Need Advice - Hubby With Trainer From Hell

My hubby is in a bad situation with his trainer. The guy picked him up the first night, handed him the keys and said follow the GPS and literally went to sleep before they were out of the terminal , and it has been that way ever since. He has been out for 2 1/2 weeks now and from the moment it is time for Hubby to drive the guy stays in the sleeper. He has not shown him how to work anything, hubby is winging it and learning on his own. They don’t speak, the guy will yell at him from the sleeper if he does something wrong but never showed him how to do it in the first place. The stories are really bad and too many to list here. He has called Dispatch and informed them of the situation but was told tough it out due to Christmas holiday they are short trainers then left 2 messages for Fleet Manager after Christmas saying he wants out of the truck but he has not returned the calls. He will be stopping at the Headquarters in a few hours for something and I told him it’s the perfect opportunity to get his stuff and get out and wait there till he can talk to someone ( it’s after hours by now) . He doesn’t want to look like he is a quitter so goes back and forth about trying to get a new trainer and getting out of the truck tonight. He just wants to get the hours over with but I am worried that in the end he will not have proper training and this jerk will be giving some sort of recommendation in the end. Hubby is easy going and funny guy and usually gets along great with others. Anyone been in a similar situation or have advice?

What company is he with? How long is he supposed to be with his trainer?

My hubby is in a bad situation with his trainer. The guy picked him up the first night, handed him the keys and said follow the GPS and literally went to sleep before they were out of the terminal , and it has been that way ever since. He has been out for 2 1/2 weeks now and from the moment it is time for Hubby to drive the guy stays in the sleeper. He has not shown him how to work anything, hubby is winging it and learning on his own. They don’t speak, the guy will yell at him from the sleeper if he does something wrong but never showed him how to do it in the first place. The stories are really bad and too many to list here. He has called Dispatch and informed them of the situation but was told tough it out due to Christmas holiday they are short trainers then left 2 messages for Fleet Manager after Christmas saying he wants out of the truck but he has not returned the calls. He will be stopping at the Headquarters in a few hours for something and I told him it’s the perfect opportunity to get his stuff and get out and wait there till he can talk to someone ( it’s after hours by now) . He doesn’t want to look like he is a quitter so goes back and forth about trying to get a new trainer and getting out of the truck tonight. He just wants to get the hours over with but I am worried that in the end he will not have proper training and this jerk will be giving some sort of recommendation in the end. Hubby is easy going and funny guy and usually gets along great with others. Anyone been in a similar situation or have advice?

Have hubby record and get trainer fired....

What company is he with? How long is he supposed to be with his trainer?

I’d rather not say the company in case the guy reads this, don’t want to make it worse. He has to do 40,000 miles and they probably have about 15,000 at this point.

Hi Colleen and welcome!

One of the hardest things for the home partner to understand is that trucking is about personal responsibility and decisions. Only your husband knows exactly what is going on in that truck and what he can or cannot endure. Have we had bad trainers? Absolutely. Did i survive and become a great driver? Absolutely.

Please do not push your husband into any decisions. If he follows your advice and things go sour, guess who he will blame? He needs ro be a man and step up for what he wants. He might as well learn how now cause he will need to do it repeatedly throughout his career.

Tell him to post here and we can help give him pointers and procedures for his company if we have drivers there.

Please check out my article on OTR relationships OTR Relationships are they possible?

Well, it sounds as if he's with a Lease/Operator. He really needs to get on here himself so we can understand the situation better. Nine times out of ten the spouse doesn't really understand the dynamics of the training and gives us a distorted view of what's really happening. A lot of people have unrealistic expectations when it comes to their training for this career. It's tough, but to be figuring it out like your husband is doing works well.

So I'll take a guess... he's at Prime and came with his CDL so he needs 40,000 team miles. He has 3 to 4 weeks left. Most likely he came in with unrealistic expectations of training like most students. He's already done a couple of months which means its not an absolute emergency of him not feeling safe or comfortable.

As a Prime Team Trainer, I know Prime would swap him out if he requests it. But he needs to understand companies do not know what is going on in the truck unless you tell them. Prime will not see him as a troublemaker or fire him. Now, if he swapped trainers four or five times, then yeah, the problem is with him.

I currently have a trainee who does all of the work. He does the trip planning and all the computer and paperwork...because I know how. He is the one who needs to learn it. We now have 15k miles left and i told him i am now in "ghost mode". He needs to figure things out on his own and have me as a safety net. Many companies only offer 7500 miles of training, and so it is not unheard of to expect a new driver to be doing all of the work.

I recommend he gets the phone numbers of experienced driverd for when he goes solo. Most people do not understand the REAL training starts when you go solo. I can lecture and explain 200 pages, but it doesnt click until the driver gets into that situation.

Once he gets his own truck he can do whatever he wants.

I understand where you all might think I am pushing this from how I wrote it. He has been telling me since before Christmas he wants out of the truck and has called to request it but the holiday has been an issue. I just thought with him going to the headquarters hub would be the perfect opportunity to get out. Yes he is with a Lease Operator. I know he has lurked on here while looking for the right company to choose so I will urge him to post himself. At first he felt that the guy was testing him as part of the training but things are pretty unsafe and unhealthy. He is stubborn so may just tough it out and he has no problem standing up to the guy and has.

So I'll take a guess... he's at Prime and came with his CDL so he needs 40,000 team miles. He has 3 to 4 weeks left. Most likely he came in with unrealistic expectations of training like most students. He's already done a couple of months which means its not an absolute emergency of him not feeling safe or comfortable.

As a Prime Team Trainer, I know Prime would swap him out if he requests it. But he needs to understand companies do not know what is going on in the truck unless you tell them. Prime will not see him as a troublemaker or fire him. Now, if he swapped trainers four or five times, then yeah, the problem is with him.

I currently have a trainee who does all of the work. He does the trip planning and all the computer and paperwork...because I know how. He is the one who needs to learn it. We now have 15k miles left and i told him i am now in "ghost mode". He needs to figure things out on his own and have me as a safety net. Many companies only offer 7500 miles of training, and so it is not unheard of to expect a new driver to be doing all of the work.

I recommend he gets the phone numbers of experienced driverd for when he goes solo. Most people do not understand the REAL training starts when you go solo. I can lecture and explain 200 pages, but it doesnt click until the driver gets into that situation.

Once he gets his own truck he can do whatever he wants.

Yes he is with Prime and I get how he needs to do things on his own eventually after you show them how to do things, this guy hasn’t shown him anything at all, he doesn’t even talk to him. Hubby has tried to ask questions like “What are some of the most important things you learned from your trainer.” The answer was a ****y “ I’m self taught, no one taught me ****” and that is how this guy is with everything. He is smart and has read a lot and watched a lot of videos so is teaching him self as he goes. He went there right out of school. I don’t think he had an Un realistic expectation at all, our son is a driver so we had an idea of what it would be like. My son is appalled at the stories, like I said way too many to list, and is urging him to get out of the truck and get a new trainer.

He needs to ask for a new trainer.