Training Isn't For Me.

You should be doing daily evaluations. All the reasons he is not cutting it shall be in there. It is only your job to train and evaluate. The rest falls on the powers to be on what the best future course of action is to be.

Ryan says

02:35 is the start time for a reason, I imagine so that starting off is not hitting rush hour traffic. 04:15 results in possibly hitting traffic at an unnecessary time.

I don't know how much leeway your company gives you in keeping a trainee on your truck, but I would be inclined to give that driver one more day. "Be on time (15 minutes early) or go train with someone else." People with a lack of a sense of purpose drive me nuts.

Our start times are dictated by the delivery windows our grocery stores set. The stores then staff their employees based on the truck being there on time or shortly (hour'ish) before they start arriving. When we're late for any reason it often results in the stores paying for employees to dilly dally waiting on us. It also forces them to then get the same work load done in less time. Today we ran to the south edge of Minneapolis. Traffic was backed up 10 miles due to an accident so I had him take a bunch of backroads to get around it since I'm quite familiar with the area. Had we left on time we'd have been at the store before most people were on the roads. We return to the terminal every day and they allow us to pick and choose if we take someone. I gave the guy the benefit of the doubt yesterday but today there's no excuse for hardly sleeping. When I told him what we were doing I made sure to include the stores (cities names) and total miles (528). He was struggling quite a bit getting to our 2nd (last) store only 40 minutes or so from our first. He damn near missed multiple turns despite the GPS volume being on and right in his face and me telling him I've already checked and GPS is correct follow it. Pretty sure he registered a hard brake to avoid going past the entrance to that store. After we unloaded I went to the restroom and he was in the drivers seat. Told him this truck will not move with you behind the wheel. He tried to get me to change my mind but I was firm. He moved over and within 2 minutes of us leaving the store he was asleep and snoring. I drove us back the 4:15 with our only stop being about halfway, the rest stop just into Iowa SB. After potty break he was out again until we got to the yard.

PJ says

You should be doing daily evaluations. All the reasons he is not cutting it shall be in there. It is only your job to train and evaluate. The rest falls on the powers to be on what the best future course of action is to be.

Yep doing the evaluations and turning them in as requested. I wanted to talk to the bossman in person when I got back but he left for the day. I will send him a text tomorrow morning requesting a call when hes at the office. Trainee is with a different trainer the next 2 days and I just want to make sure boss is aware of what I had issues with and fully understands my concerns. First day he drove about 240 of the 477 miles, today 267 of the 530. Other than stopping so much and being so worn out he does a great job and has improved alot just in the 2 days I've had him. I will not ride in a truck driven by him again that's for sure. He had to keep putting window up/down, shifting in seat, adjusting air in seat, rocking back and forth and other things to stay awake. That is far from safe and if there had been somewhere to pull off he wouldn't have made it to the last store even though we were only 5 minutes away when it got the worst. Unfortunately with traffic behind us due to not maintaining speed and a very soft basically non existent shoulder making him pullover wasn't an option. What blew my mind was a couple times going thru a construction zone my lane departure went off which basically just cuts the radio off and sounds like you're going over rumble strips. He opens one eye and has the nerve to ask "you good or want me take over?"

Exactly these kinda horror stories is why I would've NEVER tried the "trainer route". Now CRST, after you're there about 6 month's they start trying to get drivers to "train" pfffft, after 6 months, you're not even that experienced to train someone. Aside from the fact, most teams, both are barely out of school, and go out on the road.

My 1st co-driver as a cool guy, BUT he wasn't much of a driver. He'd sit up in the passenger seat, damn near my whole drive shift. I repeatedly told him "Dude, you need to go to sleep already!".......He wouldn't get much, yet doze off in the seat, dropping his phone, which woke him up most of the time. It was hard to sleep myself when he DID drive, and most times he didn't get in 150-200 miles, and park. Then times, when he DID, go to the bunk and close the curtain, I could hear him playing on his phone, not sleeping.

I wasn't getting a lot of good sleep, and told him, "I don't care, you park this truck when you're starting to fade. I got to KNOW his habits/movements, when he was trying to stay awake, and made him park. 2 weeks into this I finally told him, we are DONE bro! I packed up,and left the truck. The next time we hit the Riverside, Ca. terminal , and I went home for a few days, explained to our DM exactly why. So, my ex co-driver was blowing up my phone, which I finally blocked and deleted him. My DM tried to get me to take him back, which finally I did, but told our DM , but on MY TERMS !!, DM was fine with that. End of story, he didn't change any, but was actually worse. He would be driving, and doing facetime with girls he knew, sending voice clips back and forth?? WTF?? he would constantly jiggle the wheel back n forth like it was sloppy steering. I asked him and said, "Dude you a crack head or ex crack head?? You act like a tweeker " So 3 weeks later, I again bailed out,as I was not comfortable or feeling safe driving with him, and spent some time finding a new co-driver @ the terminal.

This is funny because I literally JUST had my first trainee at this job and we also only take experienced drivers. I got lucky and got a great trainee. Turned out he actually requested for me to train him after I road tested him since we got along so well.

I enjoy training here since I don’t have share my “home” with them. I’m local like you so I’m only with them for the day. I gotta agree with the other person who said they’d kick him off the truck. I’d give him the first day he was late…**** happens. But the second day I would’ve probably waited 30 minutes and then left, maybe an hour at most if the delivery window allowed for that. I’m sure the details vary based on the company and type of hauling you’re doing but as a general rule I’m sure most companies would back you up if you had to leave without the trainee. Servicing their customers trumps catering to a new guy.

I applaud you for your patience and understanding. I’m nice but I probably would’ve lost it with this dude after the first day

I get asked to train, consider training, think about it, etc. every couple weeks. Funny, I was just talking with my old trainer the other day, who stopped training. I have no interest in it, not that I think I have enough experience as a driver yet anyway. I taught skiing and motorcycle riding for a number of years. I also trained construction workers, both employees and my own guys. Never again for a multitude of reasons. One of the primary being, I came into this industry to get away from people.

I was asked to be a driver mentor to new hires and I agreed because I want to pay forward all the help I've gotten.

Similar to Rob, I already know how much I'm going to make based on what run I take.

I had one guy that was always early, but it's like he forgot what I told him yesterday. I explained how I set my backs up and he'd do it flawlessly. The next day he'd just set up randomly and struggle backing.

On hooking a set, we'd be out there for a little over an hour (I get paid 30 minutes for hooking a set) and I start thinking about how much time I'm losing. FedEx gives me the option to clock in during this time, but by the time I get to a clock and then I have to clock out before I leave, it turns into more of a headache than it's worth. There were also days when he'd be driving in circles looking for the trailer. I'd tell him "I've seen the trailer 4 times already, what are you looking for?" He'd tell be numbers and I'd be confused because those numbers aren't right. He was looking for the trailer weight.

There were days he missed our exit and that would add another hour to my day, but I'd put in delay pay for that.

On our last day together, I told him "I'm not here. You have the handheld and the paperwork, figure it out." He wasn't able to because nothing stuck.

After all of that, he was fired about 2 months later for getting a DUI.

I'm sure anyone who has trained drivers can understand why my motto is, "I'll tell you what I know. You do with it what you like."

Teaching is incredibly difficult if you care about the student and the results they'll get from your efforts. You want people to succeed, but when you're teaching something very challenging, and they'll let almost anyone take a shot at it, you know very few people will have much success.

Either they can't do the job at a high level or they don't care enough to put in the effort. As a teacher, that's incredibly hard to deal with.

I'm sure anyone who has trained drivers can understand why my motto is, "I'll tell you what I know. You do with it what you like."

Teaching is incredibly difficult if you care about the student and the results they'll get from your efforts. You want people to succeed, but when you're teaching something very challenging, and they'll let almost anyone take a shot at it, you know very few people will have much success.

Either they can't do the job at a high level or they don't care enough to put in the effort. As a teacher, that's incredibly hard to deal with.

This is a common problem with small business owners where no one cares about the business as much as they do. When trying to find people to run things under them, it's difficult to find people who have the same kind of passion.

Relate that to trucking. Many drivers here have a decade plus of time invested in this industry. There is a work ethic and a passion there that the average driver being trained probably doesn't have. In that circumstance, no one is going to care as much as the highly dedicated and professional driver.

Either they can't do the job at a high level or they don't care enough to put in the effort. As a teacher, that's incredibly hard to deal with.

Some instructors I know refuse to work with a student until they know at least one section of the pretrip. I thought that was mean until I saw how little effort some people put into learning. I learned the pretrip watching videos on the 36 hour bus ride.

One of the reasons companies have newbies training is because experienced drivers either 1. Don't want to share space or 2. Don't need the money. If you get someone with 6 months driving, they have recently teamed and are not as "set in their ways" as more experienced drivers. Plus they are more likely to be still paying off debt as opposed to experienced drivers.

I had two students this week who struggled but both passed today. Yay!

Many drivers here have a decade plus of time invested in this industry. There is a work ethic and a passion there that the average driver being trained probably doesn't have. In that circumstance, no one is going to care as much as the highly dedicated and professional driver.

It depends on a person's situation. If you have three kids at home and you're within a few months of losing your home, you're highly motivated. If you're 23 years old and you're living in your rich parent's basement, you're probably not very motivated.

It all depends on your purpose for pursuing a career in trucking.