Frustrations Training With Prime On The Road

Request anew trainer

I've been on the road with my trainer for a month now with Prime (TNT phase) and it's been rocky. Sorry if this will be long.

Feedback is almost non-existent. He talks on the phone (hands free of course) alot while driving and I swear he talks more about me to his friends than to me about me. The only way I found out how I was doing was by overhearing his conversations. When I ask him, he provides almost no feedback other than what I'm doing wrong. He also doesn't do a pre-trip inspection either.

I've frustrated my trainer alot. I was terrible entering his truck. Forgot how to shift, not know how to drive in the mountains, and completely forgot what trailer off tracking was until about a week and half ago (He told me to steer away from the problem, something I will never forget now). I've improved a lot since then. He's very comfortable letting me drive on the roads while he sleeps, that is until it comes time to park the truck.

My backing is terrible and I'm not sure what to do about it. The other night I tried to back into a spot at a truck stop and nearly hit the trailer next to me. Yes, I was using my mirrors but apparently not using them good enough. My trainer told me (after he had enough and did the backing himself) that it was a straight line back and wondered why I couldn't do it. Then what he said afterwards, I was ready to blow up. He said he had PSD students do backing better their first time than me and questioned how I ever got my CDL. He wondered why Prime didn't do a backing skills test before sending me out with a trainer. I know I'm bad at backing and I'm already frustrated. You don't need to tell me and bring me down even more. Afterwards I sat behind the wheel and cried a bit. My career at Prime won't make it past training if I can't back. My trainer still has yet to let me back into a dock, and he handles all backing at shippers & receivers.

Related to backing, my brain does seem to shut off when I'm at a truck stop or rest area. While on the road my focus is clear as day. I'm watching the speed limit signs, low clearances, road construction, and any other obstables, hazards, etc that I potentially have to deal with but at truck stops all bets are off. Don't ask me how, but I somehow get lost at truck stops almost every time I stop at one. I can find the fuel island, and that's about it.

My trainer says my terrible backing and how I drive at truck stops is because of lack of paying attention.

l sit here at home now getting some needed hometime (my trainer went to go do another load). I don't know if I'll come back to his truck or not. He had me get all my things and give him the keys back. I'm extremely frustrated with myself though and don't know what to do. I've thought about requesting a new trainer but I'm not sure that'll fix anything.

Hahahhaha Miss Myoshi and I are Shield Maidens!!

Damn right we are!!

Request a new trainer if you have a bad one. It's not worth it to suffer through. If it's a good company they will make sure you're taken care of. If not...do you really want to work for a company that won't?

And to the guy whose wife is going to be training soon, I wish this was happening sometime in the spring or summer. I'm considering becoming a trainer, and that's around the time when I would be going for the classes, and I would love to help her out.

Already tried requesting a new trainer and was denied. I'm going to stick it out but I really hope I'm not on this truck beyond the 40,000 miles I need. My trainer has hinted I'll probobly be here longer, possibly for another 3-4(!) months. I hate team driving in general, even not factoring in having to deal with a trainer.

Already tried requesting a new trainer and was denied. I'm going to stick it out but I really hope I'm not on this truck beyond the 40,000 miles I need. My trainer has hinted I'll probobly be here longer, possibly for another 3-4(!) months. I hate team driving in general, even not factoring in having to deal with a trainer.

No way will they have you on the truck that long. Not unless you hit something and add miles for safety.

Prime has a max of six months in TnT. And you only asked your FM right. Not the person is suggested? If that guy tries to keep you over the 40k then I'll give u a number to call to deal with it.

Already tried requesting a new trainer and was denied. I'm going to stick it out but I really hope I'm not on this truck beyond the 40,000 miles I need. My trainer has hinted I'll probobly be here longer, possibly for another 3-4(!) months. I hate team driving in general, even not factoring in having to deal with a trainer.

No way will they have you on the truck that long. Not unless you hit something and add miles for safety.

Prime has a max of six months in TnT. And you only asked your FM right. Not the person is suggested? If that guy tries to keep you over the 40k then I'll give u a number to call to deal with it.

My trainer turns his truck in at the end of June. That'll be 6 months dealing with him. Being the nosey person I am, I over hear his phone conversations and heard "staying until I turn the truck in"

And yeah I only spoke to my FM. With another week done, I have about 25,000 miles. 40,000 would take me out of this truck around the end of March. If I am here longer, I'll definitely need that person's contact information Rainy.

Request a new trainer if you have a bad one. It's not worth it to suffer through. If it's a good company they will make sure you're taken care of. If not...do you really want to work for a company that won't?

See, I completely disagree with this. In my opinion, this kind of thinking gets students in a mess. We're talking about a guy who is admittedly terrible at backing. How Adam got to this phase of training and is freaked out so much by backing I don't know. But it's not the TNT driver's job to give him all the backing practice his heart desires. It's the TNT driver's job to make sure that truck is productive and turns a ton of safe miles. The hand-holding and "practice all day long" phase of training is over. That's what the backing range was for during the first phase. If Adam needs a lot more work with it then he should consider requesting more time on the range maybe, and he'll get all the time in the world when he goes solo to practice all he wants.

But this whole, "Demand that you get your way, otherwise you're with a bad company and you should walk" is not at all the approach to take. Not at all. As others have mentioned, he has a ways to go yet with his training. No one here knows what the long term plan is for getting him from now until he's running solo. They may have already had this discussion behind the scenes and decided Adam would be coming in for more backing practice at some point. We don't know. But you don't stroll into the office making demands or quit your company because every detail of training isn't being done the way you feel it should be.

Adam, ask your trainer what the plan is to improve your backing skills. Maybe the plan is to let you figure out the rest on your own. Maybe they'll be bringing you in for more practice. I don't know. But all this hand-wringing because he's not encouraging you enough or letting you back enough is something in my opinion you should let go of. Just go with the flow.

I agree with Old School on this:

Right now you are focusing on your trainer's shortcomings, and there may very well be some, but I think the source of your stress is just a regular experience that all of us faced.

By the way, all trainers are not equal, and I had one who never pre-tripped his truck either. Heck I had to show him where his brake shoes were and that they were getting thin! You can still be a successful driver when you have a less than stellar trainer - I am living proof of that

The fact that a student isn't being given all the backing practice he would like is not at all an indication of a bad trainer. So far nothing I've heard here tells me this is a bad trainer, and he's had over 50 students at this point so I expect he's seen this kind of thing before. Somewhere along the line there's a plan for dealing with it. Like I said, maybe Adam will figure out backing once he gets out there solo. Maybe he'll get more practice on the range. Who knows? But making demands or considering quitting the company is not the way to handle this. You still have a ways to go in training. Just roll with it.

Here is my experience. When you back up take your time, its not a race. Also the best of us that have been doing this for years have our days when its hard to get the truck and trailer in a spot. it happens and dont pay any attention to anyone. Just focus on the task at hand.

3-4 months just sounds rediculous for TNT training. I was done in 7 weeks, and that includes 5 days my trainer took off and 3 days we lost on late delivery times. I know each case is different, but yours sounds excessive.

Well I guess this isn't a problem anymore. Has a close call and nearly hit a car. My fault. Anyway my trainer is removing me from the truck. I'm being sent to Springfield to get a bus ticket home (I also lost my wallet today too) and then reassigned a new trainer. I really hope my struggles are just a personality clash with my trainer.

Getting out of that situation may be a good thing. A fresh start might be just what you need. But trucking will always have stressful situations that you need to deal with.

Don't let this get you down. Begin anew with a good attitude and you'll be fine. Good luck!