Unsafe Road Training?

Your nephew does not have a trainer and needs to report this guy immediately.

 

Your nephew needs to get off that truck before something horrible happens. Like driving tired and killing himself and/or someone else on the road. (Like my family!)

 

Listen to what you are being told ! that is totally unsafe and illegal ! I don't want him or his trainer around my family

 

The next time they're at a truck stop or rest area he needs to privately call back to the DM and tell him he needs a new trainer ASAP as the one he has is unsafe. Bad trainers are out there. It's an industry problem. He may get left somewhere and have to wait a few days, but it beats getting killed or killing someone else.

 

Good suggestions! He needs to get out of that truck, just tell him to be prepared to either put himself up at a hotel or hop a greyhound home. Depends on the company. Idk if i'd even want to stay at that company, might just be that "trainer", i use the term loosely.

 

OK, the sad truth is that this is probably the way that far too many drivers and or trainers operate their trucks and the way that the carriers allow their meat grider type training take place. I always told my students that if they ended up in one of these situations, to basically grin and bear things that were not glaringly and horribly dangeroust to get through the program and to get into their own trucks and run them the way that they were taught.

1. Trainer sometimes sleeps in passenger seat, or goes to his bunk while student drives - This is the norm these days for the vast majority of programs, Bailing out for this reason alone would in my opinion NOT be enough for me to advise that the driver bail out or even go through the hassles and probability of getting even a WORSE trainer
2. Trainer uses mobile phone for texting and internet surfing while he is driving. - Deal Breaker? YES! Unless of course the student flat our tells the trainer that he can stop this instantly OR he will call in and get off the truck, texting on the road would NEVER be seen as something acceptable by ANY carrier let alone by a training department. IF the man to man talk does not work, by all means use the training department / student coordinator / safety department to fix the situation
3. Trainer uses Qualcom keyboard while driving. - Again rather common, but a deal breaker unless the above is done
4. Trainer e-logs student as off duty or sleeper berth for the whole day when the student has been up and assisting with things from 6AM on, then logs him on in the evening as driving, and has him drive well past midnight. Student reports driving after having been awake for 20 hours. - Another common occurance that even the "old hands" seem to do on a regular basis. Again a situation that if brought to the attention of the student coordinator could get things fixed or make things worse.
5. To clarify #3, the trainer manipulates the e-log most of the time, even though the student knows how to enter the info. - These are the things that make some of the scoffers of the electronic logs (on some systems) can be made to cheat just like paper logs "legally"..

Now a bit of some real world stuff for you. You have to realize that just possibly the nephew has basically had enough, seen enough and just plain doesn't want to do this new career that he has seen the dirtier / reality side of and wants to come home and have plenty of excuses on WHY its not his fault that he failed. I am not saying anything derogatory about your nephew personally, but this happens at a HUGE rate and I've seen it many times before.

 

Documentation is your friend, too. Document everything the trainer is doing wrong and illegal to back up your story to your boss/company.

 

Answering in numerical order....

1. This is normal with most larger carriers with 'training' programs. If your nephew is with one of the larger carriers like Werner Enterprises, US Xpress, or similar then the 'training' truck is essentially a team operation where the trainer gets paid a mileage rate for every mile the truck is dispatched while the student gets paid a weekly training salary. The downside to this type of operation is that many drivers become trainer with the sole goal of running team miles. This way, the trainer (who gets paid a mileage rate based upon how many dispatched miles the truck runs remember) can dramatically increase his pay. On normal team trucks, both team members split either the miles or the pay(depending upon the company policy) which generally equals out to what a solo driver can earn.

2. Use of handheld devices (specifically cell and 'smart' phones) while driving is illegal in most states. Qualifies as distracted driving, and is just plain stupid and dangerous. Should also be against company policy, as that is the industry standard.

3. In most companies, there is an interlock device installed in the programming of the Qualcomm so that the driver cannot use it while the truck is in motion. These interlocks are generally disabled on trucks that have two drivers on board, either team trucks or trainer trucks. Regardless, the trainer should have more common sense than to use the Qualcomm while driving. This falls under the same rules as hand held devices.

4. The trainer is not legally allowed to manipulate the student's log. The student is the only individual legally allowed to complete his log, as it is a legal document. Additionally, it is illegal for the student to be driving if he feels unsafe or tired. Falls under the 'fatigued driving' provisions found in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. You can find a copy of these regulations at any semi-reputable truckstop.

5. Again, the trainer manipulating the student's log is illegal. Furthermore, expecting the student to drive after being awake for 20 hours is also illegal.

Options you have:

Tell the student to contact the company and file complaints against the trainer. This will be helpful depending upon the company. A few companies will get the student off the truck and deal with the situation. Most companies will attempt to manipulate the student into "toughing it out" until the end of the training period. Remember that to most training carriers, your nephew is simply a way to access further government kick backs for offering training in a new field. These carriers have no concern about the safety of your nephew or the general public beyond the absolute minimum requirements to continue operations.

If your nephew finds himself in Northwest PA, send me a private message through one of our friendly moderators and I will be more than happy to go rescue him. I'm sure many of our other members will also be willing to step in if necessary. This trainer is openly dangerous and has no interest in actually training new drivers. He's only in it for the increased paycheck.

 

I'd hope that TS was close to home with how some of these companies handle calls about unsafe trainers...Seems they like to side with the trainer so I'd be as close to home as possible...Not saying, just saying....