What to expect from your trainer?

Never mind what you should expect
What I hope you get is a trainer who has more than a year of experience and who has you do all of the driving and backing and gives you guidance when you get in a tight spot but let's you work your way out of it rather than taking over and gives you alot of insight rather than trucker war stories.
I hope they are someone you can learn from and are comfortable with and you feel you can trust and has an even an temper and never yells at or belittles you,
I hope you have someone who imparts wisdom to you and gives you the freedom to take what they give you and incorporate it to your own way of doing things and when you get into your own truck and start out on your own that you are a respectful and safe driver.

 

You should expect a dude on the bunk below you joking loudly and holding a bic lighter to his farts.

 

It's really luck of the draw, some actually want to teach, most just want to money. Best case scenario, you get one with over a decade of experience who wants both. They'll actually teach you how to be a trucker, indirectly.

 

In my experience, if your trainer is an l/o politely, but firmly decline in favor of a company driver. While you will still have the luck of the draw issue, l/o's need those team mile to make their truck payment. They don't care about teaching as much as getting you on team runs.

 

Your trainer really has no choice as to where he goes. He's just another flunky with little experience in most cases.

 

If you hadn't, I would've.

 

Its a roll of the dice on whether you get a good trainer or not.If he's not doing his job you can always request another trainer.Ask for a trainer with yrs of exp rather then one with only a few months exp.

 

Someone should start a thread on what a trainer can expect from trainees. Man, i get tired of the trainer bashing on here sometimes. I have had dozens of trainees over the years. They have had one trainer. I can assure you that it is far more likely for a trainer to get stuck with a bad trainee than the other way around. First thing you should expect is that a trainer isnt your daddy, buddy, or your friend. You will likely get your feelings hurt from time to time. Get some thicker skin newbies. If you are in my truck, and are messing up, im gonna tell you that you are, why you are, and what needs to change. I will be tactful, but i wont sugar coat it to spare your feelings. Making you feel all warm and fuzzy and accomplished isnt my job. Teaching you how to make a living for your family without killing anyone, tearing anything up, or wasting the bosses money is.

 

Expect to be dissapointed. The things you want to learn about will be topics that are too advanced and more than likely give them a headache. Sad but true.

There are quite a few topics scattered around here on TTR about winter Mountian driving. You can do some research here and pickup quite a bit. Most of the learning will start when you are solo.

 

I agree with everything you've said except the 'yell at you' bit.

During training I got my ### chewed twice. I earned both of them. I respect my trainer for that.

Now I, as a guy who doesn't really trust anyone's driving but my own - I realize I'm unfit to train. I wouldn't want to even if that obstacle weren't in the way. (Trained one guy, he did procedural stuff; no driving - story is around here somewhere, I'm not repeating myself.)

My bottom line - if you almost kill me - I'm going to let you know about it. And i won't be oh-poo-poo-tsk-tsk, shame on you, nice. I'll light right into your ###. You can cry yourself to sleep, thumb in your mouth, wrapped in your favorite blankey if that gets you thru.... But I'm only yelling at you if you've really ####ed up, and you better own it. Responsibility helps you grow. An 80k responsibility isn't for those that can't own it.