Trainer In Need Of Insight

OK I'm a little confused here. The trainee is 60yrs old so one would think he would understand how to read a map. Also, while HOS might be a new idea to some getting into the trucking industry unis still a time management issue. If he has held a job for the last decade or so then he should understand that you have a certain amount of time to complete your work. What I failing understand that no matter technique the trainer employs the trainee still isn't getting it.

It has been said on here many times that trucking isn't for everybody. Maybe this is one on those instances. I do a lot of raining in the construction industry and most everybody I work with is able to get it...Eventually. Last year I got my daughter's boyfriend hired. He has troubles understanding the simplest of duties. I was wanting to teach a trade so that he could make a decent living. Most o his experience had been in fast food kitchens. After several months of working with him, and not only myself but several others, he was not able to understand what we were doing. In an ordinary circumstance he would have been let go long before he finally quit but was kept out of respect for me.

Maybe this one of those times where he just isn't cut out for the job.

What no I don't expect him to be on point at all but I do need to see some improvements in at least a few areas we have e- logs and when you have to show a student every day for over a week how to log on duty or log arrived at a fuel stop shipper or receivers or just log a break it becomes frustrating. I am not sure of his learning style I have said watch this also just talking him threw the maneuver we have sat and watched other drivers back in at truck stops. Even got in open ares and just let him have at it in hopes that maybe I could see a pattern or something to give me a clue as to what he needs and now I am here asking for advice

John, God bless you for your patience! I consider myself a fairly patient person, but I've got to tell you that the very things you are going through with this potential driver are the things that keep me from training. If I were to give my advice to my company to go ahead and move a trainee into their own solo truck I would have to know that I see some potential in this driver, and definitely would need to see some improvement in them over the few weeks time they spent with me. If they cannot improve and show some understanding of what they are there to learn, I would take them back and recommend that they go with another trainer, or be sent home to try with another company. I have seen this very thing where a trainer cannot seem to get through to a driver and then somehow by moving them to a different trainer it made all the difference in the world. It isn't an indictment of the trainer, but more so of the way a trainee learns. It has got to be very frustrating to think you are not getting through to your trainee, but at this point I think you are wasting both your time and theirs. I would cut my losses and move on to another student if I were you.

I had a student very much like this recently. I did everything I could to help him understand. When he got off my truck after over 200 hours of training I still had to walk him through everything, logging on and off duty, taking breaks, backing, shifting, everything. He, like your student, wouldn't take a break unless I told him he needed too. He would seem to get it for a few, then promptly forget everything. Sometimes I wondered if it wasa language barrier ore what. He was also around 60 like your student. The part that scared me was that he told me he forgets things. The only thing I could do was report everything and give my opinion. They tried giving him some more training and decided he couldn't cut it and let him go.