Trainers and Training

It depends on the company...Make sure your trainer has over a year under their belt some companies promote you to trainer as soon as you finish training!

Try to find a company that drives you on solo dispatches with your trainer rather than team dispatches. Otherwise, as soon as you figure out where the light switches are, you are sleeping while trainer is driving and vice versa. Not much learning going on in that situation. Con-Way Truckload trains on solo hours (don't know about others that do that) for 10000 miles. Takes almost 4 weeks, you drive most of the miles.

Good luck to you.

 

I'm a trainer for TMC. The first 2 weeks are you are not on team status. Your trainer should be in the jump seat the entire time your driving but may jump in the back while your on the highway. Expect long days and get sleep when you can. Your trainer will probably drive from the shipper to consign giving you a full clock to drive. This can lead to late nights, although no trainer should make you drive when your to tired. Learn how to fall asleep while your trainer is driving. In week 3 you start full team status. Your trainer may still watch when your not on the highway depending on how good you are. You should be doing all the backing maneuvers and getting the hang of of the rest of the job. you will make decisions on load securment to be ok'd by your trainer. By week 5 you will run the truck. You will tell your trainer when to drive (although he still has the final word). In weeks 3-5 expect to be doing a bit of night driving. get sleep when you can.

The average day you will wake up at the cosignie. (if no, the trainer will prob drive the last bit). You will unload together. Your trainer will then probably drive to the next shipper. You will both load. You will then drive the load. On a short load you may drive the bounce as well depending on what your trainer wants. While your training you will learn how to keep your logbook, how to drive, back, interact with customers, and how to run the truck. Feel free to pm me with specific questions, but your pretty right, drive, load, unload, paper work, back, drive etc

 

Oh yea, you need 10,000 miles in 5 weeks so you average 2000-2500/week.

 

You sound like an excellent trainer.Unfortunately not all are.

 

Thanks, I certainly hope I am lol. A lot of trainers get obsessed with just using the trainie as a second logbook. Don't get me wrong, I make a bit more as a trainer, but, my job is to train them; not just let them do my driving for me. At TMC they do a fairly good job of weeding out bad trainers.

 

Getting a good trainer is essential. The training dept is checking in on you through the trainer and this is the time to be honest with them. If you are having problems with your trainer, tell them. They can't fix it if they dont know about it.
I was fortunate enough to get a great trainer. His first words to me when I got in the truck were "my truck, my rules". He wasn't trying to be a jerk about it, he just wanted to be clear I understood that he had the say about what was going on and ultimately he was responsible for everything,,,the truck, the load, the time and me.
At the end of week four he told me "your truck, your rules" to be sure that I had picked up what as needed to be on my own in my own truck. I ran everything and he commented on anything that could have been done better. Thanks to the great training, I did well when I got in my own truck. I relied on him alot my first few months in my own truck and he was always just a phone call away.
As Richter said, your trainer is there to train you not use you for more money. TMC has done a good job of weeding out bad trainers, but they can't fix what they don't know is broken.
Believe it or not, the 5 weeks will go fast. Take it all in,,,,,you will need it.

Good luck!

 

Yea i had a bad one, but I was his last trainee after they saw my review. (yay, I weeded him out!!!) Trainers are supposed to be available to help by phone if trainees have questions when they get their own truck. After my trainer got demoted back to driver, he called me and said "Don't you ever Blank blank call me again since you Blank Blank got me fired." He then hung up. That being said, most are weeded out smoother then that and the evals at the end give you a chance to review your trainer. The training coordinators also ask one a week how everything is going and your free to call them not in front of your trainer if there is a problem.

 

Yeah my trainer wasn't the greatest either. He basically blew up anytime I asked a question about anything we were told at orientation. His exact words were "that's why they put you here with me for five weeks so you can learn how it really works out here" some of the stuff I agreed with him on but there was some other things that I didn't agree with but like you said earlier his truck his rules. I really hope after my review of him he no longer get to train anyone. As far as the driving goes in the 5 weeks out there might have been one or two days he drove more miles than I did. He only drove if I was close to running out of hours and we were close to the consignee.