USA Trainer Shortage?

Trainers get all dispatched miles plus addl 45 a day. Absolutely no way a trainer gets just a flat $45 a day. That's 315 a week...

 

I don't think it's a shortage, I just think freight is slow durring the holiday.

IIRC USA less than 10% of it's fleet training. They graduate a new class every week and you're out with a trainer for about 6 weeks (3 with one and 3 with a 2nd.) add to that location (where the trainers actually ARE on a Thursday) and it takes a while to rotate them in.

I think my trainer's still working for them. So if you get E-man you're in luck.

 

Good attitude! Exactly what a good trainer wants to see. I trained a few drivers w/ Davis (flatbed).

My first one struggled a bit at first, but 1/2 way through, he figured it out and we hauled ace for the rest. As a reward in week 3, we stopped in Vegas for the weekend and I rented mopeds for both os us and we cruised around, being total tools. Had a blast. He became an O/O eventually and we are still friends to this day, almost 7 years later.

Second one was experienced and just needed to be observed for 2 weeks. Good guy, quick learner, wish they were all like that!

The last one got kicked off the truck in week 4 for not following instructions/procedure. I warned Davis about his attitude and potential liability and advised them to send him home. They put him in a truck when the bus dropped him at the yard. I quit being a trainer when they did that. He quit, without notice, while under dispatch, a month later.

I decided right there that I'll never train again. If my word as the trainer isn't considered "golden", I've no interest in doing it. Now I refuse to work for any company that accepts graduates/trainees.

 

The reason for the long wait these days is just recently in the last month or so they fired a bunch of trainers for not doing their job. Just sitting there collecting a pay check. They are trying to talk people into being trainers. This is from a trainer at USA. They are not putting up with useless trainers just trying to exploit a new hire and not teaching them a thing. Some students actually come out to learn something and when its not taught, sometimes its told to the training liason. Get enough calls and GOODBYE. Thats what happened

 

And its only 2 and 2. not 3 and 3 for training. unless your trainer feels u need more time

 

If true, +1 Respect for USA Truck.

 

As much as it sounds like BS, and it does indeed, it's quite true. Think about it like this:

There isn't a job in the world where 80-160 hours in the classroom (or even 4 years in college) puts you in a position to hit the ground running the minute you graduate. Everyone has to spend a varied amount of time learning about the job while doing the job. Cops, doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc all have to play "rookie" for some time.

In the trucking industry, along with most other blue-collar "work" jobs, the initial training is fairly simple, because you aren't arguing federal court cases or reattaching limbs, and the majority of your training will occur while doing the job itself.

If a student were to stay in school until he was ready to be a fully competent truck driver that could tackle the everyday, yet sometimes random, obstacles we face out here, they'd be in school for a year and it would cost $15,000.

Like sanitation or welding or carpentry or plumbing, the only true way to learn this job is to get out and do it. Every mile is different. Every load is different. Every day is different. How to understand that and then cope with it is not something that can be taught. It's simply learned.

/fascinatingly intelligent response