Profile For Paul J.

I'm almost finished with my 25k miles worth of OTR training!

Would have finished it sooner but my trainer needed to go home for a couple'ish weeks to spend time with family.

I'll be at that 25k mile mark by the end of the week, and then it's back to Wilson Logistic's terminal to do a couple classes, some evaluations and then I'll be doing the final phase of my OTR training, which is 25k miles team driving with a fellow student.

My OTR trainer was a VERY good trainer! Thanks to him I'm no longer nervous when driving and am able to handle heavy traffic in Atlanta with no issues.

Thanks to him I've also learned why you shouldn't depend on the GPS. I thought when truckers talk about this they were referencing not using a trucker GPS but apparently even trucker GPS devices aren't all that good.

I'm able to finally back into parking spaces and docs but not nearly as efficient as my trainer can. but of course he's been a truck driver for 16 years lol.

thanks for all the useful info on this forum! WOOT

Oops, typo: meant to say "I'm now on the road" not "I'm not on the road" lol

I'm not on the road, team driving with an OTR trainer. Things are going well! I recently drove from Missouri to Jacksonville, Florida, and we wend from FL, to some place called Middlesex, PA where we're resting at a truck stop and then will be delivering our 2nd load to somewhere in New York state.

Training is going well! My new trainer is a great trainer and I'm learning a lot from him.

Also here's a link to the latest video in my trucker vlog. I uploaded it before I was setup with an OTR trainer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwoF6NmA7WE&t=2188s

I'm not on the road, team driving with an OTR trainer. Things are going well! I recently drove from Missouri to Jacksonville, Florida, and we wend from FL, to some place called Middlesex, PA where we're resting at a truck stop and then will be delivering our 2nd load to somewhere in New York state.

Training is going well! My new trainer is a great trainer and I'm learning a lot from him.

Also here's a link to the latest video in my trucker vlog. I uploaded it before I was setup with an OTR trainer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwoF6NmA7WE&t=2188s

As an employee of Wilson I can confirm this. The first week of training they pretty much told us students this same thing. I didn't officially become an employee of Wilson Logistics until yesterday when I passed my CDL test. I'm on the payroll starting next week. Just did a bunch of paperwork last night on my laptop at the hotel that involved tax forms and setting up my direct deposit. From now, until I'm setup with an OTR team driving trainer (which will happen next week) I'm doing lots of paperwork and have a new list of training videos to do today. Hope this info helps.

Greg you said in your first post you have choosen Wilson. Here is the question. Have you applied and they invited you to join them??

You also said you have visited several social media sites. I think by some of the questions you are going into some of that info may be causing you to think about some things that may be unrealistic.

Companies that train have been doing it awhile and have systems/policies in place that have proven effective for them. That is really their concern. Not all programs are for everyone.

Students are in a constant interview process. Not only are they looking to ensure you can master the physical skills of the job, but evaluating how well you work with others, problem solve, and if your going to be a good investment for them going forward.

If you give them an impression you will not be a good fit you will find yourself in a bad situation.

You're assuming a lot of things about some person on an internet forum that you don't know.

One, I don't think for a second that I can learn in a couple weeks what takes professional drivers years to learn.

Second, it's the trainer's responsibility to train his trainee how to be a truck driver. There's a difference between holding someone's hand and not giving that student the chance to figure stuff out...vs...not teaching anything at all and watching sports on your phone and listening it through your headset, while hiding that phone behind a clipboard so that the safety camera inside the cab doesn't catch you NOT TRAINING YOUR TRAINER....and that's what was going on. He was not training me at all.

Before I left for that two weeks of on the road training, the safety director TOLD me to call him if I run into this type of situation. So I did what I was TOLD. After he talked with my trainer, my trainer actually started training me. I still caught him a few times watching sports on his phone but I still learned what I had to learn from him (mostly). I still had to take the driving section of my CDL test twice in order to pass because of his lazy training.

The manager over the kraft training, the safety director, and another trainer that had to RE-TRAIN me was ALSO on my side and told me I was in the right and said the only thing I did wrong was not report him until in the middle of my training.

I think you're confusing my stance on "a trainer should actually be training me and not be doing the bare minimum at his job" with " a trainer should be holding my hand every step of the way and not allow me to not make any mistakes at all". Which would be another example of making assumptions and jumping to conclusions about some guy on an internet forum that you don't even know.

Also it's not uncommon for students who go through the OTR side of training here at Wilson Logistics, which is what I'm about to start, to change trainers two or three times. And that's either due to having a lazy trainer or personalities just not jiving with each other because both the trainer and trainee will be living out of the truck during the months worth of OTR training that we students go through after we pass our CDL tests.

As trainees, we are SPECIFICALLY TOLD by the SAFETY DIRECTOR to ask to change trainers if we feel we are not getting the training that we need, for whatever reason. And we are SPECIFICALLY TOLD that it is OUR responsibility to speak up in those situations because the safety director understands that not all trainers are GOOD trainers/have the ability to adapt their training style to the individual trainee's needs, etc.

Did I alienate my kraft trainer? Sure, maybe. But I don't get paid to give AF about what others think/feel about me. I'm getting paid to train to learn how to become the best and safest driver I can be before I start driving on my own. And if I gotta hurt somone's feelings so I can learn how to be a safer driver, that's what I'm gonna do. If that trainer doesn't like me anymore, that's HIS problem, not mine.

I was a welder for 13years and was fabricating bulldozers for Caterpillar until the pandemic shut the factory down.

By the end of my welding career I was training newbies how to weld like me. I got new guys to be as good as I am in two weeks because my training style is so good that I was the number one guy that my bosses at Caterpillar sent new welders to.

So I do know a thing or two about training.

This is where your thought process is wrong about a trucking career-you are thinking a couple weeks of excellent training and you’ll be as good as a thirteen year veteran. Not the case here-this job throws new things at you all the time and you’re going to have to figure it out on your own (you’ve already alienated an experienced driver you could possibly call for help.). I’d almost guarantee even if you had a year with a trainer, you’ll run into an unknown problem your first couple days. Who’s gonna tell you what to do then?

YASSS

I took the CDL test this week and passed!

I got 100 percent on my pre trip (and I'm the only one who tested this week and didn't miss a single thing on the pre trip)

I got 100 percent on my maneuvers (straight forward stop, straight reverse stop, forward offset and reverse offset)

When it comes to the driving test, I had to do that twice. There was a handful of mistakes that I made that failed me.

But I had one more day of re-training with a DIFFERENT trainer...and regarding all the new things that he taught me he said the trainer at KRAFT training should have taught me that. I told him what happened between me and that trainer and even he was on my side and said he was sorry there wasn't enough KRAFT trainers for me to switch trainers.

When I went to re-take the driving part of the test yesterday, I got a 100 percent on that as well. I'm not going back to work until monday next week. Over the weekend, I got a bunch of online paperwork to get done and some training videos to do and then next week starts the process of setting me up with an OTR trainer, where I'll be team driving OTR with a trainer for X amount of miles. After that, I'll be OTR team driving with a fellow graduate for X amount of miles and after THAT I will be company driving by myself.

Starting monday next week, I'm on Wilson's payroll.

Yeah I guess that’s my welding background experience subconsciously guiding my actions.

A welding shop can also be a hazardous environment and safety is a huge deal in professional fabrication environments, especially at Caterpillar where I used to work.

Most professional welding jobs you will get fired if you don’t report a safety incident. And I have the attitude of risking getting fired for reporting myself for doing something stupid than risk the trouble I can get into for not reporting it which can lead to an even bigger accident that can lead to injury or death.

Nothing annoyed me more than macho super welders who behave as if safety is for sissies cuz they are always the ones who get injured lol

Truckers can be just as much of a roughneck as a welder and that macho thing is a safety hazard in my opinion.

Did you mention your pole hit when talking to the safety director? I’m a no harm/no foul type of guy, but admitting something like this to safety (after the trainer let it go) is a brilliant move on your part. Lol.

Thankfully the bosses of the training program and the safety director at Wilson Logistics are more mature than you are lol.

They told me I’m in the right. It’s not about hand holding but actual training. The whole point of Kraft training is to teach you what to pay attention to without having to hit anything to learn those lessons.

They had a talk with my trainer and last night he did a good job training me and helped me learn a lot more of what exactly to pay attention to. Turns out I was using the wrong convex mirrors.

I no longer have a hard braking problem because he taught me better foot placement, and no longer have a problem with making tight turns, thanks to knowing the correct things to pay attention to now, such as which mirrors to use.

Also no other students had the issue with their trainer that I had. Their trainers actually communicated with them.

Also not everyone learns exactly the same way. So a style of training that works for me may not necessarily work for you. Part of being a good trainer is the willingness to be flexible with how you train. That’s a common problem with a lot of trainers across many trades.

I was a welder for 13years and was fabricating bulldozers for Caterpillar until the pandemic shut the factory down.

By the end of my welding career I was training newbies how to weld like me. I got new guys to be as good as I am in two weeks because my training style is so good that I was the number one guy that my bosses at Caterpillar sent new welders to.

So I do know a thing or two about training.

One good thing that came out of all of this is that I'm now really good at making 90 degree turns, no matter how tight and miss the curb/poles every single time now.

So, the trainer’s teaching technique was successful, yet you’re still rolling him under the bus. I’m kind of hoping he boots you off the truck and you have to take your chances with a new unknown trainer. Maybe you’ll get one who screams at you every time you’re about to do something wrong. Hate to break it to you, but this job has no hand holding and is really pretty unforgiving. It’s kind of pathetic it took you screwing up the same way three times before finally figuring it out, you’re going to have to learn faster than that when you’re on your own.

lol, bet you’re glad I’m not your trainer. 😄

Got a little update on whether you can switch trainers during kraft training. The details are in the latest addition to my training diary in the training diaries section of this forum.

Basically you can switch trainers if you need to during kraft training. But you can't if there's not enough trainers available.

Well I am having a bad experience with my kraft trainer. At first I was giving him the benefit of the doubt but after my 5th night of on the road training I had enough and had to confront him.

You know how when you make a 90 degree turn at an intersection, it's always good to swing a little left before you begin to turn late so that your back end of the trailer doesn't hit a curb, a pole, a person, etc?

Sometimes, you got traffic on your left that blocks you from being able to swing left a little before making a hard right so you gotta make a straight turn. Not a big deal if you know what you're doing.

But in this situation I didn't know what I was doing and 3 times last week I ended up hitting the curb. and the third time I hit a pole and had to pull over and the trainer and I inspected the section where I hit and there was no damage. But if there was so much as a scratch, I would get kicked out of the training program.

Every one of these three times, my trainer didn't say a word until AFTER I hit a curb or a pole. He would just turn and look as I slowly approach and hit the curb at 5mph and THEN say something afterwards.

I confronted him about it and said, "Why don't you say something? Aren't you supposed to be training me?"

And his response was, "It's not my responsibility to say something every time. You gotta pay attention to everything that's going on around you."

My response was, "I understand. That makes sense but this is my first week actually driving a tractor trailer in my life. I am paying attention, but due to my lack of experience, I don't know EVERY SINGLE THING that I need to be paying attention to! And when I look in my convex mirrors, I can BARELY see the back of my trailer."

And he continued to stand his ground on the issue and basically told me (not in these exact words) that it's my responsibility to know things and know what I'm supposed to be looking out for, even though I've recieved no training on knowing what to look out for. So basically I'm at a point where I'm training myself.

But this same guy doesn't hesitate to speak up and remind me to do other things, but somehow magically thinks it's not his responsibility to say, "Hey you're turning too late", or "Hey you turned too soon", which takes all of 3 seconds. And is a clear contradiction to his justification of watching me slowly hit a curb or pole and not saying a word until after the fact and it's too late.

It was clear to me that this guy doesn't give AF and I'm just a number to him. So I called the safety director today (the person a trainer during my first week told me to call if I end up having this kind of training situation with a trainer).

I explained everything to the safety director. And I asked him if I can change trainers. I know I can change trainers when I do the OTR phase of training but asked him if I can do that for Kraft training as well. He told me that under normal circumstances I can switch trainers, but not this time because there's not enough trainers available.

However, the safety director told me that he agrees with me and even agrees about the contradiction part. He told me I did the right thing calling him and telling him about this. He promised me he will call my trainer today and make sure that we are all on the same page. The training director also instructed me to call him on tuesday if I don't see any changes in the trainer's behavior when I go back to training monday night. I told him I'm worried that this trainer is now going to be angry at me because I went over his head and the safety director said that if he gives me any drama over it, to report it to him because that's against company policy. He explained that Wilson Logistics has a strict open door policy that's enforced if someone is given drama for reporting any safety related concern.

I have talked to my fellow students at the hotel and they are not having any negative experiences with THEIR trainers. So I guess the fact that I got the one bad trainer is just a "stuff happens" scenario.

One good thing that came out of all of this is that I'm now really good at making 90 degree turns, no matter how tight and miss the curb/poles every single time now.

But it took me actually screwing up and hitting a curb when turning too late, hitting a curb when turning too soon and hitting a pole turning too soon (almost getting me kicked out of the training program) to FINALLY learn what turning too soor or too late actually looks like from the perspective of the driver seat. Of course I wouldn't have had to learn this the hard way if I had a trainer that would actually communicate with me.

Also I've learned enough with a lot of other things involved in Kraft training, and learned enough with how to do the pre trip, that I am confident that I will pass my CDL test the first time. I just have to endue 5 more nights of kraft training with my trainer and then I'll be taking the CDL test next week.

I've also solved the issue of hard braking, and being jumpy with the accelerator. I just had to develop the habit of barely having my feet on the brake or accelerator, and swivel on my heal between the pedals and I'm a LOT more stable. Only time I have an issue with hard braking now is if I'm bob-tailing it but I'll have that problem solved by the end of this week.

Wish me luck!