Post Trucking Company Orientation: Training Days Begin

Wow what a nightmare for students that get these kind of trainers. I agree with what Brett is sayn which at the same time is very unfortunate. I know I cant save the whole world of trainees but one of my main goals is to when I get back into the industry is to become a trainer. Good luck

Unfortunately the way it's being done is the way it's been done for 30 years or more. When I started in '93 it was exactly the same way. Companies would offer a small pay incentive to experienced drivers with decent records to train. For those of us who ran hard and enjoyed our solitude it wasn't worth the extra money. I'd rather make a little less, eliminate the risk, and have my truck to myself. That's how most people feel.

So generally the ones who choose to train either really love the idea of helping someone learn their craft or really need to make every extra nickel they can make. Most people fall under the latter category as you might expect.

I've never come up with a solution to the problem and neither has anyone else it appears. I'm not sure how you can make it better without costing the companies doing the training a whole heap of money. And therein lies the problem. If it didn't cost anything to train a driver and you knew they would stick around for a while a company would be happy to spend a lot more time and effort training people. But they have to do it while trying to compete in a very tight market and they know a huge percentage of the people that they train won't last long with the company.

So it's a tough nut to crack.

Yeah, I here ya, Brett. Just "reads" as frustrating. Maybe I'll be lucky when I go and get a good one.

Tonight I start my 7th day straight with this "mentor". I have a whopping 35 hours behind the wheel. He receives calls while we are on the road from the office peeps wondering why I have so little time In. He changes the subject as to why he only gets 400 mile runs with a student. Every one of them reminds him that the shorter trips are for me to run. Remember, he does most of the miles. Anyways, he plays dumb with them and continues to cry about the lack of miles.

It's all about the money....

Anyways, my DM wanted to meet with us about the $200 stolen from me. We met in her office. My "mentor" dominated the conversation. He spoke misinformation and made himself into a saint. The DM and him yucked it up like old buddies. DM gave the situation the short thrift and .... said oh well..

Driving a truck is like riding a bike. My up shifts and down shifts are smooth. My backing is pretty darn good. I wish I could forgo this crap and test out tomorrow.

I think I made a poor decision coming to this company. I don't know if I can stick this out for 4 more weeks..

By the way, he still sleeps all the time, smoking my cigarettes, driving my miles, and now he's eating my food.

Good God, give me strength.

Sounds like a lard azz bully to me. I'd be setting him straight, in a "nice as possible" way. Really sounds like a bad situation all around. Tough spot to be in but you're not there to feed and support his smoking habit! Sucks to lose your $$, and not be able to prove who took it. Was staying at my buddies, I had like $1300 all in $100 bills in my wallet on a dresser. When I woke up, get dressed, grab wallet, some reason I look inside, and see $300 missing. I had a gut feeling his middle girl took it, but couldn't prove nothing ! grrrrr was I ticked off lol

I just finished with my trainer and I have to say I had a great experiance with him. From day one I was behind the wheel and logged 2100 miles + a week, I did everything, if I did not know how to do it he took time to explain it to me then had me do it. We ran with his dispatcher (not the training one I have now) so we got all his loads.

I know everyone says don't rock the boat when it comes to training but there's a difference between getting yelled at and someone stealing your food, cigarettes, and money. You're not out there to take care of his lazy ass. You're out there to learn how to drive and it sounds like you aren't doing enough of the learning how to drive part. Don't let yourself be a doormat and don't say yes when he asks for your stuff. I personally could put up with being yelled at for 4 weeks but, a trainer who thought they could take my stuff would probably be leaving me on the road somewhere.

A trucker with seniority could chime in here but, maybe it would be in your best interest to request a new trainer?

Telling whoever you report to that you don't feel like you're getting enough training hours in to be successful and that you'd like a trainer who is willing to let you drive more?

If not, then guard your stuff and don't budge an inch on letting him near it. Don't accept any of his stuff either if he offers it. You could keep your stuff in a locked backpack so that you can carry it with you.

Unfortunately the world has no shortage of scumbags. That's simply the reality of it.

Anyways, my DM wanted to meet with us about the $200 stolen from me. We met in her office. My "mentor" dominated the conversation. He spoke misinformation and made himself into a saint. The DM and him yucked it up like old buddies. DM gave the situation the short thrift and .... said oh well..

And that's exactly what you should have expected from that meeting, right? I mean, what can she do? There's no proof he stole it. It sucks, but even the police can't do anything if you can't prove anything. And believe me, students will get in fights with trainers and accuse them of all sorts of things that aren't true so they obviously can't just take your word for it.

I don't know if I can stick this out for 4 more weeks..

Did you try requesting a new trainer? Most companies will gladly oblige, others won't. It's certainly worth asking for though.

But ultimately you have to ask yourself if your new career is worth putting up with a jerk for a few weeks or not. Everyone pays their dues to become experienced drivers. Every time you see a veteran driver with many years of safe driving experience you can be certain they have a very long list of stories involving people who have unfairly wronged them - customers, dispatchers, DOT officers, mechanics, other motorists on the road, etc, etc.

Everyone takes their lumps in trucking. I had a great trainer myself so I was lucky in that regard. But I was also fired once from a job for being too early for an appointment time. That's right - I showed up too early and got fired. It's a long story that I tell in My Book (which is free to read online). But I was fired without warning after working for the company with a spotless safety and service record and being consistently in the top 5% of driver miles for several years. The matter was eventually straightened out and I kept my job but I had to go through 4 different interviews over a course of 6 hours with different levels of command to plead my case.

Can you imagine being in the top 5% of drivers with years of perfect safety and service but having to beg for your job because dispatch forgot to give you the information you needed?

And trust me......after 15 years out there I have a long list of stories you just wouldn't believe. Everyone walks all over truckers......many times even other truckers.

So it comes down to how badly you want this. Yes this situation sucks and this guy appears to be an obnoxious jerk. But he's far from the last one you'll deal with. Trust me. That's just part of doing this job. You get treated like garbage by a lot of people when you totally deserve better.

But obviously there are a ton of rewards that come with trucking. In the end you'll have to decide if it's worth it or not. It's hard at this point because you're brand new to the game so you really haven't experienced the best parts yet. But isn't that normally how it goes? You have to fight through the hard part to get to the good part. Trucking is like a lollipop......it's really hard and it requires you to put up with a lot of sucking for a while but soon enough you'll work your way to the soft, delicious center.

He fudges my Qualcomm logs; logging me in the sleeper berth when it should be on duty not driving: screwing me out of money.

First, your mentor does not pay you out of his pocket - so "adjusting" your logs from On Duty to Sleeper is nothing for him financially. The most important time for you is the Driving, because that's how you get through the Mentor part.

If Mr Mentor is messing with your Qualcomm while you are logged in, he needs to stop. Remember you are supposed to maintain paper logs marked "For Training Purposes Only". Make sure those are accurate. If it comes to it, the paper logs might help your case for your lack of driving hours shown in the QC logs.

Yes, you see real life with your mentor, farts and all. It's too bad you can't trust him around your stuff. It's true, Mentors can take advantage of the "slave labor" from their trainee, but outright exploitation is wrong.

Big thanks to all those that took time from their busy schedules to respond.

In keeping with the name of this site my posts are truth; no fluff, exagerations, or extraneous bs. Reading some of Brett's responses maybe it should be called TruckingHardTruths.com :)

Here's an update.. after 9 days on this truck I finally surpassed 50 hours and achieved "team status". In all honesty, the truck ran like a team from day one.

In reaching this plateau, the mentor usually sleeps 16-18 hours a day. I have burned up my 11 hour clock on more than a few days. I imagine the people in the office got on his case about not allowing me to drive. Trust me, it has nothing to do with my lack of driving skills- without bragging I actually shift this truck more smoothly than my ham fisted gear grinding mentor.. Since I got on this truck three weeks ago I have driven 8000 miles.

In the passed few days though he has been reducing my behind the wheel hours again. Is he trying to prolong my time on his truck again? Does he think he has given please to the office folks enough to return to his wheel hogging behavior? I don't know.

The mentor likes to disrupt my sleep by either yakking on the phone or cranking up the nu metal station on the sirius radio. My sleep deprivation is reaching a point that when I am driving my concentration is affected and I begin to dread my time behind the wheel.

The mentor hasn't been keeping any records of my training and hasn't made an update call in two weeks. He continues to complain about some of the lower mileage runs and takes those for himself.

I finally met the real owner of the truck yesterday. He owns two other trucks on this account and operates one of them himself. He questioned the mentor about his sloppy record keeping. The mentor blamed me. In turn, the owner chastised him.

I'm beginning to feel like cheap labor to this mentor. Also, I feel as if he is trying to prolong my time in his truck. He hasn't taught me much of anything accept using the Qualcomm.

My experience may differ from others and quite possibly may not be the norm. This thread is not created to deter anyone from pursuing a dream of driving a big truck. As it has been said-- "Your mileage may vary".

I'm sticking it out and seeing this through. At most, I have three more weeks to endure. No one said life was easy and this experience is case-in-point.