refresher courses

im not too sure about refresher courses but they might, I know one person who failed a road test as an experienced driver and offered him to attend the Academy then go train with a mentor. You can always call a recruiter to see if they can tell you or not.

 

my friend had the same problem out of trucking for a few years. had to go out with a trainer for a month, the trainer learned a lot in that months time. i think that is very degrading to a experienced driver to deal with from some of those larger companies.

 

it is for some, on the other hand I have seen some "experienced" drivers who couldnt even shift so I can understand the road test and sometimes training needed, while in orientation I remember around 10 or so people road tested, only 2 of them got a truck without needing training, some needed 50-100 hours and some were required the full 240. When I tested out the other day there was a guy in the truck who told me this was his 2nd road test since he was sent out to train for 240 hours, he still sucked at shifting and seemed to be scared to shift above 4th-5th gear half the time and never got up to speed yet he ended up passing the 2nd time....sometimes they are too lenient too.

 

My last student came out of the PHX academy. Got in my truck and could not shft worth a #####. Said that he had no problem at the academy. Then he said it was the fault of my truck. It was too new and he was used to the trucks in PHX.

 

A quick rebuttal to that is to have him observe you shifting like butter lol

 

I did, both double clutching and floating. Same with this student. Can not shift worth a ##### at times, even after showing how about 3 times. He keeps wanting to rev up to 1800, and then push the pedal almost all the way down. Today finally got him to shift at 1600 and was slicker than snot. He could not believe it. Came to a stop light, started out and right back to 1800.

 

He'll get it. I remember for me, I could downshift great from the beginning but had trouble shifting for about the first 2 weeks in training. I didn't miss any gears but there was sometimes a small grind and always that little jolt that comes from those of us who truly suck at shifting. Then, going through a small town one night during a rain storm, it just came to me. Don't know what I did differently - I just know that from that point on I shifted better than my trainer and rarely grinded another gear. (My trainers way of teaching you to shift was simply to yell, "You gotta get it! Just do it!!" Maybe he drove for Nike in a former life?) Anyway... he'll come around.

 

I saw a couple from the Academy who couldnt shift while I was there, one guy who tried to float everything but grinded like crazy and claimed it was because its been awhile....

My mentor said I was a good shifter but said he gets some who cant, he said one guy couldnt shift at all but after a week he got the guy shifting great.
My mentor floated almost 100% and I commented one day how smooth he shifted floating and he let me do some and explained how its pretty much the same without the clutch. With floating I grinded sometimes so I didnt do it much not wanting to hurt the transmission, it seemed for some reason I grinded 3rd gear often but could float all the other gears just fine.

my weak point is still backing, I can get it in but sometimes I need to take an extra few minutes and couple pull ups, I know its all in practice which I will get, it just bugs me I dont have it down smoothly yet. I have done backs in a couple minutes and had some that took me 15 minutes.

One thing that irritated me at the Academy was that they didnt even show us angle backing, when I asked about it since it was on the schedule he told me it depends on the class if they show it. My mentor said his buddy who is a mentor hears it often too so I wonder if they ever teach it.

My mentor said I could be a good mentor one day just since I show good patience and attitude, I respect those of you who do it but I dont think I really could handle it from the stories I hear from some of the mentors including the one I had. I wont even team since im a paranoid guy and its hard for me to sleep while someone is behind the wheel.

 

Squeak, he is trying to shift by ear, the sound of the engine. Just tell him to watch the tach and don't trust what he is hearing for now.