What It's Like To Be A Trainer

OK, as foolishly promised, here's my take on what it's like to be a trainer. A few caveats to begin with: 1) I'm not the greatest driver on earth, but I'm competent; 2) I've only been driving for 15 months; 3) I had experience training employees, supervisors, and managers before becoming a truck driver; 4) I had a lot of experience managing people before becoming a driver, so I have certain skills involving giving feedback and having difficult conversations; 5) I'm naturally introverted, so being around people 24/7 drains my energy, although I can be quite outgoing (a learned behavior). Please try to filter this post through the lens I've given you and make the necessary adjustments to fit your personality and style. I'm middle aged. I have no reason to lie about myself. I got over the disappointment of who I really am years ago.

I know there are plenty of people who will say I am hardly qualified to train someone else to drive, but the fact is that I have demonstrated for over a year that I can safely operate a big truck while delivering freight, and I also have training and people skills. There are lots of better drivers, and there are lots of better trainers, but I can do both, and that's not all that common. I can think of at least a dozen drivers I've met who have years more experience than me, but who I would never, ever recommend to a loved one as a trainer because they have absolutely no training or people skills. And I can think of a couple of dozen people who know all about training and education who I would never, ever recommend to a loved one to train them to drive a truck because they are lousy drivers and/or have no knowledge of how to drive a big truck. And the fact is that all of the concerned government entities think I'm qualified to train since I hold a valid CDL. So there.

So, one of the biggest changes from going solo to being a trainer is having another person on my truck. It is my home. I have spent 329 of the past 365 days sleeping on my truck. In fact, I prefer sleeping on my truck to getting a hotel room because I have everything I need and I know where everything is.

Imagine inviting a stranger to share your tiny home for a couple of weeks, or a couple of months. Sure, they only have a few things, but it still feels really crowded, because they're there all the time and your home is maybe 100 square feet of living space at best. I want to be a gracious host, but I also want all my stuff to be where I expect it to be when I go looking for it. I also don't want to find any unexpected surprises, like noticing the stickiness of spilt honey on top of my refrigerator when I am getting a coffee filter for my morning cup. Ain't nobody got time for that. But again, I am the host, which means something the way I was raised, so minor annoyances are mentioned once in a gentle way in hopes of changed behavior. If the behavior changes, great! If not, well, this only lasts a short while, and I invited this guest onto my truck and into my home, and pretty soon it will be over.

I'll draw a curtain over the other details of living in close quarters with a stranger for the sake of discretion. Either you figure it out and get comfortable fast, or you don't. I can't help you there.

But wait, you say, what about the actual training? What about learning to shift and turn and backing? What's all this crap about the challenges of sharing your "home?"

I'm an OTR driver. I mostly live on my truck. If you train with one of the big training companies, odds are your trainer will be in a similar situation, though probably with his or her own quirks. But the simple fact is you are a guest in their home, if they're an OTR driver. Please don't forget it.

Being a good guest is the best thing you can do to develop a good relationship with your trainer, which will help create the very best learning environment that your trainer is able to provide. So (for me) if you use a tool, put it back where you found it. If you want to borrow something or drink one of their Gatorades in the refrigerator, ask first. Pick up your dirty socks and underwear and put them in some kind of laundry bag, keep your stuff organized and stowed in the top bunk and whatever other space your trainer provides, and for God's sake don't let your honey leak onto the top of their refrigerator! In fact, leave the honey at home till you get your own damn truck! You can live without it for a couple of months.

OK, now let's talk about what it's like to teach someone with no prior experience to drive a big rig. In a word, it's terrifying. You know that they don't really know how to control this 80,000 pound rig, and you know if they really screw up they could kill themselves, you, and innocent people who get too close. If you survive, you're going to take a lot of heat and maybe go to jail. After all, you're their trainer. Not only are you held to a higher standard as a truck driver, but you're held to even a higher standard because you hold yourself out as a trainer of truck drivers.

Wow, so why do it? Because it's fun to watch someone learn how to do something that seemed so difficult not all that long ago. That's my reason for doing it, anyway. Some people do it to make more money. Do I make more money doing it? Yes, I do, but not nearly enough to compensate me for the grief of sharing my space and living through moments of sheer terror, however brief. I do it for fun.

(continued) Now, on to the nuts and bolts of how I approach training. (OMG, finally!)

My main goal during PSD (the roughly two-week phase of taking someone brand-new to trucking out on the road to teach them enough to pass their CDL exam) is to teach them how to drive the truck safely. That includes how to make sure it's safe to operate before ever starting out (pretrip), how to control it (starting, stopping, turning, shifting), how to safely navigate traffic, and how to back it. My goal is not to make them into the greatest driver ever. My goal is to teach them how to operate the truck safely. If they can do that, they will pass the test.

This first phase does not include a whole bunch of stuff like trip planning, fueling, dealing with shippers and receivers, securing freight on the trailer (I'm a flatbedder), driving in extreme weather like snow, ice, heavy rain, and high winds, or knowing how to intelligently debate the finer points of whether Peterbilts are better than Freightliners. I do all of that for them while they're learning to control the truck. I will share what I know if they ask, but I do not plan to spend any time on such topics while they're still working toward their CDL, and if they persist in waxing poetic on how nice the interiors of Internationals are, I will refocus their learning efforts on the finer points of making a successful right turn in traffic in a small town or slowing down and getting into the right gear before taking a curve or maintaining a proper following distance or reading bridge height signs or looking as far ahead as possible for problems on the shoulder or how to choose the correct lane while traveling through Dallas.

Most people come to this job with a car mentality. By that, I mean that most people when they first drive a big rig start slowing down for curves and turns and stops WAAAYYY too late if you let them, and worry far too much about what the drivers behind them are thinking when they can't accelerate as fast as their Nissan Sentra can. They cut turns way too sharp, since they're not used to thinking about what their rear trailer wheels are going to run over when they off-track a few feet inside of the path of the tractor. They have a hard time getting their brain wrapped around the fact that if you want the rear of the trailer to go right, you have to turn the wheel left. They miss their rear-view mirror in the middle of the windshield, and they are not at all used to interpreting what's happening behind them and to their sides by peering into little convex mirrors located nine feet away to their right or on the nose of the truck, so they rely on the big mirrors and miss over half the information available to them.

So, in addition to helping them figure out that the tachometer is not just some cool gadget that came with their car's sport package but a vital instrument to help them figure out when to shift, there are all the visual challenges of helping them to learn how to stay aware of what's around them at all times. And that's part of helping them to really internalize the fact that they are operating a vehicle that is 70+ feet long and weighs as much as 20 big SUVs that can really do some serious damage if they don't control it. And helping them realize that is step one of helping them learn that they really do have a much bigger responsibility driving a truck than nearly any car driver will ever feel in their gut.

Some - OK, most - have trouble downshifting. Some have trouble learning how to turn or how to do a serpentine ("S it out") to get into a fuel lane. Some have trouble judging when to start slowing down. Some have trouble maintaining a proper following distance. Some have trouble reading traffic or keeping the whole truck in their lane or making a safe and smooth lane change. Pretty much everyone has trouble doing an alley dock at first. So my job as a trainer is to coach them through those things, figure out what they're naturally strong at and what needs work, and tailor their training to help them improve. I also have to figure out how best to give them that feedback so it's helpful and they learn, which means I have to get to know their personality and learning style. It's a lot of work sitting over there in the jump seat. And most of the time, I'd rather be driving myself. I love to drive, and I'm better at it.

Good thing it's fun to watch someone else learn.

The second phase (TNT in Prime's parlance) involves taking a driver with a brand-new CDL and teaching them how to do their job while honing their driving skills. That's when you get to teach them how to secure a load, how to deal with shippers and receivers, how to drive on snow, why Russians drive Volvos, and all of the other things that go into making them into a real trucker with their own style. That's more of a marathon than a sprint. It includes the special terror of getting in the bunk for the first time while the trainee is driving and learning more than you ever wanted to know about their significant other (or lack of one) and their special love for Tom Brady and the Patriots. (That last one is when I kick them off my truck.) It's less likely to be fun, but more lucrative. I'm not sure I'll do that phase again, since I find team driving to be so taxing physically, mentally, and emotionally. Some people love it (like the natural extrovert who trained me), but me? Not so much.

Hope this helps.

Great stuff. Thanks for taking the time to write all that. I can imagine the terror you feel as I know when I was in school I felt similar terror of making a mistake.

Great stuff. Thanks for taking the time to write all that. I can imagine the terror you feel as I know when I was in school I felt similar terror of making a mistake.

Everybody makes mistakes. The question is, can you recover from the mistake before it becomes a wreck? Maintaining space around your vehicle is critical to making sure it doesn't become something worse than a momentary embarrassment.

On the student's first day driving, I like to first take them in some quiet industrial area bobtailing for a half hour just to help them get used to shifting and steering. Then I get out on the freeway with a load, stop at an easy place for them to get back on the freeway, and let them at it. When they've had enough, I find a place for them to stop that's easy to get off and park safely and take back over. As the days go by, I add more challenging things when I think they're ready for it: two-lane highways with small towns and stoplights and maybe a relatively sharp turn, going through a big city with lots of traffic on a freeway, or driving into a small yard at a shipper or receiver. Then I add driving at night, driving in rain, driving at night in the rain, driving at night through a big city or on a two-lane highway, driving at night in the rain through those places, etc. I try not to add more complexity until I think they're ready for it. People get better every day, generally speaking.

A lot of people come here worried about shifting and driving mountain grades. I think if they want to worry, they should worry about slowing down and getting into the right gear before making a turn, and then making the turn without hitting anything and without stalling the truck. (You have to step on the accelerator some when turning, since that heavy load is going to drag a lot more in a turn, especially with a spread axle.) That seems to be the most challenging thing for new drivers since it involves watching traffic from all sides, downshifting, turning, and watching your trailer all at the same time.

Awesome post Bud, I should have requested you for a trainer, but didn't learn of the website till I had already started. I would have just been asking questions like where did all the volvo's come from, how come everyone is driving with high beams, and why are there no stacks on the truck, how fast does yours go, and complaining a lot about onguard, don't know who Tom Brady is and don't care for football so that wouldn't be an issue. Yes, I'm being stupid

Really good post

Great stuff. Thanks for taking the time to write all that. I can imagine the terror you feel as I know when I was in school I felt similar terror of making a mistake.

Everybody makes mistakes. The question is, can you recover from the mistake before it becomes a wreck? Maintaining space around your vehicle is critical to making sure it doesn't become something worse than a momentary embarrassment.

On the student's first day driving, I like to first take them in some quiet industrial area bobtailing for a half hour just to help them get used to shifting and steering. Then I get out on the freeway with a load, stop at an easy place for them to get back on the freeway, and let them at it. When they've had enough, I find a place for them to stop that's easy to get off and park safely and take back over. As the days go by, I add more challenging things when I think they're ready for it: two-lane highways with small towns and stoplights and maybe a relatively sharp turn, going through a big city with lots of traffic on a freeway, or driving into a small yard at a shipper or receiver. Then I add driving at night, driving in rain, driving at night in the rain, driving at night through a big city or on a two-lane highway, driving at night in the rain through those places, etc. I try not to add more complexity until I think they're ready for it. People get better every day, generally speaking.

A lot of people come here worried about shifting and driving mountain grades. I think if they want to worry, they should worry about slowing down and getting into the right gear before making a turn, and then making the turn without hitting anything and without stalling the truck. (You have to step on the accelerator some when turning, since that heavy load is going to drag a lot more in a turn, especially with a spread axle.) That seems to be the most challenging thing for new drivers since it involves watching traffic from all sides, downshifting, turning, and watching your trailer all at the same time.

I know for us in school we were required to be in 3rd gear for all turns. If you couldn't get it into 3rd you stopped the truck and started over. Fortunately for me I never had that problem.

One concern I do have is night driving as we didn't do any of that. Did the driving in rain down steep grades and all our driving was small towns. Never highways.

The town driving and dealing with the stop lights always has me uptight, sometimes when I would try to stall the light it didn't and then other times think i'm fine and the light changes.