Needing First Victim

Rob, I get what you're saying. May have to do with the stereotype that holds with the term "rookie"... Many of us "rookies" have had long prior careers (professions) then lend well to the safe operation of an OTR big rig.

What I tend to find more alarming, as witnessed by my own eyes, are drivers that are considered "experienced" behaving poorly/ dangerously both behind the wheel and outside of the cab.....

Good luck! I look forward to hearing about how it goes. a Side note: am I the only one who finds it alarming how many drivers with "rookie" In their title are around here talking about them training others? Obviously I haven't met them or seen their skill set. It just seems like a huge disservice for somebody completely green to the industry trying to get their career off to a start to be trained by somebody still facing the steep learning curve.

Realistically the only thing trainers are going to teach is the basics of time management, the Qualcomm , payroll, fuel and routing. The intention isn't to teach someone "master level" driving skills, or master level anything for that matter. 95% of everything that makes a Top Tier Driver so great are things they've learned with experience.

So all they're trying to do is take a complete newbie and teach them the very basics of being independent out there. They'll learn the rest on their own.

I went to a private school initially. When I was in company training it was for two weeks. I don't remember any lessons on backing or shifting or driving in general. Most of it was team driving from day one and he showed me the basics of the logbook , payroll, and communication. I picked up on it quickly and he said I was ready to go solo, and I was. I don't remember coming across any situations where I thought, "Geez, my trainer never taught me this and now I don't know what to do."

What I tend to find more alarming, as witnessed by my own eyes, are drivers that are considered "experienced" behaving poorly/ dangerously both behind the wheel and outside of the cab.....

This is very true.

The other thing I would add is that I would much rather go through training with a genuinely nice human being who cared about teaching me what I needed to know but only had 9 months of experience than some miserable fart who's losing money on his lease and sees me as a necessary evil for cheap labor.

I finally got my first victim!! I picked him up on Saturday. I got lucky though. He already has 5k miles under him. His original trainer's wife was pregnant, so had to drop him off to head for home. He was out of the truck for a week, but is doing very well.

Drive Safe and God Speed Y'all.

Great to hear! Let us know how things go.