Risk of being a trainer?

If you 3-6 months you can barely able back much less anything else to ask a driver to mentor someone in 3 months of driving is negligence in my opinion. The people who put the driver in that position should be held liable if either of the two have a major accident. Nowhere in my head at 3 months was I qualified to teach anyone about driving. In all seriousness I think any company does this needs to go under that's my opinion and thats not just for Western express thats to any company that ask drivers who work in the lower 48 states and expect good things to happen. I think if you want be a trainer for the money maybe a reason to do it that said if your gonna cut corners in teaching go into another field oil field or something and see what happens it won't end well.

 

Trucking isn’t as bad as flight school. Most of the trainers in flight schools are working on getting their 1500 hours of experience so they can apply to become airline pilots. They have no real world experience besides their cross country flights. At least most companies want 6-12 months of experience. And the way it’s viewed at many companies is you have your CDL this part is just you practicing on road. The “trainer” isn’t training you they are there to make sure you don’t screw up. The few companies I know where they actually want experienced people with safety and time under them and actually pay them decent to train are private fleet dock to yard then yard to driver programs. Meaning to even touch a big truck you’ve worked for them a minimum of like 3-5 years. And their trainers are only million mile drivers. If you come in experienced you have to have 3 years clean driver no tickets or accidents. I was disqualified because I had a speeding warning for going 6 over down hill on a straight road. The speed limit was 55 on a road that in other states would have been 65 or 75 (cough cough Texas)

 

If they run you as a team one driver is sleeping when other is driving. It long hard days at 1200 a day. No risk to you license because your not driving. You to risk your safety if student is driving and you sleeping and they drive off the road.

no real privacy so you both have to be layback and not worry about everything. Bring some foot powder you can use and the student. Everything is new to the student not just driving but doing laundry at truck stops or figuring out were to park at night at what truck stops. Sleeping in truck is not easy if truck is rolling down the road. So both drivers are kinda tired

 

Yeah,they were desperate even back then,and it sounds like they’re even more so now!LMAO

 

I had students wake me up because we at the end I-80. I went to bed about 6pm in PA we were going I-80 to Utah or somewhere out west. He wake me up at 9 pm a say we are at end of I-80 on single lane road. New drivers get lost when you’re not up helping them navigate.

I had driver refuse to drive and it was his time to drive. One driver turned his white clothes pink because he did not know you can’t put a red shirt in laundry with a load of whites. You probably want have cabinet they can use to put their stuff in. You have the storage under the bottom bed you can store bigger stuff if they bring extra stuff

I always had big thing of laundry detergent the student could use if they wanted. So they did not have buy those little boxes at truck stops. I did not want smokers but some students would tell company they did not smoke. Once they get on truck you find out they smoke. All kinds of stuff you find out. You have to be easy going person in my opinion

 

It's just crazy anymore. As soon as they realize someone can drive 300 miles without putting it through a building they deem them a trainer. They have lowered the bar so much. If you can find someone that sets the parking brake or does a pre-trip, they had better get an award right away. I heard them now, they say they can't drive because the cameras on the truck went out and they cant maneuver without them. The boss says "Use your mirrors".
---"But everything I ever drove had them thar cameeras Misser Boss man sir".
"Ok boy, what did you used to drive, it had cameras?"
----"My Kia. I delivered pizzas in it for 9 months before Swift."
We are headed to a bad place, folks....technology and the "I showed up awards"

 

I had three managers try and get me to train and I refused, because of liability. All the good trainers I know have stepped away from it, because of liability, as well. In today’s society, no one wants to be accountable for themselves (afterall, they’re a student) and they will quickly place blame on the trainer. In the interest of being politically correct, the company will side with the trainee, to avoid litigation with them. Then, BOOM! Termination.

It’s difficult enough to keep one’s own nose clean, without being responsible for another.

 

I used to be a trainer. Pros were to help a human being out and show them the right way to do things. Cons were you lose your personal space. You get a piss poor trainee who has no business in trucking . The politics involved are stupid and the money is not worth it. If companies want to keep good trainers, then they need to screen and hire good rookies.

 

I trained at cr england in 2013. After ten days to get my cdl I teamed with a trainer for a whole month that had only nine months experience driving a truck. That guy even set the brakes on fire going down some mountain in Utah. I still remember hearing him yelling "Fire!" when i was in the sleeper and he runs out of the truck with the fire extinguisher.

My second trainer for my next two weeks after that was a lot better though. But then for the next four months the company had me do regular team driving and gave us a brand new truck to do it in. The guy was great and we still talk on the phone once in a while.

Soon as my required six months of employment with cr england was over though I left for another company to make a lot more money.

 

At 3-6 months, neither of you know what in the heavens you're doing. In my opinion, no one with less than 3-5 years needs to be training a new driver. Just like I used to see people go into the lease programs fresh from training and complain because they bottomed out. If you have no knowledge on how to run a business, then you have absolutely no business starting one. Why would anyone with 3 months of experience begin to train another? The blind leading the blind is what it is.