Trainee From H3LL (Ranting...)

I had one recently that I had to wake him up every morning. I'm not one to sit around and wait and twice I had already taken straps off the load and when I stuck my head back in the truck he was still asleep. Even left once and went in the store to the restroom only to come back and him just getting up. Then on the occasions that I would drive he was either playing video games on his phone or falling asleep and it's not like we're team driving, we arrive to consignee at night sleep and unload in the morning then go get a new load and start over.

Probably one of my biggest fears, is being placed with an awesome trainer, and then, a week or so into training, being told "i am not cut out for this." I really don't think it will happen, because of my motivation, and determination to succeed, but ya never know, poop has a funny way of poking it's head out when least expected.

Sue. Remember one thing, You Did NOT Fail!. You did everything you could, to help someone be a good, and responsible driver. If they don't, or can't grasp the lessons, because of their apathy, it is on them, not you. Documenting, it all, and keeping the student coordinator updated on her progress, is all you can do. You did all the right things. Don't blame yourself, although sometimes, it is hard not to. I have trained many an up and coming chef, and sometimes I have had trainees that had absolutely no business using a knife, and sometimes not even a potato peeler! I had one person not know how to fry an egg, and even after a demonstration, sunny side up, was a challenge, and they could never grasp the over easy, over medium, over hard, or the difference between poached, and basted. It kinda hit my ego, that I couldn't teach a person to fry a friggen egg. It stung. But i realized, that some people just are not cut out to be in a kitchen, full of many things that can seriously harm a person.

You are doing her a favor, by giving her the hard truth that she just might not be cut out for career. But most important, you are saving the general driving public from a potentially dangerous driver, and your company from the liability.

Keep up the great work.

Stay safe

Well we have a couple more days together lol. This morning I told her i was gonna go creep over and hook our empty (she,was in upper bunk). After i backed under it she climbed down and immediately got in the passenger seat. SMH. I told her we needed to do our pretrip. . She sat there like a bump on a log. I got out and did my full pretrip. Sat there waiting to confirm our shipper was open and she was still sitting with her seatbelt on.. we're in our terminal drop area mind you lol. I said "gee you look pretty comfy over there." And she just laughed. I asked her if she planned to do any driving at all. Her response.. "I will if you want me to." Hold on.. wait a minute. I told her nobody is going to twist her arm and make her drive. Either drive or don't... no skin off my nose. We'll see how today goes, but she is actually driving. Surely to God she can make it to Chicago tonight.

Oh....... Well this is much worse than I concluded after your first post. Now I just feel bad for you. Bet you can't wait to be solo for a bit

*Conspiracy theory... I think a fair amount of questionables are getting through to fleet service on two things. Jobs programs, someone else is footing the bill. And said trainee is just looking at the "Pitch". Make 40k+ a year for just driving around.

Schools/Academy's are getting some sort of gov't funding, probably also one or another jobs program.

Note, this is not a slam against any school or academy, but at the base level they only have to teach some basic skills and beat a checklist into a students head to pass the CDL test.

Nothing in there about when you should scale, how to set tandems , how to chain... The list goes on and on.

All that said, most that aren't cut out out for this don't make it much past 90 days.

Solo would be lovely. The shipper had us go to their other warehouse and she darn near took down their gate just now. Got the trailer hung up on a guard post. I had her back up and swing further away from it. The poor guy who came in to load us had to keep stopping so she could follow him. Only stalled the truck 4 times. She up and downshifts beautifully from 6th to 10th, and can break it down smooth as silk to 1st when coming to a stop, but I tell ya taking off (from anywhere) is freaking scary. Remember we are STILL EMPTY. My head hurts, my neck hurts. I need mass quantities of ibuprofen NOW. I need to check the tandems for sure. I keep telling myself I'm NOT GOING TO SCREAM, CURSE, AND YELL. I keep telling myself only a few more days. Pray for my survival lol. She will alledgedly be testing out, but fact is, if they don't can her, another trainer will be stuck with her until she actually drives some miles or they run her off. I think she has maybe driven 1800 miles in 3.5 weeks. Due to the stress my DM let me extend my last hometime to 4.5 days lol. I needed every minute to regroup and wanted to just leave her in the hotel honestly. The plus is the dock here has enough room to turn it into a straight line back, because she sure as heck can't do anything else. Did I mention shes actually nice? We get along fine and I have tons of patience, but this is too much.

Also been working on scaling. Apparently in her illustrious 9 day driving career at Werner, she got an overweight ticket at a dot scale. Until she got in the truck with me, she claims she had never been through a CAT scale before and had no idea how to balance a loaded trailer. She went through Werners company company training so I don't believe it.

MC1371's tinfoil hat:

Schools/Academy's are getting some sort of gov't funding, probably also one or another jobs program.

Note, this is not a slam against any school or academy, but at the base level they only have to teach some basic skills and beat a checklist into a students head to pass the CDL test.

Nothing in there about when you should scale, how to set tandems , how to chain... The list goes on and on.

All that said, most that aren't cut out out for this don't make it much past 90 days.

Company truck schools and most private ones​ don't have the time to deal with any more Government red tape than they have to. Their business is running the school, not collecting government funds.

The "base level" is correct. Again, the objective of the class is to get students past the CDL skills test. Not much more. Students get a minimum of 160 hours. This just in... ➡ No time for students to goof off, either.

What school did you go to? Schools do teach scales and load balancing, since it's on the CDL written test. Chains not so much.

Finally, your 90 day limit might be right. 90 days gets people through school, orientation and road training. Students drop out from day one forward. My personal opinion is that schools and companies should do better in culling the herd before class starts. That would not be a waste of time.

Miss Susan rants on...

I've tried til I'm blue in the face. This gal is both dangerous and clueless. I was hoping to have her back in Cedar Rapids today

Cedar Rapids should be the end of the line for Miss Bumponalog. As trainer, you have enough evidence she isn't driver material. Yes, she will claim you aren't teaching her anything, etc. But her scales non-experience at Werner predicts that.

It wasn't the tires I needed to worry about. She damaged the frame rail of the trailer. . Tore a chunk out of it but amazingly missed trailer supports and rivets on the frame rail. We're headed to chicago and our trailers repair shop.

She went to cdl school and was passed on her state cdl skills exam obtaining her cdl at TDI in South Bend, IN who did their own skills testing, according to her.