He said this in response to me telling him to get in the left lane to turn left to go south on the interstate. I said maybe but we aren't making anymore wrong turns. Getting off track in a truck and trying to get back going in the right direction can end in rushing and because of that can become accidents.

Student has 30 hours now out of 200 and 14 backs out of 40. He is on track to completing his backs and having over the minimum backs required to upgrade to solo status. Will do backs any chance we get so that he can have that down for sure for when he goes out on his own. He is doing great with lane control and maneuvering through construction zones. His up and down shifting has greatly improved. Going to work on turning, and his backing more. He should pass his upgrade to solo test pretty easily by the time he gets his 200 hours.

Thinking of keeping truck solo for 100 hours so that we can work out a few kinks and then decide if we will do full teams or super solo.

 

While I was making a reply post to say he has his moments and I think it is just when he is tired, after coming from a restroom break 20 minutes ago he pulled off the interstate on a random exit and said he had to go to the restroom again. I informed him he can't just pull off the interstate at a random exit because some have no way to get back on it and most places he goes to in his car doesn't accommodate big trucks. I told him earlier at the start of his training never to pull off the interstate without telling me before hand. I reiterated that point again. Earlier today he was talking about wanting to see the corvette museum and what do we see on our way, luckily, back to the interstate? We passed right in front of the corvette museum. The having to go to the restroom has stopped after that. I hope he pulls it back together because he has been doing great thus far.

I don't write this to make him look or sound bad but as a lesson to have a positive attitude. And do what one has to do to get through training. This time is a drop in the bucket for those who want a career in trucking. Listen to your trainer when he advises you on how to do things. It's for his and your safety. If you find yourself in a situation with the truck listen to him/her to get you out safely without damaging anyone's property or harming someone.

 

Day 6 has ended. Student has 40 hours and 15 backs. Will be delivering load tomorrow morning and then it looks like we will be taking a 34 restart. Maybe. Going to see if we can pick up a load and park on the 4th so that at midnight we will get hours back and not have to sit somewhere for the holiday.

 

Day 7 has started. Have a 4 hour drive to our final and then we will find a place to park for the day until we get hours back.

 

Day 7 ended was pretty uneventful. Student wanted to try and do setup without my intervening. The first time needed me to do so. The second time he did pretty good at it. Looks like he is getting it. Delivered the load we had and drove to a flying js to take a 34 hour reset.

 

I'm a little late posting due to enjoying 4th of July off. So hope you guys had a great belated 4th of July Celebration. And stayed safe. Student and I celebrated his first week out at Dennys for 4th of July. At the end of day 7 we were dispatched on a load going to Utah.

 

Day 8 has begun. Student and I have our full clocks back and are headed to get fuel and pickup load going to Utah. Mountain driving training begins soon for him. Luckily he has a light load going up that way for his first trip in a big truck over mountains.