Why anyone would want to take responsibility of a complete stranger for a few pennies more per mile is beyond me. :? It is too risky to train anyone these days. You never know if the trainee is hiding illegal drugs or what kind of mental shape they are in. The prescreened apps at major carriers are a joke.

 

Actually, Karnajj,
For "Spencerain", it's an excellent move. That way, when everything goes wrong, he'll have somebody else to blame!! :P

 

Well, one thing that should be interesting:
If he has 6 months or less actual driving time, just wait until he has his first major snow and/or ice storm to "teach" a trainee how to handle, when he's never experienced it himself in a truck.

 

Your kidding right? I've seen guys that, even after a year, should STILL be riding with a trainer. Have you ran the mountains of the northwest in the winter or the deserts of the southwest in the summer? What about the New England states where they have some narrow roads (Bear Mountain in New York comes to mind)? NYC? Have you driven in all weather such as blizzards, tornados, dust storms or floods? Theres ALOT that people need to learn and NOT just about how to do paperwork or drive from point A to point B. Spend a few years in the cab and get to as many different parts of the country as many times as you can in all the seasons before you become a trainer.

I had a buddy running in front of me with a "trainee" (he was local for 15 years), we were heading into Laughlin, Nevada on SR-163 with 48,000 on the trailers. Our trucks will go down this hill in 9th gear at 55 mph with the jake in the 3rd position without us having to touch the brakes until we go passed the runaway ramp. Then we use the brakes to drop gears for the stop light at the bottom and we have NEVER hit the ramps. This guy was using the brakes all the way down. When I called my buddy and told him his brakelights were pretty, he told me the guy would turn on and shut off the jake every few seconds......BTW the brakes were smoking at the bottom, something we never do.

Please, get more experience before you become a trainer. Its great that you want to teach someone else how to do it right, but you are still learning yourself, both about you and your job.

 

I've been driving a bit over a year and I've just been asked to be the dock trainer/quality control guy at my barn. But LTL dockwork is a different animal from OTR driving.

At an absolute minimum you should have 18 months of actual driving under your belt before can even consider being qualified to teach others.

Sadly many of the McMegaCarriers have discovered that they can get a dirt cheap team by having a combing a greedy new driver with someone with the ink still drying on his CDL and calling it "training". If the "trainer" in not in the passenger seat with you and logging on duty, not driving its a charade.

Ian

 

I can just see it now. It's January and your on I 84 in Oregon. The wind is blowing 40-50mph, it's snowing and the road is slick. Spencerian is getting ready to take his trainee down Cabbage. Trainee: "So, what's the best way to get down this hill? Looks pretty steep to me." Spencerian: " I don't know. I've never been down this hill before. I guess this will be a learning experience for both of us!" Trainee: "Let me out of here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" :roll:

 

Some of what you say I agree with and some I don't. The amount of experience you have before you become a trainer is debatable. I would think it is different for each individual.

What I think is more important is your ability as a trainer. Just because you can drive does not mean you will make an adequate trainer. I agree with the comment about trainer specific training before you are allowed to train.

I also disagree about a trainer being in the passenger seat whenever the trainee is driving. After a certain period of time with the trainer in the passenger seat the trainee must be given the opportunity to drive on his own, though the trainer is available at a moments notice. He has to make his own decissions. It is part of the learning process.

 

:shock: not the cabbage patch.....good lawd no sir......MOON, that spells Cabbage Patch, which btw, is a fun hill to run in the winter for experienced drivers. I saw a triple train pass me and when I got to the bottom....at the straight away where its flat.....he was in the middle, unhurt but shaken.

 

Terry, let's take that a little further about the trainer not being in the passenger seat. Remember reading about Flatbed Fred's training?? After a few weeks of driving, his trainer got out of the passenger seat and sat behind him in the bunk. He was not sleeping, he was awake, but it gave Freddy a better idea of being on his own. Gives the trainer a better look at how the trainee is reacting to situations and driving yet your still right there watching over them. That is fine with me but only after a few weeks on the truck and right before the trainee is about to be turned loose. Might notice something that needs to be fixed.

Trainers need to have at least a full year under them, that way they have hopefully driven in all weather conditions in a truck. I shudder at the thought of a trainer and trainee trying to go thru winter together and it's a first for both of them.

 

You have 6 months of experience and now you think you can be a trainer just so you can get more miles and make more money.
Frankly, I’d like to kick your green horn greedy little butt!

You arrogant green horns and the worthless companies that hire you just pizz me off. You haven’t a clue what the real world is like and yet you want to endanger all our lives just so you can make an extra dollar.
And you are cheating Newbie drivers out of some proper training that they really do need so they don’t become greedy, over confident, and careless about safety like you have become.

Flippin industry is becoming a joke when green horns think they can be a trainer, and companies don’t give a rip about proper driver qualifications. :roll: