Thanks for posting.

The best trainer I met was someone who was only driving three months before he became a trainer. He was concientious and cared about his students.

He was not my trainer but he helped me with my problems backing and later trained a friend of mine.

There are to many students recruited with not enough suitable trainers, that is the problem and the myth that there is a driver shortage perpetuated this but as the ATA says there is NO DRIVER SHORTAGE so now these companies that are hiring all these students when experienced drivers are sitting around have some “Splainin” to do.

It’s just a cheap labor machine and to survive it you have to learn the games to overcome the obstacles and make it to a better situation.

Thanks,
Desiree

I can’t imagine what you had to endure as a lady driver. I truly feel for you having to put up with that human garbage. I find it utterly stupid that the trucking company couldn’t set you up with a lady trainer.

Where do these incompetent trainers come from? The first trainer was teaching me how to cheat right out of the box. He completed his logs the following day and they were totally fictional. The second trainer that I had was a Christian man who taught me legal logging and safety behind the wheel. My third and fourth trainers with two other companies were log cheaters. To this day, I insist on logging legally. I have told the trainers that is how I would do it after my training.

My third trainer once commented, “Russ, there are people that make money and there are people that log legally.” By now I know that fudging logs are a very common thing in this industry. I ran into a driver in Findlay, Ohio once and he told me that he was back in Erie, Pennsyvania!

It’s amazing to think that I have been driving over the road for a little under two years total and I could write a book on my experiences and testimonials. This can be an exciting job at times as you well know. However, I can see why people become disappointed at choosing this as a career. God bless you for hanging in there because you bring a refreshing change to this industry.

Thank you for all of the good work that you do here.

Most truckers have VERY STRONG personalites, thus the reason they need to work alone, like me.

To learn you must get thru this time so suck it up and accept these diverse personalities in a way you normally would not tolerate. Just smile and nod your head. UNLESS they are badgering you for Sex, Trying to intimidate or delibrately Humilate you and you feel YOU cannot learn because of it.

I’m used to being called names, I’ve been called names my whole life so I have a very thick skin. Some people do not and cannot concentrate on learning when they have been called names,
Your goal is to learn to be a SAFE Truck Driver. Do not get involved in the petty gossip that is frequent, take everyhing your hear with a grain of salt. The rumor mill is incredible and MEANT to instill FEAR in you. DON”T let it Pollute your Determination!!!
I began reading three books at my lowest point that helped me stay positive and get a mental break for the constant negativity I was subjected to “Eat. Pray Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert, “The Secret” and a Book of Inspirational Affirmations by Joel Osteen … I took passages from these three books and highlighted them and made affirmations of my own from them.

I put them into the calendar of my PDA to go of every hour or so and this helped me stay positive and not get discouraged because everyone around me was such a downer.

Get a good Smartphone, PDA like iPhone /Treo/ or Blackberry

It will save you an enormous amount of time for its Navigational capabilites, finding weather reposrts , video and pictures to PROVE everything from accidents to haggling with your company over a needed tire repair, you can snap a pic and attach it to an email in a jiffy.
I hope to write more about this “ins and outs” of using Smartphones for Truckers Logistics soon… Make Sure you Check Out http://www.askthetrucker.com

A Good Trainer teaches their Student to back up the truck properly, teaches them about tail swing, S moves to correct alignment of the truck when parking and much more. A Good Trainer does not berate their student who is learning, they do not humilate them because they are on a power trip and feel the need to control someone for their own inferiority complex, they don’t not make racial slurs. A good trainer also does not train someone with no experience while they are in such poor physical condition that cannot even do their own job making the student worry that the trainer could have a heart attack and die at any moment. A Good Trainer, even is ther health was failing would take the student into a terminal, not try to leave them off at a truck stop and take off. A Good Trainer would not have a student go over Donner Pass in Winter with no chains when she knew the student could be cited for it. Even legal pharmacuticals given with a perscription are often not intended to be taken while operating machinery, it says that on the labels of the pills my trainer took. These pill also impair judgement so what she thought was okay, may not have been, like staggering, hitting poles and taking the side view mirrors off and Owner-Operators Truck in the Texas Panhandle. My Trainer was not a good trainer, but she might think she was.