Question For Melton Drivers

First i want to say to this group thanks for all your info. My hubby has wanted to be a truck driver all his life. He has had his CDL since he was 18 but never driven and kept logs. He started oerientation this week at Melton. He was mainly concerned about the driving test but that went fine. He is starting his 5th day but he has had trouble getting the logbooks since it is all new. The trainer was pretty rough about it yesterday but have heard you will know by 4th day if you will make it. My question is, do the trainers try to weed the quitters out, like a teacher at the first semester of school? Thanks, just looking to see how others felt it went during orientation

Are you talking about his road trainer? I'd hubby gone on the road for a few weeks with the guy? In that case, the weeding process is over.

Most road trainers are very experienced drivers, but probably have little training in how to train.

Quitters make their own decision. The best way to not be a quitter is to not quit! That sounds dumb but that's what you do: resolve to keep going.

Our High Road Training Program has a section for learning about the Log book. (Send him that link.)

SamTon, admittedly, I'm trying to read between the lines here, and like Errol, I'm not sure if you are referring to a classroom instructor or a road trainer. I think you are referring to a classroom situation due to the fact that he is probably just finishing up his Orientation stuff at the fifth day.

Does your husband have difficulties with math, or is he intimidated by the prospect of having to do some math work in his job? I can see him having trouble with the concept of the truck drivers working and resting hours and how it all works, everyone gets confused by that at the beginning, but if he struggles with math in general that initial learning curve could be very frustrating. It will become much easier for him once he is in the truck. Melton uses electronic logs and they pretty much do the math for you, but you still need to understand the concepts if you are going to be a productive driver who makes a decent living at this. I think it will come to him much easier when he starts actually driving the truck and working.

I wish he had gone through that section thoroughly that Errol linked for you before he had gotten started - it is a brain teaser at times, but I give much of the credit of my success in this career to having a really good understanding of the time concepts involved in this job. I learned those things by going through that section in the High Road Training Program on log books many times until it started becoming real clear to me. It was daunting at first, but now it is a real boon to my success at this stuff.

No, this is just the orientation trainer. This is 5th day. His recruiter told him he would know by Thursday if he makes it but the next person that sets up orientation said it would be Monday before he knows. I definitely know what you mean about quitting. Thank you Error for the link. I will send to him. He has always appreciated the way you help others in this group.☺

Old school, i think he has gone through everything on this site already. I am sure if he could actually get in the truck and operate it, it would be much easier. I am not there but what i am gathering from what he has tokd me they give you a scenario and you have to map it out. A guy talked to him last night whononly runs paper logs and helped him much better than the instructor. So i am hoping today will be a better day for him. Unfortunately he was so worried he would mess up the driving test, this did not seem to be a big deal to him

One of the things about learning the Hours Of Service system is it looks so complicated!

10 hours driving, of is it 11 hours? Why 14? What's that got to do with driving time? Then 70 hours in 8 days?

But, after a week or so of living with these rules it really won't be so bad. Trust me.

SamTon getting started on this career path is like walking through a mine field at times. You just never know what's going to trip you up at times. Your husband will face many challenges, this is just a first for him. You can encourage him to make a commitment to staying the course. If it weren't challenging there would be a lot more people out here doing this successfully.

Personally I think the type of person that loves to be challenged is the ideal candidate for this career. It gets easier as you learn from your experiences. But commitment is what keeps a person being exposed to those learning experiences. Tell him to hang tough and work hard at learning the things that he's struggling with. Those are the very things that will propel him to be a better than average truck driver. The world is full of average truck drivers, but the really good ones enjoy perks that most drivers don't know anything about.

Well, he hung in there as long as they let him. He was good on all but the logbooks. Their recommendation is for him to train for 6 months with another company and then come back to them for 4 day refresher and they will put him in a truck. We are blessed that he has a job already that he can come back to and not sure if he will do that and give up the job security he has since we live on his income. It is good he has an option and that they did not just say, leave. Just wanted to give you the update.

SamTon, what's the deal on the log books? Is it the Hours of Service I wrote about or is it how the lines are drawn on the paper?

As I said, once it's part of your life it's not so bad. The hard part is learning the stuff. If you'd rather PM me I'll help you or Hubby to understand better. (I was a math teacher for ten years.)