Just Makin' It Through The Day ...cuz Today Wasn't So Great ...

I had my second day with my city trainer and yesterday was fine while today was a total drag. He was a complete jerk, all day long, i.e., "...do it this way..." so I'd do it "this way." Oh no, that was wrong. You need to "...do it THAT ...way." Or, "...why are you turning left at this stop sign?" Me: "Because you just told me to 'go to the next stop sign and turn left.' " "...Oh," he'd say. "I thought I said go right." No, I explained. I was in the right lane, as soon as he told me to turn left at the next stop sign, I slowly moved in to the left lane to get ready. But in the mean time, he was texting his girlfriend (from the passenger seat), was looking down the whole time and when he looked up from his phone, I wasn't where he thought I should be. He texted his girlfriend all day long and acted snippy towards me the whole time. It didn't matter what the topic was, every comment I made, about the weather, about small talk, whatever, he had a contradictory thing to say. He had to be right, all day long, no matter what the topic. So I just shut up and let him win. By lunch, I remained pretty quiet and just did whatever he asked.

His directions were so unclear, I either had to repeat it back to him a couple of times or I ended up doing exactly the opposite of what I thought he wanted. It was more like I was dealing with a control freak who just constantly changed things around, just so he could have the upper hand or maintain control. Honestly, I think he was having a fight with his girlfriend on text all day long and taking it out on me. He seemed distracted and he was definitely irritable.

Once I was backing into a dock and I asked him if my trailer was coming around into view on his side and he said in a snooty voice, "I don't know. YOU check it." I wouldn't have minded, except he wouldn't even look up from his phone to look in the mirror. When he got out and critiqued me on that backing I reminded him that I had asked him for his assistance but that was when he was texting and would not look up. Whenever I did well on shifting, he never even acted as though anything happened. Only when I screwed up, did he mention anything. And oh, by the way, he started telling me about all the safety things I didn't have to adhere to ...so I was "wrong" to put safety first.

"Oh, you don't have to do that ...you don't have to do it this way ...yeah-yeah, they teach you to do it this way at school but you have your CDL now. You always have to do it like that anymore."

"...why did you slow down right there?" OMG! I had to explain everything I don't mind a teacher who actually wants to know my reasons for doing things so he can understand what my reasoning behind things was - that's one thing - but getting ticked off at me while I operate at my own skill level is NOT ok ... I slowed down because I'm pulling loaded doubles for the first time and the recommended speed on that curve was slower than I was going and I wanted to make sure I was driving at a comfortable speed where I knew I could control my load, way below the recommended speed for ....duh ...cars! "What recommended speed?" I explained that there was a yellow diamond sign, right before the curve, but he had missed it, I'm pretty sure, because he was looking down, staring at his phone. People were calling and texting him alll ....day... long!

He would waste time at a delivery on a customer's dock, bs-ing, and then push me to run faster on the road to try and make up for lost time. Wanna' know what? I wouldn't comply. I was supposed to do everything myself, all day long while he watched and helped and evaluated but after the first 3 deliveries that were time sensitive, I let him drive for most of the day because I wasn't about to cut corners on safety, just so I could placate his anxiety and enable his time-wasting during the actual delivery times. Since he wanted to cut corners on safety and wanted all the dropping and hooking done as fast as he would have done it, with 20 years of experience, I let him freaking do it. And according to him, slowing down, pulling up to a light for 200-300 feet in neutral instead of down-shifting or staying in gear, was perfectly fine, according to him. Know what? Even if I was accidentally scratching my gears and not down-shifting exactly right, I did it anyway, (or stayed in my gear) but I would not go into neutral, pulling up to a stop, like he wanted me to.

He was so nit-picky, it was ridiculous. We're talkin': he critiqued me for getting grease on my uniform (navy blue, barely visible). Are you freaking serious? I'm supposed to fuss over whether or not I get grease on my shoulder while I'm pulling out my safety latch from my 5th wheel to unhook my trailer?! Really? My GAWD, if I were THAT worried about the grease and dirt, would I even BE in trucking? I swear, some people just nit-pick simply because they just WANT to pick a fight and argue all day.

The day is over, I'm over the bs from him, I don't have to drive with him again, I have an excellent million-mile, no-accident guy training me tomorrow, I kept my mouth shut and just made it through the day without arguing with the butt-head, I'm safe, I didn't hit anything, no one got hurt, I managed to refrain from punching his freaking lights out, and I'm mentally moving on.

More later.

Hey ...be safe out there, everyone!

-mountain girl

Glad to hear you managed. It's over. You're not alone MG - I can definitely relate to what you just posted, I just haven't bothered sharing it. Eventually we'll both be solo. Just remember, you're not alone!

Sounds like a not so nice guy, hopefully he gets nice.

Glad to hear you managed. It's over. You're not alone MG - I can definitely relate to what you just posted, I just haven't bothered sharing it. Eventually we'll both be solo. Just remember, you're not alone!

-6 string

You hit the nail on the head, Man. Maybe it's a sign of progress that I was honestly starting to feel like I wanted to do this without someone's help. And when it comes to safety, I can't stand it when people come up with their reasons or excuses for why the cut corners here and there and try to make it "ok" by telling me I could do it too.

Nope. I'm not going to budge on safety. One of the best helicopter pilots I'd ever met in the military was unwavering in his adherence to the rules and regs on safety ...and that is precisely what made him one of the best. Very early in his career, he became a Cobra instructor. Why? Because he was so danged safe and good at it. He moved on to bigger and better things from there and had a stellar career. No accidents. He studied his tail off and flew safely. No hot-dogging. No unnecessary risks. Precision flying.

So yeah, I'm allllmost ready to go out on my own....

-mountain girl

Sounds like a not so nice guy, hopefully he gets nice.

-Mr M

Exactly. And it's up to him. I'm done with today!

-mountain girl

Great job young lady . I'm sorry to hear yet one more on going story of trainers that shouldn't be trainers. You did right and you should feel awesome about that. Too many times people become trainers for the extra money imstead of actualy trying to help folks become good drivers. Look at the bright side. If you can handle all that shippers/ receivers will be a snap. Believe it or not there are those customers out here that give us grief because they can. You should do fine. Stay positive and kick some ass!!

Enjoying reading your posts MG. I am not yet in school but will be soon. Hated to hear about a jerk trainer lol. That stinks. Have you thought about eventually becoming a trainer yourself at some point? I definitely have already thought about it provided of course I can drive haha. Tomorrow is another day!! Stay safe.

That`s funny stuff Mountain Girl! You are definitely not alone with that experience. I would say either this dude is an excellent trainer, or a tool. Remember? You will be tested all through your training. Great job on how you handled it too!

Sheeeeesh!!! Sorry you have to go through all that, but , at least you'll know how to NOT train someone.

MG, glad you made it through the day safely. Keep up your high standards, especially when those in authority around you don't (like your trainer). Those with lower standards will try to drag you down to theirs, but don't fall for it - it will be noticed eventually, and it will pay dividends every day even if that "eventually" takes a long time to come.

The thing that was saddest and funniest to me was the guy fighting with his girlfriend by text. I would've been tempted to say, "Dude, be a man! Stop reacting!" Sure, it drives women nuts when you don't reply, but it saves you a lot of trouble. If she won't stop, just turn off the text notification and deal with it at the end of the day.

My boss (for a week more) is a unicorn - a smart, good looking, and chill woman. One day the missus texted me and I looked up and said, "What the hell?" Usually I just ignore that stuff, but my boss asked me to read it to her. I did. She said, "Say this" and told me what to send back. It worked like a charm! Every response I got back from the missus, my boss told me what to reply back. In five minutes the missus was so bamboozled that she gave up and I was laughing my ass off.