(Un)Professionalism of Trainers

Wow....6 to 9 months experience. Ive been driving almost 3 years and I just started undestanding why folks want 2 years OTR experience for employees. There is so much more to driving than just driving. You dont start realizing all the stuff yoh need to know until you've been on the job for a couple of years....and you still need another year or two to start making sense of thiings while continuing to hone your craft..

Crazy.....

 

How can you expect trainers at training companies to be professional when the only reason they hire students is because they can't get professional drivers to work for their bottom feeder pay ?

 

IMO thats a good call on your part....not being rude, but you are still new...heck i still got called a rookie after 15 yrs...LOL....keep that mind set until you are able to properly train someone....

all people are different, so i guess there is really no set amount of experience needed to train someone...but IMO...i think ya need at LEAST a min. of 5 years...i personally would like to see trainers with at least 10 years exp.....i know a lot of people are gonna get all huffy about my post....but if they wanna be REALISTIC about it and HONEST....newbies dont have any business "training" newbies...its the blind leading the blind....

 

we had a severe lack in judgement many years ago and went thru orientation with covenant..DIDNT EVER DRIVE FOR THEM MIND YOU.....but they had guys they paired up one had 6 mo exp and the other 1 mo. and THEY PUT THEM IN A BRAND NEW TRUCK.....i dont care if it was an old beater...they had no business running team.....and their road test was a JOKE...down the frontage road...under the overpass back up the frontage road under the overpass and into the yard...AND THEY TESTED ALL 4 of us in that amount of time!!!!!!!!!!!! it was about i dunno 3 or 4 miles total.......(didnt end up working for them because of the piece of disgusting nasty excuse for a truck they wanted to put us in) the smell of dirty dog and cig smoke about knocked you down when you opened the door....another driver had alrdy refused to drive it as well....i am not afraid to clean a truck..but this was beyond bad.....so we didnt work for them....

 

I really wish they would come up with a multiple year requirement, but that's not going to happen. If they had a multiple year requirement the number of trainers would diminishe so badly they would have to give all the drivers a big pay raise just to keep them. A limited number of trainers means a limited number of new drivers willing to work for peanuts.

 

Jfrog, how far along with your current student are you? my orientation is march 13 in vandalia

 

Sorry man, timing is wrong. On the positive side, good trainers out number the bad ones 2 to 1. Odds are good you'll get a good one. If not talk to the training coordinator explain what you think may be a problem and they will make other arraingements.

 

Well to put my 2 cents in here, i did train fro usa and have been to that plant myself as a solo driver and as a trainer. First off if the student has been on my truck a couple days i would not let him try to back there knowing how busy that place is knowing the student would have trouble backing and making other drivers wait! Thats common knowledge for anyone thats been there! For a trainer to act the way he did there is no excuse for what he did the trainer was in the wrong I call this big head syndrome(look at me I am a trainer I am super trucker) Have seen it many times out there with not just only USA trainers but other companies! Just because you a trainer does not mean you are better than anyone eles!

 

The only thing i disagree with is...when i was first being trained back in 08, for me, it was a confidence thing. If my trainer said "stop. im gonna do this cuz you cant"..that would make me fell like crap. Im there to learn. So i would say, at least give the trainee a shot, once or twice...then if he cant get it, take over. Ive been driving these trucks in the military for 12 years..including iraq. If my trainer(sometime in the next few weeks) tells me i cant do something because im a "student", thats an insult to my intelligence. hehe

 

how is the student ever gonna learn if the trainer always does it for them.,....they need hands on to learn how to do stuff....