Prime Trainer can't train...

Any specific companies you're looking at? You may have some trouble explaining why you left Prime so quickly. Also, there is a very good possibility you will run into the same type of issues with another company. I believe all of the major carriers run their training trucks as team operations, for one. The other issues seemed to be more along the lines of personality clashes with your trainers. Any plan on how to avoid that at a future company? You might look into a company with the shortest training period you can find. Not normally my advice, but the team thing doesn't seem to be working well for you.

I guess I'm trying to understand why you think it'll be much different anywhere else. I think, sadly, that you'll find the next company will be more of the same. You need to put together a very specific plan for yourself.

Good luck...

 

BTW any trainer who says he isnt in it for the money is full of it. Is it worth the hassle... most of the time.

You think we like babysitting? Sure, it becomes less and less as the training goes on? Double checking your work? Sleepless night wondering if the trainee is going to make a mistake that will kill both of us?

(here comes the sarcasm) Its a thrill knowing someone else is sleeping in my bunk while Im driving. Its totally awesome waking up to find the trainee flying down the road at 62mph, in the rain, in a construction zone, with the cruise ON, after you've told them 55mph... Oh, he was bored. You know how construction zones have excellent drainage and there is zero chance of hydroplaning. Right?

My trainee is doing a good job. However, he is going to have a rude awakining when he gets his own truck in regards to fuel milage. My truck has magically become an 8 plus MPG truck for reasons I cant explain. You can do no wrong right now on my truck to kill the MPG except run flat out at 62. Different kinds of weights and terrain...it dont matter.

I keep reminding him of shifting points, mashing gas, watching RPM. After reminding him for the 10th time the other day he said... "we'll see how good I do when I get my own truck." He's already got the bad habit and its going to hurt worse when the winter fuel blends kick in later this year.

 

My first driving job was with JB Hunt in 1992, I got behind the wheel going through the Midland-Odessa, Tx area. It's snowing real hard, and my trainer asks me if I'm o.k. I told him I was, and he got in the bunk and went to sleep. I drove all night. Even though the weather was bad, I enjoyed it. That's what I was supposed to do. Being a career military guy, I don't need anyone to hold my hand. I used my time to learn as much as I could. If we had some downtime, I practiced backing. That's probably the hardest part for a new driver. I never felt it was the trainer's job to babysit. Yes, you are basically running team. You have to man up and get after it. Show them you got what it takes. I still remember my trainer. He told me, "if your mistakes don't kill you, you'll learn something from them".

 

Hey treydavid why don't you pick a company that will hire you. Then come here and ask around. See if any of their drivers can recommend a trainer. I'm sure there are a few trainers out there that are kind,patient,thoughtful and,most importantly,genuinely concerned about your feelings. If only Oprah were a trainer huh?

 

You are being paid to learn the ropes from a company trainer. Let me say that again- you are being PAID.

What business is it of yours that your trainer is using your miles to get paid more himself?

My question may sound rude but it is honest. I would like to know your answer. I feel by your post that you would like a little more hand-holding type of training. Everything explained down to the minute detail. Is not the real reason for your aversion to flower loads the fast pace/hard work of loading rather than the tight delivery schedule?

Listen, to learn a new language fast, the best way is to move to the country where they speak that language and fully immerse yourself or starve. Same with new drivers going out with trainers to learn trucking....

I took on the opposite attitude with my trainer, let's go out and kill the miles to help you (him) get big fat paychecks. He's a nice guy but teaching is not his strongpoint but I still learned a lot by what to do and what *not* to do by watching him. His teaching style for example if I missed a gear on an onramp and came to a complete stop and started over from 1st gear was "You can't do that" lol and "If you do that on your roadtest they won't hire you." A more helpful response I would have liked would have been "You're in 4th gear at 25 miles per hour at 1500 RPM, a higher gear will bog down and you'll just have to downshift, with your inexperience will miss the gear etc blah blah blah" so you see lots of hand holding there but that was not his style, learn fast or starve....

 

You've been posting on this board for EXACTLY ONE MONTH.

You don't get to call me that for quite a bit longer rookie.

 

I will say, it was rather odd to finally meet IP this morning and seeing him in his mini skirt with his pom poms.

Now, with everything that's been said in this thread so far here is my take:

1. It's explained that the training part after you get your license is team, multiple times, sorry, you shoulda known.

2. Showers, I'll agree with you on this, if the lead seat is taking a shower, there is no reason to B-Seat can't. Go to the counter and ask for a co-driver shower, it's one shower credit. Also, running team, he shoulda been getting a credit a day, and I doubt team you were stopping every 24 hours for a shower. Heck, as a solo right now my TA card has 10 showers on it.

3. Yelling, Trainers and instructors will yell stop. Period. If we don't yell it and you don't here it because it was too soft, you may wreck the truck. Yelling back at the trainer that "you know what you're doing" after having a license for one week in unacceptable. You either would have been off my truck at that point (at the nearest truckstop), or we would have gone into the yard (without you driving) and had a sit down with Steve up in Dispatch, and that woulda been that.

4. Yeah, training is like this at most companies. I can see you ending up like the only trainee I've ever kicked off my truck. He was fired from Werner in training, fired from Swift in training, and I was his 2nd trainer at Prime, he was 22, he had "been a farm boy in Oklahoma all my life driving trucks so I know what I'm doing." The thing that got him kicked off was backing into a blindside spot at our old Fontana, CA yard between 2 Schneider containers. I was behind the truck spotting on the CB telling him how close he was, and he was getting too close for comfort to the container on the right side and I told him to stop and pull up. He kept coming, I had to go and yell from the back of the trailer to stop, at which point he was less than an inch from hitting the container. He had turned off the CB because he knew better, and if I hadn't been aware and yelled, he would have hit that container, and cost me $1000 in insurance deductibles. I don't know where he went from Fontana, but it wasn't on my truck.

 

What sazook said. Really, that's one of the best posts I've ever read on a forum.

Too often it's not that the trainer can't train, it's that the student won't learn.