My Experience With Wilson Logistics Training Program

Hello, everyone. My name is Chris and, as the subject implies, I am in training with Wilson Logistics. It looks like I'm not the only Wilson trainee currently writing one of these, so hopefully it won't get too tedious with so many of us writing. Either way, it will be nice to have this as a sort of journal of my time in training just for myself.

I'll start by telling you a little about myself. I am 27 years old. I grew up (mostly) in Portland, TN. It's about 45 minutes north on I-65 from Nashville. Most of my family still lives in and around that area. At 18 I decided to go to college at Trevecca Nazarene University for music. Yes, music. I managed to complete my degree and, predictably, found it hard to make a living. My plan at the time was to go to grad school, then get my doctorate, and then teach at the university level. I still think I might do that one day, but probably not in music. More likely history at this point (I know, another non-lucrative career field). You might think I regret spending four years and an ungodly amount of money getting a degree that I don't really use, but you'd be wrong. I loved my time there. I met my wife there (though I didn't know she was going to be my wife until a few years after I graduated), I still have a few friends that I am close with from there, and I do still love music. I can't imagine not having the knowledge about music that I have, if for no other reason than that it's a big part of what ties my wife and me together.

Her name is Cassie and she's a singer/songwriter (I know, how very "Nashville" of her) from Colorado Springs, CO. We were great friends in college, but neither of us ever had a desire to take it farther than that. After college, we sang in a choir together and decided to go get a drink after rehearsal one night. A few drinks, some lowered inhibitions, and three-and-a-half years later we were getting married.

The pandemic has been tough on us (though, we and our families have stayed healthy, so a healthy dose of perspective is necessary here). My wife is in grad school overseas in Ireland. It's been her dream since she was young to live there. We've tried twice since our wedding to make it overseas and both times we've been shut down because of COVID. The last time our flight was canceled one week before we were scheduled to fly out. That was in January. I had already quit my job, our lease was up, and we didn't know where to go next. We moved in with my parents (God bless them) while I tried to find a job. We had a bit saved up, so with fewer expenses my wife was able to focus on her schoolwork. The job search dragged on and on with very little success. Then I saw an ad for a trucking job and my mind kind of got away from me. I had thought about trucking before but it was always an "if was single," or "if I didn't have this-or-that job or such-and-such commitment" kind of dream. But this time I just couldn't get it out of my head. When we finally talked about it, my wife was encouraging. She wants me to do something that I'll enjoy and love even if it will be hard and we will miss each other. It helps that the money is more than either of us has ever made, and it really helps that, once I go solo, she will be able to come with me some this summer. I'll skip the boring details from here, but after some research, luck, and trial and error I wound up on my way to train at Wilson Logistics.

The "a little bit about myself" has gone on a bit long now, so I'll let this post just be my extended "about me" section and fill you in on the details of my first week of training in the next one.

Thanks for reading,

- Chris

P.S. - I can't figure out how to change my profile picture. I went to my profile, selected the page to edit it, hit the button to upload a new photo, selected the photo opened the file, but nothing happens after that. If anyone has any suggestions on that, I would appreciate it. The file is a JPEG, if that matters.

I think you have to click go after

Hello, everyone. My name is Chris and, as the subject implies, I am in training with Wilson Logistics. It looks like I'm not the only Wilson trainee currently writing one of these, so hopefully it won't get too tedious with so many of us writing. Either way, it will be nice to have this as a sort of journal of my time in training just for myself.

I'll start by telling you a little about myself. I am 27 years old. I grew up (mostly) in Portland, TN. It's about 45 minutes north on I-65 from Nashville. Most of my family still lives in and around that area. At 18 I decided to go to college at Trevecca Nazarene University for music. Yes, music. I managed to complete my degree and, predictably, found it hard to make a living. My plan at the time was to go to grad school, then get my doctorate, and then teach at the university level. I still think I might do that one day, but probably not in music. More likely history at this point (I know, another non-lucrative career field). You might think I regret spending four years and an ungodly amount of money getting a degree that I don't really use, but you'd be wrong. I loved my time there. I met my wife there (though I didn't know she was going to be my wife until a few years after I graduated), I still have a few friends that I am close with from there, and I do still love music. I can't imagine not having the knowledge about music that I have, if for no other reason than that it's a big part of what ties my wife and me together.

Her name is Cassie and she's a singer/songwriter (I know, how very "Nashville" of her) from Colorado Springs, CO. We were great friends in college, but neither of us ever had a desire to take it farther than that. After college, we sang in a choir together and decided to go get a drink after rehearsal one night. A few drinks, some lowered inhibitions, and three-and-a-half years later we were getting married.

The pandemic has been tough on us (though, we and our families have stayed healthy, so a healthy dose of perspective is necessary here). My wife is in grad school overseas in Ireland. It's been her dream since she was young to live there. We've tried twice since our wedding to make it overseas and both times we've been shut down because of COVID. The last time our flight was canceled one week before we were scheduled to fly out. That was in January. I had already quit my job, our lease was up, and we didn't know where to go next. We moved in with my parents (God bless them) while I tried to find a job. We had a bit saved up, so with fewer expenses my wife was able to focus on her schoolwork. The job search dragged on and on with very little success. Then I saw an ad for a trucking job and my mind kind of got away from me. I had thought about trucking before but it was always an "if was single," or "if I didn't have this-or-that job or such-and-such commitment" kind of dream. But this time I just couldn't get it out of my head. When we finally talked about it, my wife was encouraging. She wants me to do something that I'll enjoy and love even if it will be hard and we will miss each other. It helps that the money is more than either of us has ever made, and it really helps that, once I go solo, she will be able to come with me some this summer. I'll skip the boring details from here, but after some research, luck, and trial and error I wound up on my way to train at Wilson Logistics.

The "a little bit about myself" has gone on a bit long now, so I'll let this post just be my extended "about me" section and fill you in on the details of my first week of training in the next one.

Thanks for reading,

- Chris

P.S. - I can't figure out how to change my profile picture. I went to my profile, selected the page to edit it, hit the button to upload a new photo, selected the photo opened the file, but nothing happens after that. If anyone has any suggestions on that, I would appreciate it. The file is a JPEG, if that matters.

I think you have to click go after

Hello, everyone. My name is Chris and, as the subject implies, I am in training with Wilson Logistics. It looks like I'm not the only Wilson trainee currently writing one of these, so hopefully it won't get too tedious with so many of us writing. Either way, it will be nice to have this as a sort of journal of my time in training just for myself.

I'll start by telling you a little about myself. I am 27 years old. I grew up (mostly) in Portland, TN. It's about 45 minutes north on I-65 from Nashville. Most of my family still lives in and around that area. At 18 I decided to go to college at Trevecca Nazarene University for music. Yes, music. I managed to complete my degree and, predictably, found it hard to make a living. My plan at the time was to go to grad school, then get my doctorate, and then teach at the university level. I still think I might do that one day, but probably not in music. More likely history at this point (I know, another non-lucrative career field). You might think I regret spending four years and an ungodly amount of money getting a degree that I don't really use, but you'd be wrong. I loved my time there. I met my wife there (though I didn't know she was going to be my wife until a few years after I graduated), I still have a few friends that I am close with from there, and I do still love music. I can't imagine not having the knowledge about music that I have, if for no other reason than that it's a big part of what ties my wife and me together.

Her name is Cassie and she's a singer/songwriter (I know, how very "Nashville" of her) from Colorado Springs, CO. We were great friends in college, but neither of us ever had a desire to take it farther than that. After college, we sang in a choir together and decided to go get a drink after rehearsal one night. A few drinks, some lowered inhibitions, and three-and-a-half years later we were getting married.

The pandemic has been tough on us (though, we and our families have stayed healthy, so a healthy dose of perspective is necessary here). My wife is in grad school overseas in Ireland. It's been her dream since she was young to live there. We've tried twice since our wedding to make it overseas and both times we've been shut down because of COVID. The last time our flight was canceled one week before we were scheduled to fly out. That was in January. I had already quit my job, our lease was up, and we didn't know where to go next. We moved in with my parents (God bless them) while I tried to find a job. We had a bit saved up, so with fewer expenses my wife was able to focus on her schoolwork. The job search dragged on and on with very little success. Then I saw an ad for a trucking job and my mind kind of got away from me. I had thought about trucking before but it was always an "if was single," or "if I didn't have this-or-that job or such-and-such commitment" kind of dream. But this time I just couldn't get it out of my head. When we finally talked about it, my wife was encouraging. She wants me to do something that I'll enjoy and love even if it will be hard and we will miss each other. It helps that the money is more than either of us has ever made, and it really helps that, once I go solo, she will be able to come with me some this summer. I'll skip the boring details from here, but after some research, luck, and trial and error I wound up on my way to train at Wilson Logistics.

The "a little bit about myself" has gone on a bit long now, so I'll let this post just be my extended "about me" section and fill you in on the details of my first week of training in the next one.

Thanks for reading,

- Chris

P.S. - I can't figure out how to change my profile picture. I went to my profile, selected the page to edit it, hit the button to upload a new photo, selected the photo opened the file, but nothing happens after that. If anyone has any suggestions on that, I would appreciate it. The file is a JPEG, if that matters.

Correct, Ryne!

(What is UP with people changing their names on here?!?!? LoLoL.. haha!)

I'm still:

~ Anne ~

Thanks, Anne and Rhino. I did manage to get it figured out. I think it was just a connection issue here at the hotel. Now, on to my first week of training.

As I write this it is Sunday, 4/18/21. I began my training on Monday. This might be a long one again because I'm going to try to cram the whole week into one post. Most of what we've done this week is pretty repetitive, though, so it shouldn't be too bad. I got my permit at home (thanks to the High Road training on this site), DOT physical and med card, all of that good stuff. In the week leading up to leaving I was in contact with my recruiter daily and my application processor most days as well. One thing I can definitely say about Wilson is that they are on top of communication with prospective drivers, at least in my experience. On Saturday I picked up my rental car and on Sunday morning my wife and I hit the road for a 7-hour drive from Nashville, TN to Springfield, MO. Yes, I brought my wife with me. It's a free hotel stay, what can I say. We got settled in at the hotel, walked to nearby Wings, Etc. for a solid dinner, and then headed back and hit the pool to relax before my first day (the hotel does have a pool and hot tub, so if you're coming to train for Wilson in Springfield, bring some swim clothes).

Let me start with a quick explanation of Wilson's training process. The first week after you arrive is just training on a closed lot. You then leave with a trainer for two weeks. During these two weeks, you are considered a D-seat driver. D-seats are not technically employees yet, so you don't make any money, which sucks, but you can borrow $200/week that will be repaid $25 at a time once you start making a paycheck. After your 2 weeks of D-seat are up you return to Springfield to take your CDL test. Assuming you pass, you then upgrade to C-seat. Congratulations! You are officially an employee of Wilson Logistics and will begin earning a paycheck. You make $.12/mile or $600/week as a C-seat driver, whichever is more. The mileage pay is based on all miles driven by the truck, so yes, assuming your trainer trusts you, you are operating as a team at this point. You drive C-seat for 10,000 miles before you upgrade again to B-seat. At this point, you start making $.14/mile or $700/week, whichever is higher. Once again, you and your trainer are operating as a team and the mileage pay is based on all miles driven by the truck. You drive as a B-seat for another 20,000 miles. After that 20,000 miles you get rerouted back to Springfield to begin your solo week. At this point you are still a B-seat, but you go out for one week solo just to make sure that you can do the job adequately on your own. They tend to keep solo week drivers in and around Springfield running local routes. My understanding is that, during your solo week you get paid as if you are an A-seat, but I'm not 100% sure about that. After your solo week you are given your own truck and upgraded officially to A-seat. All Wilson company drivers who have completed the training are A-seat drivers. You make $.44/mile plus a mileage bonus of up to $.5/mile. Now on to my experience so far:

The shuttle arrives at 6:45 every weekday morning, so we are at the training facility by 7:00 most days. The first thing you do is sign in and choose what you want for lunch. They get lunch from a local restaurant each day: Culvers, Jersey Mike's, pizza from the Kum & Go, etc. The first day was mostly classroom "training." They gave us the spiel about why Wilson is the greatest company in the world. I will say, they weren't too grandiose or braggadocious about it, so I'm slightly more inclined to believe them. So far I've not been given reason to suspect any different. We talked about what to expect throughout the training program. We signed our 1-year contract (though you have until Wednesday to back out with no consequences). We went over drug and alcohol policies, talked a bit about pre-trip, got a folder full of papers to hold onto for studying and reference, etc.; general first day, orientation type of stuff. At 3:30 we headed back out to board the shuttle and go back to the hotel.

Tuesday through Thursday each followed a similar pattern. We would meet out on the practice pad and go work on our pre-trip until the instructors came out. Once out they would teach us one of the backing maneuvers that we needed to know and we would each get to practice it. The maneuvers that we learned were straight-line back, blind-side and sight side offsets, blind-side and sight side parallels, and a 90° back. Ours was a fairly large class compared to their usual (I think). We started with 8 people, and by Wednesday morning we were down to 7. There were 7-8 of us and only 2-3 trucks running at a time, so there was a lot of standing around waiting for your turn to practice one of the maneuvers. You could use this time to work on your pre-trip, but I usually used it as an opportunity to pick the instructors' brains about what the driver should do next or should have done but didn't. I wanted to know everything there was to know about backing that trailer in. Needless to say, I didn't get close to that, but I think I have a passing understanding of how it moves and how to manipulate the trailer backing up.

.... continued on the next reply....

.... continued from previous reply....

There was a feeling like we absolutely had to have the maneuvers down in the first week before we left with our trainers, but you have two weeks over the road with a trainer before you come back to test, so some of that pressure was unnecessary. That said, I did get really frustrated when I had trouble on one of the maneuvers (the parallel). But the instructors were super patient and continued to work with us and give us new ways to understand how to do it until it clicks. One of the instructors, Jonnie, repeatedly told us that we would not test until he felt that we were ready to pass, so that's comforting.

At some point in the week, the instructors would take us each to go driving around town. I found this to be the easiest part of the training process. Driving forward comes pretty naturally to me, even with the trailer to think about. Driving backward takes a little more geometrical thought, at least until you get it down by feel, which I have definitely not done yet.

On Friday we learned how to put chains on the tires and learned how to couple the tractor to the trailer before continuing to practice our backing maneuvers. My trainer, Adam, got in town on Friday so I was able to meet him. He seems like he'll be a solid trainer that will do a good job of making sure that I'm prepared for the job. The rest of the day was just practicing backing maneuvers until 3:30, and then we returned to the hotel.

My wife hopped a flight back home on Friday afternoon, so my study-buddy was no longer there when I got back. That was a bummer, for sure, but I'm looking forward to knocking this training out so we can galavant around the country this summer! My trainer had told me that we had a load going to Georgia that would be leaving sometime this weekend. He called on Saturday to inform me that it wasn't ready, but he did pick me up and let me drive around some just so he could get a feel for where I was at. He wanted to work with me on the backing pad, but someone else had already beat us to it. I returned to the hotel for one more night. Sunday morning (this morning) I ate breakfast, got my stuff packed up and ready, and waited for Adam to call. He did around 10am and he came and picked me up from the hotel. We went straight to the Prime facility, and let me tell you, it is capital "I" Impressive! A full gym and basketball court, a restaurant with steak and sushi that (I hear) are reasonably priced and actually pretty good, a lounge with pool and ping-pong tables, a chiropractor, a yoga studio, a clinic, a convenience store, and I'm sure a lot more that I didn't get a chance to see. It also has great Wi-Fi, even out in the parking lot.

The trailer for our load to Georgia needed some repairs, so we won't be leaving until tonight, or maybe even tomorrow. So that brings us to the present! I will try to update this a bit more often so the posts aren't quite so long. If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading and following along. It means a lot!

- Chris

Super, detailed posts, Chris! I feel as I am there, too.

Sorry Anne! Lol growing up in school my friends called me rhino.

I think you have to click go after

Hello, everyone. My name is Chris and, as the subject implies, I am in training with Wilson Logistics. It looks like I'm not the only Wilson trainee currently writing one of these, so hopefully it won't get too tedious with so many of us writing. Either way, it will be nice to have this as a sort of journal of my time in training just for myself.

I'll start by telling you a little about myself. I am 27 years old. I grew up (mostly) in Portland, TN. It's about 45 minutes north on I-65 from Nashville. Most of my family still lives in and around that area. At 18 I decided to go to college at Trevecca Nazarene University for music. Yes, music. I managed to complete my degree and, predictably, found it hard to make a living. My plan at the time was to go to grad school, then get my doctorate, and then teach at the university level. I still think I might do that one day, but probably not in music. More likely history at this point (I know, another non-lucrative career field). You might think I regret spending four years and an ungodly amount of money getting a degree that I don't really use, but you'd be wrong. I loved my time there. I met my wife there (though I didn't know she was going to be my wife until a few years after I graduated), I still have a few friends that I am close with from there, and I do still love music. I can't imagine not having the knowledge about music that I have, if for no other reason than that it's a big part of what ties my wife and me together.

Her name is Cassie and she's a singer/songwriter (I know, how very "Nashville" of her) from Colorado Springs, CO. We were great friends in college, but neither of us ever had a desire to take it farther than that. After college, we sang in a choir together and decided to go get a drink after rehearsal one night. A few drinks, some lowered inhibitions, and three-and-a-half years later we were getting married.

The pandemic has been tough on us (though, we and our families have stayed healthy, so a healthy dose of perspective is necessary here). My wife is in grad school overseas in Ireland. It's been her dream since she was young to live there. We've tried twice since our wedding to make it overseas and both times we've been shut down because of COVID. The last time our flight was canceled one week before we were scheduled to fly out. That was in January. I had already quit my job, our lease was up, and we didn't know where to go next. We moved in with my parents (God bless them) while I tried to find a job. We had a bit saved up, so with fewer expenses my wife was able to focus on her schoolwork. The job search dragged on and on with very little success. Then I saw an ad for a trucking job and my mind kind of got away from me. I had thought about trucking before but it was always an "if was single," or "if I didn't have this-or-that job or such-and-such commitment" kind of dream. But this time I just couldn't get it out of my head. When we finally talked about it, my wife was encouraging. She wants me to do something that I'll enjoy and love even if it will be hard and we will miss each other. It helps that the money is more than either of us has ever made, and it really helps that, once I go solo, she will be able to come with me some this summer. I'll skip the boring details from here, but after some research, luck, and trial and error I wound up on my way to train at Wilson Logistics.

The "a little bit about myself" has gone on a bit long now, so I'll let this post just be my extended "about me" section and fill you in on the details of my first week of training in the next one.

Thanks for reading,

- Chris

P.S. - I can't figure out how to change my profile picture. I went to my profile, selected the page to edit it, hit the button to upload a new photo, selected the photo opened the file, but nothing happens after that. If anyone has any suggestions on that, I would appreciate it. The file is a JPEG, if that matters.

Correct, Ryne!

(What is UP with people changing their names on here?!?!? LoLoL.. haha!)

I'm still:

~ Anne ~

Okay. Time for an update. The ended the last post in Springfield, MO. My trainer and I were about to head out to Georgia. Spoiler alert: it’s been a rough few days. When we left on Sunday we took US65 south out of Springfield, through the Ozarks, and into Arkansas. My trainer drove the whole first day. He wanted me to watch, observe, and prepare myself to drive the rest of the trip. Let me tell you, I am REALLY glad he drove that first stretch! I was definitely not prepared for the steep, narrow, and windy stretch that we were driving through in northern Arkansas. We followed US65 all the way through Arkansas. I forget the exact route that we took, but we dipped briefly into Louisiana before crossing the river into Mississippi. We stopped a little ways over the Mississippi line. My trainer and I chatted some; he seemed friendly enough so far (insert ominous foreshadowing music here). He lived pretty close to where we stopped in Mississippi, so his wife came and picked him up so he could spend the night at home. I had the truck to myself, and I was fairly pleased at this point. The bed isn’t as uncomfortable as I expected and I’ve got a nice little set up with plenty of room to store my things. Best of all, his wife makes him a bunch of food that he stuffs his fridge full of and he said I could have whatever I wanted. I went to sleep that was day 1 on the road.

I didn’t get quite as much sleep as I would have liked, but I was okay. I got a shower at the Love’s and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of their shower rooms. My trainer got back around 2pm and we got ready to hit the road. My first day driving wasn’t so bad. I actually thought I did fairly well considering that it was my first time ever driving a giant death machine down the highway (we’re at around 77,000 pounds right now). But I discovered that his method of training is not very constructive. Mostly if he chimed in with some “constructive criticism” it just felt disparaging and condescending. It was almost like he was frustrated that I wasn’t already an expert at it. He lectured me a couple of times about not being scared of the truck after I took something a little too slowly for his liking. Honestly, I’m not scared of the truck. I just acknowledge that it’s a massive and dangerous vehicle and I am very inexperienced. I wanted to take things a little slower at times while I’m still getting a feel for the vehicle. We stopped south of Atlanta around 2:30am and I went to bed frustrated that I was being talked at, for the most part, rather than taught, and feeling like he just didn’t want me here and didn’t really care if I learned well. (Which, for the record, he straight up told me that he didn’t want to be a trainer. It sounded like he got guilted into since Wilson is so short on trainers right now.)

Then day three (today) happened. For context, my trainer and I had spoken already about his expectations for me: 1) I was to do all of the backing with him outside coaching as necessary and making sure I didn’t hit anything. He said I could take as long as I needed as long as I kept trying to fix my mistakes. 2) As long as I could take “constructive criticism” and continued to get better each day, we wouldn’t have a problem. 3) It is okay to mess up as long as I learn from it and don’t keep repeating the same mistakes. 4) If I show him respect, I’ll get respect back. It was all great lip service from him. For brevity’s sake I’ll spare you some of the details, but I felt like I was being disrespected before we even fueled up for the stretch run. He napped a solid portion of the 3 hour drive there (which he definitely is not supposed to do). And then we finally arrived at the shipper/receiver....

... continued on next post....

.... continued from previous post....

There were frustrations before I even started attempting to back the trailer against the dock but I won’t get into all that. I messed up right from the start. We were coming at the dock from the left so I lined up for a 90ish degree back, not thinking about the fact that it was on my blindside. If he had given me two seconds to think about I would have realized my mistake, but two seconds was two seconds too long, apparently. He was immediately asking me what the f**k I was doing (his words) and telling me to make a u-turn at the end of the docking area and line up the other way. I did so and tried to line up where I thought was best. Keep in mind: I have literally never backed a tractor-trailer up anywhere except on the practice pad. My set up was bad, so he told me to fix it then got out to watch me. As I came back there was a stop sign nearby and he said, “if you hit that f*****g stop sign I’m gonna lose it.” Cool, thanks for the confidence boost. I tried to maneuver the trailer as best I could and it wasn’t great. You might think: “that’s fine! It’s literally your first time ever doing this. Try to correct it and keep going!” Not this guy. His response was to tell me to stop and get out of the truck so he could back it in for me. No telling me where I had gone wrong or how to get back on track. Just get out and let me fix it.

So I’m unbelievably frustrated at this point. It’s our first back at a receiver and he’s already broken all of the ground rules that he had set for me. He back the trailer up and gets it straight with the dock and tells me to finish up. I start to go around the back of the truck to look at where I’m going and what I’m backing into. He asks, “what the f**k are you doing?” I tell him I’m taking a look at the dock to see where I’m going, ya know, Get Out And Look. He says, “They’re all exactly the f*****g same. Just back up to it.” At this point, I let some of my frustration out. My response: “I have literally never seen one of these (the dock) before, so I want to get a look at what I’m backing into.” I admit my tone was lacking any respect. At this point I have none for him. I continue to walk around the back of the truck as he curses under his breath. I finish the back, but bump into the dock a little too hard. He tells me to get in the passenger seat and he does it himself. I got another condescending lecture about something that I had absolutely zero experience in for my troubles.

Now we’re just waiting at the receiver. I got out and called my wife (God bless her) and she helped settle me down. I’m a pretty patient guy, but I was so mad. He broke every expectation he had set and showed me zero respect in the process. Now I have to figure out my next move. I want to try to level with him and ask that he honor the terms that he set out in the first place. If that conversation doesn’t go well (and I don’t expect it to) then I think I’ll call the fleet manager and request a new trainer. I can deal with someone being an a**h***. I’m not here to make a new friend, but I do need him to fulfill his end of the bargain and actually train me. If he won’t do that then there’s no point in us being here together.

I hope I’m not coming off as overly-sensitive or like I’m blowing this guy off as he’s trying to teach me. I really think I have reasonably thick skin, and again, I’m a patient guy. I just also want to be in a positive learning environment and I haven’t gotten that so far. I would love to hear y’all’s thoughts on this.

He broke every expectation he had set and showed me zero respect in the process.

Christopher, there are thousands of trainers like yours out here. I had one who was probably ten times worse. False expectations have cut many a trucking career short. Don't abort your career. Learn to accept the difficulties of the training experience and get yourself advanced to a solo position. You and your trainer have two distinctly different ideas of why you are there. Your best approach at this point is to figure out why he took you as a trainee, and do your best to fulfill his expectations while accepting the fact that yours are secondary. Yours will be fulfilled, but not anything like you had imagined them. I actually chuckled when you claimed, "He broke every expectation he had set." What has happened so far is that you construed his words one way, and he didn't mean anything like what you imagined.

Truckers, for the most part, are a little rough around the edges. They know it all, and they like for anyone within earshot to understand that. You are not a trucker. You don't behave like a trucker. You don't think like a trucker. Thank God for that, and I hope you can manage to stay that way! In the meantime you are connected at the hip with a trucker - get used to it. Forget your expectations of respect from your trainer. The only thing he is going to respect is progress on your part. For him, you are there to turn miles on his truck and make him some extra money. The only thing that will enable you to do that is to make steady progress daily.

He laid it all out for you. Let me translate it. You obviously don't understand trucker's talk...

1) I was to do all of the backing with him outside coaching as necessary and making sure I didn’t hit anything. He said I could take as long as I needed as long as I kept trying to fix my mistakes.

Translation... We don't have all day here pal. You are going to be backing the trailer as long as you can get it in the hole. I will be screaming out directions, and you better damn sure be doing as I say. If you can't follow my instructions, I will toss you out and do it myself.

2) As long as I could take “constructive criticism” and continued to get better each day, we wouldn’t have a problem.

Translation... I need you to catch on to this real quick like. I am not going to be repeating myself. Once I have told you something, you better damn sure demonstrate that you have got it. I don't plan on repeating myself. We've got a lot to do, and I need you to be helping me get those things accomplished.

3) It is okay to mess up as long as I learn from it and don’t keep repeating the same mistakes.

Translation... (I hope you are recognizing the pattern here) You are going to learn this by doing this. I do not expect you to be repeating the same stupid mistakes. If you do I am going to be really unhappy with you and you will feel it.

4) If I show him respect, I’ll get respect back.

Translation... If you can help me make some money by pushing yourself hard and turning lots of productive miles, I am going to be thrilled with what you are doing. If you hinder my efforts at running a productive team truck, you will feel my wrath.

Okay, we've got some of that trucker talk out of the way. Now let's talk about your approach to this. I know you thought he was going to be sitting over there in the passenger seat like a sweet little angelic creature sent from God to hold your hand during this challenging time. Surprise! He has a completely different view of his purpose. You are there to help him make some money. Get used to that, but use it to your advantage.

Continued...