What would it take to get you to train?

Pay wouldn't have to be a great deal more, but a motel for student every night yea indeed. I would have to be picky about whom I train , would prefer prior service guys because they have been trained to listen. I'm not opposed to training a female, but on the one hand there is a potential for trouble that is best avoided.

 

When I trained 30 years ago I chose the trainee so as to avoid any idiots. Never had a problem or heard any whining about not being able to back up or find gears.
No way I would take company supplied trainees today without knowing them and their history

 

At a previous gig I road tested and trained all the new hires, this was a dedicated day cab account and these were all drivers with 2 years experience that only took a couple days to get going and some who had 2 years but maybe just needed a refresher course of 1-2 weeks..


On training folks fresh out of school, there isn’t really anything “realistic” that would motivate me to.. seems these mega fleets have their “experienced” hands with 6 months of experience lineing up out the door to fleece and be a driver “trainer”..

With this reality of our industry there will never be a “realistic” motivation for me.. the pay will never be good enough, the perks will never be good enough. Now it took 10-15 years experience and us experienced hands could name our price and make our “demands” I’m sure I could figure something out.. lol

 

1. Truck is dispatched and run as a solo driver.
2. Student does everything like they were on thier own.
3. I just sit and ride and teach.
4. 500 dollars a week extra on top of the miles
Ran by the truck.
5. Women only. Sorry but I'm not living in a closet
With another musky smelling man.

 

I trained my spouse and a couple of other people over my life time. It's easier for me to road test someone and see if they are good trainees or not. Sometimes another will have a go at this person.

If anyone has been married long enough you can imagine that the spouse will not listen to instruction at times. Mine was the same from time to time. But after careful work mine was able to be a pretty good student but with limitations. Those limitations were worked around because we were a team and go from there.

I don't go out to be a trainer. It's not that fun. The logbook on my end is a lie because I am dealing with the spouse 24/7 even when resting Im evaluating her driving. Only way she will learn is to put in her 10 hours overnight and be where she needs to be come morning. (That was one thing she got good at, I could point her to say Snowshoe PA from Pittsburgh, a road she never touched ever in her life and boom she is up there on top of snowshoe come morning. That's valuable.

Yes I enjoyed the salary as a trainer and learned that with that kind of money miles don't matter anymore and you actually evolve past that and focus on doing a good job if it's a 100 mile run or a 10,000 mile round trip times two or so a month, usually a little closer to three.

She flubbed it badly in louisana of all places going into a tiny platform scale. To be fair she aint hit one of those yet. SO I get rousted from the sleeper time and hauled into the coop for some 'splaining. (So much for that logbook...) after a brief explaination that she aint never touched a live open platform scale to this date there was no way for her to know how to do it just so. It is what it is. After careful thought the coop master let us out.

It wont be the first time we had a interesting day. I guess we had more interesting days trying to play trainer and trainee over everything else in life. Even now we still laugh about it. However.. some of the things we developed as tools in that truck to deal with each other happens to this very day when we roll out in a car. She says something about a problem which I may or may not see coming and it's perfectly welcome. Normally couples fight over such back seat driving. But not us. I might say something myself a time or two when she is driving. (Tsk tsk...) but it's all good.

Ive had good trainers in the past. Ive also had trainers who could care less. (I made sure to get my own truck asap.) I tried hard not to be one of those who could care less. That would be a disservice and a waste of everyone's time and literally money.

 

Well, as someone who starts tomorrow as an instructor in a CDL school and one who taught college level courses I have to say that your post resonated with me.

Teaching is sharing and connecting with another human. It's more a calling than a profession. I have forged some of my most lasting and rewarding relationships through teaching.

For me, teaching is art, connection, and psychology rolled into one. When I see that beaming smile that follows the "ah ha" moment in that slow-learner who followed the creatively weird lesson I fashioned impromptu just for them, well....thats all the payment I need.

The good teacher tells. The better teacher demonstrates. The superior teacher inspires. I teach more to fill my soul than to fill my pocket. But then, I'm on of them idealistic lefties from Seattle.