Prime Inc.-The trainers

Good and bad it is what you make of it.

 

It is how you make if you ack like a jerk he will too. What I did was ask my trainer what he wanted out of me and I the same of him. From that point on we got along great and now we are good frends

 

Its just like anything else... You have some really good ones who want to teach their trainee what they need to know... Also have others who just want a second log book. Mine is training me. Ive gotten to the point now where I do not need his help on some things, like backing, so he doesnt help. While Im backing he still stands out there n watches for me, but doesnt give instructions. He knows that I know how to do it, so he lets me do it. If I need help, he is still right there to help...

 

At least when I went through training, there was a contract both you AND your trainer signed indicating what Prime EXPECTED from BOTH of you. That, and calling your FM to let him know how things are going from your end will certainly help.

Also... if you feel you're being treated unfairly, it is possible to change trainers. Unless there is feedback to the company on bad trainers, then there is nothing that can be done about them. If you're going to drop a dime on a trainer, you better make #### well sure its justified.

Finally, when I was learning how to fly an airplane, the instructor I learned the MOST from, was the fella who was the toughest on me. He expected a certain very high standard of performance of me, and would not settle for less. That doesn't mean he had to yell or scream at me to get that done.

Keep in mind that both your CDL instructor and trainer - if they are lease operators - have a financial obligation to meet. And you have to understand that as well.

 

Hi Basser...

After I read the above I immediately got an image of Dave on Ice Road Truckers... I sure wouldn't want him for a trainer / instructor

 

I would want HUGH as a trainer , seeing the great job he does with RICK

http://www.history.com/shows/ice-ro...ebellion#ice-road-truckers-5-rookie-rebellion

 

My instructor who is also a trainer. We would like to stick together for training but timing might limit that. I will tell you that there are new trainers and old ones. I got a guy who has 1 million miles with prime and is tops as a driver and puts me at ease as an instructor. Whle I am only 30hrs into the PSD phase he has begun to show me some of the next phase things as he is the true mentor type.

My suggestion is take time to talk with your instructor/trainer before you go out.

 

Good stuff there. Can't argue really. But its not that simple. As for the question about the trainers, I would guess that some are good, some maybe not so good. But I can only testify about the two I had. One for the CDL training, and the next guy I went out with for 50,000 miles.

My attitude going in was simply to do what I was told, keep my mouth shut, and learn everything I could. And thats exactly what I did.

The CDL trainer was a pretty decent guy overall. No real problems. He got me to where I needed to go, which was in a position to get my CDL. If he worked for my company, I'd want to have a little talk with him first, and after that I'd be willing to let him train people to represent my company.

The next guy detailed for me the exact qualifications, prerequesites, credentials, criteria, or however you want to put it, that Prime requires of their trainers. None. In other words, it appears to me at least, that anyone can be a trainer. A fact demonstrated by them allowing this guy to train anyone, and again when they asked me to train someone once I had been out on my own for only 5 weeks. My reply to that request by the way was "I'm still training myself, so I can't possibly train anyone else."

Now if you ignore the open murder charge on his record, and the convictions for domestic violence, (yes, I searched his record, or I should say my sister did for me) no tax returns for the past 8 years, the road rage outbursts everytime he got behind the wheel, his incredible disdain for the company, and his complete inability to interact with the customers in any positive way, well then you have a fairly decent extremely overweight slob of a guy.

We never met a customer he didn't urinate on. Literally. We never stopped at a shipper or receiver where he didn't urinate in their parking lot or dock area, period. On three seperate occasions, he had a receiver so irate that they said they would not unload us. Each time I had to go in and smooth things out.

His truck had not been turned down, it was a 76 mph truck, so speeding was a big issue. How he managed to avoid getting a ticket I'll never know. Of course he didn't drive much so that helped. Using his screwed up method of logging hours, (at the time he was one of the few remaining drivers that had not converted over to e-logs, and he refused to do so) I could legally drive for very long periods of time. How long you ask? I drove from SPRIMO to Denver non-stop. I think it was about 12.5 hours. One of the shorter trips actually. On one occassion I drove for 16 hours. But I did stop once on that one to use the restroom. No real complaints here though. I figured as long as I was driving, I would be living.

Their are many stories to tell. Like the one time he decided to mess with a guy trying to pass him. Its something he regularly did. Only this time as he was speeding up so as to not let the other truck pass, he decided to get something out of the refridgerator. As he was doing this he veered into the other guys lane hitting his mirror on the other guys trailer. He went into a rage screaming that it was the other guys fault. He tried to get the other guy to pull over, but he wisely kept going. So he called the police and we sat on the side of the road for over an hour waiting for them to arrive and fill out a report. He called the Prime safety department and told them his mirror was broken and hanging down. I couldn't even tell where it had been hit, so add lying to his list of admirable qualities.

On, and on, and on. The bottom line is the guy had no business being a trainer. And I know most would say, well I should have just called Prime and asked for a different trainer. And in most cases thats what I would recommend. However, in this case I chose to stick it out for various reasons.

This whole deal is like a vacation for me. I didn't have to do it i wanted to do it. I was an employee for 14 years and then an employer for 20, so I know both sides, and I certainly know how tough it is to find good employees. Actually thats one of the reasons I am one now. So I didn't want to call Prime up whining about how bad things were. I didn't want to be a bad employee. I mean what the heck, I know nothing about the trucking business, so who am I to call them and let them know their ability to choose good trainers sucks? Hey man, I've been through enough situations where I also had the old "there's nothing I can't handle and no one I can't get along with" deal going on too. And the bottom line is, even though I literally feared for my life every single day I was out there, I was more afraid of what might happen if I told Prime what was going on. Seriously. Come on, the guy had already killed someone else!

In any case, based on my experience I would say that you can get a bad trainer. My advice is to do what you are told and get along with whoever you get paired up with. But if you run into a guy like the one I got, you might want to ask for a different one. You know, as long as they aren't killers or something.....

 

Are you still with Prime? If so are you seeing that they have been and continue to weed out the poor trainers. I think that many of the issues come from trainees not manning up and doing due diligence before they pull out. i know that if I do not get the intructor I have now or one of the two he has spoken to me about (who he trained so I know where they are coming from) I will have a long heart to heart tto be sure I am set up for success. I am responsible for me and my training.