Good one 'Lifespallette' I like it!

There have been several groups over the years that have tried to get some real rules put in place for the training of new drivers from CDL school to actual work.

I definitely agree with regulating on-the-road training after schooling. In some states teenagers go through driver's education classes and then so many hours/months behind the wheel before they can get their full drivers license. Yet we will turn loose someone who received pitiful schooling (in most cases), no standardized road training, had only a few hours/days behind the wheel and let them fly down the highway towards our families in a 80,000lb missle??? Not a lot of logic there!

To answer the fellows original question: With the exception of CFI, which requires the Finisher (trainer) to be in the passenger seat when the student is driving, and maybe a couple of others......way too many companies run "slave teams".... So after you go through school again or whatever refresher training you have to do and meet their very low requirements...you should have little or no problem finding someone who will let you "train". :shock:

So called "Team Training" should be OUTLAWED!!"

Sorry to come across as "snide", but I refuse to accept that a neophyte driver can make anyone feel comfortable or safe enough in just a few hours or a couple of days....that a trainer could actually "sleep" with a trainee at the wheel.... :shock: As far as I am concerned....the additional pay to the trainer is little more than a bribe to bait someone into taking a chance at dieing in their sleep.... :x

What happends with Team Training
 

Situation .. newbie with 2 weeks with Mentor. Parked at the T/A in Duncan SC at the idleair stalls, He is head in and has to back out. Mentor is in the sleeper telling the trainee .. "just keep backing .. there always is plenty of room."

Mentor never got out to look to see a covered car hauler with an extended rear end. That rear end is made of fiberglass and plastic , and sticks out 4 foot. That additional 4 foot presented a hazard. A hazard the trainee had no clue about.

Trainee hits the rear of that trailer causing extensive damage.

I watched the accident happen .. and talked to the owner operator when he tried to get the T/A to fix the trailer ... no dice ... has to go to a special shop.

Now Mentor had just run 10 hours with trainee in sleeper so he was in no condition to be alert and clearly was too tired to apply any common sense like "Get out and look."

Example of why not to run trainee/mentor teams.

Man that sucks.. Because this one little incident could ruin the trainee's career before he even gets started :sad:

Thanks guys. It seems that some of the things I've said about training over the past months have had an effect. Glad to see I'm not the only one pushing for PROPER training. Keep at it, and spread it around. Don't let this ball stop, keep it rolling.

Watkins Sheard Training
 

The Watkins Shepard 10 day program is an attactive alternative to engaging being dispatched as a team. It is 10 days of lab work and didactics that dos an excellent job of bridging the gap of the school training you to get a CDL and the real world of trucking.

No you do not hold a steering wheel for 270 hours, but you do concentrate on city drving, backing in tight places, maneuvering the truck in tight quarters etc. It is all the head spining experinces without the drving in between.

BTW) They provide training trucks 24 hours a day to practice.

Re: Companies that dispatch trainer/trainees like teams
 

...Dam...and I thought my wife had selective hearing problems, first time I've run into so many selective reading problems was on this site. 8)

T* Storm, you will see exactly what being "dispatched like a Team" really means once you get on the road with a mentor at Swift.

The only way that you can run 4500+ miles a week like a Team is to keep the wheels turning. And if your mentor happens to be a Lease Operator, it is going to be even worse. Because the only way he can make any money is to run like there is no tomorrow.