so should I report my past employer/trainer?

Regarding the issue of whether a trainer should be in the passenger seat during the full training experience, I'll note that when I transition from the solo driving phase of training a student to team driving phase I rarely pull the curtain for the first week or so of team driving. I sleep with my clothes on and much of the time I'm "Johnny Jump Up", listening to the shifts, getting on Google Maps to monitor our current location and progress, maybe feigning the need for a smoke break to help the student through a difficult section.

For my way of thinking the team driving phase is more a weaning process. As others have pointed out in this thread a student often does better without the trainer right there in the passenger seat. They NEED to have that experience of doing it on their own, with the trainer readily available if they have a question or problem.

By the final week of training there's nothing better than lying in the sleeper berth listening and monitoring how a student does a drop and hook delivery successfully, doing all their Macros correctly, listening to the professionalism of how they work with the guard at the shack, backing the trailer, unhooking, etc.

Actually, there is something better. That's when I'm woken up with 30 minutes to go until it's my shift, drinking my coffee and chatting with my student, and he says, "By the way, there was an accident right in front of me running through a construction zone last night. A car tried to cut across a hotshot to take and exit and clipped him and spun out. I already had scanned my mirrors and knew I had room to change lanes, put on the 4-ways to warn folks behind, and got through there without any problems."

"Did your heart rate increase?"

"Not really. Running with space like you taught me made it kinda routine."

That's when you know you have a keeper and your training meant something.

Tonythetruckerdude touched on the point I will make. When you are in a team driving situation, when your partner is driving you should be logged in Sleeper Berth. You would have an HOS violation if you weren't. If you are logged in SB then you have a responsibility to sleep.

When I've run team, not training but team, we've always split the clock in 12 hour shifts instead of 14 hour shifts. The reason for this is that we want to maintain a strict pattern of sleep/awake cycles. Usually I was the vampire if my teammate had difficulty driving at night, or we would split the day from noon to midnight. Once you are on a sleep schedule then stick to it.

When team driving or solo driving OTR it sometimes gets difficult to maintain that strict schedule. Sometimes you have to "flip" your schedule. One day you might wake up and drive 6 hours in order to be in position to make an appointment delivery after your 10 hour break and THEN immediately pick up a load to run all night to make delivery the following morning. It happens. Just this last week I've flipped my sleep schedule three times in order to maintain on time performance. Doesn't matter if I'm tired or not, I've got to take that sleeper berth time of 10 hours (or 8 hours on a split 8 ) and TRY to sleep. It means closing the curtains, turning out the lights, and doing a little relaxation mantra and at least catch a couple of hours here and there.

 

Spot on!!!

 

Am I the only one here who looks at these training threads and just shakes my head? I agree that it is far better to have a rookie TRAINED than not. But for those of us who "trained ourselves," an awful lot of these posts just look like whining. If I had it to do over again, I would have gotten on with an outfit that would at least team you with an experienced driver. BUT do you think a rookie really needs to have somebody babysit them every minute they are behind the wheel?

If the trainee actually has a CDL (not just a permit,) that means they have driven well enough to know how to handle the rig. Sure, I can see not turning "the kid" (no matter what the actual age is,) loose in city traffic. Or in the first few storms. But no reason they can't be expected to do just fine, out on the open road. Sure, spend the first couple of days in the jump seat while they are driving, but once you feel comfortable with it, let them spread their wings. They will gain confidence much quicker, if they have to make some decisions on their own, and if they really need you, they can get you.

 

No not really, same thing. I do not believe in running hard, I run legal all the hours I have available. If a load is loaded or dispatched late it is a late load not a hot load. I know when I accept a dispatch if I can run it on time or not, If I cant make the time quoted I'll tell them Ain't gunna happen, I can be there at this time not earlier. Are they happy, not at first but they get used to it. Running all your available hours is not running hard it is doing your job.

Why would you get behind the wheel of a 40 ton truck if you have not slept for 24 hours. My students would get upset if I told them its bed time. By the time your running like a team you should already know to go to bed. If you were a new student he should be up while your driving, and sleeping the same schedule. For at least the first 2 weeks. You can not blame the trainer, except he should not allow you to drive if your not rested.

 

As a few already posted, trainer sleeping in the bunk while you are driving, isn't a training situation! It's a team situation, how is someone training when their eyes are closed?, find a better company

 

Respectfully disagree Big Don....I really don't think its baby sitting....especially for the 1st few weeks. Like I said in another post the 1st 1 to maybe 2 months , depending on how well the student is progressing. You know that some will be able to handle it way before others , and some will actually find out that this thing called trucking isn't what they thought it would be. Trucking is a very very individualized thing , your way of driving accessing different driving situations , road conditions , traffic , weather , customers , dispatchers , warehouse workers , shipping clerks , etc has been complied over years of doing it. Now along comes Tony....you try your best to teach him the correct way , one that has worked for you , he may learn that way , but over a period of time and with experience Tony will develop his own way of doing the same thing...Don's way is great , a really good foundation to build on to , but we all do things a bit differently....This is the reason I say sit in that co-pilot seat , give that student some space to grow , but ,.... ask him questions along the way...what did the last bridge clearance sign say....what mm are we at , what is your air pressure...what color car is the second on in the lane behind you , what make of pick-up just passed. When you arrive at a destination let him handle the paperwork , you know the drill....let the student run the truck...but be ready to answer questions , give advice , point out mistakes , or point -out possible dangerous situations forming at the front , rear , side , below , or above the student.....You can't do any of this stuff , from the sleeper.....at least I don't think so anyway. Hope I made my point clear and with all due respect to you Don...I'm no know-it-all......just my thoughts on training a rookie. Thanks Tony.....

 

No problem Tony! We all have our thoughts. And like I said, I was not a trainer. Nor would I be. I have neither the patience, nor the inclination to do so. I found that out during my years of LE, where I was assigned to be a field training officer, whether I wanted to or not. That six months or so, was the longest ten years of my LE career. . .

 

Go ahead and cry up a storm of what happened. You QUIT, whether it be good or bad reasons to you, and you alone. Your reasons for quitting will fall on deaf ears and be taken solely as sour grapes or a disgruntled employee. You quit, probably under a load? If so, highly expect to be DAC'd about that too.

Making your job search so much more difficult. The time to have grown up, and accept the job at hand, get it done and over with, flew past you. If you did quit under a load, and by the way, your trainer could have accepted a load just seconds before you quit, puts in under a load. Not a good place for you to be sitting at right now. You students think that it is all cut and dry out here, like the trailer lights you say were not working. I can tell you of the hundreds of drivers I see on the roads with NO trailer lights working? What do they do? What do they do? Many use the 4 way flashers, and go along.

Good luck, you'll be going back to school soon, and the road ahead for quitting, and I highly suspect under a load, will haunt you. You did wrong, and you want to report them? Either buck up, accept that you screwed up, or go back to your office job, where the only lights that might not be working is the over head fluorescent lights, and the janitor replaces the bulb. Unless you quit over that too.

 

yes sir I knew there wasn't a problem just wanted to try and clarify. I trained a couple of drivers for GSF , but all that entailed was showing them the ropes as to setting up at a store and how to do paperwork , break down the trailer. You know job related things to unloading. They already were experienced drivers , since GSF required 5 years minimum driving experience. If I would have had to train a newbie it would have been only one. No patience.......would be my downfall too.

 

I find it very interesting to read the comments/advice/direction by each poster in this thread, looking at the years experience of each poster, how the direction of "advice/counsel" can be directly related to that experience level:
1. Those with 2-5 (or less) want to give the student more leeway and the trainer a lesser "hands on" approach.
2. Those with the greater experience want the trainer to be "over the shoulder"/"breathing down the neck" for a longer period of time.

What hypothesis can be garnered from this distinction? Perhaps, the longer we are out and seeing what we are seeing these days, the more we trend to a longer training and a greater "hands on" approach. Which could come from us "old timers" having less patience and giving less consideration for those that are in a learning frame of mind. Granted, with knowledge and experience one tends to depend on our experience and thus not allowing as much "extra time" on any given run. We know how much time it needs, we know where and when the "issues" will most likely crop up, and we adjust, through experience, for these "allowed" issues. Now when a newbie is inserted in the midst of our "experienced knowledge" and tosses in a kink we weren't expecting, we tend to "prickle up". And this seems to be getting more and more common. Not just in a dock or truck stop environment, but (IMHO) is getting more and more "regular" on the open road. Not maintaining a steady speed, not keeping center lane, clogging up the road with taking too long to pass...in short showing no respect for other motorists!

Personally, I trained for 13 years with Swift, and was a Safety/Training Officer for a fire department for over 10 years before "going trucking". I ran out of patience! When students were assigned to my truck that didn't know the top of the map was NORTH, that exit numbers were also mile markers, that odd numbered Interstates ran NORTH/SOUTH and even ran EAST/WEST, and the clincher was that Utah was actually EAST OF CALIFORNIA...I hung up my "BLUE MENTOR SHIRT"! Today, on a rare occasion I will help out someone having trouble getting in a parking spot or a tight dock...but as I said, ON A RARE OCCASION! Why? Because I'm tired of getting barked at for offering assistance, I'm tired of "know it all's" that don't have a clue and have their head too far up their own arse to ask or be grateful for some help or guidance!

RANT OVER.....