Lesson Learned From 20 Hour Day

He drove 10.5 hours and I drove just short of 9. We stopped for fuel and 30 minute breaks. Add in pretrip, intermittent, and a post trip, it was more than 20.

I should note that he is careful about how he runs me. For example, I have dealt with Atlanta and Columbus rush hours. In both cases, once I got on the other side I was done driving for the day. This also happened when I dealt with some steep grades. Basically, if I have to "really work" he shuts me down early.

On the other hand, if we are just chewing up road, he will use my clock to his full advantage. There is a method to his madness.

As I said, I'm grateful.

Bravo Zulu wrote:

He drove 10.5 hours and I drove just short of 9. We stopped for fuel and 30 minute breaks. Add in pretrip, intermittent, and a post trip, it was more than 20.

Ok,...so 10.5 hours of your 20 hours of on-duty was when your trainer was driving? The questions begs to be asked, "why weren't you in the sleeper taking your 10 hour break?" Unless I am missing something, (which I might be) it appears as if you totally blew up your 14 and wasted 10.5 hours of your 70 while your trainer was driving.

Yeah, G-town, I'm learning a lot, but I will be glad to have my own truck in a few weeks. I'll just leave it at that. I can't really answer that question without throwing up a lot of red flags.

Yeah, G-town, I'm learning a lot, but I will be glad to have my own truck in a few weeks. I'll just leave it at that. I can't really answer that question without throwing up a lot of red flags.

It's OK. That's actually a reasonably good answer,...emphasis on learning. Not really sure why your Trainer allowed you to burn your clock like that...but I will leave it in your capable hands to deal with.

Be safe BZ and get 'er done.

I can't really answer that question without throwing up a lot of red flags.

I actually understand that completely. I commented earlier in a joking fashion, but I remember well when I was with a trainer putting in some very long days like that. Sometimes it was because of the adrenalin levels due to the stress and the excitement of the whole experience that kept me from sleeping. Other times it was due to the nature of our loads where I needed to be awake to help with securement of a flat-bed load and then afterwards my trainer would insist that I lay out a thorough plan for the trip before we got rolling.

Sometimes my trainer would really test my endurance just to satisfy his own unique and curious methods of putting a new driver through the mill. I do not condone his methods, in truth there were times that I could have literally strangled him! But to be honest with you, it all helped me adjust to the demands of this career.

Well put Old School. I was in that position several times myself during training as well.Thank you!

You nailed it Old School. I do appreciate that he took time to tell me, "jason, when you get your truck and go solo, you will have some initial nerves, but your life will be much easier than what you are going through now. This is supposed to be hard".

Im thankful that people have taken the time to express their frustration with their company trainer on this forum. It allowed me to go into my training mentally prepared for anything.