What to expect with a trainer....

Man I had a really cool trainer. We had a lot of fun and he really showed me a lot. As far as how to get through, it's really hard to give advice on that because every trainer is different. If he is sleeping while your driving on like day 2, then there is a problem. If he is yelling at you or throwing a fit every time yo make a simple mistake then there is a problem. Just don't argue with him or debate religion or politics and you should be fine.

You should expect to learn. Not only how to drive but how the company works and how they want things done. Your trainer will show you how to navigate truck stops and how to take advantage of all their reward programs and stuff like that. Truck stops are kinda confusing at first. He will also show you truck stop etiquette. It will be a little stressful but you will be alright. Remember we all had to go through it.

 

Your trainer will also show you how to log. There is the book way and then there is the real way. No need to log on duty not driving for 4 hours while unloading, log it sleeper berth. Log miles not time, stuff like that. Saves your hours. Now if he is showing how to run double logs and cheat your 14 and stuff then there is a problem.

I don't know why everyone takes those cash advances, I just pull money out of the ATM.

 

I sure wish there was more on this thread - and a little newer than 2008 - I guess that's why I'm resurrecting it... there has been other threads with 'horror' stories of trainers - I would like to get more on what is expected, not just on what to expect from the trainers side (them to do for the trainee), but the trainee's side as well (what to expect to help/improve the training process) ...

 

Positive attitude most important. I dont want a student in my truck who is all about "F" this and "F" that. I when I do get a student like that as much as I try to bit my tongue, a little does wear off on me and that of coursed is passed down hill to them. Making both my experience bad and there experience even worse.

Always show a willingness and desire to learn and work
Mostly self explanatory. You are a student. Its a trainers job to teach you, if you are not willing to learn they cant do there job. The job that they are being paid to do. A trainer already massively overextends themselves by staying awake more than they should and getting a lot less sleep than they should and doing a lot more work than they should. They cant do it all. The more work a student is willing to do for themself and not have there trainer do for them, the more rest the trainer will be able to get which will still be extremely inadequate. This equates to a better attitude toward you and the more they will go even farther above and beyond to teach and help you out in any way they can. Please refer to empathy below on this as well.

Respect for the trainer personally, there privacy and there possessions.
You get on my truck, as a student I will bend over backwards to make you as comfortable as possible and will respect you as a student regardless of how I may feel about you inside. The same respect needs to be applied from the student towards the trainer.
I may not have a lot on my truck but what i do have is high end and very nice. Quality always trumps quantity in my book. My policy towards students is whats mine is yours as long as you respect it and dont mistreat my stuff.
Privacy is critical. Two people in a tiny box is very unnatural. All or most humans need there own personal space and time. I always make sure to give my students there own time and space. I run graveyards always because I know that they will not be able to stay awake the whole time when I drive. When I drive thats my "me" time. My time to just unwind and kinda def-rag as if I was alone. Thats also there time to do the same. Kick back in the sleeper, watch movies play on there Iphone ets. There is a curtain there which dampens a lot of sound. As a trainer I make sure to give both me and the student our own private time apart. When the student is driving most of the time I am watching them and talking to them teaching them answering there millions of questions to the best of my ability ets. When I drive thats my time and there time. I hate it when I am driving and a student tries to stay awake frequently with me. I feel like they are invading my space. Part II: respect there privacy on all levels. Dont go threw all your trainers cupboards clothes ets. I designate half the storage maby a bit less for the students on my truck to use. They should not ever go threw any of my storage. I dang sure wont go threw any of theres. Im a dude, I dont want to see another dude with no clothes on and I dont want another dude in close proximity to me or visual range when I am getting dressed undressed. Always wear a shirt at all times. When I am getting out of my sweats to put on my pants and shirt to start a day, stay in the dang cab till I am friggen done dressing. Dont get undressed till I friggen leave.

Always use Epathy toward your trainer: Empathy is the ability to see and feel the world threw another persons eyes.
Before you say or think anything bad about your trainer take a step back and try to see things threw there eyes first. With a student I always stay awake most of the time when they drive, occasionally drive part of there shift on there logs then drive my shift. A lot of the time my fatigue level is off the chart. I bite my tongue off a thousand times a day so I dont yell or mistreat them in any way, and do manage to treat my students with the highest respect deserved or not. When a person is fatigued they become very grumpy, aggressive and get set off by even small petty things or non existent things. Most do a pretty good job of fighting the overwhelming urge to take it out on there students, but there is always the exception. Nobody is perfect. If maby your trainer yells a little louder at you than by all means they ought to, take a second to see if that person is just a flat out ace, or maby they are one of the few good drivers out there that dont really mean it. And please dont take these little hopefully scarce outburst to hard. For most of us I promise they are unintentional and almost always regretted after I or they had full sleep.

Understand there will be small confilcts:
Two people in a small box for a long duration of time its inevitable. Take a proactive approach psychologically and prepare for them before you even meet or get into your tainers truck. First of all understand its normal and unavoidable. Keep it small. Never when in a small conflict add fuel to the flames. Without fuel being added to the fire the fire will quickly die before it gets very big. As hard as it is, and its extremely hard, even if you are right, show you are the bigger person and just back down is the easiest way to keep the peace. When your trainer says or does, is doing something that annoys you, ask yourself is it really worth getting in a conflict over. Very, very hard but pick and choose your fights even if you are right. Its only for a short amount of time and really not worth it.

I Know the original poster wanted more factual data to go on like student will drive "X" amount of time. At "this" time this will happen ets. but given the large amount of differences between each person/trainer thats impossible. I would be willing to bet a large sum of cash that most trainers are quite unique from all the rest in most aspects of there training regime from the rest. More factual data would be impossible given the uniqueness of each person and how they run a truck. The following I listed above is as good as it gets.

Please remember there are always bad trainers out there, and at no time or place do you as a student need to take physical, verbal, emotional, sexual abuse or any kind . You always have legal rights. Do not be afraid to talk to someone in the company you work for above your OTR trainers head. All companys I have heard of understand this and have a way for there student to promptly leave there trainers tuck without the student being fired. If all else fails do not be afraid to call the police. There is always a way for you to get out of there truck fast without getting fired. If you need to press this issue from someone in the company, then please do so. Life is just two short, and no person deserves to be treated in a such a way.

 

Thank you - Thank you - Thank you!! Just the type of thing I was looking for!!

 

Do not ever take abuse of any kind, be it sexual, racist, verbal, physical ets. ets.... With every company there is always a quick way out of your trainers truck with zero consequences. You will not loose your job and will not get any black marks on your record for it.

I probley should let this die, but Im not going to. There is just a lot of really really bad trainers out there who should not be training students. I had a really really bad Phase I trainer and a so so phaseII trainer. I experienced it, I heard a lot of horror stories from different england and other drivers I talk to, I have even seen students getting abused quite a few times. One of those times really stands out probably because the student was just such a cute innocent looking very young women. CRengland has been sued a few times because a female got raped by a male instructor. The blatant reality is this industry has got a disproportionately large amount of really "F"ed people a lot who are just down right scary. Quite a few of them train new students and get away with it because the students are afraid to get off there truck, call the cops ets. I really want to emphasize the part at the bottom of my post above about not taking abuse from a trainer. I reread what I wrote, thought it sounded way to soft. I had a bad trainer when I got in. I could tell you about my horror stories, but I aint going to. Instead I will tell a horror storie that I saw from another england crew.

Pulled into this freezer storage Americold I about 2 hrs before my apt time. Been there a while along comes a england truck. They apparently were closer 2 there appointment time then I was and were almost immediately given a dock. This was a big staging area at the end was a cleared out area with yellow lines for a turn around area. The way the entrance was, you pulled in blindside to the dock. This truck had two women in it, went for the blindside between two close trailers. The only reason I watched. Saw them go for the blindside instead of turning around and doing it normal like all the other drivers I saw and thought these drivers must be #### good, got to see this. They were not. It was a noob trainer who didnt know her ace from the hole in the ground (has nothing to do with her sex, seen many many female drivers that could drive circles around me) instructing her student to do something really goofed up. Over a half hour I and the rest of the people around watched them. The person who was obviously the trainer was throwing a major temper tantrum at her student. Getting out side of there truck then going back in there truck outside ets. Yelling at her student to get out and look at this or that. Felt so bad for that little girl, that the supposed instructor was just yelling and screaming at. The amount of abuse that student took from her trainer who probably had little more experience driving than she did was just unreal. I wanted so bad to do something, as did everybody else watching but couldnt. Just wanted to beat the skeet out of her trainer, and force her out of that truck. Which is what I would have done if she were a he. This industry is filled to the rafters with sexual predators, pervs ets. Even see them on this forum everywhere. Being that I was a dude trying to get a fairly cute women out of here extremely abusive trainers truck would have definitely been misconstrued. Just had to sit there and watch, nothin I could do. Felt like skeet about it, wanted so bad to help but really couldnt. Chicks get raped by there male trainers all the time. I am sure the large majority of cases they dont report them or call the cops on the rapist out of fear of loosing a job they may be really desperate for or a plethora of other reasons.

Same thing happens to dudes, just probley a few less unreported rapes happen. And the students for whatever reason just take it, and hide it not getting off the truck, calling the cops, calling a office person ets. Just B.S.

Please remember there are always bad trainers out there, and at no time or place do you as a student need to take physical, verbal, emotional, sexual abuse or any kind . You always have legal rights. Do not be afraid to talk to someone in the company you work for above your OTR trainers head. All companys I have heard of understand this and have a way for there student to promptly leave there trainers tuck without the student being fired. If all else fails do not be afraid to call the police. There is always a way for you to get out of there truck fast without getting fired. If you need to press this issue from someone in the company, then please do so. Life is just two short, and no person deserves to be treated in a such a way.

 

Good words - and I will remember them!!

 

I agree.
TELL SOMEONE.

You have a lot more decent drivers out there than perverts.

Most recently I have worked in single Ambulance stations with a female driver/partner.
Automatically, the fact that a man and woman sleep in the same BUILDING alone brings out the dirty little minded people.

So its not just in trucking.

I had TWO female students during the time I was a trainer.
Yes, both young and nice looking.

I almost turned them down.
Glad i didn't cause it taught me valuable lessons.

I worried about the "claims" that could have been made, but I live by a simpler rulebook so I did very little different than with a male trainee.

I treated them like I would have wanted my daughters or mother to be treated.
And it worked.

Our time in my truck OTR was pleasant, friendly, and we got along well for the most part.
One of the ladies was a friend for several years afterward til we lost contact.
I still wonder about her at times.

Were we out there having orgies and stuff??
NO !!!!
Did they sleep in my bed???
YES !!! ........ When i was driving..... LOL
otherwise in the top bunk.

They were there to learn, and I was there to teach them how to do it "right" and not get killed.

Sometimes I think the sexual side overtakes the common decency side of some people.

Some of my best "buddies" are now and have been WOMEN.
You miss out on a LOT when you dehumanize them into less than being another PERSON just like you.

If all you see is a sex object when you look at a woman, then I pity your sorry soul.
And I hope you seek help... and perhaps medication.