I occasionally see a post on the forum saying, “I refuse to work with a firm that educates drivers in a team environment while on the road. The trainer should sit next to me, please. This individual often believes that the trainer enters the sleeper as soon as a freshly licensed driver starts the truck. When I describe the purpose of team training, the participant frequently responds, “Oooh, that makes sense when you say it that way.” As every business is unique, I shall describe how things operate at mine.
How To Obtain A CDL Permit And License
The student first undergoes a medical examination, a drug test, a CDL permit test, and simulator labs during orientation. The student then delivers cargo around the nation while on the road with an instructor for one to three weeks, depending on his skills. As the law requires, the teacher takes the seat next to the pupil.
They transport solitary cargoes and essentially “perform the duties” of a solo driver, according to all Hours of Service regulations, just like any other solo driver. They return to the terminal, where the student will take the CDL basic skills exam.
In my instance, I traveled over 10,000 miles with an instructor at my side in the three weeks leading up to the exam. I got individualized education and attention, which gave me a significant edge over someone attending a nearby school. I could drive in all kinds of weather, downgrades, hours of the day, and city traffic. Because there is no “let me get accustomed to this,” it is a cultural shock. After one week of orientation at the terminal, BOOM! As an OTR, you are immediately thrust into the trucking lifestyle, which involves sleeping in the vehicle, taking showers at truck stops, and seeing the nation.
Team Driving in Training
The section on team building follows next. As a team trainer, I can assure you that no trainer will let a new CDL holder start the truck, operate the vehicle, hop into the bunk, and fall asleep. No way. I must be certain that I will not pass away. I spent almost the whole week in the passenger seat with my most recent trainee. He contributed 3,000 of the 4,000 kilometers we covered this week.
As of now, we have already discussed:
- picking up and dropping trailers
- using the Qualcomm
- Rules for Hours of Service
- how to boost
- sliding the tandems
- weight regulations
- how to fuel
- how to make repairs
- scanning invoices and load data
…and a lot more. We have also done a lot of backing, both at client’s and truck stops. We have gone through route planning, map reading, and any driving mistakes he may make.
This week, I requested my fleet manager for loads that would take us on both straightforward and challenging routes. I-40 through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona was where we began. He navigated the gridlock in Dallas, Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City. After leaving Kansas City, we traveled along U.S. 65, which was windy and hilly and had many traffic lights and hills, until joining I-40 in Little Rock, Arkansas. He went through heavy morning traffic in Memphis before descending Tennessee’s Monteagle Mountain and into Atlanta’s afternoon rush hour. We practiced downshifting, downgrades, increasing the following distance, and lowering speeds as needed throughout this period. We spoke about being prepared for everything, defensive driving, and, in his words, scanning “50 miles ahead for danger.”
Now that I am confident in his ability to swing wide to G.O.A.L. (go out and look) and that he has mastered the “Serpentine Maneuver” to help with appropriate alignment for fuel pumps, washes, and maintenance bay entranceways, we will start our teaming phase of the training today.
Is he really a trucker now?
No, but he will be fantastic by the end of his first year. The trainee must complete 30,000 team truck miles for my company’s upgrading program, and by tomorrow he will have completed 5,000 of them.
Much of the company’s and reefers current practices include repetition. It is the main focus of team training. After a while, the novice driver essentially takes over the instructor’s vehicle for practice, sleeping in the back for support. He no longer needs me to watch him when he travels 500 miles daily, but he may still need to wake me up if he has questions about directions, clients, or how to handle a situation. Every day, new problems develop, and working with a mentor gives the novice driver a safety net by having a trainer nearby.
The Training Is Not Done Yet
The training is not complete just because you are driving opposing shifts. Every of the previously stated topics will be further discussed. He will remember more knowledge if he can perform more of the task himself. He may establish a regimen that will help him be as effective as possible. I anticipate him to make errors going forward, but now I can ask him, “Why did you stall the vehicle just now?” He claims he neglected to turn the range selection on my 10-speed manual when he previously may not have known. He has to remind himself, but ultimately it will become muscle memory, and he will do it without thinking.
Do I get enraged and shout at it? Nope. Because when I first started, I did the same thing. I often present a list of things to avoid doing, followed by the question, “Do you know how I know? Because I previously tried it and failed. Thus, take note of my errors.
I will let him run fully alone once again during the last week in my vehicle. He will make all decisions about the work, including where to stop and park for the night, how to reach consumers, and where to acquire gasoline. He can operate his vehicle safely if he can drive mine during the last week of instruction. He will undoubtedly get irritated and dissatisfied with me since I will cease immediately responding to his inquiries. To get him to think, I employ the Socratic Method of replying with another question. While not all trainers will operate this way, I have discovered it works best for me. I tell the trainees this when I first meet them, so they know what to anticipate.
The Challenges of Team Driving
One of the scariest parts of team training is sharing a vehicle with a stranger. Training may take many months in my organization. Learning how to downshift might take two months, and it can take six months to get the hang of backing. Considering those considerations, it is simple to see how going alone sooner might be more frightening than training.
Even though I received my license the day before Halloween and my solo truck on Valentine’s Day, I was still really anxious. I do not know how some of my friends were not terrified to death when they went to work for corporations that put them in a solo truck barely three weeks after beginning with them. I got through what looked to be a torturous team training setting using my fear of the unknown.
While training was challenging, my coach understood that I was more terrified of walking alone than of being in her van. Our personalities did not get along, but is not that true in every workplace? The circumstance may be yet another technique to assist you in developing the toughness necessary for this career.
Yard pets, other drivers, and sometimes unfriendly customers may holler at you. Dealing with a miserable trainer or someone different from you only makes you more understanding of others since it is a fact of life and your work. Knowing that it is just temporary and being able to see how many more kilometers are still to go might inspire you to keep going.
If you realize that enabling someone to upset you gives them control over you, it might help you unwind. The trainer snapped because she had not slept well. Oh well, after next week, you will not need to communicate with him at all. Do not allow someone else to manipulate your feelings or force you to stray from your objectives. You could get so distracted as a result and have a collision.
Bad Trainers Exist in Every Company
Good and terrible trainers will work for any firm. Even if you think you got a lousy one, you can still learn something from that individual. How does this individual behave ethically? How is that driver trainer? Are they driving defensively, or are they being aggressive? Is he usually on time, or does he manage his clock properly? What type of interaction does he have with clients and dispatch, and how does it play out? How does he prepare to be backed?
I am not advocating sticking it out with a controlling partner who continuously makes fun of you, but we need to define what “abusive” means. One forum user said their trainer was harsh since he did not respond to his queries, forced him to travel 550 miles daily, and made him do all the work. I follow what I promised to accomplish above. Did I sound mean when you read it? Or is the pupil making anything up?
Trainers often act in ways that seem unjust, but their true goal is to teach the pupil how to escape a predicament. I could remain silent and allow the learner to complete a move I know would not succeed. It is not always as effective to bring out problems before a mistake is made as it is to let the learner attempt to correct the error.
Go on a different vehicle if somebody is in an utterly terrible situation and calls dispatch. One issue is if the trainer anticipates you breaking the law or engaging in risky behavior. What is typical in trucking, meanwhile, might sometimes be seen as “abusive” by someone who cannot manage this way of life.
If a student switches instructors often because they are all “terrible,” then the student is the one who needs help. Life is mostly about picking the proper conflicts. The same is true of instruction. Team building exercises may be fantastic or awful. In any case, there are lessons to be learned, and time is of the essence.
Believe in the training process
Your training attitude will significantly impact the information and abilities you learn. Realizing that the trainer already knows how to perform the task and that this is practice for you to do it right before you go solo can help you avoid complaining that the trainer is being lazy and having you make all the effort.
Even after this rigorous training, rookies still have accidents while driving alone. Since every day is unique, they face many situations that were not addressed in training. Do not just rule out a firm from consideration because you do not want to ride alone in a vehicle. Spend some time researching each business to determine the best fit for you. A glimmer of light in your future job as a truck driver will appear during the teaming portion of your training, which moves swiftly.